Omnibus, May 5th, 1980
Everybody loves a bus, but they really love an Omnibus. Imagine if it was a GIGABUS! People would lose their minds. Both of today's photos are from May 5th, 1980, and the park looks great.
The Omnibus stopped in two locations to load and unload passengers, and to get new loads of coal (the lady in the red (pink?) dress just delivered the coal to the cast member to our right). She said, "Here ya go, Mac! See ya in the funny papers!". She didn't have many friends. I guess I have to be predictable and point out those wonderful mini-posters on the side of the bus that is omni. The Bank of America is to our left, they gave out souvenirs bags of money (with large dollar signs on them, of course) to guests.
Now the Omnibus is at the load/unload spot at the Plaza, nicely lit by the afternoon sunshine. The lamp post to our right has bunting for Disneyland's 25th birthday celebration. We get just a glimpse of one blue Peoplemover vehicle, but that's better than nothin'. Look at all of that greenery to the left of the Omnibus, is it completely gone today?
I'm not even going to comment on the mini-posters. I might mention that Heritage Auctions recently had four of those in an auction, and each one fetched roughly $30,000. EACH. But I won't mention it because it wouldn't be right. This zoom is to point out the young man in the red plaid outfit, who I can only assume is a tour guide. I wonder when the park first introduced male guides?
26 comments:
Major-
The lady in 'red' is wearing a very sensible pair of shoes-! (I guess 'cuz of all that coal-haulin'-!)
Thanks, Major.
There's a kid just to the left of the Omnibus (in the second photo), whose wearing one of those "bucket hats" with the tinted piece of plastic making up part of the brim. He has pulled the hat down all the way, so that he is looking through the red piece of plastic. I don't think those hats were designed to be worn that way. I never saw anyone wearing one that way, anyway.
Maybe the kid is trying to be "New Wave."
First foto: Funny how the people in the lower level of the bus are much smaller than the people on the upper level. ;-) Must be some sort of lens effect.
The lady in red (pink) is dressed sorta like Minnie. (Either Mouse or Pearl; works both ways.)
Number of trashcans = 1.
Second foto: We can see the tippity-top of the Rocket Jets thrusting skyward just above the Bus. The sign on the building above the lamppost says "Adventure Thru". This is a rare sight indeed! The "Adventure Thru The Center Of The Earth" attraction was only open for two months while they worked out the bugs of the "Adventure Thru Inner Space" ride.
Number of trashcans = 3 (or maybe 4. That might be one we see through the window of the Omnibus.)
Tokyo!, I saw that kid with the weird hat as well. I was wondering if he was indeed looking through that red area. If it's not meant to be worn that way, then what was the red plastic area for?
Thanks for the omnidirectional Omnibus photos, Major. (It goes both North and South down Main Street.)
The Heritage Auction prices went wacky-town. Those omnibus ad-cards were a real shocker!! Of course the auctioneer kept emphasizing that there were “only two “ of each design ….. but that is incorrect : there are 4 of each in existence. I have one of the Country Bear ad-cards.
The omnibus shown in these 1980 pictures are not the omnibuses at Disneyland today. Shortly after EPCOT CENTER opened there was a need for transport around World Showcase Lagoon. WED had designed a all new double deck bus based on a 1925 British style. The design was very “international” looking and the prototype tested well …. But the upper windows were small and it was going to cost a great deal for a fleet of the new buses. To help out both the omnibuses from Disneyland and WDW’s Magic kingdom were sent to EPCOT to help out until the new World Showcase omnibus fleet could be built , and it turned out the Main Street USA buses performed so much better than than the World Showcase bus design , it was decided to build the Main Street omnibus model instead …. So a fleet of omnibuses were built for EPCOT CENTER …. These are on 1983 GMC truck chassis and fabricated from duplicated WDW omnibus measurements. Sadly the two original Disneyland scaled buses didn’t survive the Florida weather for those few years and rusted very badly. Two additional 1983 GMC omnibuses were added to the production to send to Disneyland to replace the ones that rusted away. Unfortunately the buses were built at WDW’s larger Main Street scale and not the smaller Disneyland scaled buses built in the 1950’s. In fact the Disneyland cycle shop’s omnibus drawings are EPCOT CENTER blueprints from 1983.
If it's not meant to be worn that way, then what was the red plastic area for?
JB, it was designed to give the wearer, a uniquely-shaped sunburn across their foreheads. ;-)
I have a Disneyland visor with that same clear red plastic, making up the entire bill of the visor. I think I only wore it the day that I bought it, and then one more time at Universal Studios, in the summer of 1980. I still have it!
I love how the omnibus' DLRR sign is based on the pre-Bicentennial attraction poster (although it doesn't have Santa Fe branding). I think somebody else commented on this a week or so ago. I can still love it.
Never noticed the black-and-gold California license pate, either. Still burns me up that these were allowed to deteriorate so badly.
Thanks for the ID on the tour guide. I was afraid we were looking at a used car salesman in the wild undergoing his annual migrational pattern.
Amazing to think there's a concrete and steel mountain just out of frame to the left.
I had one of those bucket hats with the red viewport that I got at WDW in 1979, and I always wore mine visor down in lieu of sunglasses. I remember pretending I was on Mars while walking through Tomorrowland. After wearing it for a while, everything would look weird when you took it off - much brighter and the colors were off. The graphics were a series of illustrations of Donald Duck laying out in a 1920s-style swimsuit and getting progressively redder and redder. I loved it, but I don't think it survived a year; it got stepped on and the visor broken in a tent on a week-long nature immersion program my class went on in fifth grade.
I agree with Chuck--I love that DRR poster. Seems like a sort of color-correct version of the originally pinkish Main Street Station poster which featured part of the E.P. Ripley. This one shows the entire engine! And part of a passenger car to boot!
Simple photos, but have taken me way back. All of the employees in the photos I had some contact with..us "80's" people...The Omnibus driver...I think his name was Dave...if I remember correctly he was a Disneyland couple and his wife worked in Merchandising? Very fuzzy, but I will remember, or phone a friend. There is a suit you can only see a snippet of through the Omnibus. Or maybe it's just a random guy. The suits name was Ed...and he was another Disneyland marriage guy. I remember the "hands on hip" stance he had frequently. Forget what his wife did...perhaps a secretary somewhere...(?) The guy driving the other Omnibus was Mike...I think...he was a University Leader and was the tour leader of the backstage areas on my first day. He frequently referred to Disneyland as the "Mouse House". He also did Studio/WED tours, and I was on one of those as well. He was such a Disneyland fixture, but I think in 1984 there were many changes of heart and I don't remember seeing him after that. If I'm remembering correctly (fuzzy) I think he did an interview with the press...1984 was rough and for another time. The Tour Guide was Bruce. He was a surfer dude if I remember correctly. He knew how to party, introduced me to "dip" (which was fun for a second before all the slobber started, and the room started spinning...I was a tender lad). He was probably better suited in personality for the Jungle Cruise as he was kind of a jocular type, but he was tall and statuesque, so there ya go. He flirted with the grooming standards often having hair that was a wee too over his ears, so he would plaster in down with hair spray from the girls in the lounge so it "looked" right. Charm always wins out. I don't know of the exact year of the first male TG in the Cicely days, but I would shoot for about this year-ish: 1978- 1980. There were only a handful of us, so all of our costumes were fitted for us- which was nice.- everything was very streamlined, with the break on the trousers correct and appropriate shoulder pads. Some people (government, etc.) actually requested and mandated a male Host- perhaps this is why they started. (I was in Yellows until '82- and came in after Cicely had moved onto the Ambassador Program.) In a large department...there were only I think 7 at one time. A few stayed on with the company- one was head of HR for the entire WDCO for years. One still works at the studio doing traffic or something... The first TG's in 1958 were male: the comedians: Skiles and Henderson...but they were show people, so I think they were back to doing that after the tours became commonplace and Cicely was hired to run the department. 30K for one of those posters. Wow. I remember seeing stuff like that in dumpsters all the time. I remember the "loan" to EPCOT for the Omnibus, but didn't miss it too terribly looking back. It was fun to go to EPCOT on that opening week and see the Disneyland busses we all had a certain pride about it. "Synergy at work". I did ride them...it was a long way from the America Pavillion back to Future World...the boats were fun too...1980 was a great year...what fun we had...thanks for the virtual time machine this morning.
Major, there is EVERYTHING to like about an OMNIbus.
I never knew about the trade with WDW or the ruining of the original vehicles, how awful. Are todays vehicles built on the WDW pattern?
But the new ones are no longer coal powered, they run on antimatter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
I see those trash cans, JB but the one in the Tomorrowland entry is really R2-D2’s grandfather.
30K for a poster is nuts. In 500 years some guy will come and try to rub cake on it.
Thanks Major and everyone.
JG
JB, the passengers on the upper deck are 5/8 scale, to match the rest of Main Street.
JG
I wonder if anyone ever "borrowed" one of the busses and went cruising down Harbor? Who needs a 33 Roadster when you can get all the girls with an Omnibus. Major, I can't believe what Disney stuff is going for today. I won't even go into how much I paid for my Disneyland lunch box. I can imagine how much my Monorail repop poster would go for if it was real. But let's face it, we must have these things. We must, I tell ya! Thanks to Major and all you guys for welcoming me back.
Wasn't the old trivia line that the Omnibuses were the fastest vehicles in the Park?
Nanook, maybe it’s just me, but those shoes look uncomfortable as heck!
TokyoMagic!, how funny, I definitely remember hats like that. In fact, I think we had one (probably my little brother’s) that had two “portholes” with green plastic that he could look through if he chose too. It sure looks like the hat on this particular kid was designed so that he could wear it as a pair of tinted “glasses”.
TokyoMagic!, that kid is could wear that hat to a DEVO concert and fit right in.
JB, sitting in the lower level of an Omnibus for too long will make you shrink. It has to do with cosmic rays. I’d explain it, but it is very technical. I realize that it’s a trick of perspective, but seen the top of the Rocket Jets so far to the left feels wrong somehow. Perhaps in 1980 that ride was on casters, and they could roll it around when they needed to? There is a “Journey to the Center of the Earth” ride at Tokyo DisneySea, which I always thought was cool, but a little weird, since that story is not a Disney property, and never has been. It’s a good thing they didn’t need to drive the Ominbus to the east or to the west, since no vehicle ever built can do that.
Mike Cozart, I remember many many years ago Hake’s had a set of four (or maybe five) of those Omnibus signs/posters, the whole batch went for a pittance, but at the time I had no money to spend on stuff like that. I might have still been a student. But I think about them all the time - what might have been. You’ve related the sad story of the Omnibuses at Disneyland and how they were sent to EPCOT. Talk about mismanagement! It drives me crazy to hear about such careless treatment of those vehicles, but they really did NOT care, in any sense of the word. Maddening.
TokyoMagic!, I wonder how many souvenir hats have been purchased, only to be worn one day, and then they’re put away in a closet for 20, 30 years, or more? Cool that you still have your visor hat!
Chuck, yes, I have always loved that DLRR Ominbus sign, and how it is a call back to the poster from the ‘50s. I wonder why they needed to have a California license on these? Did they ever go on public roads? Maybe it was “just in case”. I think I need a plaid suit, only more along the ones seen in THIS PHOTO. We used to have these colored pieces of plastic that were attached at the corner by a grommet, I loved to look through them for a while and then take them down and observe how crazy everything looked afterwards! Also, my friend’s mom had cataract surgery, and after she healed she said that everything looked so BLUE, I guess the cataracts tinted everything slightly yellow (yuck).
Steve DeGaetano, I love that one too, but then again, they are like my robot children, I can’t choose my favorite!
Bu, it’s amazing to think that a married couple could work at Disneyland and not only survive, but probably lead comfortable (if modest) lives. No way could that happen now. By 1980 I think it was pretty unusual to see any guests at the park in a suit, though I suppose it’s possible. So cool that you actually recognize some of the people in today’s photos, even if I had known them I would have forgotten their names. Yuck, why would anybody do “dip”?! My younger brother did that for a while, it was disgusting. He’d leave cans and bottles around the house filled with vile gunk. I assume that if they started with male tour guides in 1980, they must have also had male hosts on Storybook Land. Or maybe even female Skippers on the Jungle Cruise? The thought of those posters ending up in the dumpster is making me want to go back to bed and weep.
JG, a chunk of antimatter the size of a sugar cube will power your Omnibus for years! But when you need to replace it, you can’t just go to the local Shell station. I did not expect those Omnibus posters to go for that much, but then again, I was not terrible surprised by it either, considering the prices that good Disneyland stuff can fetch these days. Remember the Autopia poster in the RIchard Kraft auction that went for over $100,000? Closer to $120,000 if I recall correctly. Meanwhile you could probably get one for a fraction of that price if you were willing to wait.
JB, that explains it!
Jonathan, maybe somebody who was on their last day could hijack an Omnibus. What are they going to do, fire them? I’m wondering if the vehicles were ever used in things like local Anaheim parades? They used to do pretty cool Halloween parades, which I think have been brought back over the last few years.
Steve DeGaetano, I’ve never heard that trivia!
@ Chuck-
The parking lot trams also had license plates - but those seem to make more sense - as some of them had to cross West Street going between the DL Hotel and back.
Found some additional info on why Disneyland vehicles had license plates in the comments of this Daveland post.
Nanook, that makes a lot of sense. Do they still have trams to the outlying parking lots? If so, do they have license plates? And...do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? Do bats eat cats?
I believe the “fastest” Disneyland vehicle trivia was mistakenly given to the OMNIBUS …. In a Disney News or Disney Channel Magazine in the 80’s or 90’s by Disney Archivest Dave Smith. He had to correct himself in that the Disneyland Monorails are the fastest Park attraction vehicles …. But of course their use inside the parks require governors on them and would top I think 35 mph across the parking lot enroute to the Disneyland Hotel.
The guys from the Disneyland “Garage” would often disengage the speed govenors from within engine of the omnibus when they came to take the vehicles in for refueling …..and drive those omnibuses pretty damn fast backstage and piss the office people off inside the facilities & engineering building when it was next to the wood shop and mill.
The current Disneyland Omnibuses were built at the Walt Disney World Central Shops at the same time as the World Showcase Omnibuses between 1983-1984. They are all made from 1983 updated plans and specifications used to build the first WDW 1971 omnibuses that were constructed at Martin-Murietta.
Those Disneyland Omnibus attraction Ad cards were handpainted even though they are emulating the same style as the early silk screened attraction posters. The Disneyland Railroad and Storybook Canal Omnibus Attraction ad cards are interesting in that they use the color schemes used on the concept attraction poster roughs for both of those attractions. Whoever did the final design selections certainly was using the unused versions of the attraction poster concepts. It’s possible that the smaller size of the ad cards read better in white instead of the DL RR pink from the attraction posters . Same with the light blue on the storybookland Ad card as opposed to the golden-yellow StorybookLand attraction poster.
The attraction Ad cards for Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland were lithographed then applied to aluminum panels with a ceramic based clear glaze to protect them from faded - or at least fading too quickly. All of the 1972 WDW Omnibus Ad cards were designed by imagineer Paul Hartley- who designed many of the attraction posters. A whole new set of attraction omnibus Ad cards were designed for the return of the new Disneyland Omnibuses in 1984/85 but for some unknown reason were never used.
Oh I forgot to mention : although the Disneyland Omnibus Attraction ad cards are based on early attraction posters , imagineer Sam McKim ( of Disneyland wall map fame) created the layouts of the ad cards and the guys at the Disneyland signshop painted the park used as cards from McKims artwork.
Hand-painted? No wonder they went for $30,000 each! Little works of art!
Wish I had a good closeup of the Disneyland Railroad one. Dimensions would be nice too. I'd hand-paint my own!
Correction: Omnibus driver was Dick May, not Mike...at least I got the letter count correct. He was a Club 55 member, and was there until '88.
Last image: I see a lonesome cowboy on the high adventure trail.
—Sue
I don't know what came over me. I somehow forgot to quote E.J. Peaker, when I first commented on this post. It should be mandatory whenever a picture of a DL Omnibus appears. So here goes, "Ooooooooooooooh! I've always wanted to ride on one of these!!!!!" There...I feel better now.
Tokyo!, I'm happy for you. :-p
Great stories and info, today!
Bu, there are more 80s scans, from me, in your future. I hope you and others can share more info from them.
Today I sent Major thirty 1971 scans to post...am hoping KS and others will recognize people (hopefully maybe even see themselves!).
Fun post, thank you, Major!
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