Further Tales from David M.

Former cast member David M. gave me MORE great stories to share from his days at Disneyland. Enjoy!

Tales from the Park

One time, my supervisor called me from my duties on Tom Sawyer Island to help supervise the Main Street Parade. He told me that my one duty was to keep people from climbing onto the raised flower beds near the entrance to Tomorrowland in order to get a better view of the parade. So, in my Cavalry Trooper uniform, I stood at my assigned station and soon, sure enough, a woman had climbed onto the flower bed and was trampling the petunias. I politely asked that she step down whereupon she replied that she couldn’t see the parade from street-level. I told her that nonetheless, she was killing our flowers and she had to step down. She replied, “You son of a bitch.” I said, “Yes, ma’am, that may well be, but you still have to get down from that flower bed.” She complied, and another guest who had watched the whole thing, said, “Buddy, well done – but I wouldn’t want your job.”

 A few weeks later, my supervisor again called me off the Island with an unusual duty. It seems that someone in Entertainment thought it would be fun to have The Big Bad Wolf (who wore loud and intimidating cleats on his shoes) march the Three Little Pigs though the park. The Pigs would be in front with the Wolf following – and with a big club slung over his shoulder. The problem was that little kids hated the wolf and they would come up behind him and kick him in his tail and legs, which of course could be painful. My job was, in my Cavalry Trooper uniform, to follow closely behind the Wolf and protect him from the mean kids.

 And speaking of the Three Little Pigs: girls in the know always stayed away from them. Why? Well, because the Pig costumes were made in such a way that the body and the head of the Pig’s ended at the shoulders of the actor inside, with the actor’s head above & inside the Pig’s hat with the hat made of a black gauze material so he could see out. The Pigs all had the job of merrily wandering the Park (at least when the Wolf was not herding them) and happily bouncing into guests. Well, few people knew that the Pig’s nose was as flexible and soft and the actor inside could put his hand inside, almost as if inside a glove and the nose thus became an appendage. This resulted in many a female guest’s being bumped into and providing the actor inside the Pig costume with the proverbial “free feel.”

I also heard from fellow staff who supervised Monsanto’s Ride Through Inner Space in Tomorrowland that when viewing the attraction through unseen slits in the set, that they would see some pretty heavy make-out sessions between the start and the end of the ride through the attraction.

See more vintage and contemporary Disneyland photos at my main website.

More Janet Leigh at Storybook Land

A recently acquired addition to my collection expands my library of 1962 Janet Leigh and family images. Visiting the Park while then-husband Tony Curtis was filming “40 Pounds of Trouble,” today's post shows them on the Storybook Land attraction. First, daughters Jamie Leigh and Kelly Curtis seem to be enjoying the Big Bad Wolf. I wonder if this inspired Jamie Leigh's scream-queen career?

Boarding the attraction:



Look mom, there's Toad Hall!



A closeup:



A contemporary shot of Toad Hall, now in a different location:



Cruising along to Pinocchio's tableau:



A closeup of Gepetto's workshop:



And a contemporary view:



The last shot shows them enjoying Alice's Village:



See more Janet Leigh at Disneyland photos at my main website.

Storyland in New Orleans

I still have a number of posts sitting in the queue from trips long ago, like this one about Storyland in New Orleans from over a year ago. I had never heard of this section of City Park until the Executive Director at UCDA clued me into it. What a kitschy gem this place turned out to be! At the entrance you find no less than Humpty Dumpty himself!



While it may lack the sophistication and polish of a Disney Park, it is every bit as charming, and judging by the plethora of happy squealing kids running through while I was there, it was just as entertaining. In fact, maybe even a little more so because of its simplicity and the ability to interact with fewer rules and regulations.



You can climb aboard Peter Pan/Captain Hook's pirate ship yourself, and see them forever frozen in a duel high up in the crow's nest:



This fortress/castle makes a beautiful centerpiece to the park:



Some of the characters in Storyland are patterned after the Disney interpretations; some are less obvious, like this tribute to the Little Mermaid:



The cottage of the Seven Dwarfs:



Snow White:



Her "makeup" has seen better days:



Inside this little structure, it would appear that the artists of Storyland are much less worried about the reach of the Mouse's attorneys. These paintings of the characters from Alice in Wonderland are spot-on to their Disney counterparts.





Rapunzel:



Cute to see Jack in the Beanstalk on an actual fence:



Grandma's House:



The frightful sight you see when you open her door!



This is the cow that stepped over the moon.



Loved this dragon slide; it took a long time to get this shot without the tiny little varmints who were gleefully playing here.



The permanent home of Three Little Pigs:



The pigs themselves:



The home of brick (complete with the Big Bad Wolf about to get burned up in the chimney!):



The house of wood:



and the house of straw:



Mother Goose watches over the proceedings from overhead:



Not too far from the old woman who lived in the shoe:



There's even a Monstro here:



Complete with Pinocchio (still in puppet form) sitting on top:



While this place may not exactly be compliant with all the rules that the Mouse House adheres too, it is still a very cool place for the young and young at heart.

More Storyland at my main website.

Phantoms in Fantasyland

This aerial shot from the Skyway at Disneyland shows the very short-lived but extremely cool looking Phantom Boats.

Looking like something out of Batman, they were gone for good by the summer of '56.



As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I asked my brother (the one with the Polaroid camera around his neck) if he still had any photos that he had shot that day in December 1970. Here are the two that he dug up:



Here are two previously posted shots taken at the same time by my mom and my other brother:





Yes, that's me with the Big Bad Wolf. Even at that age, I was hanging out with shady characters.



And the accompanying shots that my other brother and mom shot:





And last, but definitely not least, yesterday Disney released this concept rendering of what the Rivers of America will look like when finished. I actually like it. The water features look cool, I see the Keel Boat, the non-Burning Cabin, the waving Indian, and the Indian settlement. While I hate that the journey has been shortened, if the real thing looks like this rendering, then I will still be pretty happy.



More Phantom Boat photos at my main website.

Where To Find The Bacon at Disneyland

I was very excited to acquire a batch of February 1960 slides, as it now gives me two out of three vintage shots of the Storybook Three Little Pig homes.

The first shot taken was of the Practical Pig home, thus named because he built his home of brick. Here's a contemporary comparison shot. If you watch the original Silly Symphony Short, you'll see that the design of the home in the cartoon closely matches what was built.



Here is the vintage shot of Fiddler Pig's house; he wasn't so smart, as he built his home out of sticks and twigs. I guess all of his brains must have gone into his violin playing.



The original structure appeared to have been built out of actual sticks/twigs, whereas the contemporary version looks more like a molded material.



Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire a vintage shot of poor ol' Fifer's house; til then, my contemporary images will have to suffice.



I do have comparison shots for the Big Bad Wolf's abode, this one from June 1969:



I really love the little details like the mailboxes:



The Three Little Pigs had a much bigger presence in the park during the early years:









Today, they are at least honored by having a restaurant named after them on Buena Vista Street at DCA, The Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe:



From what I can remember, I do not believe there is a single picture of the Pigs inside the restaurant. I wonder if bacon is on the menu there?

See more vintage & current Disneyland Three Little Pig Storybook photos on my Storybook web page.