Friday, December 08, 2023

Two Leftuggies™!

Who's in the mood for Leftuggies™? I just took them out of the oven and they are pipin' hot. 

We'll begin with this wonderful Skyway view (from September, 1963) looking down at a portion of Fantasyland. One might not expect to see so many trees, but there they are. To the left is the little queue structure for the Motor Boat Cruise, and to the right is the Matterhorn Chalet. I can hear the distant sound of yodeling! Two sailors check their ticket books (I suppose) to the left of the "G".


No doubt the photographer saw "Big Yellow" coming and wisely decided to take a quick pic! Other fun details: motor boats basking in the warm sunshine (possibly ready to lay their annual clutch of eggs), and the little bandstand. Oh, and the ticket/information booth.


Why did I include this zoomed-in view? I kind of forget, but I probably had a darn good reason. Maybe I liked the feathered hat? Or maybe I'm just plum loco!


Next is another Skyway view, this one dated "October 1986" (I mean, maybe it's from the Peoplemover? I doubt it) and overlooking a chunk of Tomorrowland, including the Tomorrowland Terrace (and the nearby stage in the "down" position), "America Sings", the Peoplemover, the Rocket Jets, and Space Mountain. 


Do you think that the massive crowd is waiting to ride Space Mountain? I can't imagine what else would attract so many guests. "Mission to Mars" is easier to see in this zoomed-in view. 


It's lunchtime for a lot of people, ice-cold Space Mist goes perfectly with a cheeseburger. Was the stage still being used for groovy musical acts in 1986? I don't remember the plants being there earlier, maybe it had been temporarily decommissioned. 


13 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
When you mentioned the 'two sailors checking their ticket books to the left of the "G", I immediately thought they were checking their ticket books for the very illusive 'G' Ticket. Boy, that would be a keeper-! Those Skyway views are really lovely.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

In the first pic, that structure on the far left, is the queue for the Midget Autopia. The Motor Boat Cruise queue is underneath that yellow Monorail.

Now that the Space Stage was open and a part of the Space Mountain complex, maybe that line was for the Osmonds and their 1986 Victory Tour. You should have heard their covers of "Bad" and "Dirty Diana."

Major, those planters on the roof of the Tomorrowland Terrace Stage always contained plants. At least as far back as I can remember. And there were plants in them in this 1968 shot that you posted back in April of 2021:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zso_XoQ3UcM/X8_b5XdkRsI/AAAAAAAAWHE/4Sz9AE6PWmAmNz2pPzJLAa1EuCIjyO8pACLcBGAsYHQ/s1152/9-1968-_NiceTomorrowlandA.jpg

Sue, thank you for the shout out (last night) about my latest post! And thank you again, for tipping me off about the ebay listing for the photos I'm using. I'm am SO glad to now have those in my personal collection!

JB said...

It's been a while since we've had a big helping of Leftuggies, and I'm starving!

Hmm, there are two Motor Boat Cruise signs; straddling both sides of the Monorail. I didn't know that.

Major mentioned the nice pink ostrich-plumed hat in the close-up. The hat is wearing a human underneath it. Funny how one often sees a human underneath those hats.

Such a wonderful version of Tomorrowland. Whoever was responsible for TREing it should have a curse placed upon them!

In that last close-up, I think I spot 10 trashcans!

Ahhh, that hit the spot! I'm now stuffed with Leftuggies. Thanks, Major.

K. Martinez said...

These leftuggies are awesome! Love the Monorail Gold pic. Where Tomorrowland and Fantasyland blend is my favorite area of Disneyland.

If the Tomorrowland pic is of 1986, then Mission to Mars will soon be gone and the PeopleMover ride vehicles will be painted white and silver with stripes. Bleh! Captain EO and Star Tours were the beginning of the end of Tomorrowland for me.

Thanks, Major.

Anonymous said...

Agree with Tokyo about the Midget Autopia, which lived there until IASW came on board.

There is a train crossing sign and barrier arm visible right in the middle of the Monorail woods. Seems like a weird spot, is this for the DLRR on the Parade Route? Maybe things were moved around with the addition of IASW two years later?

Photo 2 & successors is a fine view of Tomorrowland before it all slipped away. This was taken in the long interregnum between visits for me, when I still believed that the Park would only get better over time. Sadly, I know better now.

JB, it is very likely that there are ten cans, although I can't stop to count today. It was in a very similar view from the early 60's where I counted ten also, including some in the Autopia queue.

Thanks Major, sometimes photos from different eras blend nicely together. I won't make any bad jokes today, for fear of JB sending me to therapy.

JG

Anonymous said...

OK, I couldn't resist, sorry JB, this is not really a pun, just a bad joke.

If that crowd is the line to see the Osmonds, we should all run over to Pirates or the Haunted Mansion. Was Splash Mountain open in 1986?

I would wait in a line that long to NOT see the Osmonds. Fortunately, that's probably not necessary.

Hat tip to Tokyo for the probably ID of the event.

JG

Melissa said...

Nanook, the only G Ticket attraction was the Egress.

My laptop recently died and I'm looking at these on a tiny phone screen, and when I looked at the first picture I was wondering what that radiator was doing in the middle of the walkway. Then I realized it was a striped trash can.

1986 was a great year to be in the Disney parks. I love how in that picture the architecture itself creates tons of movement without even seeing a bunch of vehicles actually moving.

Those two sailors are probably doing their own version of On the Town:

"Disneyland, Disneyland, it's a heck of a park,
The motorboats have fins like a shark.
The daytime's bright and the evening is dark,
Disneyland, Disneyland, it's a heck of a park!"

Melissa said...

Meant to add: it's cool how the circle of umbrellas around the stage mimics the circle of PeopleMover cars around the load platform.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, that reminds me of when Vintage Disneyland Tickets did an April Fools post about a ticket book with an “F” ticket!

TokyoMagic!, oh gosh, you are right, I’m a dope. Yes that’s the Midget Autopia queue. I guess that’s what I get for being on drugs (you know me). You’d also think that I would know that the stage always had plants on it, but for some reason I thought that it did not, early on. 1968 is pretty early, though! I’ll bet the Osmond’s version of any song was an improvement, how could it not be? I’ll have to check out your latest post, but it will have to wait until later tonight.

JB, I’m always mildly amused by the kind-of-minimal Motor Boat Cruise signs - nothing fancy about them at all. not even a little motor boat on a track to go around and around (hire me, Disney!). Now that you mention it, all of those ostrich feather hats have had humans under them. OR HAVE THEY? Whoa, 10 trashcans, is that a record??

K. Martinez, I think that first pic is my favorite of the two, even though the second one is pretty nice (if I do say so myself). The changes to Tomorrowland that you listed are all kind of depressing; I know folks loved Captain Eo; I never bothered to experience it, but I’ve seen the film on YouTube, and it is pretty awful. I guess you have to be an MJ fan.

JG, I wonder if I ever rode the Midget Autopia? I would have been the right size in my early years, and it would have still been there. My brother doesn’t remember that one, he just remembers one of the Autopias. Good eye on the train crossing, it does seem like a weird spot. I think there were several long gaps between visits for me post-college, things were busy and I just seemed to have a hard time getting down to Anaheim. Now I wish I’d just done it! You are too busy to count the trashcans? What has this world come to??

JG, I’m too lazy (and time is short for me) to look up when Splash Mountain opened. I probably wouldn’t have waited to see the Osmonds, but I did see The Monkees at Magic Mountain - if you can count just Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz as “The Monkees”.

Melissa, yes, probably not a lot of radiators in the middle of the walkways at Disneyland? No more than four or five. Trashcans though… a plethora! To me, the New Tomorrowland has bits and bobs that are related to the upcoming Walt Disney World Tomorrowland, which is very interesting to me. Hooray, a Melissa song!

Melissa, oh I didn’t even think about how the umbrellas looked like the Peoplemover trains.

Nanook said...

@ JG-
Splash Mountain opened on July 17, 1989.

"Lou and Sue" said...

JB and JG, there's definitely AT LEAST 10 trashcans. I'd say 11, after enlarging the picture and straining my eyes. I don't recall what the record is, but I'm going to save this one, for future reference.

Melissa, interesting observation about the circle of umbrellas. There are lots of circles and spinning things happening in that 2nd shot. Even the Carousel of Progress (America Sings) spins.

Thanks, Major, for the nice TL images. Happy weekend, everyone!

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, you are an officer and a gentleman.

Lou and Sue, yes, it is hard to imagine finding more than 11 trashcans in one photo. It might also be illegal. Melissa makes lots of good observations, I can't pick a favorite.

JG said...

I can’t get to 10 in the zoomed pic, but I think there might be as many as 14 in the full view pic. There’s a herd of cans over near the Space Bar queue area in the lower right.

Thanks Nanook, I’ll settle for a short line at Pirates.

JG