A Pair From July, 1971
It's time for more random fun from Fun Dad! These are both from 1971 - earthlings were still landing on the moon (in Apollo 14)!
The first photo is a fun (and scarce) look at the much-missed Tahitian Terrace restaurant. A pretty dancer has just emerged from a magical waterfall while a singer plays her ukelele; hopefully a steel guitar was part of the arrangement. What a great place to have a smoke and eat some teriyaki! It was Disneyland's own little corner of paradise. Notice that the guests wear leis.
Next is a more standard and familiar view from over Fantasyland (which looks especially verdant here). Hooray for the unfurled sails on the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship! We're passing above the "Fan 1" snack bar, and soon we'll arrive at the fanciful Swiss chalet.
20 comments:
Major-
Yeah - "smoke 'em if you got 'em-!" And that's a marvelous angle capturing the Pirate Ship and in the distance, Cinderella's Castle. (And - make that Fan 2).
Thanks, Major.
Ironically that is not a performer- just a guest who took the wrong way back from the restrooms!
Ha, ha, Mike! The performer looks like she might be channeling 1970's Cher, just a tad.
And speaking of the seventies, I wish I could put on a groovy outfit from 1971 and jump into that empty Skyway vehicle (#26). When I arrive at the Tomorrowland station, they will be none the wiser.
That first photo looks just like the entrance to my living room, except for the waterfall, lava rocks, vegetation, open air, people, and ukelele. Other than that, it's a near-exact copy.
In the second image I'm strangely drawn to the crenellated pinnacle of Fan 2. It's a weird detail that I can't ever imagine being on a real tent at a medieval faire, but I love it. To its right, note the glimpse into the tunnel behind Skull Rock. Because of the angle of the photo and the unfortunate location of the safety bar, if you didn't know Skull Rock was there, you'd never see it.
I never noticed that the "C" in "Captain Hook's" is in the exact same position on the starboard side of the bow and about the same size as the "C" in "Chicken of the Sea." Not sure that's significant in any way other than highlighting the fact that I may be spending way too much time analyzing vintage Disneyland photos. I wonder if my wife and kids are still living at home...
Careful, TM! - that's one of the haunted buckets. You can tell because it's a multiple of 13; cast members are afraid to load it for fear of enraging the Phantom.
Nanook - Fan 2… first the lupin/delphinium debacle, and now this!
Mike Cozart, ha ha!
TokyoMagic!, I can’t decide if I’d rather jump into the audience in photo #1 (my outfit would include smokes, of course), or into that empty Skyway bucket. I guess you can’t go too wrong either way.
Chuck, your comment has made me realize that I want a living room with lava rocks, a waterfall, and maybe a ukelele player or two. A lot of photos have been taken from the Skyway without a safety bar blocking the view, it seems strange that Fun Dad, who took so many nice photos, allowed that intrusion to run right through the middle of his picture. Maybe his brain sort of edited it out? I never thought about the “C” in “Chicken of the Sea” and “Captain Hook’s” as being the same, but it looks like you are right. They saved millions by not having to repaint that letter.
I like when waterfalls open up like that; the Enchanted Tiki Room in the Magic Kingdom has a similar effect. It just adds a lot of charm and magic.
In the second pic, it looks like there's a pirate flag flying from the roof of the Skyway bucket. There should've been pirate flags (skull and crossbones, of course) on all the buckets!
Great, now I want teriyaki chicken for breakfast. I'm a big fan of anything tiki! I had a waterfall in my living room once. It tried to sue me. (Insert rim shot here)
Hey, isn't that our June 7 post Alice In Wonderland, sitting in the back row, now 10 years later?!
Sue
Thanks Major, for this tropical refreshment on hot LA days. Like the Keel Boats and Pack Mules, the Tahitian Terrace is something I regret missing. A number of times on the Jungle Cruise, at the end of the ride, I spied some lovely saronged ladies crouching behind the rocks in this photo, their feet nearly in the jungle river, ready to make their entrance as the tinikling music fired up.
Looks like the wake effect of Captain Hook's ship isn't working. Those flags on the lamp posts added visual zest to the Fantasyland scene, along with the pendants on the Motor Boat Cruise entrance.
Firstly, I love the use of the word verdant. Major is a man of many talents, and a wordsmith of great renown. TM, I'm with you, some platform shoes, bells and a flowered shirt and we will blend right in. A little slice of the islands, love it. Remember when people could smoke anywhere? I wonder if she lit it off one of the tiki torches. And now I am going to get lost in the second photo. Thanks to Major and the Fun Dad.
Wow a Tahitian Terrace photo with the waterfall in the "open" position! Phenomenal! This is why I visit every day.
I remember riding the Skyway as a youth and passing through the Matterhorn; it was the perfect overview of the park. The place seemed enormous. Great pics today!
Penna. Andrew, I agree, the “opening waterfall” effect is pretty cool. I had to look to see what you meant about the pirate flag on the Skyway bucket - we all know that pirates preferred to attack other ships in Skyway buckets!
stu29573, why not just by “Teriyaki-O’s” from General Mills? They taste like real grilled chicken, and the milk turns into a flavorful, tangy sauce. Your waterfall joke is so nutty that I am giving it an A++!
Lou and Sue, maybe that IS our Alice; she looks like she would rather be home watching her stories. Aw Alice, it’ll be OK.
Stefano, oh man, I missed all three of those attractions as well. I love your memory of seeing the ladies waiting to make their big entrance - funny that they were practically in the river. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the tuna boat’s wake, but I think that it was often not working.
Jonathan, sometimes ya just gotta use a fancy word! It’s an odd thing to do so much writing, since I do NOT consider myself a writer in any way. TokyoMagic and I will be wearing white shoes, maybe you should too? I still recall fixing the scuffs on my white Sunday church shoes with a bottle of Kiwi whitener with the sponge applicator. It was fun. I DO remember when people could smoke anywhere (restaurants, ugh!), and do not miss it one bit. My sister just came back from Las Vegas and she thinks she inhaled a pack and a half per day in second hand smoke!
What Tom Said.
I don't recall a better photo of the Tahitian Terrace and I really regret never having visited that restaurant. It was probably pretty expensive.
My house has a waterfall inside, but only when it rains.
Chuck, the detail on the top of the tent is one of those things that looks great in a drawing, and then the designer can't let go of it, so it has to be built, no matter how silly it is in real life. Amazingly, many similar things happen on real buildings, they just aren't as obvious to passers-by. I spend a lot of time arguing with architects that the thing they are stuck on having simply can't be seen from ground level.
I think when I build my exact life-size replica of the Pirate Ship and Skull Rock, I will incorporate the waterfall stage, and all of you will come over to watch the floor show and help me eat pretzels. Extra-salty of course.
JG
Major, I think one of the kids might have taken this picture.
Look at the bucket ahead of us (or behind, since I don't remember which way we are traveling), the man's shoulder is well above the guard rail.
The photo vantage is very low. Unless Fun Dad was a smaller guy, it would be difficult to get this view and easier to get a better one.
Just a thought.
JG
JG, I never dined at the Tahitian Terrace either. I think it was because I went to Hawaii so often that I lacked interest in the Disneyland restaurant. My attitude about the Tahitian Terrace show was been there done that. Now I regret it since it's the only Disneyland restaurant I didn't dine at.
Both pics today are winners. Thanks, Major.
Verdant? Crenellated? Did I get redirected to a crossword puzzle blog? Good thing I brought my dictionotomy!
Great pictures, with all the high quality we've come to expect from Fun Dad Productions!
when I was in high school, we moved into a rental house that had a disused indoor waterfall. It looked like a big pile of rocks in the corner of the room, and it sort of faded into the hearth. At the bottom was a small rock-bottomed pool surrounded by a knee-high stone wall. You could see the end of a couple of rubber hoses sticking out between the rocks in the pile, and a drain at the bottom, but the landlord told us that the plumbing wasn't hooked up anymore. It had been a goldfish pool, but the fish had all died when the water circulation stopped working while the previous tenants were there. We had to scrub it with bleach a few times to get the smell completely out. In the end, we cut a board to the right shape and made a lid for the empty pool, because the cats had decided it was their own personal Fancy Pooping Grotto.
Chuck, a Phantom Skyway Bucket? Chuck Jones should have done an animated feature about it!
Major, I actually have a pair of white leather shoes from the 70's! I bought them at a thrift shop, but I've never worn them. And I bought them BEFORE I posted that footage of my dad at Universal Studios, wearing a similar pair!
Melissa, awwwww....now I want my cats to have their own "Fancy Pooping Grotto." Perhaps it could have a mini Skull Rock built into it, or maybe I could decorate it with white marble statues of Snow White and the seven dwarfs.
"Fancy Pooping Grotto" will be my grunge band name.
We will open for the Phantom Skyway Buckets, who are filling in for Papa Doo Run Run.
JG
Stefano...
Many times while cruising back to the 'most dangerous part of the trip...the LA freeways', we'd point out the Tahitian dancers waiting behind the rocks and add a joke or two. They would play along most of the time while keeping their balance on the stepping stones. One rule was to not shine a light on them in the evening...or even cast a reflection off the water...as it would blind them. It was a tempting thought to see what might happen but all the skippers knew that was one line not to be crossed. Besides, the fire dincers were big guys who you didn't want to meet in the break area if you ticked them off! KS
Tom, it’s funny, I hear complaints about how small Disneyland is, but it really did seem like such a huge place when I was a kid!
JG, I have more Tahitian Terrace photos to come… a nice series of 5 or 6; I think the photographer was smitten by the hula girls. But… it’s going to be a while before you see those. As for silly designs, I wonder sometimes if it’s even clear if something will be silly, or whimsical, or even just plain tacky, until it is actually in place? Maybe a thing can be all three? I want a front-row seat at your Pirate Ship/Skull Rock floor show!
JG, yes, the thought had occurred to me that a kid might have taken the photo, though most of Fun Dad’s pix are so nice. I could imagine him handing his camera to one of his kids just to try it out, though!
K. Martinez, “…I went to Hawaii so often”. Humble brag! ;-) I have never been to Hawaii, all I know is that it is near Arizona. My family would have never gone to a restaurant where you have to sit through a whole show. My dad was a man who wanted to get as much done in as little time as possible.
Melissa, it’s fun to ad words to your daily vocabulary. Your mission: to use “uvula” at least 15 times. Tomorrow’s word: “perspicacity”. Aw, bummer that your indoor waterfall didn’t work, that would have been my favorite part of the house. I would have wanted to sleep next to it. Except that you mentioned the smell, so maybe not? It figures that cats decided that it was their toilet.
TokyoMagic!, I can see why you might not be wearing your white shoes every day. When I see them in photos, they always make me do a double-take. But… you have to do it! Too bad there aren’t more Gurrtini parties, that would have been the perfect venue.
JG, you realize that the name will become FPG (like Stone Temple Pilots became STP)!
KS, today is the first I ever recall hearing about being able to see the Tahitian Terrace dancers as they waited to make their dramatic entrance. Very cool! I wish I had a picture of that. I agree, blinding them with your spotlight wouldn’t be very nice. And a big strong dude with a flaming torch is the last person you want to anger.
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