A Pair From April 1973
1973 was a good year to go to Disneyland, oil crisis be darned! Just like there's always room for dessert, there's always enough gasoline to go to Disneyland.
First up is this shot of Rainbow Ridge, named after Sir Albert Rainbow (are you sick of this joke yet?). We might be in the Wild West, but this little mining town has everything we need. A dentist (with a strong arm and rusty pliers), a saloon, a school house, several hotels, a hardware store, and even an opera house.
Well, shoot, it looks like the Submarine Voyage was down for rehab. I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, they have to scrub the algae off of the rocks once in a while. There are ladders and drop cloths aplenty. If you remember a post from back in February, we saw that the Monorail was still operating at least.
Let's zoom in for a better look at the sign (kind of generic, but still fun), along with the chaos and clutter of the work area. I wonder what that thing is right behind the sign, the metal structure with the shiny red balls on top? Any guesses?
21 comments:
That's Fantasyland Autopia that's closed, not Submarine Voyage. Love the Rainbow Ridge pic. Thanks, Major.
Major-
Ken straightened things out, here. Isn't that 'red-topped' triangular structure the framework for the "You must be this tall..." sign-??
Thanks, Major.
Wow, such a nice, crisp photo of Rainbow Ridge. Perfect color and exposure, too. Pleasant little town you got there, Sir Albert. Sick, schmick. The fact that it's an old hackneyed joke is what makes it funny. That, and the many variations you manage to come up with, Major.
Whatever the thing is with the red balls on top, it only has three legs. There isn't anything else in the area that matches it; rusty scaffolding and red balls. Maybe it isn't actually rusty, just brown in color? It appears to be a place to store masking tape.
Ken, hmmm. Fantasyland Autopia instead of Submarine Voyage. Looks like it's “make fun of Major Pepperidge” time again. ;-) I'll leave the fun-making to the other GDBers, since I thought it was the Sub Voyage as well.
Nanook, I don't think I've ever seen that "this tall" sign. So I don't know what it looks like. Although the red balls on top does ring a bell. Something we've seen here before, I think.
Thanks, Major.
The Assay Office’s chimney reminds me of the chimney on the Old Mill out on Tom Sawyer Island. The West was apparently lousy with bent pipes at one point.
The display of wares in front of Miner’s Hardware has always fascinated me, particularly the fact that they went to the trouble of either finding or fabricating small stoves, frying pans, saws, etc., to avoid giving away that the building isn’t full-sized. Today, though, I noticed a couple of objects hanging from the porch roof that put a dent in the illusion; unlike trees, cheese graters have scale.
Instead of combining the Fantasyland Autopia and the Tomorrowland Autopia tracks, they should have combined the Fantasyland Autopia and Submarine Voyage tracks.
I like the tiny chair in front of the Comstock Block. A great place to sit with your coffee and watch the world go by after a long day digging up rainbows.
I’m not sure about the “you must be this tall” sign, nice framework but where’s the sign? I see one Tomorrowland trash can in the Fantasyland Autopia. Looks like the refurb crew disposed of a broom. Maybe one of the Sorcerer's Apprentice’s models?
Chuck, bending your stovepipe over your knee improves the draw.
Thanks Major!
JG
K. Martinez, OY! I shouldn’t have had those three bottles of A-1 sauce!
Nanook, I suppose that it could be a “You must be this tall…” thingy; I don’t have a better theory!
JB, one of the things that I thought about when viewing the Rainbow Ridge photo is that there were no crowds of people blocking the photographer’s way. Maybe it’s just that he/she was standing in just the right place, but we’ve seen lots of photos where the Mine Train has almost no line. Granted, it was a “people eater”, but still, it amazes me that there wasn’t always a big crowd waiting to board the li’l mine trains. I’m mad at myself for not realizing that that structure with the red balls was just for storing masking tape, it all makes so much sense now! I sure hate it when I write down the wrong info, but in my defense, I was very drunk on A-1. That stuff really packs a punch.
Chuck, I agree, I love those 5/8-scale (?) washboards, wood saws, stoves, etc., and need at least one in my collection. How do we make that happen? Maybe you could go into the store and buy some 5/8 scale beef jerky. Man, I’m hilarious! I should have called my blog “The 5/8-Scale Blog”. It has a certain je nais se quois, and I like that it refers to something that only true nerds (er, I mean experts) would understand. “Cheese graters have scale”… I’ve never considered my mortality more deeply than after reading that. I like your Autopia/Submarine Voyage idea, and will get Bob Chapek on the horn right now.
JG, good eye on those little chairs; and, being even higher up on the hillside, I assume that they were even smaller in scale. Not so good for 1:1 bottoms, but good for leprechauns I guess. Maybe the "You must be this tall" sign was being refurbished too? Somebody was adding Darth Vader to it - the painter saw it in a dream. OR WAS IT A NIGHTMARE? That broom never worked right, somehow it always swept dirt out of the dustpan and onto the ground. And the warranty had elapsed just a week before. Typical.
Great pics Major. Love the fact that this is pre-Aluminum ladder times. Good old wooden ladders. Nice and heavy and those look like top notch models.
Rainbow Ridge never looked better.
Thanks M.
This was the year I was there!
No "me" in the pics, though.
Oh well...
@ JG-
The sign was removed for easier access to the 'gold' pipes; along with refurbishment of the sign, itself-? The sign used for the Tomorrowland Autopia looks more LIKE THIS...
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b3d7f804eddec6e826be0c9/1619403234298-M9QP7O90ZWC663MIRMY3/21C75EBA-5057-4F64-BE6C-1A2B303AB74E.jpeg?format=1500w
Chuck -- good idea about having the submarine also use the Fantasyland Autopia tracks (or maybe you meant it the other way around). Then, I got to thinking about the subs on the People Mover tracks, and then I realized a good use for those existing tracks is to create a blimp or zeppelin ride... this would even fit well with the stupid retro-future theme if they insist on keeping it.
Nice pics, Major
DrGoat, my buddy still uses a wooden ladder in his garden, it’s three-legged “orchard ladder”, good for picking fruit. It weighs a ton!
Stu29573 - SOMEDAY!
Nanook, the only thing that is causing me to doubt the “You must be this tall” thing is that the structure (with the red balls on top) appears to be so rusty. Maybe it is merely film grain, since the ladder also looks rusty, and it probably wasn’t! But the placement seems right, and even though it is different from the Tomorrowland version, it still has some stylistic similarities.
LTL, if they ever do get rid of the Submarines (something that seems likely, even if it won’t happen for years), it would be cool if they could take advantage of that giant hole in the ground, and design some sort of underground attraction. A blimp or zeppelin ride would be fun, but I think they’d still have the problem of how to deal with emergencies, and also the supposed fact that the tracks were ruined by the stresses caused by the Rocket Rods. Still, anything would be better than what we have now!
Chuck, with ideas like that, why hasn't Disney snatched you up as a high-paid consultant?
JG, about the disposed broom, it would be easy enough to tell if it's one of the Sorcerer's apprentice models: just check to see if it has skinny little arms. (And look for large amounts of spilled water nearby.)
Major, just for fun, I googled A1 ingredients. It has raisin paste. Raisins are grapes. Wine is made from grapes. Ergo, raisin paste is loaded with alcohol. (As with numbers, logic doesn't lie.) After 3 bottles, no wonder it threw you for a loop!
Hey, they've got two washboards! We can play duets! I love Mickey's hapless expression on the construction sign. "What, you expect ME to fix your race car ride? I'm just a mouse with eight fingers. I can't even peel a potato!"
Okay, how about refub People Mover tracks into a big long "walk-thru" ala Sleeping Beauty Castle, or Swiss Treehouse. (use
Segways?). Or at least convert the loading area and adjacent tracks to a cool themed restaurant, like Bayou, of the future. Oh, it's so easy to think of these ideas when they don't have to be cost effective, or even the least bit practical or useful (!)
JB, Chuck is just playing “hard to get”, and is waiting for Chapek to offer him a big fat paycheck. Maybe that broom was used to clean up the actual sub lagoon? Raisin paste, eh? I think I saw a show about hot sauces, and one of them I’m pretty sure had raisin paste in it as well. Kind of weird, but hey, I like raisins. Especially when they are 90 proof!
Melissa, I’m going to have to be “that guy”… Mickey peels potatoes in Steamboat Willie!
LTL, I love the idea of an immersive walk-thru attraction! A “bayou of the future”, I can’t even imagine what that would be. Would it have flying alligators that wear silver lamé? Nano-frogs? Heavy water instead of regular H2O? The mind reels.
I love this conversation so much. I had a really brilliantly lousy day at work and coming back to this is what I needed to stay sane "enough" to pass for normal. Thank you everyone.
Major, I am adding A1 sauce to my Manhattan cocktail right now. Everything is better at 90 proof.
LTL brilliant suggestions, I love it, thank you for that. I would love to walk the PeopleMover track, even with guardrails added, and finish up with a fine meal on the revolving platform with all my GDB friends.
JG
Melissa, now i am imagining a washboard duet on a segway and i just can't anymore. Too funny.
JG
I think the mysterious thing is just some kind of scaffolding. Perhaps to stand on while painting corners? I think the red balls are not decorative but are there for safety. Note the roll of masking tape.
How about putting little cars on the People Mover track that took you on a leisurely tour of Tomorrowland with narration about the various attractions?
The masking tape holder IS the "you need to be this tall" sign. The sign was a small strip, not a big horsey mouse encrusted thing...I'm sure there is a photo out there of it...at least for the Tomorrowland Auto-topia (as my friend insisted on calling it.) Many kids would elongate their body in front of these signs on tippy toes...not that anyone would get out a measuring tape before you got on the ride....
"Melissa, I’m going to have to be “that guy”… Mickey peels potatoes in Steamboat Willie!"
Yeah, and he does it REALLY badly!
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