Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Gems from Year One, Pt. 2 & John Lasseter's Butt



This slide is my favorite of the batch. I am totally unfamiliar with this Frontierland trio of musicians who look like they stepped out of a Davy Crockett movie. Whoever they are, they sure look as if they haven't a care in the world.

Zooming in, it appears that the White Wing on the left side of the photo has some kind of Rube Goldberg water contraption on his back, complete with Disneyland paper cups to dispense. Were these for him or for randomly thirsty guests? If so, what a cool idea of great customer service!



Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar is having a contest where those who find a shot of John Lasseter as a Jungle Cruise Skipper from 1977 can win an opportunity to preview Cars Land. This shot in my collection is from April 1977 and I am positive that it must be Lasseter; what do you think? Somebody must be able to help me ID this. To quote Eve Arden from "Grease":"We have experts at this type of identification!"



See more vintage and contemporary Disneyland Frontierland photos at my regular website.

7 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

Oh weird. lol Love it.

WhiteWing also has a change dispenser belt isn't it? Was that for the cup of water or perhaps more likely, change for the pop guns on Fort Wilderness? ...Or did they squirt water too...?

As for The Crocketts trio, well you know that you can't play a sad song on the banjo so they gotta be upbeat! The Happiest Trio On Earth.

Katella Gate said...

Banjo Music makes me want to paddle faster.

Major Pepperidge said...

Wow, another awesome photo. I'm sure Chiana is right about the White Wing dispensing water for guests... there might not have been any other way to get a drink of water on Tom Sawyer Island back in those days. Meanwhile the White Wing looks like he is about 14 years old. Love the musicians in their coonskin caps - on a hot day they were probably frequent customers for cold water.

stu29573 said...

You know, I'm not sure which is stranger; the fact that I just realized that I have never actually seen John Lasseter's butt, or the fact that I was thinking about it to begin with....

Connie Moreno said...

Stu...you crack me up!!!

Another excellent selection of photos! This just made my day.

outsidetheberm said...

Dave - Nice job! These slides were probably taken within the first couple weeks of opening in July 1955.

You may recall that Walt had to choose between having enough drinking fountains or restrooms to open the park on time. I'd say you have solid evidence of the lack of water fountains with that young refreshment vendor stationed near the entrance to Frontierland.

I'd heard of this happening but had never seen photographic evidence. Seems you've found a really rare shot. Appreciate the look!

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Pure Gold in that photo, this must have been the solution for too few drinking fountains?

Those Davy Crockett guys are way cool too! Lasseter's butt, not so much....