Bras and Buena Vista Trolley

Happy Friday! This image of Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. is most likely July/August 1955. The Ruggles Glass Shop AND Hollywood Maxwell’s Intimate Apparel (aka “The Wizard of Bras”) along with the patriotic bunting help clarify the time period. The poor White Wing at right has a full shovel, and he obviously needs to make another trip to pick up the remaining piles of horse poo from the horse-drawn streetcar. Zooming in to the front of those two shops also reveals a young man with his shirt completely unbuttoned. This is a bit of slobbery you would not typically see at Disneyland circa 1955!



At the Main Street Cinema, Gloria Swanson is on the marquee.



Shifting gears, I was saddened beyond belief to see the recent KTLA news article on the DCA Red Car Trolley on Buena Vista Street:

The Red Car Trolley attraction at Disney California Adventure will be discontinued in early 2025 due to an expansion of the Avengers Campus. Due to the anticipated construction, some backstage locations in the area will be impacted, including the backstage Red Car Trolley barn. “We will discontinue operation of the attraction in early 2025 and will share a specific date later this winter.” Disneyland officials told KTLA.



The Red Car was one of the most exciting additions to the Buena Vista Street project that opened in the summer of 2012. It added a sense of motion and purpose to DCA that was previously missing. Guests could take the journey on the Red Car from the DCA entrance all the way to the Tower of Terror attraction.



From the Disneyland website when they originally debuted:

Roll down Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land from inside a vintage street car on the Red Car Trolley. Watch as the fabulous sights and sounds of Disney California Adventure Park pass by as you sit back and relax in stylish comfort. It's a whole new way to experience the park!



Stops: The Red Car Trolley offers 4 convenient stops. You can board or disembark at any of the following locations: • Buena Vista Street near the Main Entrance • Carthay Circle across from Carthay Circle Theatre • Hollywood Boulevard near the Disney Animation building • Sunset Boulevard next to The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror The Cars: Inspired by the Pacific Electric Railway trolleys from the 1920's, the 2 cars are slightly different, including paint schemes that reflect different eras. Similar to the original "Hollywood Car" trolleys, the new cars are entirely powered by electricity and are emissions-free vehicles. However, unlike the original trolleys, the Red Car Trolley vehicles run via batteries. The overhead wires are just for show!



Be sure to check out the amazing details both outside and inside — there are even retro-styled advertisements for the businesses on Buena Vista Street. History: A vast network of electrical trolleys operated in Southern California from 1887 until 1961. By 1925, the Pacific Electric Railway was built by tycoon Henry Huntington into one of the largest electrical railways anywhere in the world with over 1,000 miles of active track. This incredible transportation network gave way to the automobile, but electrical trolleys are back and rolling down the street once again at Disney California Adventure Park!

Disney has yet to reveal their fate; I guess they could pop up someplace else, but nothing has been stated yet.



Am I surprised about this? Not really. Once the Tower of Terror became Guardians of the Galaxy and was removed from the 1920s/30s Buena Vista theme, I realized that any hope of Hollywoodland being revitalized and expanded was gone.



Just one less reason for me to return to DCA, as the Avengers are of zero interest to me. The Disney Corporation moves closer to a demographic that I no longer relate to.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Bryan for sharing this excellent video with me. Former Disney Imagineer makes an extremely compelling case of why The Red Car Trolley needs to be saved. Unfortunately, it does come down to money, care, and creativity, so I have little faith that the Disney Corporation will take action on his plea.



See more Disney California Adventure photos at my main website.

“B” is for “Buena Vista Street”

When Disney California Adventure opened in 2001, the entrance area was known as the Sunshine Plaza. Gigantic letters spelled out the name of the state for the guests walking towards the turnstiles of Disneyland’s neighbor. Excitement ran high when the 55-acre theme park was added to the Disney portfolio in Anaheim. It didn’t take long for guests to figure out that this place was not created with the thought, care, and creativity that made Disneyland such an enduring favorite. The letters out front should have been C-H-E-A-P.



I drove two hours for this? I could have gone to the nearby mall.



Ooh…neon vomit. So charming!



The one appealing portion to me was the California Zephyr car which was repurposed as retail and (very basic) dining opportunities. Along with the retro styling of the info booth (patterned after the Union Stations of yore), there was a slight (VERY slight) feeling that you’d entered the past.



Once you saw the retail/food  offerings, any illusion you might have experienced was quickly shattered.

The city of Anaheim was not happy about the underperforming Park, which did not meet the tourism revenue projections that Disney had promised. In order to repair potential repercussions (and yes, some nasty ones were on the horizon for Disney), DCA went under a major overhaul less than ten years after its initial opening. This September 2011 photo shows a very happy site: the destruction of the Sunshine Plaza.



The new entrance, modeled after the long-gone Los Angeles Pan Pacific Auditorium gave an indication that Disney was going with a retro theme for their entry area, versus the Tacky Tourist one that had been initially adopted.



The reason this retro theme is so appealing is that it offers guests something they cannot experience: the past. DCA’s initial bomb can be chalked up to this: who would want to pay to see a cheaply done version of California when for the same amount of money, you could visit any one of the cities poorly represented all within driving distance? EPCOT succeeded because a plane trip across the ocean is not attainable for all; thus, being able to sample flavors and shopping from those countries within walking distance is appealing, even if they have been Disney-fied and boiled down to their lowest common denominators. 



I was immediately captivated walking down the newly opened Buena Vista Street (named after the road in Burbank to which Disney moved the Company in 1937) at DCA when it was unveiled in June 15, 2012. Yes, I was there!



The trolley at the entrance added an element of movement that was missing before. It shuttled guests from the entrance to the Hollywood Tower of Terror Hotel (remember that attraction?).



Appropriately themed 1930’s characters like Officer Blue were found here.

The architecture of Buena Vista Street was inspired by the Los Angeles/Hollywood area of the 1920’s/1930’s. You know, the buildings that get torn down to be replaced by mixed use high rises and parking lots.



The main retail store, Elias & Company looked like the Department Stores of yore:



Other retail stores mimicked the shops one would have found back in the day with appropriately themed retro window displays.





A cool vintage car at a gas station…oh wait, it’s actually a place to buy plush.



The center hub has this beautiful fountain; a great place for meeting the friends/family…



and a statue of Walt and Mickey, as they might have looked when they first arrived in California. A nice play on the Partners Statue at Disneyland’s Central Plaza.



The showstopper of the new area was the scaled recreation of the Carthay Circle Theatre (yup, demolished years ago for a parking lot) that once held the premiere of “Snow White” in 1937. For DCA, it was a restaurant and lounge.





The interior was lavish:



…and the food delish!



For the report card, was it an improvement? Definitely! And yet, a large portion of the remodel seemed just as hollow as its predecessor. Once you walked through the doors of these impressively detailed historic façades, the same bland food, beverage, and retail opportunities that you found elsewhere awaited your wallet here. Would it have been that much extra work to create an old fashioned ice cream soda shop with a counter, vs. the standard winding queue where you can get…wow, a Dreyers cone/sundae? Or a department store that perhaps offered a section with vintage clothing in addition to the cheap t-shirts and other crap that’s normally sold onsite?



C’mon, Disney…go the extra step or two and show off the creativity that used to be your hallmark!

See more DSC Buena Vista Street photos at my main website.

EarzUp on The Disneyland Resort, Pt. 2

Today’s post continues the topic of “5 Disneyland Details We Love (and 5 we hate!)” from the EarzUp Podcast. Yeah, I know…it was more than just 5. They’re overachievers!

7. The way the tap water tastes. According to Jason, it tastes like a combination of blood and dirt at the Park water fountains. That’s one way to sell more bottled water! Not that Dasani is much better…

8. The PeopleMover tracks in Tomorrowland. They are a sad reminder that we will never see a vehicle riding on those tracks again. Kind of like having a bunch of broken cars on the front lawn of a mansion. It would help foot traffic in that area to just remove them.

9. The replacement of the Market House coffee shop with Starbucks. The coffee was fine…and it wasn’t $5+, and you could get free refills, making it (for some) the last souvenir before you leave.

Not being Starbucks, it differentiated the experience from going to any town in America (or even Downtown Disney). The coffee should hit different, like the churros. Admittedly, there was a dispute on the podcast over whether the previous coffee was actually good/bad, though. I’m not a coffee drinker, but typically my friends who went to the Park with me stated it was a step above caffeinated water.

10. The trolley tracks on Main Street. They appreciate the authenticity, but so many times have almost broken an ankle, gotten a stroller wheel stuck in there…just give us a more modern version of a trolley! NOTE: This one, I have to respectfully disagree on. While I myself have tripped over the tracks before, a stroller is no reason to make ANY changes at the Park. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have an aversion to the abundance of strollers (which are as big as mobile homes) found there.

11. Buena Vista Street. It looks bland and not nuanced enough to reflect Los Angeles in the 1930s; kinda’ like tract homes. Also full of boring window treatments. Compared to Main Street, it’s night and day. Thoroughly unimaginative. NOTE: at first, I was surprised by this one. When Buena Vista Street first opened, I thought it was the coolest thing. But…it was the vintage façades that I loved and the fact that it was SOOOO much better than its predecessor, Sunshine Plaza (which wouldn’t have taken much). I would argue that over the years, Main Street’s shop interiors have become less imaginative, too, as they have devolved into repositories of plush and uninteresting vendors. 

12. Pointless warehouse and backstage areas in DCA. There’s a rarely used stage (formerly for Electronica) and empty buildings that they are doing NOTHING with. Or at least nothing that enhances the guest experience.

13. The non-working parts of the Indiana Jones Adventure queue. The bamboo trick to lower the ceiling has not worked in years. I can’t begin to count how many times I twirled that big piece of bamboo around hoping so hard that it would actually work again. But no…

14. The Paradise Garden Park. The most jumbled non-themed area in any part of Disneyland. Just throw stuff in there, and people will go. This area stinks - spend some actual dollars on it!

15. The lady that hangs out in front of Carthay with the fake dog. Hey lady, don't ever talk to me! Notice that the Disney Corporation didn’t miss an opportunity for cross-promotion; the name of the dog is “Lady.” The typeface police would have to shoot the person that used all-caps with the decorative font. Ugh.

16. I don't like Batuuese…hearing cast members speak the forced new language just feels like bad dinner theater (like the lady in front of Carthay with the fake dog). Imagine hearing Cajun Creole in New Orleans Square? We all know we’re at Disneyland…let it go. NOTE: I have never been to Star Wars land, so this 2016 construction shot is the closest thing that I have. I’m not upset about it, either.

17. The entirety of the Esplanade; groups of teens meeting at the compass rose drinking their Starbucks drinks. Devoid of basic design elements and shade; drop some green! Add a few trees! So much space to do SOMETHING with!

Another chance to catch the entire ball of wax in advance:

Next up: the positives!

See more photos at my main website.

Carthay Circle Comparison

The original Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles opened in 1926 and was demolished in 1969 (the indignity!). Thanks to Disney Theme Parks, guests can now enjoy slightly smaller scaled recreations of the movie palace on both coasts. How’d the Disney team do on its versions? I’d say very well. Compare this 1953 shot of the original theater vs. the Carthay Circle Restaurant at Disney California Adventure, which opened in 2012:



They really did a great job on the marquee grillwork, too...except for that one time when they blinged it out for the Diamond Anniversary!



The WDW version was built first; sadly (but not surprisingly), they chose to make it a gift shop. The vertical neon marquee did not exist on the original, but thanks to good vintage design, it works.



See more original Carthay Circle Theatre photos at my main website.

Shirley at DCA

Even though I'm not crazy about waiting in lines for an attraction, I love being able to take my time in the lobby of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror checking out all of the vintage details, especially the dusty Shirley Temple doll that resides on the overstuffed couch. With my previous camera and a zoom lens, this was about the best I could do. Zooming in to this shot, you can see a vintage Oz book by Frank Baum. Blurry, but again...this was the best I could do.



On my most recent trip, I had my new camera, but didn't want to lug around my zoom lens, so this was the best I could do.



Until a bit of serendipity (that's all I'm gonna' say) was provided, and I was able to get this view which was taken directly standing over the couch.



MUCH better view of the book!



As you speed down Buena Vista Street on your way to Radiator Springs Racers, you can see another vintage Shirley Temple doll in the window of Big Top Toys.



Although I believe the doll is vintage (you can see a crazing line on the composition of her face near her eye), the wig looks replaced and the eyes have been poorly painted over. Most of the original Shirley Temple dolls' eyes have yellowed and crazed over the years, which is most likely why the "artists" painted over them with a bright blue.



More Tower of Terror photos at my main website.