Picture this...September, 1978...you’re walking toward the castle and you hear live jazz coming from the Plaza Gardens. You reach the bandstand area and it’s Count Basie! How cool is that? Just check him out on the ivories, while Freddie Greene plays guitar. The Count and his orchestra played from 8:30pm until after midnight; time to get the other half and go dancing at Disneyland.
Here’s the brochure that tells you what other entertainment is going on at the park at the same time:
Going back in time another three years, we could have seen Stan Kenton in the same location, May 1975:
Stan should have fired the publicity agent that let this photo get out; even in these pre-photoshop days, there were plenty of things that could have been done to make Stan look less like an escapee from the Haunted Mansion cemetery:
Here’s the entertainment brochure from May 1975; be sure to check out this lineup, including the legendary Sara Vaughan. Does Disneyland have this caliber of entertainment play inside the park anymore?
More vintage and current Disneyland photos at my main website.
7 comments:
I am eating up these brochures, Thanks Dave! Gosh I sure do like this stuff! Great Photo’s too. How did you manage to get photos and the brochure?? You lucky dog! P.s. I am posing a 12/31/87 New Years Brochure tomorrow, but no cool photo’s like you have…
These remind me of the time Benny Goodman was playing in Tomorrowland in front of the 20K exhibit, and we were tasked to do some shows at night (never did that before). After a couple of shows of pulling the crowds form the band performance, Mr. Goodman's people "requested" that we not fly our planes during the time his band was performing, but they would take a required break every hour for 15 minutes. So, we timed our airplane show during that break. It was fun to see ALL the people move in mass from the bandstand area, to our Flight Circle. Then, when the show stopped and the music started again, they all moved back in mass like a giant group hug. Needless to say, after Goodman complained, we never flew a show after dark again.
This is one area where Disneyland is lacking. No big name entertainment. But the whole concert world is different now. Back then, tickets to concerts were very inexpensive and most concert tours were looked as promotion for the new album. Now concert tours are a way to make money.
Coxpilot- thnaks for the memories. Your recollections bring the park of the 1950s and 1960s alive!
Thanks for the pictures of Basie! I went to Disneyland to see him in the 70s. We were able to sit on one side of the dance floor, a few feet from the Count and Freddie Green. Great memory!
saw Maynard Ferguson there,great show
Dave, help out an old , an. I could swear I saw the commodores at Disneyland in the late 70s. Is my memory failing me or did I indeed see them. Would've been before 1980 and after 1975
Maquire - I'm not familiar with that one, but doesn't mean it didn't happen.
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