Sunday SNOOZLES™
I've been slaving over a white-hot scanner for days, and have a folder full of stuff to share with you over the upcoming months. And much to my amazement, there are not very many total Snoozles to deal with. Sure, there are some that are less interesting than others, but I don't have the real duds that sometimes show up on Sundays. For now, anyway!
Which is all to say that today's photos (from sometime in the 1970s) are not that bad, really; just kind of dull. We all love the mechanical clock that "performs" every 15 minutes in front of It's a Small World. But there are truckloads of photos of that whimsical feature, making it feel a little less special in picture form.
This one was taken from the Disneyland Railroad looking toward the Matterhorn on a busy day. There's no intrusive gift shop in the way, which is nice. It looks like this might have been a pleasant Summer day. Let's stay until 1:00 AM!
13 comments:
I think this is one time when a tilted camera actually improves the photo. The slight lean to the left gives this picture some added interest and excitement.
Must've been a hard winter in SoCal that year; the Matterhorn is covered with snow. I'd be worried about avalanches. We can see Tinker Bell's zip line zipping off to the right.
I was gonna say that I don't see any Skyway gondolas... but I do! A gold-colored one amongst the trees on the left. At least I think that's a gondola? Lots of people, but not much people-watching, because the pic is a little blurry and the people are too far away to see much detail.
Like you said, Major, only minor quibbles with the pics today, otherwise they're fine. Thanks.
Major-
That's definitely a Skyway bucket 'hiding' in the trees. And since we can spy a GAF Photo Trail sign, these images would be from 1970 - June, 1977 - or pretty-much 'the 70's' as you say.
Thanks, Major.
"Intrusive Gift Shop"...yes...I call these "Shoppes"....with an E...and not an E ticket...more like EEEkkk! I just wrote the longest frustrated artist rant about this shop...then deleted it. It's horrible, yes...out of scale, out of context...but let's look beyond that to the actual ride/attraction/adventure...practically perfect in every way...in my aging years I appreciate "it's a small world" more and more...possibly one of the best things ever to come out of WED: up there with Pirates and Mansion. Let's hope that the TRE doesn't spread...and be grateful it's all still there. Thanks Major.
These are great! I can hear the “Tick-Tock” sound now! Before it was spyware.
This was probably the first attraction “pre-show” and I remember sometimes waiting through two cycles of the clock show even though the boat mechanism was a people eater second only to Pirates.
And if you turned away from the clock, you have the great view of the Matterhorn, freshly covered in cement snow. Just wonderful.
I’m with Bu, IASW holds up in ways the Bears and America Sings never could. I believe it will stand up to the misbegotten idea of adding Marvel characters because even they were children once.
Thanks for the memories this morning, Major. I’m happy to hear you have a good stash built up.
JG
"But there are truckloads of photos of that whimsical feature, making it feel a little less special in picture form." Hopefully no Disney exec notices that and decides that it needs to have all of the dolls replaced by characters from recent movies.
Bu - "possibly one of the best things ever to come out of WED." There's a joke that to get a good architect's best work, cut his budget 25% in the middle of the design phase. Maybe the extremely tight timeline on iASW pushed them to a better design without endless revisions that lose the original idea.
JB, it’s true, sometimes those “up shots” look kind of dramatic when they are at an angle. Maybe Orson Welles took these! Skyway gondolas, it’s always a little surprising to me when you look at a distant view like this and realize that the Skyway passed through the Matterhorn only about 1/3 of the way up. They should have gone higher!
Nanook, GAF, the worst film! Kodak should have never left.
Bu, adding extra letters to words is classy as hell, including “shoppe”. I really do dislike the Small World shop(pe), and can almost imagine some VP saying, “Look at all that empty space! We need to put something there that generates revenue! I have an MBA from USC!”. “Yes, yes, Jenkins, we all have MBAs from USC, just calm down”. Why are they always named “Jenkins”? I’ve always been up front about my love for IASW, but if some don’t like it, they can lump it (whatever that means)!
JG, well, I appreciate your kind words, but I don’t know if I can call these photos “great”! Waiting for the clock to “do its thing” was part of the fun for that ride, watching the minutes pass until you got to the quarter-hour. There have been changes to IASW that I am still not happy with, but they are not enough to ruin the experience for me, I like its message of positivity and can wish that the real world was like that. And oh yes, I’ve got over 1,500 slides to go (thanks to eBay)!
Dean Finder, aieee! I guess I shouldn’t have said that! Am I crazy or did I read that they were going to add Marvel characters to the ride? Hopefully that was just an April Fools announcement, I would truly hate that. Talk about missing the point of the ride. Artists working with budget and/or time constraints who go on to make their best work (Spielberg and Jaws - in that case it was technical issues) is a famous trope!
Why are all those people entering via the exit???!!! Oh, wait - this is the ‘70s, and there’s no intrusive gift shop in the way to reverse the Coriolis Effect, which I think is what sent George Clooney and his rocket pack into an alternate dimension while riding it’s a small world. Or something. I honestly don’t remember a whole lot about the plot of Tomorrowland. Something about a 40-something paranoid recluse who is still in love with his long-lost childhood crush who is actually a robot of a 12-year-old girl with insane martial arts abilities. And Space Mountain has a cameo appearance in a matte background. Oh, yeah - and Hugh Laurie’s in it.
Is that story true that the “tick-took” sound was originally done “live” behind the facade by an automated wooden block mechanism and a microphone into the late ‘80s or early ‘90s? I remember reading that somewhere, with a group being shown the mechanism and having to be very, very quiet so their voices weren’t broadcast through the speakers in the clock. According to that story, the original sound was then recorded digitally, which is now what is used in the attraction.
Dean Finder, I think you may be on to something about tight timelines and iasw’s near perfection.
@ Major-
"Maybe Orson Welles took these!"
Make that at least Orson Wells and Gregg Toland, if not 'just' Gregg Toland - but I know what you mean.
Yup! The Disneyland block mechanism was removed to record the same SFX for Tokyo Disneyland …when the manager group saw the mechanism working they exclaimed in surprise and their cuss word was picked up by the microphone and broadcasted throught out the small world area . A recording also replaced the Disneyland original . WED /WDI sound department has (had) the mechanism is storage and has had it on display for WDI open houses . Glen Barker of WDI sound had it functioning for one open house years ago.
Chuck, most people underestimate the Coriolis Effect, but I’m glad that you take it seriously. “Tomorrowland”, a movie that I was so excited for, and it was (sadly) a dud in more ways than one. I honestly wonder how Brad Bird, who made some of my favorite films, lost his way? I’d heard that story about the “tick tock” too, it seems hard to believe, but I’m sure it’s true. I love that analog way of achieving that sound!
Nanook, I always spell Orson's name like Herbert G, it's a weakness. I knew about Gregg Toland, but he was no longer with us in the 1970s. Just think, if he'd lived longer, he could have worked on "I Love Lucy" instead of Karl Freund!
Mike Cozart, I hope they saved that block mechanism in the archives, I’d love to see it in a display of Imagineering treasures. It is no surprise that the sound is digital, it only makes sense these days. Oh, and now I see that you answered my question about the mechanism! I am glad that it was not tossed in a dumpster!
Major-
"Just think, if he'd lived longer, he could have worked on "I Love Lucy" instead of Karl Freund!"
Now you're just name-dropping-! Tragically, Toland died at the age of 44 (in 1948).
Somebody described "Tomorrowland" as "a feature-length ad for a movie a still kinda want to see" and I can't disagree. The concept still feels like it has potential, but there was so little payoff for the buildup in the first 2/3 of the film that it was a letdown.
JB, your mention of Tinkerbell's zip line has me wondering...are those current rumors true -- about Tink getting grounded, and banned?? I hope not.
"Artists working with budget and/or time constraints who go on to make their best work (Spielberg and Jaws - in that case it was technical issues) is a famous trope!"
Major [and Dean Finder], you brought up a good point. And even before Spielberg made Jaws, he directed his first TV movie Duel, in just a matter of days (something like 13 days). The behind-the-scenes info and interviews about making that movie are super-interesting. I recommend that movie, if you haven't already seen it. It was 'sink or swim' for Spielberg.
Nice images, Major, thank you.
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