Jack Benny wants free tickets to Disneyland

Hillarious little piece taking place in Walt's office showing how funny both Walt and Jack can be.
I hope you enjoy this little gem.

The composer of the "Big Bad Wolf" movie music

Here is an interesting exchange of ideas to Walt as he hears the Russian PROKOFIEV play the composition he wrote for the big bad wolf for the very first time. You can just see the ideas churning in Walt's head as he listens to the music.

Aging and Graining

Every wonder how they do the textures and the paint jobs at the park that look so real that you don't even question that it's wood or rock. Well most of the time it's not, and it takes special artists called agers and grainers who do this for a living.

Model Railroading unlimited

Ward Kimball hosts the funniest film ever made about model railroading.
Enjoy these two clips.

Brad Smith celebrate the holidays at the park

Jee,
I'm so lucky to have the park all to myself for one year.

Captain EO

Opening in 1986, produced by George Lucas, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and costing in the neighborhood of $30 million for this 17 minute flick, Captain EO pushed the 3D effects of the time to the limit. By todays standards it almost looks silly but there are some parts that still hold up a little. Well Here it is a 3D show in all it's 2D glory in these two clips. Hopefully it will bring back some memories. I just remember it being super loud back in the day when I used to see it. I remember always hearing it thumping before we even entered the theater.

Ward Kimball - Disney Family Album

Here are a few clips that you absolutely must see weather you are are aware of Ward Kimball Disney's number 1 or not, this will give you a good idea of his home life and some of his collections. Now trains are not his only passion outside work, he also has a bunch of fire engines and old mechanical tin toys from back in the day. He also collects are and creates it as well.
See these clips

Pirates Paris

When Walt created POTC he thought a backwards dream sequence was the way to do this show and it shows today in that same form. In Disneyland Paris the Pirate's starts out pulling you up a waterfall and then dropping you down a waterfall into the living swashbuckling times. So you work your way through the battle scene and the dunk scene and then finally to the treasure scene with dead the skeletons. Here is an interesting clip showing some of the ride from Disneyland Paris. It's in nightvision and a little dark but it shows most of the show pretty well. Enjoy

The Pirates of the Caribbean Construction

Now this attraction needs no introduction, we all have ridden it and appreciate it as one of the most creative attractions in the park. Walt had a hand in all aspects of it but passed away before it opened. So despite what some think, he did see it. I have seen very few changes over the years to this attractions and for good reason. It's a masterpiece as it sits. When the pirates movies came out they made a few changes and did some other tweaks for the politically correctness crowd but I think a show is a show and shouldn't be altered for those reasons. I mean add to it but add to it because it's time to, don't add to it because some movie made way too much money!. Here are a few clips of the early days and Walt himself does some explaining here. One of the only things I really miss from this ride are the fireflies that used to be everywhere in the bayou. They seem to have ejected these from existence for no apparent reason. Come on, bring em on back, they're cheap enough to run using a few fans to blow air creating the appearance of flying insects.

Adventures Through Interspace

I used to call it the eye ride when I was a kid. I loved that ride but in the early days the visits were a bit weird for me. I always thought the machine really shrunk you because you could see it right there. The big people go in and then you could see them after they shrunk, tiny beans in little omnimovers, the evidence was irrefutable. Well apparently other older kids of the day had other ideas on how to utilize this dark ride which we won't discuss in this blog, but exciting nonetheless. Here is a good little clip showing a lot of the ride as it was before being turned into Star Tours later in the 80's.

Forgotten Disneyland Clips

This guy put together a rather creative little set of clips that shows some little known secrets of the park. I knew maybe 75% of them already, but I learned a few things watching them. He definitely has a few original undocumented ones in there that are quite interesting. Go ahead and check out these other two clips if you like the first one. Part 2, Part 3 Interestingly enough these clips also include some nice elevator muzak for your enjoyment.

The Skyway Ride

No, I will never forget going up the narrow little Fantasyland staircase up into the cute Swiss chalet and seeing cable cars going around a giant wheel driven by a huge electric motor. I think this was one of the most fascinating rides for me when I was younger, little did I know at the time that they used almost standard ski resort type lift mechanics. I couldn't believe they were safe. They would disconnect from the cable on the fly and reconnect automatically. It was amazing. I remember looking behind the walls and seeing giant overhead tracks with tons of hanging cars stored back there. It was too cool. I also remember the guys that were loading people always did it fast, opening the door, getting you in and slamming the door behind you and off you go swinging out over nothing. Quite creepy when you are 8 years old. Here is a clip showing Florida's setup complete with Autopia cars running below. It also shows a non destroyed Tomorrowland like you wouldn't find today in Disneyland. See both clips to see the haunting remnants of what was once a high tech, high capacity highly functional and popular guest transport that Walt himself dedicated in 1956.

A Fantastic Haunted Mansion Ridethrough

This is a great map made for Counter Strike. In fact is has a striking resemblance to the Haunted Mansion. The youtube clip doesn't do it justice, but anyway it's not about that. It's more about the fact that someone took the painstaking time to go through and put this together from scrach.
I really like the ballroom scene, attic and graveyard more than anything. Enjoy!

The Wonderful Peoplemover

Hey, we not only remember this wonderful ride that was put in at Disneyland in 1967, we are constantly reminded of it's existence every time we visit the park because all the tracks are still there that once supported this rolling attraction. In the 90's Imagineering executed a bad idea and installed a new thrill ride call Rocket Rods. This ride was plagued with problems from the start and eventually had to be shut down because of the maintenance nightmare that it was. Well here is a little video clip that shows the history of the people mover complete with all the 60's and early seventies elevator music that played when you rode it. Now this was a good ride to see the park and relax and get away for a while. I do miss it and hope they put it back in some shape or form on the existing track someday soon.

Frontier Land in Color

Here is an absolutely fantastic clip showing the park in a slightly different perspective. You usually don't get to see this kind of footage of the original Frontierland area. This clip shows great aerial views of the Fort, Rainbow Ridge, the Mark Twain and some absolutely RARE footage of the inside of the old mine train ride that spanned the land prior to the late 70's installation of Big Thunder Mountain. Wow even the bushes are small. It's great to see good quality early footage.
If you like this clip see Part 2

Mary Blair - Disney Artist, Colorist and Imagineer

Mary Blair is one of the people mainly responsible for the creation and decoration of the Small World attraction and today being the day that the ride re-opens to the public, we should have some Mary Blair career video clips for you. Here is a great fly through of many examples of her awesome 60's style.

It's a Small World Re-opens Today at Disneyland

You know It's a small world wasn't born at Disneyland, it was created for the 1964/65 worlds fair in New York. It was sponsored and lived in the Pepsi pavilion. After the fair was over it was transferred to Disneyland and installed. It's original name was not even what it is now, It was originally "Children of the World". When the Sherman brothers wrote the famous tune "It's a small World" Walt quickly changed to the new name. The ride was one of the first indoor boat rides and feature boats that run along a canal into a show building that is now located somewhere between the Cartoon Spin and the Disneyland steam train roundhouse. So once again they utilized show buildings that were outside the berm of Disneyland. This technology allowed much more room for attractions at the Park. There are 4 more "Small Worlds" around the world. The following are a few clips that show the ride in it's original and planning states are are very interesting.

Disneyland 35th Anniversary

Some of the Original MC's came back for this 35th anniversary. Ronald Regan and Art Linkletter were there for the opening in July of 55 and they talk in this clip about how they were well aware of this massive construction going on in Anaheim. They jumped at the chance to work with Walt on that famouse day.

Behind the Scenes Three Little Pigs

Hey checkout this little pig ditty. Ward Kimball, Walt Disney and others hash out a song for the three little pigs. Even though this is quite the staged clip it shows a flow of how they come up with ideas in a session. Walt realized that when he put 5 talented animators together that the outcome would be interesting. He obviously encouraged free flow of creativity in the studio, maybe that's why the final movies came out full of so many gags and fun.

Ward Kimball Coming out of the Roundhouse

This is a cool little clip of the Ward Kimball coming out of the Disneyland roundhouse. I noticed the engineer opens the blow down valve, this releases high pressure steam causing scales and junk to come out of the boiler so it doesn't build up and cause trouble. The Kimball is the newest engine to join the Disneyland fleet totaling 5 now.