Above Fantasyland, July 1969
Well, whaddaya know, more photos taken from the Skyway! If I had a nickel for every one in my collection, I'd be rich. Today we're gliding above Fantasyland toward Tomorrowland, which is behind us.
The Pirate Ship was still sponsored by Chicken of the Sea (the mermaid figurehead is there, though partly obscure), but not for long - it was renamed "Captain Hook's Galley" sometime this year. I could not find an exact date. The ship always looks especially great when its striped sails were unfurled. I wonder if the stripes are based on Howard Pyle illustrations, or did it just add some visual interest? The photo is a bit dark, but you can see the dining area behind the ship, and in the distance, Casey Jr. is chugging along.
We've continued moving for just a few seconds before the photographer took another snap. If you like red Skyway gondolas, this picture will make you happy! Down below, a snooty caterpillar is about to enter the final scene from the Alice in Wonderland attraction, while more guests relax beneath umbrellas near the Fan 1 dining area.
15 comments:
Major-
Sure is a tragedy the pirate ship, et. al. has gone to greener pastures, but it IS the way of all flesh.
"... more guests relax beneath umbrellas near the Fan 1 dining area".
Ah-hem - make that Fan 2.
Thanks, Major.
I agree about the sails. A pirate ship just isn't a pirate ship unless her sails are unfurled and billowing in the breeze. We can see just a wee bit of Skully's drool on the right. And the Cinderella castle is looking mighty nice here.
As noted, they must've been running a sale on red Gondolas that day, "Attention K-Mart shoppers! There is a Blue Light special on red Skyway gondolas for the next 10 minutes!". Monstro is getting ready to chomp down on that sign to the right of the Lighthouse. Skully is drooling again; "someone" should toss him a roll of paper towels. There are at least 9 trashcans here; probably more, they're hard to make out in the distance. These striped trashcans are my favorite design.
Nanook, even I knew that was Fan 2, next to Alice... but I wasn't gonna mention it. Major is very sensitive that way. ;-p
Wonderful pictures, floating above Fantasyland. Thanks, Major.
Down below, a snooty caterpillar is about to enter the final scene from the Alice in Wonderland attraction
That snooty caterpillar was all done with the interior attraction scenes at that point. Those two doors were for putting the caterpillar vehicles away into a storage area, and bringing them back out onto the track. But I know you knew that, Major!
Thanks for the 1969 Fantasyland pics, Major!
There’s something delightfully nonsensical about “gliding towards Tomorrow, which is behind us.” Only at Disneyland…
Nice aerial overview of the LL&LPG (Long Lost & Lamented Pirate Grotto). I can’t quite make out the detail on JG’s Rocks, but I know they are there.
Looking at the backdrop of pine trees there is no hint that the untamed frontier and the barren (yet somehow still living) desert is just beyond. No wonder we all believed the souvenir maps that showed all backstage areas filled in with trees.
Note the Storybook Gardens lighthouse is still configured as a ticket booth, although it doesn’t appear to be in use as such.
Mike, Vikings still wore horned hats and sang their dialogue, though, right? ;-)
Ah, the ship that couldn't sail to the New Fantasyland because they forgot it was really a building. I never bought that story, personally, but who am I to judge?
I remember someone a long time ago commenting that they the Skyway operators would play a game where they would try to group the colors of buckets. I'm not sure how that would work, exactly, but it sounds fun!
Fun pics today, Major!
Nanook, someday I’ll get the “Fans” right, but today is not that day!.
JB, I’m sure those cloth sails deteriorated in the sun and weather fairly quickly, and maybe windy days caused problems. BUT STILL! Maybe these days they could make sails out of carbon fiber? Red gondolas were common because, as we all know, the other colors turn red as they ripen. It got to the point where they had to make new blue, yellow, orange, and other colors at a rapid pace, while piles of red gondolas were “backstage”. I’m not that sensitive because I don’t care that much!
Mike Cozart, I don’t have my copy of Howard Pyle’s “Book of Pirates” handy, and can’t remember if he painted any ships with striped sails. His artwork was a huge influence on Hollywood’s idea of what pirates should look like. The stripes almost look like the “dazzle camouflage” from the early part of the 20th century, not that pirates would have known anything about that.
TokyoMagic!, ah, OK, thanks for the correction!
Chuck, “JGs rocks”, what an honor to have such a feature with one’s name! Your comment about “the untamed frontier and the barren (yet somehow still living desert)” made me think of a funny old Disneyland track that I have seen labeled as a “training tape” for the Mine Train. “The eternal desert; incredibly ugly, yet fantastically beautiful”. Well OK! It sure seems as if that lighthouse did not serve as a ticket booth for very long. Possibly less than a year?
Stu29573, yeah, some of the whoppers that we hear from the Disney officials about the park strain credulity. Ultimately it doesn’t matter, they destroyed the ship, and it’s never coming back. I also remember somebody commenting about Skyway operators trying to group the gondolas by color, and like you, I have no idea how they would do that.
JG, I’ve seen lots of paintings of fishing boats in Italy that had colored (often reddish) sails, and I’ve seen old photos of Chinese junks with sails of various colors. I’ll bet Theseus felt like a real dope when he discovered what his father had done, all because he forgot to change the sail!
It seems we see as many pictures from the skyway looking backwards as forwards. I guess people decide they want a picture of something as they pass it and then use a second chance to get it.
It's a red bucket day. We called the buckets "The Buckets"....I don't think anyone ever said "Fantasyland Skyway" or "Tomorrowland Skyway" or even "Let's go on the Skyway". I'm glad I got to experience them, and hope to see them again in another iteration at the "New Disneyland Resort"....perhaps a transportation system ala WDW "Buckets". I'm not even sure what they call those buckets, and they aren't really buckets but more self-contained transport hot-box. I think the way the bucket guys got the colors grouped is how they did the first load of the day, and then....if I remember....but would need to look at photos....there was a way to get buckets off the wire and to the side in Tomorrowland....and perhaps they put them on again...empty....to go to Fantasyland....and I am SURE that if this was possible, it DEFINITELY would have happened...we all did ANYTHING to play jokes on each other....no matter what department you were in. It's kind of like being in a play...there is an actor game where someone has a note...and has to pass it to another actor onstage, but it has to look natural....so if you have the note: you have to get rid of it...and during the play...while you are "concentrating" and reciting lines, the back story of "who has the note" is going on. I will tell you, that you have to be very very confident about your lines, and I could only do this after many many many performances...both bucket hi-jinx and actor hi-jink end up in "you are in trouble" high-jinx. In the real Fantasyland, you return to this Fantasyland. I played a game yesterday while trying to get to sleep....I imagined myself in different years, entering the Main Gate....since you don't really "forget" anything, it's possible in your imagination to "go back there". So I went through various decades, and iterations of the gate...through the Guest Grabber Extrodinaire (was called another thing, but we called it that), strolled along the GM exhibit....got on a Parking Lot tram....I was asleep pretty quick, and it was better than counting sheep. Thanks Major for the red bucket day!
Major- I checked my copy of the Howard Pyle book- no striped sails...
Thanks for the cool photos today.
-DW
Bu, I think most people call the Skyway vehicles “buckets”, even after they were rectangular. It’s amusing to see what others call them when they label slides. “Sky cars”, “air tram”, and such. I’m glad they have that aerial whatsit in Florida, I forget what it’s called. I guess Disneyland isn’t big enough to justify such a thing, even though I am sure it would be super popular today. There is a guy on Facebook who is ALL about Skyway-type rides, I think he goes by “Eric Von Roll”, he almost surely would know how the gondolas were attached and removed. I was thinking the same thing about how they might group the gondolas by color first thing in the morning, because they’d be way too busy dealing with constantly-moving vehicles to do any shenanigans during operating hours. Sure, it would be fun to play that “hand a note to someone” game onstage, but what if you handed them a live rattlesnake? I’m going to try your other game when I have trouble going to sleep (instead of cursing people who have wronged me over the years)!!
DW, thanks for looking, I had the feeling that there were no striped sails in the book, but wasn’t sure!
^ I recall that the buckets were juggled while the ride was operating….the CM’s were able to slide a bucket aside….juggling one at a time. Was it KS who told us??
On the Tomorrowland side the SKYWAY station featured a large cabin storage area consisting of a loop and about 4 sidings. The skyway employees could easily unload guests from a cabin after returning from Fantasyland , then remove it off line ( the unload - turnaround - load is NOT on the constantly moving cable ) the empty cabin could be rolled onto the siding and a needed color cabin could easily be selected from the storage loop or more likely any of the 4 sidings . The selected color cabin could then be added to the line and loaded with the next guests … then dispatched and added onto the cable . This process could be repeated till all the cabins were grouped by colors . It would likely need to be a slow day as the limited crews 2 unload , I mule ( to roll the empty cabin to the load side , 2 load) or 1 unload , 1 mule , I unload on light days . On heavy days there would be less time to unload and pull the cabins quickly and keep the loading lines moving, but technically could easily be done.
It would be MORE challenging to get all the operating skyway cabins to have no repeating colors in their sequence.
As I’ve mentioned before , all my friends who were tall costume characters ( goofy , brer Bear, Baloo etc) have back problems … And all my friends who worked SKYWAY also have back problems now. Incidentally females could not work skyway other than as ticket takers … and sometimes loaders/greeters on the Fantasyland side only. In fact there was never a Disneyland SKYWAY Tomorrowland female costume . In the 90’s Walt Disney world had female tomorrowland skyway employees . WDW always used female Skyway ticket takes and greeters on the Fantasyland side.
Yeah nautical historians are pretty much in agreement that the ancient Greeks did NOT have multicolored sails and the story’s like from Homer mentioning the “Black Ships” referred to the hills as a type of tar pitch was used for waterproofing. Another detriment to coloring the sails was that inks and paints would have been very flammable and ship fires on the sails were a constant fear. By the 20th century you see some small sporting crafts with striped sails - …And probably on Chinese junks to impress the tourist … but those Roman man -of-wars and golden galleons and Viking striped sails are all fanciful Hollywood creations ..
Thanks, Mike, for the info. Another thing i remember about ‘organizing the buckets’ was also the challenge of placing them in numerical order—within their color. It’s possible that someone jokingly commented that—but I recall reading that, too.
Fun day over Fantasyland, thanks, all!
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