A Lou and Stu and Sue Extravaganza!
I combined photos from two batches of scans that were graciously sent to me by Sue B., with the first batch taken by her cousin Stu, and the second batch taken by her father, Lou.
The park celebrated Donald Duck's 50th birthday in 1984, and that included this parade, photographed by Stu. Donald was always competitive with Mickey Mouse, but Mickey did not hold a grudge; here, he and his best gal Minnie pay tribute to their quacky friend.
Some of our favorite "Jungle Book" characters were there too; Baloo the bear, King Louis, and... Clara Cluck? Bu-CAW!
It's no surprise that good-natured Goofy and faithful Pluto the Pup would be there, accompanying a magnificent cake (does it really have 50 candles?).
Glamorous Snow White danced along the street with a curiously tall Dopey; he must be standing on the shoulders of another Dwarf so that he's tall enough to accompany Snow!
Lou was anxious to get a good look at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad; the year was 1984, but Big Thunder had opened in September of 1979. I wonder if Lou had seen it before? The "biggest little boom town in the west" had seen its fortunes wane over the years.
Whoops, here comes a mine train! Who's driving that thing, anyway? I don't see anybody. Why, it's a runaway train, ding-dangit!
This was supposed to be a calm and leisurely trip through the buttes and caves of Big Thunder Mountain, but as happens on so many Disney rides, something went terribly wrong!
THANK YOU to Lou and Sue and Stu for these fun photos!
23 comments:
While tons of mining towns probably ended up with similar fates, The BIG THUNDER population sign was inspired by an actual one from the massive ghost town of Jerome Arizona.
Major-
Some lovely images here. There wasn't any trickery involved with Dopey - he was merely going through a sudden 'growth spurt'.
Thanks to Lou, Sue & Stu. (This sounds like a vaudeville act-!... And now the lovely song stylings of Lou, Sue & Stu).
I remember as a kid when I discovered some of the Rainbow Ridge buildings were returning for use as the town of BIG THUNDER at Disneyland i was almost certain the remaining Rainbow Ridge buildings would be used to create a BIG THUNDER town for Walt Disney World. I was pretty disappointed when I found out Florida had no Big Thunder mining town at all!
I guess the flash flooded town of Dry Gulch / Tumbleweed makes up for it.
Mike, I didn't know that sign was inspired by the Jerome, Arizona ghost town sign. Thanks for sharing that bit of info. My dad and I visited there (Jerome) for the first time in 1978 - I love that town! We ate at a restaurant in the old historic school house and I even got my picture taken in that school house, where you could get dressed up as someone from the 1800s. I dressed up as a saloon gal (sound familiar??).
...And now the lovely song stylings of Lou, Sue & Stu.
Nanook:
And I truly do, have a cat named Boo. (He's my Boo #2.)
I really love the over the track shots of Big Thunder! It's a perspective that you don't see much.
By the way, Big Thunder wasn't the first runaway mine train. It wasn't even the first one that Arrow built. That honor goes to aptly named Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Over Texas! The first mine train coaster even dives beneath a lake, a trick that Disney used much later at Disneyland Paris!
Thanks, Lou,Sue and Stu, from you know who...the other Stu!
I can't be certain, but the front of the Citrus house look to painted in light orange. Maybe that was on purpose?
You can see that cake peeking from backstage in this picture from Sunday.
I'm intrigued by the now-missing "second wheel" on Big Thunder, though I understand the reason it was removed. Thanks, Boo and Stew... or um... everyone!
Andrew, I didn't realize they removed the second wheels on the train engines. I had to look, just now, for some current pics. When and why did they do that? Did it have to do with the death that occurred on the ride?
Also, you made me go back and look at the Sunkist Citrus House, again. I just noticed the "sunburst" design at the top of the facade. I wonder if that was added when Sunkist moved into that space, or if it was there prior to that?
Thank you Lou, Sue, Stu, Boo, Kanga and Roo, and the Major, too!
Great stuff as always from Lou, Sue, Stu, and now Boo too.
Thank you all very much, and Major.
I've been to Jerome twice, it's a fascinating place, but I'm fascinated by ghost towns. Rhyolite in Nevada, just outside Death Valley has a beautiful ruined bank, with the doors still intact (at least in 2012). I stood there wondering how the owner must have felt locking up for the last time.
Big Thunder made me happy for a few years, it felt like an improved replacement for Nature's Wonderland. But as I grew older, I found that I missed the "wonder" that was inherent in the slower, more thoughtful ride.
I do appreciate the various animatronic animals included in BTRR, and from various videos, it appears that Disney has carried on with more animals on the revamped DLRR. There's a beaver gnawing on the wood trestle and other similar humorous vignettes that recall the old Mine Train. But nothing can replace Rainbow Caverns with the "Les Baxter" soundtrack.
JG
Mike Cozart, I’ve never heard of Jerome, Arizona, but I’ll bet DrGoat has!
Nanook, Dopey looks like a former child star who has now entered that “awkward stage”.
Mike Cozart, wow, I had no idea that the Florida version of BIg Thunder does not have a “Rainbow Ridge” (or equivalent)!
Lou and Sue, aw, very fun that you and your dad went to Jerome in ’78. They even have a restaurant? That’s some fancy ghost town! The very few that I’ve visited consist of empty buildings and ruins.
Lou and Sue, one of my best friends had a cat named Boo as well (named after Boo Radley).
Stu29573, it’s true, it seems that we usually see photos of the Big Thunder mine train ripping around a curve, I guess it is a much more dynamic composition. It sure sounds like Disneyland took more than a few cues from the ride at Six Flags Over Texas - I’m not sure if Arrow was involved in the Disneyland version though.
Andrew, it’s impossible to know if the light orange color is a coincidence, or if it was done on purpose. Many of the buildings have become quite a bit more colorful as the years passed. Good eye on the cake that was still backstage at the time! Speaking of coincidences, I had today’s post ready to go for literally months, but added the parade photos for the 4th of July not long before that day, so I just happened to do two Lou and Sue (and Stu) parade posts in the same week. Do you mean the second large wheel on the locomotives is now gone? I’ll have to look!
TokyoMagic!, I was also wondering if the changes to the trains had to do with that terrible accident, although I can’t imagine that removing the second wheel would really make any difference, safety-wise. I’d bet money that the sunburst design on the Sunkist building is just a coincidence!
JG, as a kid I was especially fascinated by Ghost Towns. I still remember going to Bodie back in the 70s, and my mom watched a man pick up a glass bottle and take it. She said he saw that SHE saw, and gave her a guilty grin. The jerk! I know how you feel about Big Thunder. I really do like that as a fun family roller coaster, but we’ll never get a “Nature’s Wonderland” ride again. Back during Disneyland’s 50th, they released a four-CD album with music from the park, and it included a clean, beautiful version of that “Les Baxter”/Rainbow Caverns music. Talk about a blast from the past!
The Rainbow Caverns music track was written by George Bruns.
Major, if you like ghost towns, Jerome has it all! There's lots of info on the internet about it - there's so much to see and do there, and nearby. The history is fascinating...HERE'S one website that tells about some of the history.
I went back to Jerome a couple more times with my husband in the 80s. It's very much alive with some 400+ residents (it's become an artist colony). We took one of the tours and enjoyed it - going into some of the original buildings and hearing stories about the past.
Jerome sits on the side of a mountain, and we could view it at night from my aunt and uncle's home in Sedona. At nighttime, with the lights on in Jerome, it glistens and looks like a brilliant diamond sitting on the side of that mountain.
Thanks, Major and all, for a fun day!
The L&S&S extravaganza was as advertised. Great pics as usual. Thanks Sue and Major!
It’s true that the sunburst design on the Sunkist Citrus House a coincidence design feature. The detail predates the Sunkist sponsorship by quite some time. The building did have orange trim but the brick was a cream color. I actually have photographs somewhere I took of the Citrus House on it’s very last day of operation and on its first day with the closed signs up and already some of its Sunkist identity having been removed over night! With Disneyland , when your sponsorship ends it’s OVER!!
The second set of “driving wheels” were removed after the deadly accident in 2003. It was sad that happened but the trains operated for so long without problems. It was a overly precautions move. After a lengthy shut down and investigation the second drive wheels were removed from ALL Big Thunder Trains worldwide.
Interestingly the drive wheels are fake as the BTM locomotives have never featured a driving rod connected to the drive wheels from the pistons ( the cylindrical shaped things below the pilot and smoke box. Also the drive wheels never featured counter balances. These missing details would be required for a steam engine to move!! Lol. But I hate the locomotives look with the missing wheels.
I don’t think Arrow had anything to do with the Big Thunder Train and cars as they were manufactured completely by MAPO. The tubular track rail I believe was a arrow Development however.
And for you Auto Buffs: the Big Thunder Locomotives were painted in all DITZLER AUTOMOTIVE FLEET FINISHES ( now PPG) the same color selections busses , tractors or delivery trucks could have been painted in.
SUE: dressed up as a saloon gal??? I don’t know what you are referring to........ (wink!)
Nanook, that makes sense! Thanks!
Lou and Sue, you neglected to mention is Jerome has any ghosts! ;-) I love that it was once called “the wickedest town in America”. I like it already! Thanks for that link. Very cool that you have been a couple of times. How odd that a ghost town somehow morphed into an artist colony! Sounds like you’ve had some very nice experiences in that part of Arizona. Meanwhile, I’ve never set foot in the State!
Grant, I don’t want my readers to feel cheated! Otherwise my blog income will plummet (ha ha).
Mike Cozart, thanks for that info about the Sunkist Citrus House - I was pretty confident that the “sunburst” detail predated the presence of Sunkist. I guess I can’t blame Disneyland for not allowing a single day of tie-ins once they stop paying. Eradicate them from history!! That’s why it’s amazing to see the “Rocket to the Moon” posters with the TWA whited out. Do you know WHY the second set of wheels was removed? Did they somehow add to the dangerous quality of the “locomotives”? It doesn’t seem like they would, but maybe I’m missing something. I know what you mean about those details and how train buffs would shake their heads in disapproval, but gosh, they were roller coasters, after all. I wonder how long ago Arrow did their last project for Disney? They used to be SO instrumental to everything that went on there. Thanks Mike!
Mike Cozart, ha ha!
To my understanding in 2003 a second set of wheels - closest to the cab, had become so loose that on one of the trips on the second lift ( with the steam hoist and goat) completely came apart and snagged on the chain lift catch ..... the locomotive itself was being lifted up and separated from its set of cars :the first passenger car was stuck behind the snagged separated loco wheels . The loco then rolled backwards hit the snag , derailed and Rolled OVER the first four guests - killing at least one man . Sadly it was his birthday.
Regular maintainence would of course stop anything like that from happening in most cases ( like it had done from 1979-2002)
I can’t remember but their might have been some advance signs that BTM operating cast members had ignored or failed to take notice .... I can’t recall .... something like the day before or earlier that day the same train had some delay leaving the station or the storage barn empty or something like that.
When the accident had occurred I think there was something else that failed if I recall .... either the computer control failed to stop the other trains and a castmember had to E stop the other moving trains....
Also when it happen employees and guests were totally unaware anything had happened .... it was guests - some bloody - from the train wreck walking up over rocks and along track leading to the queue areas “ saying help !! There’s been an accident .. people are hurt!!”
So that a loose set of driving wheels never came loose again .... they were removed from the American Parks and after study Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris removed them. I recall Disneyland Paris also had a Big Thunder accident but I’m not aware of the cause.
In 2003 I know the Disneyland Big Thunder ore cars had already been replaced with all new cars so they were not original 1979 ones.... but I’m not sure if the locomotives had already been rebuilt yet.
I went to Jerome in 1990 but was already aware of it as I’ve been a ghost town fan for decades . I have over 50 books on American and some Canadian ghost towns .
For those of you who know about Winston Churchill having an American mother : his mother was the daughter of the owners of Jeromes two biggest mines!
Jerome was no small boomtown : it once had the world’s largest JC PENNY department store.
The mines were literally being dug under the town until after a mining explosion ( on thanksgiving day I think it was) caused some change in the mountainous area and the town building slowly began sliding away from the roads and down the hillside . At first the towns people tried building bridges and ramps and all kinds of stairways to access the buildings until they continued their slow decent. At some point the rear of buildings became the new fronts as they slid closer to lower roads . The mountain part of the town became the ghost town first and new construction continued at lower elevations ... but when the price of silver dropped so low the town’s population got smaller and smaller .
When I was there in 1990 Jerome had a big antique dealer colony that was being replaced with a art colony - poor artists who could not afford to be in Sedona.
@ MIKE COZART-
You pretty-much have it correct. You can read the full DOSH report HERE. It's always maintenance - whether thru laziness, and/or upper management not allowing the proper work to be done, thus flying in the face of Eisner's "humble" remarks at the time: "For the last 50 years, the safety and well-being of our theme park, our guests and our employees has been and continues to be our top priority", Yes, of course, sir-! I feel so much safer now...
Mike Cozart, that makes total sense if those second wheels were causing mechanical issues. I just figured that they might cause wear and tear on the track, or on the wheels themselves, if nothing else. Of course those were the days when it was well-known that maintenance was not being addressed - what a horrible outcome. I can’t imagine how awful it must have been to be one of the other guests (not to mention friends and family of the man who died). I’d like to believe that the executives who kept cutting budgets still feel bad about it, but my guess is that they sleep like babies. Thank goodness they did major maintenance on Space Mountain before anything bad happened!
Mike Cozart, It sure sounds like Jerome has an interesting history. Who would have imagined that there was a Winston Churchill connection! Why does it figure that a mine explosion would occur on Thanksgiving day?? I can’t help wondering what amazing antiques (and a lot of junk!) might have been in Jerome when all those dealers were there!
Nanook, it’s no surprise that all the talk about “the safety and well-being” of their guests was just lip-service. The thing is, they probably paid a lot more in lawsuits than if they’d just kept everything mechanically sound.
Come for the pictures, stay for the history lessons!
So much great stuff in these, but I think my favorite touch is King Louie’s party hat. And any appearance by Clara Cluck is special.
Lou & Sue & Stu & Stu & Boo &c. - all I can think of is the “Si” routine Jack Benny and Mel Blanc used to do. https://youtu.be/O9s8U0O0XPE
MAJOR: there actually was a major accident on Space Mountain .... I can’t remember the exact year ... but it was between 2000 and 2003. The attraction remained closed until its grand reopening in 2005. I think the whole rehab was an excuse to help cover up the massive accident . Nobody died but some guests were seriously injured including a large group of guests in a stopped rocket that was hit by one rocket failing to stop in a emergency shut down. Many of them all had their teeth knocked out as the impact forced the guests heads to hit against front seats and factory bars and the rocket “dash boards”. To help disguise the emergency life flight helicopters and ambulances coming into Disneyland a fake press announcement went out that some disney VIPs were entering the park...... . It was really bad. All the lawsuits were settled quickly out of court.
It’s interesting the worst disneyland accidents that caused deaths or major injuries ( that were not the usual cases of guests being at fault ) were during the Eisner and Eisner/Pressler regime!!! Columbia - Space Mountain - Big Thunder .....
When Space Mountain closed for those years all track and support structures , Rockets and computer system was installed . Also the interior floor was lowered deeper than 1977. In fact with the exception of part of the exterior and some interior guests ramps there is almost nothing left of original 1977 Space Mountain at Disneyland.
Wow! I just stopped back to read the rest of the comments and, I must say, today's comments are full of action, adventure, romance and comedy - with some mystery and tragedy thrown in, too. Never dull here.
My husband and I just enjoyed Melissa's link to Jack Benny, and now I'm going to read the report that Nanook attached. Not your typical bedtime story.
Thanks, everyone!
Post a Comment