Bupix - Featuring BU!
I am happy to present a trio of BUPIX - photos from the personal collection of GDB friend Bu. The photos themselves are fun, but Bu has graciously provided text to go with each picture, and that makes all the difference. You'll see what I mean! All the text in orange is from Bu:
Photo one with balloons: #1: you could see how fresh those balloons were: nice and shiny. As the latex heats up: they get a matte finish. This photo was from probably 1981. It was a photo shoot for a more MUCH PUBLICIZED version of this photo with my fellow “model” Lisa: and you’ve posted that photo previously. It was used A LOT..and I was of course, green with envy. It was even used in the “this is Disneyland” campaign…and it is still memorialized at the Disneyland Hotel “Memories” display case in the lobby.
Later I made it into several other publications, so I wasn’t too wound up. These off-spring kids I think belonged to my random guest. And yes…they were random. Plucked off the streets of Disneyland, and given comps to come back for their troubles after signing a waiver. Renie Bardeau took this photo, along with taking “Footsteps” a few decades earlier with the famous one whose name appears on the sign on Harbor.
You can see the flaws in my photo: so I can understand why they liked the blonde better. This is when I used to carry my wallet in my back pocket: when I went to plaid: no more lumps. It’s distracting. It’s also not wise with the proliferation of pick pockets everywhere. I remember that woman could absolutely not grab the balloon string correctly: you got to hold onto it woman! She was kind of wooden, while the kids were very natural. So many things structurally wrong with this photo: arms in front of the pig…etc etc. I look pretty dashing if I do say so myself, in the days of a 28 inch waist. Yellows were a fun costume, and I still love the color yellow.
Photo number two: The best thing about the Disneyland State Fair was closing the park: there were vendors in town square selling cotton candy, etc etc….and they would give all the leftovers to us as we passed. I LOVE cotton candy: pure sugar! Kellie has been in photos before: looking crazy: here she looks great. Tall and nordic with big hair. The other one…”Holly” maybe (?) memory is fuzzy. Maybe she will see herself and weigh in. I don’t have a jacket on, which is weird.
I must have been working a lead shift and was opening the next morning, and just left my jacket on my chair in the office. It was odd for me to not wear a coat. I am also seeing that this photo was after they homogenized male TG costumes. We had them sized for us, and then suddenly: they ripped all of our names out of them, put sizes on them…and put them in the rack….no more “personal” costumes. I had a lot of feedback about that. It looks like I have poopy pants in this photo because they are not tailored to me. That metal box that “Holly” is holding, is how we transacted cash in City Hall. Yes…that box. Just like a cigar box, but metal. It was full of cash and ticket media: all needed to be returned to Cash Control at the end of the day.
Photo number three: This was super early in my Disneyland Career…I am a puppy. Was I even shaving then? This was the photo set up at the then “Polaroid” shop. Girl in red was my trainer: Cathy…other one: I really have to dig and see if I can remember her name. We were all in ODV. Cathy taught me how to make Popcorn. I don’t remember my training for balloons or ice cream….but I very much remember my first day at work: at “Popcorn 6” in New Orleans Square. I’m trying to think about where we took breaks at that location…the “Pit” or “DEC” below Pirates (employee cafeteria) seemed a little far: and a maze of stairs and walkways…but we would get free drinks there. Maybe Frontierland.
We had to take our trash away during our break…and there was that smelly dumpster there. Getting your costume for the first time was rather daunting task…since you really didn’t know what you were getting on day one, or how it was supposed to be worn: and NO ONE is going to help you through it. It got easier after that. In 24 hours you get a whopping dose of “Disneyland Working” vs “A Day at Disneyland”. The experiences are vastly different. Fun things like taking this photo on Main St. and all the other things/shenanigans were the perks for the military style work lifestyle.
Extra, extra! Here's a last-minute addition, emailed to me by Bu! No commentary, but I think he bumped his head.
MANY THANKS to Bu for sharing these photos and for providing the detailed commentary!
12 comments:
1) Where's your yellow hat, Bu? And where is Curious George? Hahaha; I make myself laugh...... Moving right along- That yellow balloon looks good enough to eat! Perfect shape, perfect sheen.
2) I also, cannot resist cotton candy; preferably the common pink vanilla flavored variety, though it's all good. It sends my blood glucose level soaring, but it's worth it! Hmmm, are you sure you didn't get Mickey's pants by mistake? Just sayin'.
3) Where on Main Street was this train car photo op thingy? I don't think we've seen it before. It's a very nice photo of the three of you.
4) One word: "Disturbing". :-D
Many thanks to Bu once more for sharing his pics and stories with us. And thank you, Major.
Fun pics! In the first pic, it looks like that guest has her "unlimited passport" string tied to the button of her coat, but the passport is turned around so we are only seeing the backside of it. Is there a photo missing? I don't see one with "random kids."
In the second photo I see Bu has a riding hat (borrowed from one of the ladies?), but where is the crop?
JB, yes, that train set was supposed to be the back end of the "Lily Belle" car and was located in the camera shop on Main St. I wonder what they did with that set piece when it was removed? Threw it in the dumpster? It seems like it was in that shop for a very long time. They used to even have camera rental and film ads on the back of the DL guides, with a photo of guests posing on train car set.
Thank you so much for sharing these, Bu! And thanks to the Major for posting them!
P.S. Don't cross your eyes! They'll stay that way! ;-)
I LOVE these photos - ESPECIALLY the last one!!!! Thanks for sharing, Bu and Major.
Like Tokyo … I couldn’t see any kids. That Lillybelle photo op prop was stripped of its brass coach lamps and drumhead sign and was used for a short time at the Disneyland Hotel at Christmas time as a “self service” photo op. It featured a new sign that read something like “holiday express special” or something similar … I cannot recall off hand. At sone point about 15 years ago Disney Auctioneers sold one of the LILLYBELLE photo ends - I think it was the Disneyland version … then a EBAY surplus seller ( was it mouse surplus??) sold the WDW version. About two years ago the drumhead shown in Bu’s picture came up for auction.
More BUPIXS please!!
I must have left out the kids in the photos: as usual the characters were winding them up into a spasmodic frenzy: ugh! We are trying to have a photo shoot here! The kids wound up on the photo of Lisa: which like I said was a quite popular shot. The photo on the train was a Polaroid, and yes: from the camera shop. That was very early in my career: so probably 1980: “wow”. My zany cross eyed pic is from a series of photos: there are more. This is taken in front of the newly created Annual Pass photo background at the Comp Booth. They gave the Comp Booth a Victorian remodel when this started. After that we used it as a little waiting area for VIP tours. Before that time you would meet them in City Hall. Not only was I in the balloon photo:we had to blow up the balloons too. My OCD dictates perfectly shaped Mickey balloons: and there is definately a technique to make that happen. You just don’t put it on the helium spigot and press “go.”
Great pics! Love your commentary, Bu.
"In 24 hours you get a whopping dose of “Disneyland Working” vs “A Day at Disneyland”. The experiences are vastly different."
I can imagine it's a very different experience.
Thanks Bu and Major too!
Yes, moar BUPIX please!
I love these and the commentary makes it perfect!
Thank you Bu & Major…!
JG
Same photo shoot: different model: here are the kids: http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2012/1/23/eye-candy-balloons.html
JB, you are channeling Don Rickles. Don’t make Bu cry! I like cotton candy OK, but there’s only so much of it I can eat. It’s been years since I’ve had any. Bu mentions that the train thingy was in the Polaroid shop, which I assume was in the old Kodak shop location. But I could be wrong! You could rent a Polaroid camera for the day and take lousy photos of your trip. There was a whole group of nutty head shots of Bu, but I gave them to a Junior Gorilla who really wanted them.
TokyoMagic!, that woman just forgot to take the price tag off of her coat. Sort of a Minnie Pearl thing. I’m not sure which photo to link to for the “random kids”, I may have lost it when I had some “technical difficulties” months ago. I’m guessing that Tony B. has that train photo setup, and he has all of the old-timey clothing too. You have to pose for a souvenir Polaroid photo when you go to his house, and if you say “no”, he goes into a rage and smashes things.
Lou and Sue, I thought you would like these!
Mike Cozart, the kids are there, but they are ghosts. Your account of the Lillybelle photo prop must have been *before* it went to Tony B’s house! ;-) Good grief, I’m thinking about shipping costs for that huge photo prop. Maybe somebody picked it up in their station wagon. I mean, that’s what Tony B. did! Meanwhile the drumhead would be a pretty cool thing to own. I’ve always thought that the castle graphic really looked like WDW’s castle, it’s so tall and thin.
Bu, I can tell that you love kids, especially when they are squirrely. Why does Blogger not like the way I spelled “squirrely”? That souvenir photo looks much better than any Polaroid I ever took, those things had bad color, were no crisp and sharp, and they tended to fade if you held on to one for years. Maybe there was a high-end Polaroid format that was actually OK? I never thought about the challenge of blowing up Mickey ear balloons, but I’m sure that the ears would not want to cooperate unless you had the technique down.
K. Martinez, it only makes sense that the folks who worked at Disneyland every day would need to find ways to blow off steam, especially when so many of them were college age or just past that. Youngish.
JG, there are more Bupix to come!
Bu, I gotta admit, I enjoy looking at the blonde, she’s pretty cute!
So great that you have these great pictures to keep those memories alive, Bu! The VFA goes to that awesome Inverness cloak.
"Why does Blogger not like the way I spelled “squirrely”?"
SKWRL-E
Melissa, I need more cloaks in my life.
Melissa, that's how the cool kids spell it!
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