Mad Tea Party, March 1961
Here's a fun pair of photos featuring two sisters riding in their teacups on the Mad Tea Party attraction. For color and kinetic movement, the MTP can't be beat! I told Walt that people would enjoy riding in jars of mayonnaise, but I guess he didn't hear me, so... teacups it is.
I'm assuming that the ride was in motion at this point, the little girl in the greenish cup is looking right at us, and it looks as if she is doing her best to turn the center wheel - it takes some arm strength to get them going! I've always loved the kooky abstract swirls and pictograms on the cups, somehow it evokes the artwork of the animated film, though I'm not sure why, exactly. Just above the girl's head, we can see the Casey Jr. ticket booth.
3 comments:
A friend of mine would take pictures of the rest of our group posed to look like we were wildly spinning … and it looked good. Except the guests behind us walking around exiting their teacups and gathering their belongings gave it away we were not moving at all .
"but I guess he didn't hear me". Woulda, coulda, shoulda. If only you had spoken a little louder we'd all be riding in mayonnaise jars! Of course, after exiting, the guests would have to be hosed down to get the mayo off. And then they'd have to be placed in air dryers to get dry again. Hmm, on second thought, it's probably a good thing that Walt didn't hear you.
The girl in the pink Teacup is wearing one of those woven 'coolie' souvenir hats. This is a good picture; lots of Cups, lots of color!
In the blurry distance we can see the Cinderella castle atop its columnar basalt mountain. At first I thought we could see the Pumpkin Coach. But it turned out to be the gold-ish ball atop the Teacups 'EXIT" sign.
Mike, that "wildly spinning" pose sounds like it would be a fun thing to do. And it wouldn't get you kicked out of the Park either! Maybe just a stern warning and a threat to put you all to work in the Churro Mines.
Thanks for the colorful pics, Major.
When working on Shanghai Disneyland we built a ALICE’s MAD TEA PARTY model… like the 50’s traditional Disney … then they had us replace it with a new design based on the modern live action.. to match better with the similar themed Alice’s Curious labyrinth …Then about a week later they wanted the 50’s Disney Alice Tea Party back …. ( we had it - it was just set aside) then one day on the workbench were drawings & plans to build Pooh’s Spinning Hunney Pots!! Tea Cups were out and Honey Pots in!! All of this was because Disney felt they wanted as much character exposure as possible - since the Chinese were not really familiar with any of these Disney films. That’s why there are few overall themed areas … and lots of single character attractions at Shanghai.
Post a Comment