Between the family’s annual trips to Disneyland, I used to listen to my official Disneyland album over and over again. If closed my eyes, it was almost like I was there. That’s the transporting magic of Disney parks music.
The good news is that Disney Parks has just announced that two new 2-CD sets will be released in the parks on August 20 with both Disneyland and Walt Disney World getting their own official albums (although to be fair, WDW should get four CDs). I know I’ll be adding these to my collection.
The track listing for the new albums is below the jump:
Time for another celebrity moment at Disneyland. Here’s the very beautiful Halle Berry (also very pregnant based on the flow of that dress) stealing a special moment with the big cheese Mickey Mouse just before he was ready for his starring role in Mickey and… Read More »Halle Berry Visits Disneyland, Kisses Mickey Mouse
August at Disneyland is going to be amazing. D23 Expo will be held right across the street and there’s a whole list of merchandise and art events scheduled. Most are at the WonderGround Gallery, but D23 will have an event as well.
August 3-4: Matt Spangler will be on hand at WonderGround Gallery at the Downtown Disney District from 1 – 4 p.m. to showcase some of the latest pieces in his Robot Art collection. From riding motorcycles to dancing, Matt’s robots pretty much do it all. Learn more here.
Now through July 14th, you can enjoy the Alpine melodies of Happy Hans and his son, Erik, who entertain from the snowy slopes of the Matterhorn. It’s Limited Time Magic that’s something simple, but fun, which is what it’s turned out to be for the… Read More »Limited Time Yodeling on top of the Matterhorn
I like to see Disney trying new things online. For the debut of New Fantasyland, for instance, they made up a story about a dragon spotted in the sky and gave out various clues via a blog until the ‘real’ dragon was spotted at the… Read More »Imagineering Launches Alternate Reality Game Leading To D23 Expo
Major kudos to the Disney History Institute for their latest contribution to our knowledge of early Disneyland. They’ve compiled a video of color footage from 1955. The video is more than just home movies edited together, it reveals how the park would have looked to… Read More »Disneyland Home Videos from 1955 – Spectacular New Video
Early Disneyland food options were limited mostly to carnival food and chicken dinners. Most of the restaurants were run by third party operators that Walt had brought in when he ran short of money building the park. These food locations often competed against each other to attract guests and gave park management an awful time trying to control quality and service.
One operator, Don DeFore, ran the Silver Banjo Restaurant. It was located in a small part of Frontierland and DeFore felt it was too hard for guests to find. To help attract guests, he would boil onions and blow out the smell with a fan. He even went as far as creating a sandwich board sign which he placed out on the main walk way. It all infuriated Walt who thought the signs and smells cheapened his park.
This led Walt to take over all the food operations, a move which he accomplished by 1965. He also decided Disneyland would up its game with the addition of a restaurant attached to the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction he was building. This restaurant would help convince the public that top quality dining experience could be had in the park. Read More »Blue Bayou Memories
Last month, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure stayed open for 24 straight hours beginning at 6 a.m. on a Friday. Many thousands of Southlanders flocked to “Monstrous Summer All-Nighter”, and some eager fans camped out outside the gates starting on Thursday night.
That event brought to mind the first time Disneyland stayed open all night – its first Grad Nite in 1964. One of the park’s marketing geniuses thought it up and it was some chore selling it to Operations, Security, Legal and every other department. Imagine having thousands and thousands of teen-agers in the Park overnight? Unheard of!
The other concurrent event that would add to the first Grad Nite’s excitement was the introduction of the Ford Mustang to the general public, the most successful launch of a new car since the Model A. Lee Iacocco, later to become president of the Ford Motor Company, had been one of the forces behind the original Mustang whose development costs were astronomical. It was said at the time that there was no way the car would flop, because Ford would spend whatever it took in marketing costs to make it a success. And Disneyland was the happy recipient of Ford’s marketing windfall. A brand-new, silver Mustang would be given away at the first Grad Nite.
There was a lot of hustle in the Park’s Marketing Department to promote the giveaway to the high schools. Pre-publicity, posters in schools, and paid advertising created quite a hoopla. A few weeks before the event, the car was to be on daily display, parked in a showy spot in front of the castle. There was a local Ford plant in nearby Pico Rivera, where this fabulous new car was starting to come off the assembly line. I was assigned to pick up the display car and drive it back to the park. There were snickers in the department as I was known to be a somewhat reckless driver, roaring into the employee parking lot each morning – always just a few minutes late. This time, however, I took my responsibility quite seriously, even though I could hardly wait to get behind the wheel of that bad boy.Read More »The Park – Grad Night 1964, Disneyland’s First All-Nighter
