Storybook Land Canal boats has welcomed guests since Disneyland opened its gates on July 17th 1955. To take this journey you needed a "D" ticket and you could pick it up at the ticket booth shaped like a lighthouse. The lighthouse served this special purpose until 1982, when a new passport system was adopted and allowed access to all attractions for an increased entry fee. Most of the ticket booths were removed except a handful like the lighthouse. It was closed up, refreshed and left at the entrance of the attraction to continue welcoming visitors. It remains there is a piece of history often forgotten but in plain sight for everyone to enjoy. A lot has changed in Disneyland, here is a look at Storybook Land Canal boats and the area around it from the early park years. Now the Mad Hatter Tea Party takes it the space where the sitting area was and behind it now, the Fantasyland theater and Mickey's Toontown. The park continues to grow and change and photos like this show the simple beginnings of this amazing park. Casey Junior Circus Train has been in Disneyland since opening day July 17th 1955. Casey even had its own ticket booth, designed with the idealized look of an old train station. Guests could purchase their individual ticket here for a fun train ride. Once the ticket booth was introduced in October 1955, Casey required a "B" ticket to ride. By 1982 ticket booths were phased out and the booth no longer served its original purpose. It wasn't removed though and was instead refurbished and left next to the queue of the attraction a reminder of the Disneyland of yours past hiding in plain sight.
When the park first opened on July 17th in 1955, a single $1.00 admission ticket was sold at the park’s main entry gate, while tickets for each individual attraction could be purchased at the ticket booths located throughout the park. There were general booths located throughout the lands, like Fantasyland, but it was the individual attraction booths that stood out. Opening day attractions like the Storybookland Canal Boats and later additions like Alice in Wonderland, had highly themed booths that fit the look and design of the attractions they promoted. On October 11, 1955 ticket books were created and offered admission to the park and coupons to experience eight attractions—for a total price of $2.50 for adults, $2.00 for juniors, and $1.50 for children. Through the years the ticket booths were updated and added as expansions like Matterhorn, ‘It’s a Small World’ and the always changing Tomorrowland kept coming. In June 1981, ticket books began to be phased out and by June 1982, they were a thing of the past. This left ticket booths without a purpose. Around this same time, Fantasyland was undergoing a renovation and it was decide to keep to booths, but to seal them up and make them part of the overall theme and appearance of the ride. Ticket booths used to be everywhere in Disneyland and this booth from Tomorrowland is a perfect retro-futuristic example of what tomorrow look like in the 1960s. As design and aesthetics changed, booths like this went away. The bright white and blue was a positive futuristic look. Today, you can still see booths, the the Alice in Wonderland booth pictured here, the Canal Boats’ lighthouse booth and others throughout the park. Little bits of history that might go overlooked, but still hold that old Disneyland history and charm.
The next time you're on the Small World attraction at Disneyland, as you begin to exit, take a close look at the red postcard stamps. You'll see Charlie Brown smiling from the center of the boat.
Love is in the details! It was 1958 when Walt went on a trip to Switzerland in order to help get started on the new live action film, Third Man on the Mountain. Before leaving, he stopped by one of his imagineers, Vic Greene. “Vic,” he said, poking his head into the office door. “I want you to get brainstorming on some new attractions to put in Tomorrowland. Something big. We’ll talk more about it when I get back from Switzerland.” When Walt arrived, he and director Ken Annakin took a train to the little town of Zermatt which has an amazing view of the Matterhorn. Walt was entranced. He rushed into a gift shop and purchased a postcard with a picture of the Matterhorn on it and on the back scrawled a simple message: “Vic, build this! Walt.” The day the postcard arrived in Vic’s office, he started designing. Walt moved on to Germany and became interested in the bullet-shaped trains that rode around there. In turn he had another idea for a train much like them - a monorail. Finally, though, Walt had one more ride that he was brainstorming. Following the success of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” Walt wanted to take people on a Submarine Voyage. With this three attractions in mind, Walt returned home and hit his first speed bump - his own brother Roy. Roy didn’t want any new rides until the Disney company was out of the debt that Disneyland put them in in the first place. Walt tried to convince him but Roy was immovable. In a couple of years they could think about it, but not now. After the end of the argument, Roy left to Europe to try and gain some foreign investors. Meanwhile Walt called together his imagineers. His opening statement was right to the point, “We’re going to build the Matterhorn, the Monorail, and the Submarines.”
The imagineers were already well aware of Roy’s opposition to the projects. “What will Roy say?” one of the imagineers at the table asked. “Don’t worry about Roy,” Walt said. “We’re going to build ‘em. Roy can figure out how to pay for ‘em when he gets back.” Walt might have had to go behind Roy’s back, but thank heavens he did because those three rides were sensational when they opened. Sometimes Walt was the only person to see the bigger picture. The story of the famous Snow White and the seven dwarfs statues is known by all Disney fans. The Disney Company commissioned them from Italian artist Leonida Parma who mistakenly read the height measurement wrong for Snow White. She was supposed to be 53" tall, but was carved out of marble the same height as the 33" tall dwarfs. In an effort to remedy this, Walt assigned the task to Disney Legend John Hench. The waterfall gets narrower towards the top, giving the illusion of distance. The studio hands sculpted small animals to place around the dwarfs, making sure the critters around Snow White matched her scale, furthering the illusion that she is taller in comparison to the others. At the base of the waterfall, John Hench installed a fountain of dancing fish, which squirt water from their mouths. The fish and the rest of the grotto’s water features come to life when Snow White sings “I’m Wishing” from the well. Snow White’s Grotto was dedicated at Disneyland on April 9th, 1961. In the past, coins collected from the well were sent to Variety Clubs International which
was an organization made up of the heads of show business, they would divide the money up and use it for their charity work. Nowadays, any coins tossed in the well, are donated to the Make a Wish foundation, there’s a little inscription on the well that reads: “Your wishes will help children everywhere”. |
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Growing up in Los Angeles in the 70s/80s we visited Disneyland on a regular basis and often after school, before "Annual Passes". Categories
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