The area that is now Pinocchio's Daring Journey in Fantasyland was once the Mickey Mouse Theatre. It would appear that the biggest selling point was the air conditioning! Inside, guests could see the Mouseketeers in 3D Jamboree, advertised in this May 1957 image.
This 1956 shot shows some very festive umbrellas. And these are the undersides!
I can see an illustration from “Snow White” and also “The Three Little Pigs.” Wouldn't it be cool to have a roll of this fabric?!?
Last one for today is from the May 1957 batch and shows the ticket booth for the Casey Jr. attraction:
A similar contemporary view:
See more Disneyland Fantasyland photos at my main website.
5 comments:
Dave - So glad to see you championing the Mickey Mouse Theater's Air Conditioning! My father, Art Schneider, was working for the family business, Air Comfort Co., in 1955, and was responsible for the air conditioning at the DL site prior to opening... Which effort got my family 4 free tickets to the first day of public operation - July 18, 1955!
Thanks for the info! Love those details!
Dave, great pictures! Thanks for posting these!
And Dreemfinder - that's 'cool' info regarding your father's part in "building" Disneyland! I hope you were one of the four that was able to attend the first day!
Sue
In those pre-home-video days it was a pretty big deal to see full-color Disney cartoons, especially on the big screen. During my jurassic childhood fewer and fewer theaters were showing a toon before the feature, and on TV Disney cartoons only appeared on "World of Color" (edited together with new footage) and syndicated reruns of "Mickey Mouse Club".
I remember seeing "It's Tough to Be a Bird", a featurette that has yet to reach small screens. On an earlier trip it was three shorts. Don't remember if they allowed food inside. Besides air conditioning, the place had wall murals of Mickey and company as a movie audience and the echo of big, old-fashioned theater speakers.
This was when the Main Street Cinema showed actual silent movies -- complete shorts and single opening reels from features. Those were equally hard to see outside the park.
The design top right appears to be Pinocchio (Geppetto with concertina). Can't place the 4th one, though.
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