Doc and Happy, October 1967
For some reason, I rejected today's slides when I originally looked at them many years ago. But I found them while going through one of my old boxes, and now I think that they are worth a look. Hopefully you'll agree.
Our photographer was standing in front of the castle on an overcast October day. There wasn't much going on (and certainly not very many guests), when all of a sudden, Doc from "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" made an appearance. He'd probably had a snack at the Carnation Plaza Gardens and thought he'd say hello to some of his fans. The man in the white shirt may or may not be an armed handler.
Happy also joined in on the fun. The kids want to greet him, and touch him, and maybe steal a lock of his hair, but they're a little overwhelmed by this great celebrity. Happy knows that if he stands there and doesn't make any sudden moves, the kids will relax.
The peep-hole in the hat looks like a frightening third eye, black as obsidian. Is Happy a denizen of Mordor? The little girl doesn't know what Mordor is, but she has the willies even so.
24 comments:
If you gave me big floppy shoes to wear, tied my arms to my side, and put me in a costume with a peep hole, I’d be on the ground, face first. Those CM’s were daredevils!
Love these, Major - thank you!
The possible handler in the first pic, also appears in the third pic, and maybe even the second pic. I think he might be a stalker. Yes, I'm sure even the Seven Dwarfs had their share of fanatical fans.
I spy a dainty little white lacy babushka on the lady in the Pepto-Bismol dress in #2! Happy, on the other hand, seems to be carrying a peck of potatoes in his lumpy hat. Or maybe he borrowed the hat from Lumpy, the eighth dwarf nobody speaks of.
The body language on the little red-haired kid says it all - equal parts excited and shy. I remember being scared of someone in a Mr. Peanut costume at a grocery store opening at about that age. So cute how Happy and the little princess in the hockey sweatshirt both have their mouths wide open! Nobody warned either of them that their faces would freeze that way.
I think he might be a stalker. Yes, I'm sure even the Seven Dwarfs had their share of fanatical fans.
I once stalked the Dapper Dans all around the Magic Kingdom because I didn't want to miss their set. I'm sure they're used to the usual gang of crazed barbershop groupies.
Melissa, it's a common enough problem. Just ask the Be Sharps.
Melissa and Chuck.....and the Dapper Dans provided the singing voices for the Be Sharps. It all comes full circle.....whatever that means.
It's nice to see a couple of the Dwarfs, but what I really like about this picture is that you can see straight through the Castle to the rim of the Carrousel. (When you see those mirrors and jester faces on a carousel, you know it was made by Dentzel.) Thanks, Major.
I can see faces in the peep holes in pictures one and three...FACES!!! How creepy is that??? By the way, Creepy was so bad that didn't even make it into The Seven Duffs.
Best thing about the Be Sharps name is, of course, that there is no B Sharp (B#). That would be a "C."
Well, if dwarfs (or dwarves as Tolkien put it) looked like that, it would have been a heck of a scene at the battle of Helm's Deep.
Kid's rocking a surfer shirt and the girl has a hockey themed top. Dig it.
Andrew, A while ago, I really got into carousel horses and other creatures that were made in the past by Dentzel, Looff etc. Such cool things. Always wanted a goat like one of these for my den.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=carousel+goat&atb=v66-1&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fcarouselhistory.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F02%2FShelburne-Museum-Original-paint-Dentzel-carousel-goat-head-on.jpg
Melissa, it was the Jolly Green Giant in the El Rancho Grocery store by our house. Scared the silly right out of me the first time I ran into him. After that, it was cool ,cause he gave me a little green JGG stuffed doll thing.
Thanks Major, cool pics of dwarves and kids.
Lou and Sue, I think (but am not positive) that the CMs playing the characters have “handles” inside the costumes, so it’s kind of like they are walking while carrying luggage. Maybe that helps with the equalibrium? However, they are still half-blind and wearing those big shoes!
TokyoMagic!, yes, that appears to be the same guy in all three photos. He was trained in the Army to kill with his bare hands, and he only needed that skill two or three dozen times a Disneyland. I’m a fan of the Seven Dwarfs!
Melissa, I’ll bet that babushka doubled as a doily on that lady’s coffee table. Happy probably IS carrying potatoes in his hat, you know how cartoon characters hide things like anvils and birthday cakes (with lit candles) on top of their heads. Were the Dapper Dans aware of your presence??
Chuck, it was all going so well until Barney started dating that conceptual artist!
TokyoMagic!, I didn’t know that!!
Andrew, I do like it when you can see right through the castle archway; sort of a peek into another world from our world. Next stop: The Twilight Zone!
Stu29573, I am looking and looking at picture three, and all I see is a gray alien face inside the suit. Maybe my brain just isn’t putting the pieces together right. As a former piano prodigy (har-de-har), I was aware of the fact that there is no B sharp, but it is a great gag!
DrGoat, gosh, now I want some CGI genius to make a cut of the Helm’s Deep scene with Disney dwarfs replacing the Tolkien versions. Sure, it would cost several million dollars to make, but who doesn’t have a few million dollars gathering dust? I didn’t notice the hockey theme on the little girl’s shirt. The girl with the maroon pants has style. I met a couple in Palos Verdes who collected carousel animals. Horses mostly, but also tigers, ostriches, giraffes, and even Robert Baden-Powell, famous for founding the Scouting movement. Really! They not only collected them, but restored them, and had many unrestored examples beneath their house, waiting for the time to get to them. It was amazing.
Ok, I'm losing my marbles. I can't see a face in the 3rd pic any more, but I sure can in the first one! Of course, I also see a purple hippo and George Washington singing "Camptown Races," so......
This has to be one of the less-desirable Disney jobs. Props to the dwarfs.
Major, was there a Baden-Powell carousel figure? Or was that comment garbled? Cause a Baden-Powell carousel figure would be awesome.
JG
To this day I’m not sure if they were aware or not. They did seem a little amused when I asked to get a picture after the sat, but they were also very nice about it. So maybe.
I now know my life will never be complete unless I can ride a carousel on the back of Robert Baden-Powell.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aYxtwxdL11NZHCNFQVzWBOsN6NXew2cD/view?usp=drivesdk
Well, OK, famed naturalist John Muir will do if Baden-Powell isn’t available.
Stu29573, your marbles are GONE! ;-) That’s OK, I don’t have any to speak of. BUT… can you see the face of the gray alien?! Sometimes he talks to me!
JG, yes, if I applied for a job at Disneyland, and they wanted to put me in one of those suits, I don’t think I’d be very happy. Then again, those people are almost certainly performers, not just random people with no special skills. And yes, there was a Baden-Powell carousel figure. I thought it was supposed to be Teddy Roosevelt when I first saw it. It was so strange! If you do a Google image search for “Baden-Powell carousel”, a photo shows up, but I can’t remember if this is the same one that I saw years ago.
Melissa, I would hope that the Dapper Dans would be cool with having their photos taken with a fan! Though it would be fun if they were rude… sort of Gay ‘90s Johnny Rottens. Aw, that’s a great photo! Is that you, or your sister? I assume one of the DDs was taking the picture?
Melissa, looking on Google, there are other oddball carousel figures of real historical figures, though I don’t know if John Muir made the cut. “I want to ride Adlai Stevenson!”. “Well I want to ride Felix Frankfurter!”. “Kids, kids, there are plenty of old white guys for everybody!”.
At the time of my tenure...charterers were part of the Entertainment division with work times unique to them...especially in light of the heat that they had to endure inside those costumes. Supervision was always around...not only to provide a measure of security, but also another pair of eyes in the event the character was accused of some misbehavior. And of course if one passed out while on stage...a very rare situation. They followed a strict schedule with a number of breaks. KS
Major, I have to apologize for leading us down the wrong path. There was only one Dwarf at the battle for Helms Deep, Gimli. I guess one dwarf, ala Happy or Sneezy would be just as fun. I guess to get the full effect it would have to be the third movie of the Hobbit, Battle of the Five Armies. Whole hoards of Dwarves charging down the hill. Why Peter Jackson had to throw in a female Elf falling in love with a Dwarf in that movie I'll never understand.
Jeepers Major, I'm envious of that couple with all those carousel animals and a basement! One of my friends has a basement and it is so appropriate for Arizona. Should have one under every house.
Melissa, Great photo, lots of fun going on in that image.
These floppy-armed dwarfs are rather disturbing, but the kids seem to approach them like you would a wild animal that came up to you on two legs. Something’s not right, but I cannot look away! Now that you pointed out the eye shaped peep hole, and the emptiness of the first pic, I am even more unnerved. Creepy Monday, all!
Well, Happy may well be a denizen/citizen of Mordor, or "Mordorian" or "Mordor-ite" or "Mordor-weenian". That's the tricky thing about Happy, he is happy, in spite of that all seeing hat eye, which may actually also aid him in seeing over hedges, etc. Even more Mordorian than the eye, is his high stomach.
You can even just hear him singing his jolly song (by his facial expression) "to Mordor I'll take yooooou..."
If you ever see one of those big-head dwarfs wiggling his tongue as well as his arms ... Well, eww.
But more tastefully, folks ... Even on some of the old TV episodes faces can be discerned through those obvious windows. But what really creeped me out were the open-mouthed Goofy and Pluto where you clearly saw a guy with a black stocking over his head.
Long ago Warner had a costumed "Michigan J. Frog" they'd send to events. Very much a big head, with molded face. He appeared in a local parade, and some bright TV host walked up with a microphone to ask him to say a few words. She seemed surprised that he'd only wave his arms about.
KS, I totally believe that those actors were looked after, for the reasons you stated; I remember when one of the Three Little Pigs was accused of groping a woman, and it was shown that the arms hung limp with no control - groping was impossible. I wonder what other nutty stuff characters were accused of! Gosh, it would have been quite the shock to see one of those characters fall to the ground due to a passed-out CM!
DrGoat, you’d think I would remember that only Gimli was there, since I’ve seen the “Lord of the Rings” movies so many times. I love ‘em. The female elf falling in love with the “cute” dwarf was in “The Hobbit” movies, which were a disaster - I’m just going to pretend that those don’t exist. Unless you live in a place with a high water-table (i.e. Florida), every house should have a basement! Get more use out of the house’s footprint. Our house in Pennsylvania had a huge finished basement, with shelves for books, a ping-pong table, my dad’s reel-to-reel tape recorder, a workshop where he could tie flies, and the laundry facilities. All below the main house!
Kathy! I don’t know about other kids, but I was always a little scared of the characters as a small child. I would have definitely been nervous about being approached by one of those big-headed things. Yes, that big, single black eye in the middle of the forehead is disturbing!
Clyde Hughes, I’m going with “Mordor-weenian”. Maybe Happy has just gone insane, and even though he looks happy, he’s out of his gourd. Kind of like Renfield in “Dracula”!
DBenson, could some of those old Dwarfs wiggle their tongues? Ew! I know that some of them would sort of flex their faces, sort of pulsing in and out in a strange way. And YES, I have seen photos where you can see the black-stockinged head of the CM inside Goofy’s mouth! Wow, I’m going to have to look up the Michigan J. Frog character - so hilarious that the TV lady decided to get a real in-depth interview with this cartoon frog.
I didn't know that either, Major, but TM! is absolutely right. That just made everything 38.7% more cromulent.
One house I lived in as a kid had a whole basement apartment in it, but we didn’t rent it out. We used it for storage in the summer, and in the worst part of the winter we moved down there because it was so much warmer than the rest of the house.
Chuck, it makes sense; the "Dans" are the most visible of barbershop quartets pretty much anywhere, I can't name another! And it doesn't surprise me that some of those "Simpsons" writers like Disneyland, they've parodied it several times.
Melissa, in the winter I loved to go down to our basement (which was very comfortable, not drab or dreary at all), and curl up with a blanket and read books or draw, sometimes playing records on my dad's ancient hi-fi (the good one was upstairs in the living room). It was great!
Post a Comment