Thursday, July 11, 2019

1962 Dixieland at Disneyland Souvenir Program

It's time for another piece of vintage Disneyland paper ephemera; this time it's a souvenir program from the 3rd annual "Dixieland at Disneyland" show. The first DaD was in 1960, so this is from 1962. And while it doesn't say so on the brochure, the event was on September 28 and September 29 (Friday and Saturday).


That's quite a lineup! Especially Louis Armstrong, who participated in a number of Disneyland shows. My dad was a big fan of the "Dukes of Dixieland", I grew up listening to some of their albums. The Firehouse 5 (+2) is familiar to Disney fans, and we've seen Teddy Buckner on this blog before. I am not familiar with "The Young Men From New Orleans" or "The New Orleans All-Stars", but I have no doubt that they were amazing.


Each member of Teddy Buckner's band signed the back of this program! Jesse Sailes (drums), Teddy (trumpet), Art Edwards (bass), Chester Lane (piano), Willie Woodman (trombone), and Caughey Roberts (clarinet).


Here's a photo that I posted years ago showing Teddy Buckner and his band, circa 1974.

10 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Man - such entertainment-! AND... NO Fantasmic, either. How did they do it-?? I'm curious just where Louis Armstrong and his Band "set up" @ 20,000 Leagues... (Not to mention where Teddy and the gang would be performing at the Space Bar). I'm certain as a kid, I would have been as far away as possible from this great music, had I been at the Park; but those with more mature taste were certainly in for a musical treat.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

So all of the bands were performing on the Rivers of America at 9:00. What a show that must have been!

Nanook, as a kid, I wouldn't have been interested either. However, by the time I was 16, I made sure that I had a spot along the Rivers of America, to watch Pearl Bailey perform on the floating river stage!

Chuck said...

This would have been an amazing set of performers to see.

Note that Johnny St Cyr, the "proprietor" of the Delta Banjo Sandwich Shop formerly located in Frontierland, was a member of the Young Men of New Orleans (see the 31 Jan 19 GDB post and comments for reference; Mr St Cyr's autobiography can be read here).

stu29573 said...

I remember seeing clips of the bands playing in boats at night on the Rivers of America (I think from Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color) amd it looked like crazy fun! I waa a bit too young to have appreciated it, having been born on September 13th of that same year...

Andrew said...

@Nanook, that IS interesting about 20K Leagues. I mean, there's not a ton of pictures from it, so how would we know, but you'd think that Louis Armstrong would get the most prominent spot. Was it just in front of the Giant Squid?!

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, like you, I’m sure I would have been completely uninterested in listening to those musical acts when I was a kid. Nowadays, it would be a different story!

TokyoMagic!, yeah, those were top music acts. Very cool that you saw Pearl Bailey there, I have a flyer from the early 70’s featuring her photo, she must have liked performing there.

Chuck, yes, I recognized the name from that previous post. Thanks for the link to his autobiography - I wonder who decided that the grayish tan background was a good idea! Maybe I’ll copy/paste it to a new document.

stu29573, I definitely remember one of the “World of Color” specials showing bands on the river, they really made it look like a party.

Penna. Andrew, I have a photo of Woody Herman performing on the 20,000 Leagues stage, but it’s too close up to really give a sense of the place. Still, take a look HERE if you are interested! It would have been great if the giant squid made a special appearance.

JG said...

Wow, my Dad would have loved this. He really enjoyed Dixieland jazz.

I vaguely recall some of these types of concerts, but we were more focused on Disneyland than on music.

Imagine hearing the Firehouse 5 in the Golden Horseshoe. What an amazing event.

IIRC, the 20K exhibit building had a wide and deep entry overhang or porch. Perhaps if the attraction was closed, the band could fit into the entry niche.

I wonder if the events were staggered so you could hear more than one? It would be a shame if they all were simultaneous.

Thanks Major for this great bit of ephemera, and everyone else for memories and research!

JG

Anonymous said...

I always enjoyed hearing Teddy while working in NOS. It was very much like having Louis Armstrong in town every day. A solid performer who truly loved his craft. KS

K. Martinez said...

I remember going to the jazz festivals during Memorial Day weekend at Disneyland and enjoying it greatly. I started appreciating it around the same age as TokyoMagic!

It seems they don't have talented entertainment on this scale at Disneyland anymore unless it's a special upcharge event. It's mostly pre-programmed stuff like Fantasmic!, World of Color and Paint the Night or kid's entertainment like Club Buzz, Jedi Training Academy and Princess Hug Zones. Even the Disneyland band was retired. Truly talented musicians and stage performers seem rarer at Disneyland these days. At least on the days I've gone.

Beautiful ephemera today. Thanks, Major.

Dean Finder said...

I heard a Jim Hill podcast where he explained that Fantasmic was specifically created to provide less expensive nighttime entertainment than headliners like these.