Jungle Cruise Snoozles, September 1964
From the same batch of Instamatic slides as last Thursday's post come today's snooze-tastic Jungle Cruise pictures. Not the worst things you'll ever see, but far from the best, also.
It's that familiar African Veldt tableau, presumably an excuse to populate the Jungle Cruise with a significant number of critters. Why would they all be grouped into one rather small area? To watch one of their pals being eaten! It all makes sense now. "I feel bad, but at least it isn't ME". It's interesting that a worker of some sort (Maintenance? Landscaping?) is standing right in the middle of the scene in broad daylight. Perhaps he was only there for a moment, and just happened to get caught in this photo.
Next is a not-great photo of a scene that I always enjoyed, a bathing elephant who has found a wonderful natural shower cascading down those rocks. As a kid I envied him, who wouldn't want to play in that very spot?
14 comments:
Major-
Is that 'worker' carrying a chemical sprayer-? Things must be hoppin' there on the African Veldt.
Thanks, Major.
These zebra are not as intelligent as the zebra that Budblade told us about last Thursday. No-sir-eee!
Am looking forward to today’s comments….
Thanks, Major.
Um... it looks to me like that maintenance worker is milking the zebras. He's carrying around a milk can, going from zebra to zebra gathering as much zebra milk as he can so he can sell it on the black market. Animatronic zebra milk is in high demand! He's moonlighting, you see. Except he's doing it during the daytime... so I guess he's actually sunlighting. Although, now that I think about it, he could be collecting animatronic zebra droppings, which are also in high demand.
OK, enough of that... This would be a good photo except for the drab lighting... and if the maintenance guy wasn't there destroying the illusion of seeing real animals. Although, for people like us, the out-of-place guy is the most interesting part of the photo! Maybe that zebra lost his twirly tail and the guy is re-attaching it.
I guess that happy elephant has skin made of rubber? It has to be something flexible and waterproof. (He does move a bit, right?) He's also blowing water out of his trunk, which is kinda gross when you think about it! Of course, we all know that this is a real elephant having fun in the waterfalls; Major has told us about people who claim this to be true. Hey, there's a Moai statue sitting up there on top the cliff, on the right!
Thanks for more Jungle Croozles, Major.
I was going to say that the man in the first pic was a guest over at Holidayland, but he got lost while looking for the bathrooms. That would have worked, if Holidayland hadn't already closed at this point.
I think Nanook is right about the man's large can of "chemicals." They used to use identical sprayers on my elementary school's playground. The gardeners would spray it in certain patterns onto the grass, in order to kill it (for the the baseball diamonds and dodge ball circles). They also used it to kill the weeds that would pop up through the cracks in the blacktop. And occasionally, they would spray us kids, just for kicks.
Thanks for today's Sunday Snoozles, Major!
I’m pretty sure that guy is refilling the smellitizers for the Veldt. It works on Main Street, why not here? ;-)
That post the other day got me thinking about that perk a lot lately. They are still open. https://www.wildliferanchtexas.com/ You can even see in their little front page video how the zebras would stop cars to get some of the food you were given to feed the animals.
Oh boy! More Jungle Croozles!
The guy in the scene is a guest who waded ashore from the Jungle Cruise looking for the restrooms. If he is a CM, what would he be doing? Is there some bit of machinery that can be serviced momentarily so he can run out and do it quick? No one will notice! I think picking up AA dung is more likely. It was used to fertilize the orchids in the Tiki Room.
That happy elephant is a very successful Marc Davis tableau. I see it pop up in social media from people thinking it’s a live elephant. As I recall, the original moved a bit, and the new replacement is downright acrobatic, cavorting about.
Thank you for Jungle Snoozles, Major. Good Sunday AM entertainment.
JG
He's not a maintenance worker, he's just late for his shift as one of the explorers stuck up the tree by the rhino.
Croozle Snoozles,
Give us all the newsles
Croozle Snoozles,
On the jungle ride!
Croozle Snoozles,
Animal perusals,
Croozle Snoozles,
Paintin' their backsides!
(to the tune of "Jeepers Creepers")
That was the short-lived animatronic maintenance guy (not a maintenance guy FOR the animatronics, but a maintenance guy who was animatronic himself), who was supposed to teach guests the hard facts about life on the animatronic veldt. Like, how you never knew whether the zebra milk was going to be white or chocolate. And then he would put a hand to the brim of his cap and say, "Is dis hat veldt? Vell, it is now!"
They truly captured the essence of real-life baby elephants in their playfulness. I know I throw around the word "Gesamtkunstwerk" around a lot (ow, my back) but the Jungle Cruise is another great example.
I wonder if these pictures were taken by a cast member during maintenance, or at least before park opening? Makes them a little extra special if so!
I guess the gentleman wanted to watch the Gnus! That is such an odd shot being out in public. Or could these pics have been taken when the park was closed? If during operating hours, my first thought was he was holding a fire extinguisher to hose down one of the male zebras in the event a female was in heat. LOL. KS
I am pretty much thinking these are 100% guest photos. There weren't all the "bad show sacred cows" earlier "in the day"....I think after Walt died there was more emphasis on it...and certainly in 1980 it was manic...not a bad thing...and any small detail needed to be reported immediately...(with a form) and within a few days someone would be there to fix/replace/paint...etc. Literally a few days...even big stuff. So that guy out there...yah...probably bad show...but I didn't see him at first, so: good costume there sport...and yes, I'm sure it's some kind of bug spray stuff....I'm proud to say that this year I have been 100 % organic farming/pest control. Honestly, i don't feel a difference in the bugs....and the BEST bug control? Realllyyy simple: "spray plants with hose regularly if they can take it...and have good drainage"....very few aphids, and other creatures...and saves the bees! The bees are so important....so I let clover grow so they always have a bit of food when things are blooming....also, they like to drink water off of leaves....so: no weed killer, no pesticides, organic compost from a big pile, or a bottle of concentrated kind of brown yuck: but the plants love it....and the hose. Lanternflys have finally made it here....that takes a different level of attention...the japanese beetles...ugh....OK...enough about pest control, and I would say Disneyland AND WDW do an amazing job at control....and hopefully not too many creatures suffer as a result....Thanks Major!
Nanook, I thought the guy might be carrying one of those pump sprayers, but it also might just be a cylindrical container? Mysterious.
Lou and Sue, jeez, who even remembers last Thursday!!
JB, zebra milk is a delicacy in some parts of the world, and special machines separate the striped milk. Animatronic zebra milk is (as you said) even MORE special! Whenever we see a photo of workers doing their thing in the middle of a ride in broad daylight, I wonder what’s going on. These images are often from the days when the park was closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Why couldn’t they do that work on one of those days? Even though it sort of ruins the picture, I like having the guy there, just because it is unusual. That waterfall elephant moved around quite a bit, I’ve wondered what he was made of that would stand up to constant exposure to water, and how the mechanisms inside were designed to withstand it too. I’d love to know!
TokyoMagic!, the man was a guest from Holidayland, he’s been lost for three years. If only he’d turned around and noticed that boats regularly passed by! I thought about the idea that the guy might be spraying weeds, but why couldn’t he have done that before the park opened, or (as I said earlier) on Monday or Tuesday??
Budblade, hmmm, do I want to know how animals on the veldt smelled? I’ve been around horses, and gone to zoos, I think I have a pretty good idea, and I’d rather have them pump the aroma of fresh apple pie into the air! Side note: there used to be zebras on the property at Hearst Castle. I never saw them, sadly, and learned recently that they’d been moved elsewhere because drivers would stop in the middle of the road when the zebras were visible, causing accidents. This is why we can’t have nice things.
JG, I’m sure you saw that weird recent video of the cast member who swam in the Rivers of America. I assume he was fully prepared to be fired. Still… very weird. Not sure I’d want to submerge my head into that Disneyland water. “Pinkeye AGAIN?”. I think you might be right (and I said so in my text), that man might have only been there for a matter of 15 or 20 seconds and the camera caught him there FOREVER. Elephants are amazing animals, but I don’t think they’d ever sit just like the waterfall elephant does!
Dean Finder, ha ha, he clocked in late! “I hope nobody notices or takes my picture!”.
Melissa, ah, an original Melissa instant classic! Set to a tune from 1938 (I would have guessed earlier, but Google says ’38). Thinking about zebra milk (what color will it be?) makes me think of those soft serve ice cream cones that are a swirl of chocolate and vanilla. Yum, now I want soft serve! “Gesamtkunstwerk”? I didn’t know you spoke ancient Sumerian!
KS, since we see the shoulder of another guest in that first photo, I’m assuming that it was taken from a fully-loaded boat. But you never know for sure.
Bu, supposedly Walt chewed out people when he observed examples of “bad show”, but maybe those stories are apocryphal. Made up by Marty Sklar? It wouldn’t surprise me, he told some whoppers. This is a digression, but I just watched a video about a hotel at Disneyland Paris, it is shocking to see how run-down, worn out, rotting, etc, it is! Shameful for a Disney property. The guy described it as the worst Disney hotel on any property, and I hope he’s right. I can’t imagine anything worse. Back to regular stuff: my buddy is really into rare fruiting plants, and he regularly uses some sort of special plant soap to kill aphids and stuff on his plants. The bugs don’t like it, and I guess it doesn’t hurt the plants, so… win/win. Unless you’re a bug. Now I wonder what sort of things Disneyland has to do to keep bugs from going out of control?
Marty Sklar - wasn't he Slimba's unkle?
I learned a lot about pest control when I designed educational materials for integrated Pest Management and a statewide school gardening program for a previous job, but unfortunately I've forgotten almost all of it in the intervening years. I spend as little time outdoors as possible due to worsening allergies. Disney must have to walk a pretty fine line when it comes to pest management, because you never know what some darn fool guest is going to let their kids put in their mouths.
"I’d rather have them pump the aroma of fresh apple pie into the air"
In that particular scene, they'd probably use meat pies, like in the first live production of Sweeney Todd I ever attended. Well, they didn't pump it in, but it was a small theater, and they used real, fresh meat pies from a local bakery onstage, producing the same effect.
I think I've mentioned this before, but there was a game show in the late 1970s called "The Liar's Club," hosted by Allen Ludden. They would have odd objects, and a panel of celebrities would make up explanations for what they were, with one telling the truth. The contestants would have to try and guess who was telling the truth. One of the items on the show was a "skinless" elephant's trunk from Disneyland's Jungle Cruise! There was a second episode with another item from Disneyland, but I'm forgetting what that was at the moment.
I just watched a video about a hotel at Disneyland Paris, it is shocking to see how run-down, worn out, rotting, etc, it is! Shameful for a Disney property
Major, that is a shame. I hope they make up for it by lowering the room rates. Yeah, right!!! But maybe they give all the guests a complimentary box of Zingers® in their room. The French just LOVE Zingers®. That, and Jerry Lewis.
Melissa, I'm glad you supplied the "to the tune of" for your song lyrics (we've missed that!) Otherwise I would've been lost. "white or chocolate". HA!
KS, [groan]. ;-p
Major, as Melissa noted, the zebra milk wasn't "striped" (although I like the visual image that evokes!). Rather, it just came out white or chocolate. I don't know how that would have evolved, and I don't know how you could tell which one you were gonna get. Maybe it depended on which teat you were squeezing (yeah, I know. Family blog). Or maybe some zebras always gave white milk while others always gave chocolate milk (obviously a sub-species). Can you tell that I've been giving this a LOT of thought?!?
Tokyo!, Zingers and Jerry Lewis? Paris, here I come!!! :-D
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