Yes, and " Satchmo" himself.
here’s a footnote:
the engine Walt is buying, 6000 King George V, was built at Swindon works in '27. It is a Great Western “King” class. A 4 cylinder engine, most powerful 4-6-0 in Britain. Thirty built between 1927 and 1930. King George V was displayed in the U.S. As an example of British engineering, and workmanship.
Got that out of my system, let’s go back to Disneyland, shall we?
Okey dokey. Let’s look at yesterday’'s vision of the future.
The World Clock
The little ball on the side told you the minutes past the hour listed around the top.
The sun and moon told you which side was in daylight.
It was the original entrance to Tomorrowland.
It was also supposed to let you figure out the exact time anywhere on earth to the minute. Except you had to do extra math for Newfoundland which is an hour and a half ahead of Eastern Standard Time. [:D]
The Dutch Boy Color Gallery 1956-1960
Futuristic, but beyond teaching kids about primary colors it likely didn’t help tell anything about the future (other than that corporate advertising would get crazy by the end of the 20th century).
But they did have coloring books.
Monsanto Hall of Chemistry 1955-1966
House of the Future 1957-1967
Fantastic! Thank you, again! In the special features for " Snow White" they spoke of the hand to mouth existence of the Disney studios before “Snow White”. They told about the long hours of Walt, and his animation team, and Walt actually crashing and sleeping in his office. How that all changed after the film came out ! A feature length animated film, in color! And, in 1937 !
Then, they were able to move into the new studio in Burbank.
Also, in the early days, they referred to it as “The Disney Brothers” studio. And there was a picture in those special features that showed a 3 rail setup in the studio’s lobby.
And, they say that Walt found it amusing that after the huge success of “Snow White”, all the banks were extremely eager to loan him money!
One more thing from the special features:
Walt was a " story" man. He would gather his animators together, and proceed to act out the scenes. He clearly had a vision of exactly what he wanted.
For the “Jungle Book”, he advised his team Not to read the book. " Leave the story to me". His imagination is what we see in the movies made during his lifetime.
Not unusual for filmmakers to revise, alter and adapt novels they’re going to make into movies. Sometimes the novel as it is and taken verbatim is extremely difficult to make a film from.
Mel Brooks gave a pretty good opinion of the process concerning the novel “Frankenstein” and the 1931 movie of the same name, and he was serious and not joking. If I remember correctly he said…
“Frankenstein” the novel, and “Frankenstein” the movie are both works of genius! First, the novel. Who would believe a 19 year-old girl could come up with something like that? However, “Frankenstein” the novel is impossible to make a good movie out of, so the adaptation they did in 1931 is also a work of genius!
Walt wasn’t the first, and he sure won’t be the last.
Walt was a brilliant, and very successful film maker.
I am feeling the need to take another look at "20 Thousand Leagues "
“20,000 Leagues” is an absolute masterpiece.
Turner Classic Movies ran it one night last year, needless to say I watched it, and I’ll tell you, I’d forgotten how good it really was. Not just a kid’s film, it’s got a lot more depth to it (no pun intended) than people realize.
I remember a movie critics backhanded compliment from the 70’s…
“So well done it’s hard to believe it’s Disney.”
Well. WE believe it, don’t we?
I’ve heard of that layout from several sources but I’ve never seen a photo. [:(]
So where do things go after they leave a Magic Kingdom? Well, we’ve seen the grave of the Nautilii and the ticket kiosk at Ward Kimball’s house, so here are some more!
The Marceline Autopia.
When they closed the Midget Autopia (also known as the Fantasyland or Junior Autopia) in 1966, Walt donated it to Marceline Missouri.
It ran there until the cars were just too worn out (1977).
Track remnatnts remain to create an unusual walking path through the park.
One of the cars is on display at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.
Which of course is located in the Santa Fe depot.
Wanna see a Moonliner? Well, there are 3!
One is at Disneyland (known as “Moonliner III”) but it’s a lot smaller than the original:
The other two are in Kansas City.
One is at the Airline History Museum.
You’ll get no arguments from me, it’s my favorite movie! [:D]
Ever hear of the “Sunset Squid Fight”??? [;)]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l22tsktu8D8
Peter Ellenshaw created spectacular storyboards for the film that had the fight with the giant squid taking place at dusk under a blood red sky. Unfortunately, the backdrop people created a very “watercolor” version and it looked awful.
The original squid was also a mechanical nightmare. [:S]
There were cables everywhere and it started falling apart when it got wet.
It was decided to do the sequence in a raging thunderstorm.
The squid mark 2 used hydraulics and looked considerably more natural.
It’s amazing how much of this film was shot indoors.
And it was an “indoors” that was built especially for this film. Hence the dan
Great shots and research Becky! The story I read about the giant squid fight was when they originally shot it with a clear sky and a red background the squid just didn’t look real. Walt came up with the idea of the raging thunderstorm. With the rain slashing down in buckets and the lightning flashing the squid looked MORE than real, it was downright terrifying! Best looking movie giant squid ever, much better than the one in the 1960 film “Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea,” which was a pretty good film in it’s own right.
Here’s a story for everyone. A man I worked with in the 80’s was a World War Two navy veteran, served on the carrier USS Lexington. One day while they were steaming a guy yelled “Holy smoke! Lookit what’s going on off the port side!”
Everyone ran across the flight deck, and lo and behold there was a sperm whale fighting with a giant squid! Both rolling and flailing on the surface, eventually the whale won, and ate the squid!
Guess what? Next time they were at anchor and had a swim call nobody went in the water!
As Joe said, “The moral of the story is, you don’t know what’s down there!”
I just couldn’t resist researching that! [(-D]
It has been so long since I’ve seen this film, I only remember the Nautilus, and the cool look of the film. I remember I liked it, but that’s about it.
Peter Lorre ? Wow, need to go back and check it out again !
Walt’s animated films used many familiar voices, he used a lot of the same people over again. Check out the stork in Dumbo. Sounds like Winnie the Pooh, doesn’t it ?
Sterling Holloway.
Love the train scenes in Dumbo !
Yep, nine-out-of-ten sperm whales prefer giant squid as a snack than anything else in the ocean!
Just ask 'em, they’ll tell you!
“Thar she blows!” “BUUUUUURRRRRRP!!!”
That “thing” in the photo with the whale is obviously made of rubber, but this one aint! [:S]
The Humboldt Squid: diablo rojo. The stuff that nightmares are made of! [:S]
Though most of them certainly don’t get big enough to drag down a submarine!
Maybe we’ll have more fun with ol’ squidy as Halloween gets closer. But for now, here are some pics of the Santa Fe and Disneyland RR engine house.
Not so grand as Walt originally planned:
This sketch was created by Herb Ryman while he and Walt spent a weekend furiously mapping it all out before Walt had to meet with investors on Monday. This is the sketch that sold a lot of bankers and sponsors on the idea. Over on the left was Walt’s ideas for a roundhouse where the Jungle Cruise would end up. Whereas the Jungle Cruise is where Space Mountain ended up 25 years later. That plan was the evolution of this one:
The original idea (well, not THE original idea) was to build the park on the plot of land accross the street from the Burbank studio.
Fortunately the plan outgrew the parcel and they didn’t have to tear down the park when the freeway at the bottom of the photo came through! [;)]
The engine facilty was enlarged in 1959 to accomnodate the “second level” of the Disneyland train layout.
The Ward Kimball (or Maud as I knew her) leaves the shop.
I thank the photographer with the zoom lens that got these pics!
Those Segways give me the willies, they remind me of the old-fashioned push lawn mowers.
Ever have to use a push mower? Ugh! Thank God for Briggs and Stratton!
Oh yes! [:P] We had electric mowers too. What we should have had was stock in extension cord manufacturers! [:S]
Those are some fantastic pictures of the S.F&D.R.R. ! I am glad they did not build Disneyland in Burbank, don’t know where they would have put it. That whole area is chock full of fun stuff ! Across the freeway from Disney studios is Traveltown, with many great old steamers on display. Next to that is the Los Angeles Live Steamers ( they have a Disney loop , by the way. ). Down from there is the L.A. zoo. I understand there was a time a narrow gauge train ran from Traveltown to the Zoo. From what I understand( and this was before my time), it was the train from the Oahu Railway, number 85, an outside frame 4-6-0, and the coach and combine, which are still displayed at Traveltown. The 85 has gone back to Hawaii, the last I heard it went to the Lahaina, Kaanapali, and Pacific, in Maui, to be rebuilt. I have pictures of 85, and the Hawaiian tank engine at Traveltown, before they went back to Hawaii. Unfortunately, the termites have gotten to the coaches, and most of the wooden cars on display.
Burbank also has the Equestrian center, and many places where you can rent a horse for an hour or two. My daughter and I used to rent a horse from one of the stables, and ride up into the hills of Griffith Park on the trails above Traveltown. One time my horse “Slick”, an old ,broken down and worn out looking horse, got it in his mind to run! I pulled back on the reins, but it did no good. Fortunately, we had a horse handler with us who rode up and tamed the beast !
I did not know WDW had another railroad. My visit to WDW was very short, we didn’t see much. We had gone cross country on Amtrak, staying in Youth Hostels, headed to NYC to catch a plane to London, and to explore Europe. This was the worry free days of '76 and '77. But got all over Europe on a Eurail Pass ! And Britain on a Britrail Pass.
It may have changed a little !
I’ve been using an electric mower over 15 years now, and never ran over the extension cord.
I cut it in half with the electric edge trimmers. Popped a circuit breaker in the house, too.