The recently acquired slide from June 1962 is a nice addition to a few other items in my collection. In 1962, Walt “packed up” Disneyland and took it to the East Coast for a show at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. Interesting that the moving line was Allied, not Bekins or Global Van Lines (who were Disneyland sponsors in Town Square). The famed venue is shown below as it looked in 1970:
According to the press photo below, it must have been some show. The caption states:
Walt Disney characters Goofy and Pluto make like movers shortly before the departure 3/6 of four large moving vans for New York’s Radio City Music Hall where Disney will present his first stage production “Disneyland, U.S.A.” which will open April 5. Included in the cargo caravan now enroute are many well known Disneyland attractions, including the fire engine, horse-drawn streetcar, costumes and properties for the New York production.
Anybody out there into license plates?
Note that in this sketch for the stage show (which I believe was by Bill Martin) for the stage backdrop, it appears that the Haunted Mansion was included. At this point in time, the exterior of the Mansion was being constructed, but the attraction would not open until 1969.
According to the Walt Disney Family Museum site:
Walt told one newspaper, “I raised my eyebrows when some of the figures began to come in, but everyone said to just keep on going. All I know is that it’s way beyond the usual Music Hall budget.” Ed Serlin was the public relations chief for the theater, and at that time said that from a production standpoint, it was the biggest show put on in the venue’s 30-year history. The show was developed by a team of Disney superstars including Disneyland's entertainment director Tommy Walker, choreographer Tom Mahoney (The Mickey Mouse Club, Babes in Toyland), and composer George Bruns (“The Ballad of Davy Crockett,”“Yo Ho [A Pirates Life For Me]”) served as music director.Disneyland, U.S.A. was essentially a virtual tour of the park, beginning with a scene entitled “Magic Kingdom.” This featured Walt Disney on film; interacting with Mickey Mouse, live on stage. The show continued to represent each of the lands with themed entertainment, including Wally Boag of “The Golden Horseshoe Revue” for the Frontierland scene.
Here is the short film that accompanied the “live” presentation:
A sketch of the stage set for the Golden Horseshoe portion of the production:
See more vintage and contemporary Disneyland photos at my main website.
I had no idea this show existed. Interesting the title of the film should be a 're-boot' of the 1956, Disneyland U.S.A. And I see a couple of the aerial shots were borrowed from the 1956 version.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these images.
I have never heard of this! I wish there was a film of the whole thing, but I guess no one ever filmed it (or if they did, it didn't survive). I'm glad we have the one part, though. Very cool!
ReplyDeleteI'm no expert but sure sounds like to me that was Walt doing Mickey's voice.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with Darryl. I'm no expert but that was my first guess too. I've only heard Walt's voice as Mickey a few times but that sounded like one of them.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, some amazing shots I've never seen before. This Radio City Music Hall topic isn't one I've heard much about before, a few pages in a Disney history book here and there, but this is probably the most in-depth article I've ever seen of it. ( footage of Walt & Mickey on stage, aside. ) The Haunted Mansion was tragically hyped too far in advance just like Sleeping Beauty Castle ( or Robin Hood ) but it's so cool to see it there on that 1962 sketch. The car nerd in me is giggling at the fact the Allied trailer needs to list how many ply the tires are. So weird it's not a Disney sponsor doing the hauling, I wish I knew the story there. I'm just excited for Wally Boag that he could say he'd played RCMH.
This is news to me, too! Yeat another stop to make on the time machine...
ReplyDeleteSounds like Walt was already having a little trouble getting up there into Mickey's falsetto.
That third picture - as if the Goofy/Pluto dichotomy wasn't confusing enough!
Dave - That was definitely Walt as Mickey's voice...
ReplyDeleteBut that sketch of the saloon setting was from the Disneyland TV episode about the Golden Horseshoe show in Frontierland, hosted by Walt and featuring Annette and Ed Wynn. It was the setting for a bar room brawl in the episode. You can clearly see it was built to fit on the Horseshoe stage, and would have been dwarfed (no pun intended!) in Radio City.
Just great stuff! And good eye, about that HM sketch.
ReplyDelete