Sunday Snoozers
Well, you know how it goes here on GDB; Sunday's are "optional". Clothing-optional, that is. Also, you might want to choose to skip Sundays, and I wouldn't blame you one bit. After all, the scans (both from "sometime in the '60s) would ordinarily be rejects, except that I have to post something today.
First up is this photo from the Enchanted Tiki Room, an attraction that I have grown to love more and more as the years go by. It's bursting with classic Disney charm, and has some great music. And a nerd like me loves the history, since this is the first major attraction featuring Audio Animatronics.
The picture is a bit blurry, which is a bummer, but we can still see the magnificent bird chandalier, covered in cockatoos; I can almost hear, "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing" in my head right now! Tweet, tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet.
I wonder if this photographer needed to clean his lens? Maybe he touched it with greasy fingers. This is why I always wipe my greasy hands on a passing guest (life hack!). The scene in the Friendly Indian Village is familiar, but my favorite detail is the two papooses leaning up against the teepee to the far left. you might remember them from THIS shocking photo!
15 comments:
That first pic isn't so bad. We can even see José and Pierre in the background. I wish we could see Fritz. He's grrrrrrrrrreat!
Major, you should know by now that you could post a picture of almost anything in Disneyland, no matter how blurry or odd, and the Junior Gorillas would love to comment on it.
For example, I love the Tiki Room photo “because” it is blurred, giving a you-are-there sense of motion. Mom and Dad didn’t care for this attraction too much (no idea why) and we often skipped it on family trips, but I have made sure to see it at least once every trip on my own. My kids seem to enjoy it and we all love Trader Sam’s, so I have done my work as a parent.
The Friendly Village is seen to good advantage here, slightly foggy, just as I see it in my dreams, faint through the haze of wistful memory, reminder of my mis-spent youth. Shiny Boy presides over the ensemble while the freshly varnished Papeese struggle in silence, guarding the entrance to the Teepee of Doom. Soon they will emerge from their chrysalis and take flight across the Park bearing unheeded warnings of Wookiees to come, like audio-animatronic Cassandras.
Thanks for posting these, good to see on Sunday morning.
JG
Sundays are never snoozers. As JG mentioned above. I’ve noticed that the worse the photo - the better the comments.
Did the real Indians really just set their papooses (papeeses?) out like that?? Seems cruel.
I didn't appreciate the Tiki Room until later in life. When I was a kid, it was point me in the direction of Tom's Island or Peter Pan. I think it's aliens shooting a sensor beam over the village. After tiring of mutilating cattle and abducting people with southern drawls, the Greys have turned their attention to the Earthers that don't seem to move. Baffled by this strange phenomenon, they have chalked it up to an unexplained mystery, along with I Love Lucy reruns and the fact that no one in Washington DC seems to ever do anything. The truth is out there Major, thanks.
Major-
Yes - just as Patience and Fortitude 'guard' the entrance to the NY Public Library, here Catori and Halona greet the occasional guest who wanders into the Village. (Did these papooses have official names-?) I notice in the shockingly-beautiful bonus image, Mutt and Jeff were unceremoniously 'parked' in front of the adjacent teepee - although it appears the papoose on the right is different. Perhaps the Friendly Indian Village is also a 'world on the move'.
Thanks, Major.
I love the Tiki Room! I loved the waiting area...it was like going into a Tiki Bar and it was a chance to escape the "spazmosity" of a crowded Disneyland while eating a pineapple spear. I never got to see the Tiki Room as a kid because it was an E ticket and we had to use them wisely and sparingly. If that Tiki Bar in the waiting area sold REAL tiki drinks, I can GUARANTEE my parents would have made the Tiki Room our first stop...and possibly a second show at some other point during the day when we weren't hanging out at the Monorail Bar. And I am SURE that back in the day you could smoke your brains out in that waiting area too. That would also be a big parental draw! I like that the "tweet tweet tweet, tweet tweet" birds are ensconced in a pineapple ring...perhaps that was for Dole. (?) There are so many brilliant design features of the Tiki Room...including the spot lights which are in bamboo..and I was always so impressed even as a jaded teenager that birds had their own personal pin spots on them. (lighting is everything) The whole show was so immersive- the rain shower, the tikis coming alive...so brilliant...and with a Sherman Brothers score- this was truly at the height of WDP at the time. Now to the Indian Village...I always thought it was hysterical that no matter what the weather..."Family Indian" would continue on their daily activities...even in torrential downpours, windstorms, etc...I also want to be totally unaffected by the elements. Love the papoose sentries....so Egyptian...and back to parenting...looks like mine were back to it, leaving us outside the house, so they can go inside and have cocktails and cigarettes! LOL. "they will be fiiiiineeee".
The parked papeese kind of remind me of the time my parents left my sister and I with the ticket taker at the entrance of the Haunted Mansion while they rode the ride. I was six and my sister was three. They weren't being jerks; the cast member explained that the ride might be too scary for us and extended the offer to watch us. I just wish she hadn't strapped us to the columns like that.
Briliant, JG, simply brilliant.
From experience, Tiki was always a "skate" position coveted by most of us. Spending the day not at load or unload of a major attraction but in the cool confines of the Tiki Room and outside gathering tickets, making sure the waiting area held the limited capacity it could....which was it would hold the number of guests for the next show. And we'd hear the 'pre-show' from the gods. Listening to Hawaiian music all day and wearing the Hawaiian wardrobe made it a very pleasant experience. We usually included a position at Treehouse to give that CM a break/lunch as well. How many can say that they had the opportunity to press the start button, greet guests and wake up Jose?
A side note...during my tenure it was not unusual for the opening crew to 'salt' one of the small pools in the waiting area with coins. At closing one of the CMs would then scoop up the day's bounty. The money would go for various things...like after closing refreshments or to a fund for one of the larger summer parties like the Banana Ball. Good times indeed. KS
OMG...the Banana Ball...I think I struck that from my memory...I think I can still smell the beer on peoples breath the day after...very nefarious memories...
One of Mom's favorite attractions. We did the Tiki room twice every day that we were at the park way back when. It's ingrained into my psyche as solidly as any ride in Disneyland. Like JC, when we were young, it was just a prelude to other things. A very lively and colorful prelude, I must admit. It took a few years for me to embrace it for the wonderful thing that it was and is.
Thanks Major.
TokyoMagic!, you called it, Fritz is backstage eating a delicious bowl of Frosted Flakes! Still one of my favorite cereals.
JG, you are much more charitable than I am! But I always appreciate it when the readers (viewers?) like the photos! I wonder why your parents didn’t care for the Tiki Room? Maybe the humor was too corny? I admit that it is very much of its era, but for me that’s a feature and not a bug. I’ve never seen Trader Sam’s, but from all accounts it’s a big success. The Indian Village photo looks foggy because it is non-Kodak film - It is AGFA. Whenever I find slides on AGFA film, I pretty much know that they are probably going to be grainy, with bad color, often greenish in tint. I would like to see them emerge from their chrysalises and fly away!
Lou and Sue, ha ha, one thing I can say for sure is that I never know what photos will spur conversation among the Junior Gorillas! Sometimes I am truly surprised. I don’t know anything about the use of those papoose carriers - they do seem awfully constrictive, but I thought that they were mostly used when the women were doing their work or traveling. I should look it up!
Jonathan, I have said it before, but I didn’t ever visit the Tiki Room until I was an adult, and only because a friend of a friend insisted that we do it. And I loved it! Much to my surprise. I think that I expected it to be way too corny and dated for my taste, but it was just right. UFOs and aliens are weird enough for us, I wonder if native cultures would be somehow less surprised to see them? “Oh, sure, we were expecting you one of these days”. It could be!
Nanook, “Catori and Halona”, how did you come up with those names? I wouldn’t have even ventured to try, since I don’t want to insult anybody inadvertently! I’m sure those babies were moved around regularly, though it is interesting to think about WHY they were placed in those positions.
Bu, this might all be in my head, but I feel like the Tiki Room still feels so entirely “Disney” somehow. The music, the humor, and the fact that in its day it was a technological marvel. Many recent rides are impressive in their technology, but somehow feel like they could be from any park willing to spend the money (in other words, Universal Studios). I’m sure you’re right, guests could almost certainly smoke and smoke during the Tiki Room show, thank goodness those days are gone. I still remember sitting on airplanes surrounded by smokers, yikes. I know what you mean about the poor Indians being stuck outside no matter what the weather, but… what else could they do! “Well, all of the folks have gone indoors, but trust me, if you come back on a sunny day, you’ll see how busy they normally are!”. That would be awkward.
Chuck, I guess those were the days before they’d developed the “ride swap”! Do you remember if the ticket taker actually kept an eye on you at all? I realize that, being six, you might not remember or weren’t really thinking about it.
KS, your description does make that attraction sound like a relatively sweet gig. Anything to avoid that hot summer sun! I do remember one young lady woke up Jose, she couldn’t have sounded more bored, which was kind of a bummer. You’d think she could have faked enthusiasm for 30 seconds! I’m confused, did the opening crew throw their own personal money into the pools? If so, that was “above and beyond”! If only we had photos from a “Banana Ball”!
Bu, hey man, young people are going to do what young people do! Even at Disneyland.
DrGoat, if I was smart, I would have done the Tiki Room once during the day, and then again at night. Just like the Jungle Cruise next door. I especially love the chorus music and arrangements that are SO “Disney”, as if they were right out of a movie or TV show. I can totally understand how that attraction might take a while to sink in, or else you just had to mature enough to “get” what it was all about.
Major-
I hear all the kids talking about something called... The Internet-? Yes, that's it-! I just searched for American Indian names, and chose a couple from the list. The [possible] 'insulting' part was referring to them as Mutt and Jeff.
Major, after reading Bu's comments, I wonder if because the Tiki Room was an "E" ticket, Mom and Dad might have preferred to spend those coveted coupons on other attractions. My Dad loved Hawaii, but we never went to the Tahitian Terrace either, I think because he loved the jazz at the French Market more.
@KS and Bu, thanks for those CM memories! I will never work for Disney now, too old, but I have always wondered what it would have been like. Now, thanks to you, I have a bit of a glimpse. Please keep it up!
Chuck, I am slightly embarrassed that I did not bother to go look up the plural of "chrysalis".
JG
Major, it was a slow day in January and crowds were pretty light, so she chatted with us a little bit when she wasn't taking tickets. She was young and had long hair and was very pretty and very nice to us, and I remember she didn't talk down to us or treat us like little kids. I also remember looking out at the River and watching the river traffic roll by. We were very well-behaved, so I know we weren't much of a bother.
JG, I didn't even notice. If it makes you feel any better, I did not bother to look up the plural of "papoose," either.
I don't think I'll skip Sunday this time. Nice Tiki Room pic. Not bad for Sunday Snoozers. Thanks, Major.
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