N.Y.C. or Bust!

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.

The Incredible Jane Wyman

Today I am celebrating the stylish actress, Jane Wyman, on what would have been her 105th birthday.



The first two publicity photos in this post are from “Lucy Gallant,” a 1955 Wyman potboiler that also starred Charlton Heston. She plays the owner of a department store, which just happens to have a gala fashion show with Edith Head as the announcer. The irony is that Head designed the fashions.



Can’t you just hear Edith? “Let’s get this straight, Jane…make sure you tell everyone that I really did the designs, not you!”



A few glimpses from the show itself:







See more classic Movie & TV photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley Crosses The Country

In 1938, Shirley Temple made national headlines as she and her parents traveled by car from California to New York. The Saalfield Publishing Company devoted an entire coloring book to this monumental trip that allowed Shirley’s fans in other states to see her in person for the very first time. Some of those fans included President Roosevelt and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Not too shabby, huh?



This was one of the wire photos sent around the world to keep everyone abreast of what Shirley was up to. The accompanying caption:

The biggest star in Hollywood is one of the smallest — Shirley Temple. She’s got a big smile and a twinkle in her eyes for the fans during a motor tour of the country.

It was June 1938 and Shirley was holding a Press Conference in Chicago, wearing a dress from “Little Miss Broadway.”



The dress was part of the 2015 Love, Shirley Temple auction and sold for $4,750.



From the Theriault’s Catalog:

Of a very fine silk crepe with alternating bands of navy blue and white that are printed with vibrantly colored flowers, featuring a fitted yoke, and high-waisted skirt whose pleats are artistically arranged to feature the dark blue stripes when still, and then the white hidden stripes when actively moving about. The dress has fine white organdy collar and puffed sleeves, each with lace trim, and sash with ties. The dress is labeled 13811 S. Temple. It was worn by (Betsy) Shirley Temple in the 1938 film "Little Miss Broadway", notably in the scene when Aunt Sarah creates a scene in the Hotel Variety and Betsy sighs, “I don't know what she's talking about, but I bet she's going to make trouble.” The dress, a favorite of the young star, also appeared in various publicity photographs.

The wooden doll Shirley was holding in the photos, known as Susie Blockhead, was also put up for bid and fetched $4,250.



The auction description:

Having solid domed carved head with chip-carved smoothly varnished finish, high bald dome, tiny cartoon-like painted round eyes with tiny white eye dots, button-shaped nose, downcast pouting lips, stockinette softly stuffed body with separately defined thumb, stitch jointing at shoulders and hips, cotton dress and bandana, undergarments, knit slippers. Excellent condition. The doll, a constant companion of the young Shirley Temple, accompanied her on many travels, and appeared in various photographs with her. It is likely that the doll was Susie Blockhead, described by Shirley as a "floppy favorite" in her 1988 autobiography, Child Star.

When was the last time one of your childhood outfits/toys sold for that much?

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

R.I.P. Sue Ann

I know I am late to the game, but wanted to join in on the tributes to the legendary Betty White, who recently passed away. Many of the commentators said it was White’s generous way of not staining 2022. I had the opportunity to briefly meet/get photos of her at an Actors and Others for Animals event in March 2005. Not surprisingly, she was just as warm and kind in person, cheerfully posing for all the guests who stormed her at the end of the event. Yes, I was one of those obnoxious people. While most remember her as Rose from “The Golden Girls,” I was much more impressed by her comic turn as Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” I was able to pose for photos with all the leads from that show in person other than Valerie Harper. Here are Cloris Leachman and Mary herself; both are now “dining at the Lord’s Table”:



At the same event where I met Betty White, the head table was populated with Ed Asner, Leachman, and Gavin MacLeod. This photo could be titled, “The Lord’s Table,” as every single one of them (including Monty Hall on the left, Alex Trebek at center, and Fred Willard) has passed on, too.



But back to Betty…

What made her so delicious as Sue Ann on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was that her character was truly rotten, but White played it with comic delight. There are villains that you hiss at, and those that you silently cheer on because they make being rotten so much fun. Sue Ann was the hostess of a show called “The Happy Homemaker.”



While her character appeared to be a sweet retro woman who dispenses advice on cooking and cleaning with a smile, behind the scenes she is a backstabbing husband stealing tramp. White’s squeaky clean public image made her casting as Sue Ann a stroke of brilliance. White made her first appearance in the season four episode titled, “The Lars Affair,” which first aired on September 15, 1973.



The show begins at one of Mary’s typical troubled dinner parties. Inevitably, something goes wrong. “Oh, will you look at that, somebody spilled coffee all over my brand new table cloth,” exclaims Mary to her guests. “Oh, don’t worry dear, that will come up with no trouble at all,” replies Sue Ann as she swoops in to save the day. “You simply stretch the fabric over a bowl and then pour boiling water through the stain from a height of two feet,” she advises, without taking a breath or losing her cheerful smile. “I better get my wrap, that nice man said he’d be bringing the car around any minute now, wasn’t that sweet of him to say he would take me home? I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk more, dear!” she chirps to Phyllis.



“Who’s Little Bo Peep?” asks a baffled Phyllis (Leachman) to Mary as Nivens makes her exit. “Oh, that’s Sue Ann Nivens.,” replies Mary. “She does the Happy Homemaker show at our station. You know she gives household hints, sewing lessons, recipes, cooking lessons, things like that.” “How in the world did I live so long without seeing the Happy Homemaker?” replies Phyllis with acid. “I love her dimples,” chimes in Rhoda (Harper). “I wonder if she made them herself?” As it turns out, the man who offered to give her a ride is Phyllis’s husband, and the two begin a torrid affair.



White was perfection as Sue Ann. Here, she is talking to the cameraman who sadly informs her that they do not have a third camera to give her the overhead coverage shot she has asked for when making her chocolate soufflé. With a sugary-sweet smile and a delivery that no man could say “no” to, she gets what she wants. 



At the end of the episode, when Phyllis arrives to tell Sue Ann to back off, her final question to the home-wrecking whore is this: “By the way, Sue Ann…do you know how to remove chocolate stains?” You can guess what happens next. You must watch this episode to see White’s true genius.

In other news, I received an email from Reed Browning’s daughter, who had seen my blog from a few year’s back asking who that was, since his name was listed on an A-Frame in front of the Golden Horseshoe back in 1956:



Your blog has a vintage photo of the Saloon at Disneyland in the first year that it opened. You asked who was Reed Browning. My late father, Reed Browning was there for ABC to cover the opening of Disneyland and had a show from the saloon for at least the first year. His actual name was Bill ( William) Livesay. In those days, many celebrities used names that were easier to pronounce and remember than their birth names. My Dad was a major announcer and star of shows at ABC. He interviewed the televised premiers of major movies including, "Oklahoma", "Moby Dick" and many others. He starred on The Reed Browning Show and "Beat The Record" TV shows. He started the first talk show on ABC talk Radio. Unfortunately, at the age of 45, he was diagnosed at the Mayo clinic with Peri-Arteritis Nodosa, a rare auto-immune disease and died a year later in October, 1962. Joe Pyne took over as the commentator of the Talk Show "Night Line"



This is the stuff I love. Happy New Year!

See more Daveland photography and pop culture at my main website.

Clueless in ’21

For 2021, there is one word that sums up the politicians, the media, and the medical profession: clueless. The world has suffered another year of ever-shifting policies, advice, and mandates. There is only one kind of “Clueless” that I can endure, and that’s the timeless 1995 comedy starring Alicia Silverstone.



Perfectly cast, Silverstone plays Cher, the ever-cheerful Beverly Hills High School student who loves to make people’s lives better through makeovers and matchmaking.



Director/writer Amy Heckerling (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) loosely based her story on the 1815 Jane Austen novel “Emma.” As Heckerling recalled, the studio execs couldn’t understand a teen movie that wasn’t “one of those slob comedies, and so what’s the point of a high school comedy that’s not like a raunchy high school comedy? So nobody wanted it, which was really depressing, and so they put the movie in turnaround.… People like happy movies and I certainly don’t feel like I was treating that age group with disrespect; it was like a fun version of a classy kind of world for teenagers. It was not like, ‘Oh my God, look at what kids are doing now!’ It was like here, this is what’s going on, kind of, not really, but not really, but fun…happy.” Originally written as a TV show, the script landed in the hands of  producer Scott Rudin, who “got it” and saw the potential of elevating it to a movie. A bidding war between the studios resulted in Paramount being the winner.

Bill Pope, Director of Photography: “It revolutionized teen movies by raising the bar. Teen movies were just sort of tossed off; they didn’t realize the teens were the smart ones, that you could actually make a movie with something in it.” Wallace Shawn (Mr. Hall): “It’s a smart movie. It doesn’t assume that the audience is stupid; it doesn’t assume that the audience is nasty. It assumes the audience is smart, intelligent, and clever.”



The casting was truly perfection; the three female leads are Silverstone, Brittany Murphy (in her first movie), and Stacey Dash.





The film had an impact on teen fashion and a long-lasting effect on the country’s vernacular. 



As if…whatever…totally bugging…I’m Audi…all still being used today.



Earlier this year, Silverstone reenacted a few scenes from the movie with her eleven-year old son. She has aged very little and still has all the charm of the character that she made famous.



See more Classic Movie photos at my main website.

Disneyland, September 1971

As 2021 comes to a close, I present the last vintage Disneyland post of the year. This little series from September 1971 begins with an overhead view of the Chicken of the Sea Restaurant, shot from a Skyway bucket. In the background you can see the hidden dining area adjacent to Skull Rock Cove.



Note that there is nothing against the wall in this photo:



Whereas in this 1965 there was a vending machine:



As the Skyway bucket continued its journey, our 1971 photographer got this stunning shot of the yellow Monorail:



A balloon seller is visible below:



In one frame you have the PeopleMover, Motor Boat Cruise attraction sign, and the Monorail. At least one still exists!



Note this Fantasyland Ticket booth:



Still around when I took this photo in 2010, but repurposed as a Kodak Film and Photo Information booth. Film? What’s that?!?



The Skyway bucket next takes us over the Submarine Voyage Lagoon:



So much to see here: the Autopia, the Skyway, the Submarine Voyage, the PeopleMover, and the Carousel of Progress. Only one remains. Sorry, I just can’t count Losing Nemo.



Over in Fantasyland, the original Tournament Festival Tent façades remain on the attractions, but the Mad Tea Party now has those lacy arches between the light fixtures:



A closer view of the Mr. Toad façade and the crazy fashions/hairdos of the 70’s:



Last one shows the Dumbo ticket booth:



Closer:



So close you can read it!



Photos? Tickets? Dang…these photos must be old!

See more Disneyland photos at my main website.