Hump Day at the Horseshoe

Wednesday/Hump Day seems like a good day to relax at Slue Foot Sue’s Golden Horseshoe Saloon in Frontierland, doesn’t it? The first two images are from Spring 1956. That Slue Foot Sue sign is a favorite of mine.

Just in case you weren’t sure, Pepsi-Cola was the sponsor. How about that A-Frame sign in front? My best guess: “ABC Radio presents Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Starring Wally Boag and…” The rest is too much for my brain to comprehend today.

Just in case you weren’t sure, Pepsi-Cola was the sponsor. How about that A-Frame sign in front? My best guess: “ABC Radio presents Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Starring Wally Boag and…” The rest is too much for my brain to comprehend today.

UPDATE 1: Daveland reader Darryl’s brain is working much better than mine today. A shot from my collection that I previously posted. Duh.

This one is from February 1964:

I call this “Law and Order”…and a really bad Christmas sweater! Sheriff Lucky ought to lock up the mother for allowing that one.

Something cool was going on here; I wonder what they were filming for?

A spy a box of GE lamp bulbs:

From the other angle:

Even Sheriff Lucky looks somewhat interested in the proceedings:

Did he just shoot the cameraman? The poor little girl in the foreground is horrified! Permanent scars for adulthood are in her future.

UPDATE 2: Bryan, thanks for ALSO jogging my memory. This COULD be from the same day; Wally Boag during a Frontierland shoot-out:

See more Disneyland Golden Horseshoe Saloon photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: The Two-Timing Dress!

Sometimes when trying to solve a mystery, you already have the answer at your fingertips but are too dense to notice. This is such a case. In 1934, Shirley Temple starred in the Fox picture, “Baby Take A Bow.” For many of the publicity stills, she posed in this cute polka-dot dress. Here she is with costars James Dunn and Claire Trevor, appropriately taking a bow:

There was even a doll produced at the time by Ideal wearing that very same dress:

The odd part about this is that the dress is never seen in the final film. To my knowledge, there are no stills of a deleted scene showing where Shirley might have worn this dress during the film. And yet, it figured prominently in the film’s publicity. Recently, I noticed the below photo on ebay:

The caption on the back reads:

LUNCH FOR THREE - Clara Lou Sheridan, Shirley Temple and Lee Tracy together for lunch in the studio cafe.

What appeared odd was that it was marked as a Paramount still, even though Shirley wore this dress in a Fox movie. Naturally, I contacted Melissa (aka “The Colonel”) who was just as baffled as I was. Moments later, she had purchased the photo as a gift and it was on its way to me. This mystery had to be solved!

The dishes provided no clues, but it was interesting to see The Hollywood Reporter on the table:

I noticed Shirley’s stand-in, Marilyn Granas in the background on the left.

Melissa sleuthed and found out that Clara Lou Sheridan was the one and only Ann Sheridan, voted as “The Oomph Girl” in 1939 by a committee of 25 men who thought the actress had the most "oomph" of any girl in America. I took over from there and noticed that “You Belong to Me” was ta Paramount production with both Lee Tracy and Sheridan (in an unbilled part) and released on September 14, 1934, putting this photo at that time.

Shirley made two films for Paramount: “Little Miss Marker,” released June 1, 1934 and “Now and Forever,” released August 31, 1934. “Baby Take A Bow” at Fox was released June 30, 1934. To say Shirley was a busy girl is an understatement. Then I started looking at the numbering system on publicity stills of the time. “Baby Take A Bow” stills were numbered 158, “Marker” 1491, and “Now and Forever” 1732. Houston, we have a match! Apparently this “mystery” still was intended to promote “Now and Forever.” But why was Shirley wearing a dress from a Fox movie? Most likely this busy little bee was rushing between studios, perhaps doing re-takes or looping “Now and Forever.” Another deduction is that Shirley wasn’t really joining Sheridan and Tracy for lunch, but instead dining with Marilyn. Already in my collection was this photo proving that theory:

What I once “assumed” was the Fox Commissary was really over at Paramount. Again, the numbering system matches “Now and Forever.” Looking further at my collection, I noticed this still. Poor Shirley didn’t get to enjoy lunch very much that day; she was so tired her eyes couldn’t stay open! I have no idea who these other two folks are that surround her.

Final shot for today shows famed pinup artist Alberto Vargas sketching Shirley. What did she pose in? The “Baby Take a Bow” dress of course!

That dress sure got a lot of use, so it’s not surprising that it was MIA during the 2015 “Love, Shirley Temple” auction of Shirley’s movie costumes. The poor thing probably disintegrated.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Indiana Jones and the Mysterious Shoes

In June 2008, I was riding the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction when the ride closed down. Our vehicle was stuck underneath Indy, just before the boulder came rolling towards us. I was in hog heaven when the lights came on and I immediately started snapping pictures!

As I was recently going through and re-processing some of those shots, I noticed something curious on the soles of Indiana’s shoes. Zooming in, it would appear that there are speakers there.

It would make sense, since the animatronic figure dangles above the vehicle for a few seconds before it takes a plunge downward. This particular face sculpt has got to be one of the worst in the history of Disney animatronics.

Not so scary with the lights on.

Yup. Awful. As if poor Harrison’s face had been stretched out like “Brazil.”

In case you don’t ‘“get” the reference…

You can see the hood of the vehicle and Indy’s shoes above:

A second closeup of the mysterious circles on the soles of his shoes. They don’t quite look like a Hidden Mickey:

One more of the boulder:

A parting shot as we walked off the attraction. Bye, bye, Indy!

See more Indiana Jones Adventure attraction photos at my main website.

1940's Colonial Williamsburg

Today’s trio hails from 1947 and shows Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. I have no idea what the building is in the first shot (bad blogger); since it’s the first sequential shot in the batch I acquired, it could even be from Fredericksburg. I CAN, however, definitively say that the next one is the Governor’s Palace: 

Still there when I visited in 2017:

A 1940s view of the rear of the Palace:

…and how it looked in 2017:

As a final note before the weekend, if you’re superstitious, you might want to avoid anyone that looks like this who goes by the name Mrs. Voorhees:

Especially if you’re near a lake.

See more Colonial Williamsburg photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: R.I.P., Jane Withers

Hollywood legend Jane Withers recently passed away on August 7th at the ripe old age of 95. Both she and Shirley Temple found extraordinary fame in the 1934 film “Bright Eyes” by playing polar opposites: a spoiled little brat and a spunky little ray of sunshine. Guess which one was which? It was perfect casting, and I still do wish the two had been paired together again.



“And you wanna’ know why???” One of my very favorite moments in the film.



A publicity still for “Bright Eyes” with each girl showing the dolls that they owned in the movie. Shirley’s character had a simple little doll; Jane’s character owned a very expensive Lenci doll.



Guess which one of the girls got to keep the Lenci doll when the movie was over? Sorry, Jane; Shirley kept the studio alive.



I’ve always wondered why they put fake glasses on Jane for some of the stills, as she never wore them in the movie.



The two posed for the cameras again in 1948 when Shirley returned to Fox for “Mr. Belvedere Goes to College”:



The other movie I enjoyed seeing Jane Withers in was the 1956 James Dean film, “Giant.” Here she is, sandwiched between Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor:



In the February 3, 1966 episode of “The Munsters” titled “Grandpa’s Lost Wife,” Jane played the woman from Sioux City that Grandpa had left behind.



In December 1976, the two ladies were reunited at a press luncheon held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Oh how I would love to know what they were chatting about here:



Jane was still full of personality and pizzazz!



Here they are again, posing for the cameras a number of years later. Jane’s hair definitely wins the contest for height.



The grand finale for today’s post is a vintage Comet commercial with Jane playing Josephine the plumber alongside a very young Robbie Benson. Did Jane really use Comet?



You bet she did!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.