Gorillas, Lucy, and The Abominable Snowman

A recently acquired image stamped May 1957 shows two gorillas under construction for Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise attraction. This seems about right with what I already have in my photo collection. ,According to Disney Theme Park blogger Foxxfur:

“These fellows were right at the end of the ride, where the carnivorous fishsticks are now. There was one on each side of the boat, and judging from the angles of all the photos I've ever seen of them they were positioned in such a way on the river bend there that you couldn't see them until you went right past them. They probably raised their arms quickly and growled, as all the jokes mentioning them in my copies of vintage Jungle spiels make some reference to them grabbing you, the long arm of the law, etc. Latest spiel mentioning them that I have is from 1965, but I bet they lasted all the way until 1975, when the Davis scenes designed for Florida were installed. The old mother/baby Rhino gag was pulled and the gorilla camp scene was put there, and with much better gorillas earlier in the trip, these two stiff guys were pulled and replaced with the Python scene. I think most of this info came from The E Ticket, Mouse Tales, or both...”

This reminds me of the “I Love Lucy” episode titled, “The Tour,” which originally aired on May 30, 1955. It very well could have inspired Walt and the Imagineers to think about entertaining guests on BOTH sides of the Jungle Cruise boats. In the episode, Lucy and Ethel decide to take a tour of the Stars’ Homes via a Tanner Gray Line Motor Tours bus.



Once seated, Lucy notices from the brochure that she’s going to miss Clark Gable’s house on the opposite side of the bus. I attempted to match the brochure, but couldn’t find an example of it. I hate when that happens.



Barbara Pepper plays a passenger on the bus who refuses to give up her seat for Lucy. “Pardon me, madam, but this seat is taken.” “Sure is, honey!” snaps back Pepper. Side note: Pepper was the 2nd choice for Ethel Mertz (a previously committed Bea Benaderet was the first choice) who missed out on getting the part due to her drinking and inability to handle the physicality required of the character. Ball and Pepper had been close friends for years, and as a result, she played a number of supporting parts in the cast. Today, she is probably best remembered as Doris Ziffel from “Green Acres.” 



Attempting to take back her original seat, Lucy is flattened by another unaware passenger (Audrey Betz).



Back to the Jungle Cruise gorilla. My earliest shot of it is this one, most likely from 1957 or 1958:



September 1958:



A closeup:



Another from September 1958:



This undated 1950s image shows how guests were caught unaware of the gorilla, as many of the photos taken barely catch him as the boat cruises by.



May 1960:



September 1961:



From April 1963 I have two images that were shot consecutively.



They appear to have captured both gorillas on film, as the vegetation looks different in these two images.



June 1963:



September 1963:



And the last image in my collection is dated February 1971:



The Safari Outpost scene is where the gorillas moved to, as seen by these semi-contemporary images that I photographed:





In case you wonder what happened to the original gorillas that used to be on this attracton, the late Alain Littaye from Disney and More was able to give some answers:

A looong time ago, guests could watch two not-so-threatening but massive audio-animatronics gorillas standing and observing you, from the banks of the “rivers of Africa.” And then one day, the gorillas disappeared. 1977-78, was a time for a major refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise and legendary imagineer Mark Davis worked on its upgrade—which was after WDW had opened with their improved show. Part of Mark’s new show for Disneyland included the Gorilla Camp with the tents, overturned jeep, and the family of gorillas unpacking and turning the camp inside out. That's when these older previous tenant Gorillas vacated the Disneyland Jungle Cruise. But as they say at WDI, "good ideas never die.” Reemploying animation figures is common at Walt Disney imagineering; some of the AA’s from Nature’s Wonderland are now part of Big Thunder, and almost all America Sings audio-animatronics are in Splash Mountain. Approximately at the same time, in 1978, the imagineers were also working on another major refurbishment of another Disneyland attraction: the Matterhorn.

The Disneyland Line newsletter has the closure dates for the Matterhorn as September 1977-June 1978. This corresponds with an image from my collection dated December 1977:






Back to Alain:

New Bobsleds were being added along with new track, and better brakes for the splash down. It was also decided to put some show in the interior, mostly for the Skyway buckets that passed through the Matterhorn more slowly. The Bobsleds could see the new icy interiors and crystals as well as what is now a very famous Disneyland figure: the abominable snowman. Steve Kirk, imagineer extraordinaire who became the show producer-in-chief for Tokyo Disney Sea worked on the design of the three “abominable snowmen” in the attraction.



The design of these Snow Men was based on Steve’s artwork (the one above) which was a composite of several different contemporary depictions and his own warped imagination. Sculptor Blaine Gibson sculpted the snowman mask, and the imagineering team with legend and Matterhorn creator Fred Joerger added the interior with the new Ice Crystals. You’ve probably already guessed the end of the story: yes, the old Jungle Cruise audio-animatronic gorilla put on a new suit in 1978, and is now living a second life in the role of the Matterhorn’s abominable snowman. Transforming ex-gorillas into Snow Men had to have been purely for economic reasons and probably dictated the proportions of the final generation of the simian snow men. As there are three Abominable snow men in the ride, i couldn't tell you which ones exactly are the former Jungle Cruise gorillas, but next time you ride the Matterhorn bobsleds and see the abominable snow man, have a little thought for these old Jungle Cruise gorillas, who were some of the first Disneyland audio-animatronics. I’m sure they will be sensitive to this attention, and watch out for that third abominable snowman as he may be the real one.






The earliest photo I have of the Snowman is one I took in February 2007:



By the time I shot this July 2015 image, the Snowman had been upgraded once again. I wonder if any of the original gorilla parts were still used?



And that’s all for today, folks!

See more Disneyland Jungle Cruise photos at my main website.