Special Event Mini-Posters
After a bit of much-needed organizing, I realized that I had a dozen or so mini-posters advertising various special events. None of today's examples mention the Magic Kingdom Club, although the first poster mentions Magic Key ticket books, so there (makes a raspberry noise). I'll share the posters in two installments because that's just my wacky way.
First up, it's Marine Corps Day, October 18 1964. Hooah! Guests would have VIP Travel Passports, in which one could ride whatever one wanted, as many times as one wanted. So... why the need for Magic Key ticket books? Unless people wanted to stock up for future visits, which is not a bad idea. Notice that the Tiki Room is an additional charge. $5.00 for adults - adjusted for inflation that is around $50, which seems nuts (even though I love the Tiki Room). Would you pay that much? Maybe some of those free prizes will help ease the pain, especially that Royal Weekend at the Disneyland Hotel.
Chip and Dale, don't you have anything better to do? Donald Duck is probably working in his garden or building something that you can mess up for him. This poster is for an event for Garrett Airesearch Manufacturing Division. The general public is not admitted to Disneyland on the evening of this event! It looks like the Tiki Room is included with the price of admission this time. And dancing? I can finally bust out all of my new moves! You have to see them to believe them.
Next is this poster for the May 5, 1967 Southern California Gas Company Family Night (fools, they could have said "Family Nite" and passed the savings on to us). Sorcerer Mickey promises that everything will be free (except for shooting galleries, and food and drink). This event only runs from 8:00 PM to 1:00 AM, but I'll bet an enterprising person could easily do all of their favorite rides.
March 1, 1968 was Public Employees Night for San Bernardino County workers. Regular people, get outta here! I like the mention of some new-ish features, such as New Orleans Square and Pirates of the Caribbean, and the "All New Tomorrowland". No Haunted Mansion yet, sadly.
And finally, it's November 21, 1969 - Telephone Family Fun Night, for the Mission Chapter Pioneers (no idea). The logo at the top says "Telephone Pioneers of America", and I have been to America several times. Six days before Thanksgiving, those nutty Pioneers could have fun fun fun, even on the Breathtaking Haunted Mansion, which had only been open for about three months! Let's just ride that 15 times in a row.
I hope you have enjoyed these mini-posters. Stay tuned for PART TWO!
14 comments:
Major-
Private parties could often be the best time to visit Disneyland. I attended several, beginning in the late 1970's thru the 1980's - and as mentioned before, I attended one such party where only about 5,000 attendees showed-up-!! It was heaven.
It certainly was interesting to learn the Marine Corps Headquarters was located in Plaza Gardens, of all places-!
Thanks, Major.
I don't like to be picky (all right, I DO like to be picky), but "Hooah!" is what Army guys say. "Oorah!" is what Marines say. I don't know how or why I know this factoid; something truly important, like my Social Security number, probably got kicked out of my brain to make room for "Oorah!".
I like the Enchanted Tiki Room, but 50 bucks?!?! To see fake birds and flowers "warble like nightingales"? I DON'T THINK SO! I'm glad they did away with the extra charge for the Tiki Room, or I probably never would have experienced it. I kinda think that attendance for the Tiki Room was considerably less than what they were hoping for, at $5.00 a pop. It probably didn't take Disney long to figure that out and eliminate the surcharge.
That must be Dale on the left, with Chip on the right. IIRC, Dale is the one with the bulbous (red) nose?
Wow, the Mickey posters look a lot nicer than the earlier Chip & Dale posters. The Sorcerer Mickey poster looks great! I don't like to body shame, but the Golden Horseshoe can-can girls look a little chubby here. I like the totally disinterested giraffe.
Thanks for the not-so-mini post of the mini posters, Major. Oh, BTW, what is the size of these posters? (Just curious.)
I knew about the extra charge for the Tiki Room when it opened, but I had no idea that it was $5.00! That seems awfully steep for the time.
JB, those chubby can-can dancers might be the ones from It's A Small World, rather than the Golden Horseshoe.
I love the artwork on all of these. I have a few mini posters from the 1970s and 1980s, from the California Teacher's Association (my mom was a teacher). We went to the park a lot, but for some reason, we never went during one of those CTA events.
Thanks for sharing these, Major!
5 bucks for the TIKI ROOM. ???? Gosh that’s almost a million dollars !!! I think TOKYO MAGIC is correct ; those are It’s A Small World can-can dancers. I love these private party - special event mini posters . I have about 35-40 different ones … mostly from the 1967 period Thru the 1980’s. I do have a spectacular one announcing the opening Matterhorn -monorail - sub voyage . Most however have similar illustration and clip art and letra-set lettering like the Mickey & sorcerer posters . But then there are some really nice ones almost like attraction poster for 1967 new Tomorrowland , haunted mansion , Bear country , America Sings and Space Mountain.
I think my 2nd or 3rd trip to Disneyland was a GENERAL DYNAMICS employee party night . I remember leaving San Diego and sleeping with a pillow and blankets in the back seat of our Chevy Malibu and getting to Disneyland at dusk. This was about 1971 or 1972 … I was about 5 . I remember getting a clear plastic box with about 5 rubber Disney characters … I think they were called “Disney-Ettes” … they are long gone now but I remember them like yesterday . There was an orange Goofy , a pink Mickey , a Yellow Dumbo , a Green Donald and a blue pluto. During Walt Disney World’s 50th there was a historical merchandise display for Florida’s Magic Kingdom and they had displayed one of these rubber figure sets in different. Olirscthsn I had and marked for WDW. But seeing them brought back a flood of memories of that very early GD employee Disneyland party nite!!
Can’t wait to see the rest of your mini posters !!
“ Olirscthsn” = colors
Mike, I have four of those "Disney-Ettes"......Mickey, Pluto, Donald & Dumbo. I remember seeing sets of them in those clear boxes in the Character Shop at DL, but I received mine separately, from two different elementary school friends. I always thought that the rubber figures were "erasers," but I don't think I ever tried using them as that. I just did a search for that name on ebay, and the only ones that come up are listed as erasers. But they are just unpainted "heads" of the characters, with a hole in the bottom for sticking them on a pencil. Mine have some painted features, are the full figures of the characters, and do not have the hole. Thanks for the info on their name. I didn't remember what they were called!
I wonder if the steep admission to the Tiki Room was for some kind of benefit, like a $100 a plate (or $1,000, or $10,000 etc,) dinner affair. The Marines were involved with Toys For Tots, and it isn't Christmas without hearing Peggy Lee's TFT song with Alvin and the Chipmunks.
My introduction to Disneyland was at a nighttime private event for swimming pool salesmen -- seriously-- in January 1970. I can recall that evening, and the day leading up to it, in vivid detail these 55 years later. Factor in the visit to Knott's the next day, with both parks at their absolute zenith, and see the result for an impressionable mind.
Thanks Major, these are the Happiest Ads on Earth.
I had some little figurines....many many different characters...they were sold to me as "Disney-kins". They were more plastic-y than rubbery, so perhaps they were different things. I bought them as an adult from an antique show.. with a bunch of other stuff...that being said: Private Parties and Mini Posters! Gotta love em. If I ever got my hands on one of these, it would have been put in the secret box never to be touched by human hands. My friends dad worked at Garrett....and I KIND of remember going to the private party....but not sure....maybe I just remember the flyer (?)....all of the graphics look fairly modern really. I like the Marine one the best as it looks most "vintage". These are a great peek into how things were really like...like a $5.00 Tiki Room. Which, kind of astounds me, but back then I suppose it was quite astounding, and since Walt footed the bill...he wanted his investment back. I'd like to see the actual Tiki Room ticket....with the $5 mark on it....it still is a little hard to swallow. 3.95 for 10 attractions and 5.00 for one (?) Sounds kind of like today's "schemes". Since people have to live on their phones these days and pre-plan everything: just go back to a general admission and buy all your rides. I think in the end, they would make more money: with E ticket rides being $35.00 or something like that. At the end of the day, how many rides can you ACTUALLY get into? And why must going on a busy day make you actually pay more for a ride? Here's my math: Busy day: maybe 10 rides....$200.00: $20.00 per ride (stand-by only). Light day: maybe 18 rides....$160.00: about $9.00 a ride. Sooo.....busy days, you get to pay more, and do less...just want to be logical here....Happy Monday! Thanks Major!
Major, For Marine Corp Day I'm pretty sure that the $5 charge is for admission to the park *plus* 15 attractions *plus* admission to the Tiki Room. That's 16 attractions for 5 cents more than the $4.95 they charged for the Jumbo 15 ticket book & admission. I guess that's a deal since one could go on all the top attractions.
I went to one special admission evening at Disneyland in the late 70's and it was very uncrowded. We were with the teachers association but it seemed that there were other groups there. It was a lot of fun!
We also actually visited Disneyland a second day (imagine that!) by just paying the minimal admission charge and using whatever attraction tickets we had left over. It was actually very nice to just enjoy the park itself and not feel rushed to see everything.
Major, I’m more than willing to acknowledge you as the foremost expert on Disney ephemera, but I think Omnispace has it right about the Marines flyer.
The $5.00 charge is for the “full boat” INCLUDING the Tiki Room, not $5.00 additional for that attraction alone. The flyer is poorly worded IMHO.
I remember the separate admission for the Tiki Room at the beginning because it was separately owned directly by Walt (and maybe some other partners) but this flyer is showing it as part of an all-inclusive admission as it is today. Just my 0.02.
These are fun little scraps, it’s interesting to see the prices evolving over time, not like the giant leaps we see today, and the graphics are fun too. Thank you.
JG
Nanook, only 5,000 attendees? I’d be so lonely! Yeah, I wonder why the Marine Corps Headquarters was in the Plaza Gardens?
JB, I have never heard of an Army guy saying “Oorah”, and I don’t approve. They didn’t ask me, which I can’t understand. I suppose that when the Tiki Room was new, maybe it had such a reputation that people would pay that much extra? I mean, I truly love the attraction (partly because of the nostalgia factor), but not that much. Yes, Dale has the bigger nose. The art on these posters is better than on some Disneyland items, but it still doesn’t feel like they had access to the great artists who worked at the studio. They must have had their own department. Some old flyers are positively ugly!
TokyoMagic!, yes, I agree, those are supposed to be IASW can-can dancers! I would have thought that your mom would have had access to a LOT of Disneyland flyers for teachers, and she knew you loved Disneyland - so I’m surprised that you only have a few.
Mike Cozart, well, I’m a dope, because now that I’ve gone back and read that poster a bit more closely, the $5 is for a ticket book that *included* the Tiki Room. I get a “D” in reading comprehension. But what else is new?? Wow, 35-40 different mini-posters, that would look impressive as a group. You’ll see that the later ones in my collection get cheaper and cheaper looking, one is just black and white. Cutting costs, I suppose. Wow, the Matterhorn one that you have sounds amazing. Although now that I think about it, do I have one of those too? Is it a blue-tinted photo? It’s been a while since I’ve looked at mine, and it is not grouped with these later ones. I just did a search, the one I am talking about was shared on July 20, 2020). Ah, sleeping in a station wagon - we did so many road trips in our various wagons, and my mom liked to go to the Fountain Valley Drive-In, we’d load up the back with blankets and pillows. If we didn’t like the movie, we could just go to sleep!
Mike Cozart, I admit I wondered what “Olirscthsn” was!
TokyoMagic!, hmmm, I’ll have to look up “Disney-Ettes” when I have time later. I’ve seen other things that look like rubber erasers, but they were called “pencil toppers”, I guess they were just there for looks. I’ll have to photograph my Frito Bandito pencil toppers!
Stefano, ah, that’s not a bad idea, they could have been raising money. But see my comment to Mike Cozart, I think I just misinterpreted the poster, which my own dumb fault. An event for swimming pool salesmen? Who knew? Back in the days when everyone in SoCal could have a house, I’ll bet sales of swimming pools was pretty brisk. Sounds like you had a great time!
Bu, I love Disney-kins, though I only have a few, and none of the rare examples. I still remember getting Jungle Book Disney-kins in boxes of instant pudding, I can’t recall the brand. I might still have a Balloo from that. As I’ve mentioned several times before, we used to go to the park on Navy Nites when I was just the right age to love Disneyland more than anything, we looked forward to those nights SO much. Not only could we ride all our favorite rides with low crowds, but we were allowed to stay up until 1:00 AM, which we NEVER did. I’m sure we fell asleep in the car on the way home, but it was only to Huntington Beach, which wasn’t that far away. As I learned a few years ago, if you play your cards right, you can still do a LOT of attractions in one day. Use the fee app to see where the lines are shortest, including popular rides during parades (“Radiator Springs Racers”), when the line would go from 90 minutes down to 20 minutes.
Omnispace, yes, see my comment to Mike Cozart, I realized my error once I went back and reread the poster more thoroughly. I should never write this blog when I’m drunk! ;-) I didn’t go to the park two days in a row until fairly recently, and I agree, it’s nice to not feel like you have to get everything done as quickly as possible. You can relax, and know that you have plenty of time to hit certain rides later.
JG, oh yes, as I said to Omnispace, see my comment to Mike Cozart! I have posted a scan of an early ticket for the Tiki Room, and I also have ticket books that have a complimentary ticket (maybe just for children?) for the Tiki Room and for Mr. Lincoln.
I agree with JG and Omnispace on the pricing of the Tiki Room being part of an all inclusive package. I can recall general admission for $2 back when and there's no way anyone beside the truly well-heeled would have ponied-up $5. What I find interesting is that, apparently, those lucky enough to be affiliated with SC Gas got their admission for free. With Dad working for Douglas and then McDonnell Douglas, we always looked forward to the annual event. It wasn't free but it was a great value for the money. So much fun, so few crowds, no lines, so little time. I remember that was our first introduction to Pirates and what an amazing attraction it was. It's something I still vividly remember. Lastly, the Telephone Pioneer Club. The Bell System was a massive employer. Working for the telephone company meant job security, good wages and benefits. The Pioneers consisted of those retirees. KS
Here in NJ, I've seen a few plaques placed by the "Telephone Pioneers of America." Since AT&T "The Phone Company" started here it made sense to me. I didn't realize they had local chapters all the way to California.
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