I love reading first hand accounts of Disneyland cast members encounters with Walt Disney. We have had our own little series here on the blog from my Aunt Linda, but here’s a story from a cast member who worked the Storybook Canal Boats in the… Read More »The Candy Caper – A Walt Story
I was finally able to get out and see Saving Mr. Banks over the weekend and very much enjoyed the film (especially the 2nd half). Like many a Disney fan I enjoyed seeing how the film got the little touches right. Like how Walt was… Read More »Fact-Checking Saving Mr. Banks
Now that Disney owns Lucasfilm and the Star Wars brand and is working on a 7th movie in the series, it’s instructive to go back to the very beginning. Here’s the first ever teaser trailer released for Star Wars back in 1976. It’s missing a… Read More »Original Star Wars Teaser Trailer from 1976
Here’s a little blast from the past; a video from 1989 that details the making of Disney-MGM Studios. The park, even with a new name, has lost touch with the original vision articulated in that video. We keep hearing rumors about how Disney’s Hollywood Studios… Read More »Videopolis: The Making of Disney MGM Studios
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.
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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
In a much anticipated move, D23, the Official Disney Fan Club has relaunched their website. It now includes more member-exclusive content, but the cost to become a member has been reduced to zero. Paid membership levels with additional benefits will remain. D23: The Official Disney… Read More »Official Disney Fan Club Opens Free Membership Level, Finally
Construction for Disneyland’s original Tomorrowland didn’t even start until December 1955, that left them just 6 months to pull it all together. If you visited the early incarnation of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland you would have encountered a number of exhibits that were essentially corporate brochures realized… Read More »RetroLand: 1960 Tomorrowland Spaceman and Spacewoman