I'm sharing three more 1995 photos from GDB friend Huck! His pictures sure look better than anything I ever took.
By 1995, Fantasmic! had been at Disneyland for five years; the requirements of this ever-popular show necessitated some fairly extreme changes to the southern point of Tom Sawyer Island, with steps and stages and platforms, and a large building that looks like a place where crawdads were processed.
As is often the case, the Columbia rests at Fowler's Harbor, and beyond that, the tree trunk atop Chickapin Hill, where Splash Mountain splashes splashily. Just visible is the Haunted Mansion's cupola.
Meanwhile, over in Tomorrowland... the summer crowds are in evidence. It must be Dapper Day! I tried to zoom in to see if the t-shirts on those kids were Disneyland-related, but was unable to identify the designs. Notice the Peoplemover vehicles sitting on the tracks - cruel, since the ride had closed the year before.
Also from Tomorrowland comes this photo of a sign affixed to the "America Sings" carousel theater. America Sings had been closed since 1988, and apparently parts of the building were used as office space for nearly a decade, while the crumbling sets of the old attraction remained inside. From what I can glean online, this sign popped up in 1995, though the "brand new attraction" turned out to be underwhelming "Innoventions" (which opened in 1998 as part of the new "New Tomorrowland").
One interesting factoid is that the sign with Sorcerer Mickey was made into a postcard, which was sold at the park.
Here's what the postcard looked like! Kind of an odd subject, but I appreciate it because it's different from the usual stuff.
Major-
ReplyDeletePoor Tom Sawyer Island. Poor Peoplemover. Poor Carousel Theater. I better stop now.
Thanks Huck for sharing.
No, no Nanook! (Hey, wasn't that a movie?) You are right....but you left out, "Poor Matterhorn!" I can see it's recently disfigured Skyway holes on the other side of those palm trees. If there was ever an appropriate time to start saying, "They ruin everything!", the 1990's was it.
ReplyDeleteI took my own pic of that Carousel Theater sign, because I wanted to document everything.....even the bad stuff!
Thanks for sharing these, Huck and Major!
"Sorry we're closed".....what an appropriate postcard for the Tomorrowland of the last 20 years.
ReplyDeleteI concur with everyone here!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your photos with us, Huck. One thing I do appreciate is that even though our beloved park isn't always what we want it to be, we have documentation like this to see it through all its history, both good and bad. Thanks again!
Major, just the empty PeopleMover tracks rotting away or being used as banner supports is cruel enough for me. I wish they'd remove the tracks once and for all. And if it's shade Tomorrowland needs, Disney can build some cool new futuristic shade structures. Otherwise it's "dead tech" decay strewn though out Tomorrowland. Just my two cents.
Huck, One more thing I forgot to mention. You take nice pictures too! Great composition.
ReplyDeleteThese are kind of sad, Major. Thanks anyway, even though it hurts.
ReplyDeleteJG
I feel the same way about PoTC at Disney World, as it dies of a thousand cuts. It's such a mess now with "Where's Johnny Depp?" every scene, I'd rather they just dismantle the ride and build a new one that has a coherent Jack Sparrow-based story line, like the one at Shanghai.
ReplyDeleteNanook, poor fans of classic Disneyland!
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, the Matterhorn is so much better without the Skyway, or at least that’s what the book “The Nickel Tour” wants us to believe. Nice try, guys!
Scott Lane, you ain’t kidding.
K. Martinez, you are right, and I am sometimes surprised at just how many changes occurred in just the last 20 years. Apparently lots of other changes were announced at D-23, though I did not really follow what they were.
K. Martinez II, yes he really does!
JG, I suppose they are a little sad, but I mostly get a kick out of vintage photos of the park - in case you hadn’t noticed.
Dean Finder, I am so worried about what will happen to the Haunted Mansion if Guillermo Del Toro ever gets his movie made… it will go the way of “Pirates”. And I truly think that Del Toro is amazing - I just don’t want to see movie stuff in the ride.
Tomorrowland alas seems to be a blight in both California and Florida. While Florida still has a Peoplemover, there isn't anything I'd find worth seeing there today from an attraction standpoint (the current version of Carousel of Progress was lame to begin with when they debuted it in 1994 and its even more awful today).
ReplyDeleteCalifornia at least got its sub ride back and never lost it's Toad ride.