Here are two standard views of Frontierland, circa August 1970. Perhaps I was in the park, causing trouble! It was a cry for attention.
Until I saw this picture, I'd forgotten that you could go inside the Old Mill on Tom Sawyer Island. My theory is that the mill was yet another one of Walt's Apartments. "Just bring a raft over for me in the morning, boys!", he'd tell his staff. There's nothing like sleeping in an old mill to shake off the stresses of modern life. He had a grilled cheese sandwich press (painted to look like it was made of weathered wood) and plenty of cans of chili beans. Would he be in a great mood the next morning? You bet!
Next is this fun image from Tom Sawyer Island; there are two kids to the right, but we mostly see adults here. They secretly want an island with caves, climbable rocks, swaying suspension bridges, and even a frontier fort, just as much as children do. Walt must have known that. The Columbia looks impressive in the background.
Major-
ReplyDeleteI'm very curious why the two "gentlemen" in the 2nd image seemed to be engaged in fisticuffs-??!! Are they re-enacting the 'rich boy' fight scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer-? As you stated - adults want 'fun things to do' on the Island as much as children do-!
Thanks, Major.
”… there are two kids to the right…”
ReplyDeleteApparently that little girl just pushed the “2nd kid” to his/her death below.
Are those two guys boxing it out??
Somebody really should go up on the roof of the Old Mill and straighten that chimney! Seems like it's been that way for ages! A giant green caterpillar is sleeping on the roof. And the Matterhorn looks like it got an extra dusting of powdered sugar. I believe this is actually a miniature scene from the Storybook Canal Boats ride. The Disney Imagineers did an excellent job creating those life-like humans in the scene.
ReplyDeleteWow, I agree, the Columbia looks beautiful in this light; sort of surreal. The sails look like swooping frosting decorations on a wedding cake... Or gramma's sheets hanging out on the clothesline to dry. As Nanook and Sue said, those two guys closest to us are "duking it out". Playfully, I hope. I like the lady's pirate hat with the bright red plume.
Sue, "that little girl just pushed the “2nd kid” to his/her death below". Little girls are like that. I've never believed that "sugar and spice" rhyme. Little girls are the devil's minions! ;-)
Major, I'm glad you managed to get two of the "Walt" tropes into your post: The grilled cheese press and the chili beans. Although, I think the chili beans are a GDB thing only? Was it Tokyo! who started that? I can't remember. Thanks, Major.
Those two men are acting out that musical number “WATCH YOUR FOOTWORK” from the Disney musical , THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE staring Fred MacMurray, Greer Garson , John Davison and Lesslie Anne Warren …. And George the Crocodile!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful shots of the Old Mill and Sailing Ship Columbia. Great color tone, light and composition too! Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteIt's not every day that I'm able to comment on the Columbia's nice foremast futtocks.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Old Mill had a themed interior complete with wooden gears and a millstone. I don’t recall if any of it moved or if it was static. I want to say that there was a 3D animatronic version of the mother bird on her nest in the gears from the “Old Mill” animated short, but that might have been later in the rebuilt mill, or maybe a hallucination brought on by too many mint juleps.
ReplyDeletePhoto 2 was taken back when it was possible to fall to your death (or serious injury) from the rock plateau. I jumped from it once and landed on the dirt path below, with no appreciable injuries, luckily. 10 year olds were tougher then.
Those two guys are either hamming it up for the picture, or suffering from too many mint juleps, fighting for the honor of the young lady in the pirate hat. Great view of some, if not all of the Columbia too!
Thanks Major!
JG
Nanook, it really does look like those two guys want to knock each other’s blocks off. No idea why. I don’t remember a “rich boy” fight in Tom Sawyer, but it’s been a while.
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, sometimes you just have to push somebody to their demise.
JB, it would cost $200,000 to straighten that chimney. Instead, they should tear it down and replace the mill with a character meet ’n greet, in a building painted purple and pink. Kids will love it, as will fans of the park who have absolutely no aesthetic sense. But they will complain that there are no LED lights. The weird thing about the fighting dudes is that they aren’t really posed for the camera in an optimal way, it’s almost as if the photographer just happened to find them already mid-fight. Little girls - remember “The Bad Seed”? She was as evil as can be! Yes, I believe that TokyoMagic! came up with the chili bean detail, and obviously it was so great that we have never forgotten it!
Mike Cozart, I’ve still never seen “The Happiest Millionaire”, since every article I’ve ever read about it makes it sound pretty terrible. Does it have any merit at all?
K. Martinez, the Old Mill photo is a bit wonky, but otherwise it’s not too bad!
Steve DeGaetano, this is a family blog!
JG, shoot, I did look inside the mill once, but I can’t remember if there were moving grindstones or anything. I think I recall bags and bags of milled grain. Ha, I’d like it if they did a tribute to “The Old Mill” Silly Symphony, but that’s a detail that would probably be lost on a lot of guests. I feel like the chance of injury is one of the reasons they have neutered TSI so much, to the point that guests don’t feel the need to go there. I admit that I haven’t been there since it became the Pirate’s Lair, and I’ve seen photos of a cool Pepper’s Ghost effect; maybe I’d better make a point of taking a raft over, in case they decide to fill in our river like they did in Florida. Are Disney mint juleps mint and lime flavored? Sounds like drinking citrus juice after brushing your teeth.
I would go inside the mill every visit. The interior definitely had a operating mill powered by the water wheel.
ReplyDeleteAh …. THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE is very very Disney … but it’s a long one to watch -especially if it’s the fully restored “roadshow” version. But it’s fun. My friends and I like to look for all the -reused props and sets that Walt Disney productions tried to recoup the films costs . Most of the Biddle Mansion furniture was used in the original CLUB 33 at Disneyland …. The Biddle entry doors became The Grand Imperial Hotel entry in one of my favorite movies SNOWBALL EXPRESS ….the Biddle Bible Club sweaters become the harbor/dockworkers costumes in Pete’s Dragon .. And lots of other props and costumes and building set interiors saw a second life used in other productions and at Walt Disney World . If course there’s the Sherman brothers songs …. Including “ DETROIT” which was reused with re-written lyrics and became the music and theme song for Disneyland ‘s ROCKET RODS ; “magic highways of Tomorrow “
ReplyDeleteOh : and Julie Andrews white and pink dress from the “Jolly Holiday” sequence in MARY POPPINS is worn by actress Leslie Ann Warren …. But trimmed down and died GRAY!!!! ( that’s why if you ever see that Mary Poppins dress today - it appears very dingy even after some heavy duty restoration.
ReplyDelete"Major, I'm glad you managed to get two of the "Walt" tropes into your post: The grilled cheese press and the chili beans. Although, I think the chili beans are a GDB thing only? Was it Tokyo! who started that? I can't remember."
ReplyDeleteJB, supposedly, Walt did like canned chili and beans, so that fact is a thing. The thing I made up was that he would sit up in his Firehouse apartment, and "flick" chili beans down on the passersby! ;-)
JG, the gears inside the mill did turn, because they were connected to the outside waterwheel. I don't think that DL ever had the bird nesting in the gears.....I never saw one in there. But WDW had a "static" bird in one of their two Tom Sawyer Island mills:
Interior of Walt Disney World's Harper's Mill
Major-
ReplyDeleteYou're already familiar with my thoughts [off-line] regarding The Happiest Millionaire and are aware I saw the film twice in its complete 19-hour, 14-minute Roadshow Version (ha) at Radio City Music Hall (complete with their Xmas show including the Rockettes). As a 16 year old, I seemed to enjoy both evenings. Seeing it again (a couple of times) as an adult, well, on this "family blog", let's just say 'it's nice that Disney was able to re-purpose so many props, costumes, sets and music' and leave it at that...
Steve DeGaetano, well then I guess it’s CONFIRMED
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart… I guess I should take a look at The Happiest Millionaire while I still have Disney+… I don’t know if I’ll renew, so for now it would be easy to at least start it. If I am really struggling, I can always stop it! It’s fun that they reused so many props in places where those “in the know” would recognize them, it turns it into a game! I had no idea that they reused a song for the Rocket Rods, that’s especially interesting to me. Having stood in that circular room that was part of the queue, I heard that music over and over and over.
Mike Cozart, that is definitely a case of “We might as well use it, it has no value otherwise!”. Hard to believe today. I think the reuse (and altering) of costumes from one movie to another was a very common practice.
TokyoMagic!, I know that Walt liked chili, they sure like to tell you about it if you are lucky enough to tour his apartment above the firehouse. I wonder if he ever tried Spaghettios? With the removal of all TSI stuff from WDW, I wonder if any props will be reused elsewhere? Very sad. I do like that they went to the trouble of making the gears and mill turn, though I doubt that they were powered by the water. Or were they??
Nanook, ha ha, you should get some sort of commendation for sitting through the film TWICE, in theaters! The Rockettes… I saw the big Christmas show a few years ago, and it was cool to be in the beautiful theater at Radio City, and to experience the long tradition, but I have to confess that I found it pretty corny. Maybe that’s part of its charm?
I was about to comment that the Old Mill on WDW's Tom Sawyer Island has the bird's nest from the short, but then I remembered that they knocked it down. Still having a hard time getting that through my head.
ReplyDeleteMajor, I'm pretty sure that the gears inside were powered by the waterwheel. The water from the base of Tom and Huck's Treehouse would flow down that trough and over the waterwheel. You could see that the main gear inside had a rod that went out to the waterwheel. But it could have all been an illusion, I suppose. Maybe Mike will chime in.
ReplyDeleteI bet some of WDW's TSI stuff went into the trunks of certain "employee's" cars and were driven home to their private collections. They probably said, "Why would we spend the time and money to move this stuff to Anaheim, when our ultimate goal is to bulldoze their island, too! I can see it happening. Nothing they do now will ever surprise me. THEY SUCK!
I didn't see "The Happiest Millionaire" until it came out on VHS, and I rented it from a local rental store called, "Go Video!" It isn't "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" or "Mary Poppins," but I still found myself liking it. And I do enjoy the entire soundtrack.....except for one song that Fred MacMurray sort of "speaks." I guess he couldn't sing? I ended up buying a used copy on vinyl, shortly after watching the film. And then I upgraded to digital a few years back because Disney actually made the effort to put it out on CD. I did an entire post devoted to "The Happiest Millionaire" some years back. I won't link to it here, because I think sometimes I might provide too many links, but it was my December 2017 post. Oddly enough, it remained one of my most popular posts for many years. There must be other fans out there!