In Tomorrowland, the Phantom Boats holds the record for being the shortest Disneyland attraction. Operational since opening day on July 17, 1955 and later closing in August of 1956. When it closed, the attraction's waterways were moved and the attraction was both redesigned and renamed.
The Motorboat Cruise would go on to exist for over three decades, moved and re-imagined because it was problematic. The Phantom Boats smoked, were loud and overheated constantly. It also became incredibly expensive to operate. The fan on the boats ended up requiring a cast member to operate for two passengers. Disneyland would learn from this early failure and re-imagine this entire landscape by creating a new body of water, a new boat ride and the first kinetic energy location of Tomorrowland. The new and improved Motorboat Cruise would replace the Phantom Boats and share the space with two versions of Autopia, the Skyway Buckets and the View Liner. Later a second water attraction, the Submarine Voyage would take over the same space. Walt Disney chats with a young boy from the Hopi Tribe outside the Grand Canyon Diorama on the Disneyland Railroad. The photo was taken on the day the diorama opened, March 31, 1958. The grand opening festivities included a ceremony featuring members of the Hopi tribe from Arizona. Santa Fe Railroad Chairman, Fred Gurley, is standing behind Walt. Just days before, Disneyland Railroad Engine No. 3 was named in his honor. The boy is Little White Cloud. He was portraying the part of the Santa Fe mascot Chico.
As mentioned in THIS PREVIOUS POST, three attraction are temporarily closed for refurbishment June 5th and reopening June 9th.
Toon Town is FULL of color and unique painting techniques. Using the color wheel there's orange and blue next to each other. Those two colors live opposite of each other on the color wheel therefore creating the most amount of contrast. As we look deeper we can see this darker shade of blue is about 20-40% darker than the mid-tone. Then as we go over to the edge we can see the highlight. The natural shadow that exists on the faux plank boards is actually painted. You can see that there is a transparent light black airbrush that makes the shadow feel darker and deeper than what it actually is. Then that same technique is also applied to the bricks. Imagineers carved into the side of this plaster where if you look you can see on the bottom lines there is a darker hit of paint. It gives a very animated look but also an insane amount of depth. Let's have a look around at some of this amazing detail. And because white and black are not colors but pigments, the City Hall building gets a seafoam blue color for shadowing. I just love the cartoon look of Toon Town.
Disney artist and Imagineer Bruce Bushman pictured here with Walt Disney, was a lead designer of the original Fantasyland as you can see by his concept art on the walls. Bushman was first hired by the Disney Studios to work on Fantasia on April 5, 1937. In the years leading up to the 1955 opening of Disneyland, Bushman was one of the many Disney artists tapped to help design and build Walt’s theme park. The Disneyland prospectus that was used to attract financial investments included a number of Bushman’s concept drawings for Fantasyland. Bushman designed the 70-foot tall canopy to top off King Arthur Carrousel, which was a refurbished merry-go-round, and had it look like it was made of fabric even though it was actually aluminum. The canopy is “supported” by vertical lances and shields. Bushman designed each shield and included artwork associated with the Knights of the Round Table. However, because there were more shields than authentic artwork he was forced to improvise. His solution was to include the coat of arms from his wife’s family, as well as those from a number of fellow Disney artists.
Bushman also helped design the Casey Jr. Circus Train. Disney Legend Ken Anderson said: “We did the little circus train, and we had a beauty. Bruce Bushman had worked and worked to get the design just right on this train.” As the design of the Dumbo attraction progressed, Walt wanted to to make sure the elephants were large enough to accommodate adults as well as children. To make sure they could comfortably fit, Walt looked to Bushman - who was a tall man - and told his team to use him as their model for ride vehicles. Walt said to Bushman “If it fits you, it’ll fit anybody.” |
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