Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island
The Mysterious Benefactor continues to give and give. Maybe we should send him a Hai Karate gift set? It costs more than Aqua Velva, so he'll know we care. All of the MB's scans are from Frontierland, as usual.
These first two were taken in succession (obviously), just look at that line! I'm actually not entirely sure if this line is for the Keelboats, or the Canoes, or Tom Sawyer Island Rafts, or a combination of those, but it's pretty astonishing to see dozens and dozens of guests patiently waiting.
Just seconds later, the Keelboat has continued onward, honking its "La Cucaracha" horn as it passed. You know the one I mean! Frontierland looks so lush here, though I admit that the slide seems to have a greenish tint.
Next, a raft returns to the mainland, I notice that some makeshift seats were added to so that people wouldn't have to stand for the entire 1-minute voyage. I suppose you can't blame people for resting their feet when they have the opportunity.
Wowee, that is one crowded raft. And there are some pirates aboard to! A portent of things to come. Ah, the pre-Fantasmic island, how I miss it.
Here's postcard C-15, presumably taken moments later. The raft isn't leaving much of a wake, so I am assuming that it slowly drifted while the photographer fumbled with his camera.
Many thanks to the Mysterious Benefactor!
12 comments:
Major-
We LOVE the Mysterious Benefactor, as he provides so many glorious views of the RoA-! (Is he also responsible for postcard #C-15-?)
Thanks to the M B.
Interesting framing, with the foreground foliage wrapped around the edge of the photo. It's like we're Arte Johnson, as the German soldier, peering through the bushes, "Verrry interesting..."
"the slide seems to have a greenish tint". This photo was taken during the brief period when the Imagineers tried using split pea soup in the Rivers of America instead of water. It was hoped that the thickness of the soup would keep the river from soaking into the sandy ground. It worked! But it was a complete failure; the soup's thickness proved too taxing on the Mark Twain's paddle. And the Canoe Guys had a heck of a time trying to paddle through the stuff. Plus, all the animals from the Jungle Cruise saw the lush green River and decided to mosey on over; bad for Frontierland theming.
In the 3rd photo, I was wondering who was steering the Raft. Then I saw the CM behind the CM that's looking at us. Mystery solved!
Besides the pirates aboard the Raft, there are several people wearing the same type of blue and white baseball cap. Is that a souvenir hat? Or...
In the last pic, and postcard, is that guy in the plaid shirt and overalls the CM who's steering the Raft? I've never seen that costume before.
Nice set of pictures showing us "life on the river". Thanks Mister Mysterious B. And thank you, Major.
I believe the first two pics show the queue for the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes. In the first pic, we can see someone in the row of people closest to the water, holding what looks like the handle of an oar. I'm guessing the photos were taken from the Hungry Bear Restaurant's entrance ramp or upper deck.
I'm surprised to see those kids on the TSI rafts, hanging their legs out over the railing. I'd be willing to bet that would not be allowed, today, and that if a kid did attempt it, they would be tossed into the river and left to fend for themselves. Either that, or maybe chained to a seat in the Opera House, and forced to watch the Walt Disney A.A. perform over and over again, all day long.
I concur, the first photo is the Canoe Queue....The Canoes did used to have quite the following, and I also remember waiting in line when my Canoe Team would practice off-work-hours. Thanks Canoe guys for getting us on without our D tickets. (as you can imagine this was some time ago...) Those guests with us in our canoe were in for a very speedy surprise, as it was not your "normal" canoe ride. I remember the guy in pic #3, or perhaps they all looked the same with the same kind of sunglasses. I also had these types of sunglasses as well. The mill looks lovely in this photo. Very coiffed. They took this out for a plastic melting dragon? Not a decision I would make, but it brings the $$ in, so what do I know. I wouldn't mind a nighttime river show 'ala, the Electrical Parade on the water in WDW. But don't TRE Tom Sawyer Island for it. Why guests are forced to see an abandoned stage all day long is just insulting. The vintage photos are lovely, and I like how all the "red people" have been staged "oh so carefully". Postcards are fun, it's a shame they have become less popular: but they still are being used. I remember that in hotels there was always a hotel postcard, and hotel branded stationery in the desk. As a kid I would collect these things. I think I've only seen one or two postcards in the (literally) hundreds of hotels I've stayed in the past 20 years: and generally they were in "hip" very modern hotels, with very "arty" graphics on them. I wouldn't mind going to an old school Holiday Inn and seeing 4 color branded stationery in the desk drawer, but I'm afraid those days are gone. The first aftershave I used was Aqua Velva, and I still have some fondness for that old school barber shop smell. Boy did it burn my tender face though! Thanks MB and M!
As pretty as these pictures are, I consider them a failure in one regard...Absolutely NO Animatronic Exploding Ducks! Heck, if one went by these obviously doctored inages, one might assume the rivers were (and are) safe from said rogue robotic avian menaces!
We, of course, know better...
I forgot to thank the M.B. and Major....THANKS!
Bu, the last time I saw complimentary stationary in a hotel, was at The Mirage, in Las Vegas, in 1992. They also had complimentary postcards of the hotel with their iconic "volcano." I still have the postcards and some of the stationary. I supposed they are collector's items now, since as of last year, the "Mirage" name doesn't exist anymore.
The "good neighbor" hotels behind the Tokyo Disney parks were still offering postcards the last time I was there, but instead of stationary, they just had tablets in the rooms, with the name of the hotel at the top of each page. I remember tablets also being in the rooms of the non-Disney hotels in and around Orlando, too. But the last few times I stayed in the Orlando area, the tablets all contained only 4 pages of paper, and that was it. CHEAP!!! Oh, and the Tokyo hotels offered complimentary hair brushes, toothbrushes, and tubes of toothpaste. I've never seen that here in the U.S.!
The last one (and its postcard companion) are a great example of the “Red Shirt School of Photography.” You can just see Tom’s Treehouse in the shadow of its tree, so this photo is no earlier than 1957, which would help explain all the red coats if we didn’t know this was staged. Note the rope belt on the crew member at left. And there’s a babushka!
Moments later, an iceberg wandered in from out of frame, menacing the raft and its passengers with certain doom. Fortunately, an MED (“Mechanical Exploding Duck;” the term “animatronic” won’t be coined until 1961”) floated in from the other edge of the image, detonating directly in the path of the iceberg and saving our intrepid adventurers from mortal peril. More “hard facts.”
Thanks, Major & MB!
In the midst of your barbecues and beer, please take a moment to remember what today is all about.
Little known fact, the raft was originally named “Body Snatcher” in honor of the movie, and was renamed after complaints.
On Fantasmic Island, Tattoo climbs Tom’s Treehouse and points out at the riverboat, shouting “the Twain, the Twain!”
Gratitude to the MB and Major. As Chuck notes, take a moment today to recall the reasons for Memorial Day.
JG
Nanook, we don’t know who is actually responsible for the actual photos, but the MB is an “inside man” who had access to these scans that were made for Disney from vintage transparencies.
JB, I actually kind of miss the days when the rivers of America looked like a muddy, greenish-brown river, instead of the odd blue/green color that it is now. I’ve always wondered why they changed from one to the other. Also, now I want some pea soup (with lots of ham chunks). I was also wondering about that photo with the same shade of blue. It’s like going to a museum when kids from day camps are there, all with matching shirts. I think the plaid on the raft pilot is a warm Pendleton coat!
TokyoMagic!, yeah, the Explorer Canoes makes more sense for that particular area (although I do believe that the Keelboats loaded near that area as well). I think all children should be thrown into the river. You might not have seen them do anything bad, but you know they have! This will teach them a valuable lesson. I hope the Walt AA figure goes haywire on occasion.
Bu, I really am amazed at the sheer number of people wanting to ride in a canoe. Maybe canoes were cool right around the same time as disco? Maybe it would be fun to be on a speedy canoe with dedicated paddlers, although you would not enjoy such a leisurely trip that way. I think somebody said that Fantasmic is back, although I sure don’t hear anything about it. And the dragon was the grand finale, what do they do now? Maybe Maleficent lights the flames with her scepter and there’s no dragon change. I truly dislike that big ugly stage during the day, but nobody cares what I think. I wish modern postcards were as good as the old ones, most have badly airbrushed characters on them, which is not my thing at all. I guess even postcards need IP these days. Gosh, do hotels still provide stationery these days??
Stu29573, you make a good point, and I am going to write a letter to the publishers of Reader’s Digest magazine (I always complain to them) so that they can make sure this never happens again.
TokyoMagic!, wow, what do they call the Mirage now? And is the volcano still there? My best friend went to Vegas during the winter, and it was so cold that the volcano was not operating because the water would freeze. Somehow it figures that Tokyo Disney parks still provide extra goodies when nobody else does. I’ll bet you big money that people on eBay are trying to sell those hairbrushes, toothbrushes, etc. I never understand why anybody would buy those off of eBay, but I suppose it must happen.
Chuck, notice the Matterhorn in the postcard view (and its fraternal twin), as we know from Disneyland publicity, the Matterhorn has been there since 1955. I think I remember reading about that iceberg incident, and watching Walter Cronkite talk about it on the CBS Evening News. My dad pounded his fist into his other hand and said, “Dammit! When will they ever learn?”. When indeed.
JG, see, I would love it if they named a raft “Body Snatcher”, if only for Halloween. They can’t make Disneyland truly spooky, sadly, but imagine if they could? I’ve seen photos of Tokyo Disneyland during the spooky season, and they go way further than US parks are willing to go.
I forgot to mention Memorial Day, mostly because I wrote this post many months ago, but it is something that we should all honor!
JG, your "Fantasmic Island" bit was perfect!
JB, I was going to say something clever too! I just couldn't think of anything.
JB, glad you enjoyed...
JG
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