The Blog Wore Tennis Shoes

Deborah Gibson "Home"

2011-09-16T23:50:00.000-04:00

Deborah Gibson performing "Home" from her stint as Belle in the Broadway production of "Beauty and the Beast" back in 1997 on The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

Herbie The Love Bug In Person

2011-03-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

Easily one of my favorite film franchises of all-time is the Herbie The Love Bug series of films from Disney. I've seen plenty of Herbie cars in my travels, mostly cars used in the newer 2005 movie or the Disney On Ice production from the 80's. But to see a real honest to goodness Herbie used in one of the original movies is a real treat. So, when I learned that the REAL HERBIE was going to be in my neck of the woods I got pretty excited.

This past weekend I dragged my kids up to the Antique Auto Club of America Museum in Hershey, PA to see two authentic Herbie The Love Bugs used in the filming of the 1974 sequel Herbie Rides Again. The original movie, The Love Bug, was the highest grossing movie of 1969 and apparently stayed the top box office grosser of all time until a little film with some spaceships, robots and lightsabers showed up in 1977.

The AACA Museum has two Herbie cars on loan from the William E. Swigart, Jr Automobile Museum in Huntingdon, PA. They are on display until April 24, 2011. The first Herbie is in beautiful condition:

The original Herbie was a pearl white 1963 Volkswagen (VW) Model 117 Deluxe 2-door sedan equipped with a sunroof.

Also on display is this beat up Herbie:

The beat up interior

Poor Herbie, he's been through a lot.

And for extra nerdy fun, here's the registration for Herbie:

This is a sign that was used when Herbie made public appearances back in the day. Since the original four theatrical films, there has also been a TV movie in 1997 and a 5th theatrical production, Herbie Fully Loaded in 2005.

Herbie is awesome!

3 Year Old Girl Takes Down Minnie Mouse

2011-03-09T15:43:00.000-05:00

Dinner Plans?

2011-01-28T06:00:00.001-05:00

Another product of a bygone era at Walt Disney World. Making reservations at WDW's three hot spots back in 1978 was as simple as mailing in a card.

Checking Out

2011-01-25T07:48:00.002-05:00

When you're into rare vintage WDW ephemera, it pays off to have horders as parents. Here's the bill from a 1982 Christmas visit to Fort Wilderness.

Nightmare With Annette

2011-01-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

What in the name of Robert and Richard Sherman is going on in this vintage TV clip?

25th McAnniversary

2010-10-17T08:41:00.000-04:00

From 1996...

Beauty And The Beast - In Theatres!

2010-09-07T18:05:00.002-04:00

Disneynature Direct To DVD

2010-07-19T10:34:00.000-04:00

I like to think I know a thing or two about flamingos, mostly because I stayed at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. But seriously folks...

I really enjoy the nature film that Disney has been putting out under the Disneynature banner. It's nice when the company does something in line with their heritage and the Disneynature films are a nice throwback to the old True-Life Adventure films that Walt Disney believed so much in. The new films aren't near as good as the old ones. The new Disneynature films could benefit from being a lot more playful and a little less like a museum IMAX film. Either way, both Earth and Oceans were way more entertaining that other junk I've recently plopped down $8.50 to see.

So, while checking out Walt Disney Home Entertainment's website the other day I was pretty excited to see that they've got a new Disneynature title set for release on DVD the same day as Oceans DVD premiere. On October 19 The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos should pop up on DVD shelves:

This film, while new to American audiences, came out in France in October of 2008 and then the following year in the UK. I'm excited to get my hands on a copy.

Disneynature's next big screen epic, African Cats, is scheduled to hit theatres on Earth Day next year.

Disney Inspired Ball of String

2010-07-09T09:48:00.004-04:00

What's this giant ball of string, found at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum in Ocean City, MD, have to do with the world of Disney?

Well, not much...but I thought the story behind this big ol' ball had an interesting twist to it...

A tour of the newly designed Disney Store with President, Jim Fielding

2010-07-01T23:35:00.000-04:00

Meet The New Disney Channel Stars

2010-04-09T07:03:00.000-04:00

Disney Lab Unveils Its Latest Line Of Genetically Engineered Child Stars

Dream On Silly Dreamer on TV

2010-04-05T00:01:00.000-04:00

Did you know there was something called The Documentary Channel? Neither did I! Apparently it's a channel showing nothing but documentaries (and infomercials) and it can be found on Channel 263 on DirecTV or Ch. 197 via Dish Network. Anywho, this Wednesday April 7 they are showing the Disney Animation Studio doc Dream On Silly Dreamer about the end of the hand-drawn unit of Walt Disney Feature Animation. This film was done years ago, and obviously with The Princess and the Frog in theatres last Christmas, we know this story has a happy ending. But still, this movie got very limited release and it's not even available on Netflix, so I'm pretty interested in seeing it! Set your TiVo's for Wednesday April 7 at 1:40pm.

Strongest Man... Trailer

2010-02-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

Disney On Parade - 1974

2010-02-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

1975 Double Feature Ad

2010-02-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

Mickey Mouse Games & Toys

2010-02-01T05:55:00.002-05:00

Foodles...for Me and Yoodles

2010-01-28T07:31:00.000-05:00

Everytime I go to a grocery store, besides the two I frequent, I always find all kinds of goofy and/or cool blogworthy items. Last week while shopping at a gigantic new store in town I spotted these kiddie food trays from afar. I noticed that the shape of the tray resembled Mickey, and then when I got closer I saw some familiar faces staring back at me!

There's several different varieties of Disney Gardens' Foodles, all of which contain a combination of three different healthy snacks in kid sized portions. You might think that $3.49 is a lot to pay for 1/3 of an apple, a handful of pretzels and six grapes...but did I mention that the package is shaped like Mickey!?!

Seriously, it's a pretty neat little treat for kids. And you have to give Disney some credit...they could slap their characters on sugary-sweet breakfast cereal or potato chips (and they have) but they are trying to make a move to associate Mickey and the gang with good food choices for kids. Now, if we can just get somebody to make Batman Broccoli, I might get my kids to eat some veggies!

Disney Gardens has a pretty nice website, featuring games and kid-friendly recipes.

Great Cartoon Video Games

2010-01-26T07:06:00.001-05:00

Here's a list I put together for my other blog...

Hey! Did you know that I like classic cartoon characters!? I like them in my movies, I like them on my breakfast cereal, and I like them in my video games. More often than not, a cartoon based video game is slapped together quickly - sometimes the game doesn't even have anything to do with the cartoon. For instance, Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular where you have to help Snoopy and his brother Spike carry a stack of pizzas over a finish line...in Italy?! Other times, cartoon gaming experiences are pure joy! Here's some of the best video games based on cartoon properties that I've ever played...

The Little Mermaid (NES) Here's a game where you'd think it was going to be only for four year old girls. But instead, the great game developer Capcom created this multi-level intricate platform game where you swim Ariel through six levels of undersea peril. This was the first video that I played all the way through and beat. That was about 20 years ago and I still talk about it...pretty sad, eh?

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (NES) Here's another Capcom Disney game that I beat. Based on the Disney Afternoon series of the same name, this game allowed two players at the same time running through the city and picking up and trowing everything in sight. This was a fast paced game with alot of tricky obstacles and challenging enemies. Even though the cartoon show took some liberties with the Chip `n Dale characters, the video game stayed very true to the spirit of the show. Just don't get me started on how we all got gypped out of a Rescue Rangers movie.

Popeye (Arcade) This might be the first arcade video game to feature a classic animated character and I think most video game aficionados would agree that Popeye is one of the all-time classic old school games. Popeye has to catch the little hearts that Olive Oil is tossing out. He's got to catch them before they reach the water at the bottom of the screen. Standing in Popeye's way is his ol' nemesis Bluto. Luckily, Popeye can always grab a can of spinach and punch Bluto square in the face, or he can hit a punching bag and drop a bucket on Bluto's head. The game even works the obscure Sea Hag character into the mix! Even the cartoons forgot about the Sea Hag!

Donald Duck in Goin' Quackers (Playstation/PS2) This game really blew me away because it's just as challenging and complex as any Mario Bros. game you'll ever play. There's level after level of frustrating situations to make Donald mad. One of the neatest features of this game is that they worked in the animation of Donald's trademark temper tantrum. There's also a full cast of supporting characters from Donald's hometown of Duckburg. An all around really well-done game that took me months to beat...but I did it!

B.C.'s Quest For Tires (Commadore 64) Perhaps the best game ever that you can play with the arrow keys on your keyboard. Thor the caveman must ride his stone unicycle while jumping over rocks, animals and holes in the ground all on his way to save his girlfriend from an evil dinosaur. Good times! A better game has never been put on one of those gigantic black floppy discs.

Sorcerer's Apprentice (Atari 2600) Mickey Mouse has starred in at least a dozen video games over the past few decades, this is one of the earliest and the only one I've ever really gotten into. Based on the sequence from the 1940 film Fantasia, this primitive game was made up of two screens. The first, pictured here, involves Mickey shooting and catching stars. I never really got this stage and never spent much time playing it, but if you exit the screen to either side you got to the meat of the game. On the other screen you had to stop the walking brooms from making their way to the bottom of a staircase and dump their bucket of water. The more brooms you missed, the higher the water lever rose in the room. Quick, simple game play that was also addictive and fun. (There's a new Wii game around the corner called Epic Mickey that looks pretty darn cool!)

Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Colecovision/Atari 2600) You have no idea how bad I wanted this game when I was younger! After years of lusting over it, I finally got to play it on a neighbor's Colecovision. It was pure video gaming heaven for this young Smurf fan. Not only does this game incorporate the world of the Smurfs into it, the game is made up of the greatest basic objective in all of video game history: run through a forest, jump over things, collect things. It's all as simple as that! Later on in high school, somebody mentioned that they had this game and I made them dig out their old Atari games and find it for me so I could finally sit and play it. Another check-off on my bucket list! (Here's a link to the old commercial.)

The Simpsons: Road Rage (PS2/Game Cube) The Simpsons have had a long career in video games since the show debuted 20 years ago. I remember playing a game called Bart vs. the Space Mutants quite feverishly back in the day, and The Simpsons arcade game stands out as a classic. But I really loved this 2003 variation of the hit game Crazy Taxi. Road Rage is almost the same game except that it's filled with The Simspsons brand of humor and wonderful cast of characters. The game looks an awful lot like the TV show and you get to drive around town exploring all the nooks and crannies of Springfield. Probably one of the games I've logged the most hours on in my adult years.

Tiny Toons 2: Trouble in Wackyland (NES) In my book, when you mix amusement parks with video games there is much goodness to be had. Using a theme park as it's center, this game was a collection of mini-games based on different theme park rides. There was a roller coaster game, bumper cars, a train ride, and a log flume. They were all pretty addictive, if I recall correctly. I'm not sure how well the game captured the spirit of the Tiny Toons cartoon but it sure was a fun game.

The Flintstones: Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (NES) Like others on the list, The Flintstones have popped up in more than one video game. This Nintendo game was my favorite as it was built around the simple side-scrolling platform engine that I've come to adore in video games. Of course you've got Fred and Wilma and the whole cast of characters from one of my all-time favorite TV shows and there's lots of rocks and boulders to smash. I don't think I ever got past the end of level 2 where you had to beat Joe Rockhead at a game of basketball. Thanks Joe Rockhead!

Darkwing Duck (NES) Finally one last fantastic Disney Afternoon inspired game from the folks at Capcom. Darkwing Duck was a show I really enjoyed and I loved the video game just as much. I consider this one of my all-time favorite video games. The game play is so smooth and fun, with lots of things to shoot at and grab hold to and jump on and over...it's just alot of fun. The game also incorporated the entire world of the show very nicely. I easily burned way too many hours playing this in my Community College days. Tell well spent if you ask me!

Please share with us any toon games you've loved over the years...

Christmas in Sweden with Donald Duck

2009-12-24T05:55:00.001-05:00

My friend Andy pointed me to this very interesting article about Donald Duck and his major role in Sweden's Christmas traditions. The article is called Nordic Quack: Sweden's Bizarre Tradition of Watching Donald Duck Cartoons on Christmas Eve. Apparently, every year on Christmas Eve the country comes to a stand still so that everybody can watch a telecast of a 1959 Christmas themed episode of Wonderful World of Disney. If you ask me, that's the way to celebrate any holiday! Read the article for all the details of this neat custom that is a sacred tradition with families in Sweden.

As a die-hard Disney fan, I was surprised that I had never heard of this ritual. I was so intrigued by it that I actually went searching on line and found a few photos related to the tradition...

Here's an authentic Swedish family sitting down at 3:00pm to watch the annual airing of Sverige, Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul.

Every year a different actor plays the role of Walt Disney and introduces the show. It's nice that even though Sweden has only had television since the late 50's they too have upgraded their broadcast system to HD.

Book Club Invoice - 1976

2009-10-21T08:12:00.003-04:00

The Wonderful World of Reading book club is still alive and kicking today. Here's a look at a bill from 33 years ago...

The strange thing is, this invoice is still around but I haven't seen those books in years!

Another Weekend, Another Disney Sketch

2009-10-19T07:00:00.001-04:00

Last week Scrooge McDuck turned up on Saturday Night Live. In this week's show, the writers again turned to the world of Disney for inspiration. Host Gerard Butler plays the Beast to Kristen Wiig's Beauty in this skit which looks like it might have been more inspired by the Broadway show than the animated film. Either way, it's a funny sketch.

This is Saturday Night Live however. Viewer discretion: this skit is one of the reasons SNL is rated TV-14.

Scrooge McDuck on SNL

2009-10-14T18:42:00.002-04:00

From this past weekend's Saturday Night Live...

Toy Story Mania for Wii

2009-10-06T10:39:00.003-04:00

Toy Story Mania is not the first attempt to turn the theme park experience into a video game. These's been Adventures in the Magic Kingdom for the NES and Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour for the Playstation. But Toy Story Mania promised to really bring a Disney World ride into my living room. If you haven't been on the Toy Story ride it's basically a ride that zips you around from screen to screen where you play very brief video game versions of popular midway games. (For more, you can check out a post I did when the ride opened: Hangin' Out In Andy's Room.)

So, obviously when you play this new Wii version you're not going to be riding around, you'll most likely be sitting on your living room sofa. And also unlike the theme park attraction, you won't be waiting in line for at least an hour before your chance to play for a couple of minutes. Video games are designed to give you an experience that

will engage you for hours of game play. Toy Story Mania works hard to further the experience of the ride.

The games featured in the ride are faithfully recreated here. Almost all the games in the ride involve simply shooting or tossing things onto the screen to collect points as quickly as possible. The Wii adaptation also adds to the mix a set of additional objectives to each game. In addition to scoring a certain amount of points, there are more intricate goals like shooting five of the same target in a row, or looking for a special colored target or simply wiping out all of one kind of target. Completing all of the given objectives will unlock the game in a free play mode, otherwise you must experience the different games in a preselected lineup divided into five themes.

In addition to the shoot `em games from the ride, the game designers have added a handful of new games to the mix which use the Wii technology to their benefit. Some of these games have been thrown in to give the smallest of Wii players the chance to master a game. A few of the new games require nothing more than shaking the Wii remote to master the game. In one instance, Toy Story's resident swine Hamm is seen dancing on a stage and players are asked to mimic his actions by shaking their Wiimote in a certain direction. Even with the Wii controller sitting on a table in another room of the house, you're guaranteed to rack up a hefty amount of points. The games are pretty simple and not very challenging. Other new games like a labyrinth maze where you'll need to tilt your controller to move the maze table are quite unique.

All the gang from the Toy Story movies are here and each of the games fall into a theme connected to one of the characters. There's plenty of outer space fun with Buzz Lightyear and the aliens, Woody and Jessie host a variety of wild west games, Bo Peep, Rex, and most of the rest of the gang are all on hand as well. Some of the character voices are the same, most notably Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear but Tom Hank's brother Jim stands in to provide Woody's voice. Since many people have seen the Toy Story films numerous times over the years, the voice substitutes are quite noticeable.

There's also five 3-D games that you can unlock. The disc comes with two pairs of the old fashioned red-blue 3-D glasses. The effect is not nearly as effective as the polarized grey lens glasses used at the theme parks (and at your local multiplex).

While this new disc does transfer the imagery and the game play of the theme park ride very well, it does not give you the same overall experience. To achieve a complete experience like the ride you'll need to unlock all the shooting gallery style games and then set up your own lineup of games in the Free Play Mode.

Overall, it's a fun game - not really worth the $50.00 MSRP - but it's a good game for kids and fun disc to have at a party. The various games are all simple to learn and play. Those not looking to duplicate a recent vacation memory and more interested in playing with the Toy Story characters would probably be better off waiting for the Toy Story 3 game hitting shelves next summer with the release of the new movie.

Have A Drink With Mickey

2009-10-06T05:55:00.000-04:00

I'm guessing from the early 80's:

WDW Ticket Book Backs

2009-10-02T09:19:00.006-04:00

click to enlarge

Magic Kingdom Club Cards - 1977

2009-09-29T08:27:00.001-04:00

Judge Roy Hofheinz

2009-09-24T16:15:00.001-04:00

Here's an article from the June 14, 1968 issue of Time magazine which mentions Walt Disney and his influence and participation in the building of Texas' Astroland theme park. Click article to enlarge

Jim Cummings Article

2009-09-14T01:23:00.000-04:00

I'm not religious and I'm certainly not trying to push religion on anyone, but here's an article from the Catholic News Service, which appeared locally in The Catholic Review (my mom showed me the article!) It's a brief piece on voice actor Jim Cummings who we all know as Tigger AND Pooh as well as Darkwing Duck, Pete, Monterey Jack, the guard from Aladdin and about 100 other Disney characters. This article doesn't offer much, but it's always nice to see one of the behind the scenes guys get the spotlight...

You can click here to read the article in text form or click the article below to enlarge.

By the way, we are going to attempt to resume posting here at The Blog Wore Tennis Shoes. It won't be everyday, but it will be frequently. We hope you will add us to your regular blog reading again!

Donald Duck's Speedboat

2009-09-05T21:39:00.003-04:00

Here's a video of a never-released Donald Duck video game for the old school Atari 2600. Watch for the cameo by Donald's nephews at the end of the clip...

Cliff Edwards

2009-03-11T00:31:00.001-04:00

It seems there's a handful of old time Hollywood stars who had a long distinguished career and yet the only credit they are known for today is their involvement with a timeless Walt Disney production...

Space Mountain Home Movies

2009-03-09T16:37:00.001-04:00

Mousercise Record Offer

2008-11-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

Mickey Mouse Disco Record Offer

2008-11-17T00:01:00.001-05:00

Bright Idea

2008-09-16T08:04:00.003-04:00

Six Flags Over Texas is introducing a new parade to their theme park! Get this...the parade takes place at night! "The Glow in the Park Parade" will feature the classic Looney Tunes characters on floats made of fiber optic lighting. Isn't that a novel idea!? Where did they come up with that....?

You can read the whole story here.

Loose Shoes

2008-09-13T09:02:00.003-04:00

I've been a little out of the loop lately not only with my own posting but with catching up on all the other great Disney blogs out there. If I repeat something that someone else has already covered or mentioned...I apologize.

I wanted to share a couple of links with ya, that I've had sitting around the BWTS offices for a while:

The Washington Post ran an article on the cover page of their Style & Arts section back in July about the new Innoventions Dream Home attraction in Disneyland. The Future Is So Yesterday by Joel Garreau was accompanied by plenty of full color photos. However, instead of scanning the article you'll be able to read it better if I just post a link instead.
I'm not really into the whole religion thing, but my mom gave me an article from a Catholic newspaper which talked about priests blogging. One of the blogs featured is called Jesus Goes to Disney World. It's not an exclusive Disney site and it's also not an exclusive Jesus site. This page, run by a campus minister at Towson University, uses pop culture as a spring board for discussions on many life lessons. Disney is a popular topic on the site, so if you scroll down and check out some of the archives you'll find some interesting reading with a different angle on the Disney universe.

Taking A Little Break...

2008-08-11T21:42:00.001-04:00

We'll be back soon!

Disney World Without the Jell-O Pops

2008-08-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

Going back to the 1980's, I guess Bill Cosby was too busy appearing in every other commercial on television to find the time to do this commercial staring his mega-popular TV family...

Wells Expedition

2008-07-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

Former President of the Walt Disney Company and mountain climbing enthusiast Frank G. Wells is the subject of this article from the Disney Beat department of the May 1991 issue of Disney Adventures magazine (issue #7).

Wells served as the company's president from 1984 until the time of his death in a helicopter accident on April 3, 1994.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!

2008-07-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

When you're on Disney property you just never know who's going to stop you and spread a little magic. While walking back to our car from the World of Disney store (with $300 less than we went in with) a Walt Disney World Security office pulled up to my family in his patrol car. Instead of having the kind of experience you usually have when a security guard stops you, this cast member reaches out of his car and hands both my kids Mickey Mouse Junior Security badge stickers. Of course, I had to persuade my children to not stick the stickers on their shirts and instead let Daddy save them for his collection of everything from Disney World...but it was a nice surprise and a magical touch that you wouldn't expect in a Disney parking lot.

The Blog Wore Tennis Shoes will be putting on it's flip-flops as we close our offices and spend the week and the beach with the family. The Blog will be on auto-pilot until next week. We'll have some light posts throughout this week.

Jack Wagner: The Official Voice of Disneyland

2008-07-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

Going back to my list of WDW memories again, I had listed the voice of Jack Wagner on the monorail system as one of the things I miss when visiting Walt Disney World. If you've never heard Jack Wagner's work, or you don't remember it - we'll fix that in a moment. Mr. Wagner served as the official announcer for Disneyland beginning in the 1970's. He could also be heard doing announcements at Walt Disney World. He was named a Disney Legend in 2005 but had a rich career that stretched outside the Walt Disney Company. You can read his official Disney Legends bio here. There is also a nice list of his voice over credits over at Wikipedia. And then there is this nice little video that I found on Youtube. It features plenty of photographs, old and new, of the Walt Disney World monorail system with an early 80's Jack Wagner spiel for audio. Enjoy:

Now Playing at the Penny Arcade

2008-07-23T00:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I offered up my top ten favorite things that I miss at Walt Disney World. Number six on my list was the Penny Arcade on Main Street U.S.A. The hours I spent there are unforgettable. The best reference I've found regarding the ol' Penny Arcade is an old Steve Birnbaum Guide to Walt Disney World from 1981. The write up on the Penny Arcade is extensive and includes:

"...there are authentic old-time games - a Kiss-O-Meter, tests of strength, and an antique football game.

"In addition, in the center of the front section of the arcade, there are a number of machines that show very early "moving pictures" - that is, stacks of cards on a roller that can be turned to flip the cards and thereby "animate" the images they contain. There are two types of viewing devices - Mute-o-scopes, first introduced around 1900, whose rollers must be turned by hand, and Cail-o-scopes, developed about a decade later. These are turned automatically. Both of these are worth your while. Most stories here are comedies; the humor is broad and slapstick - good for at least a smile (if not a roar) and as amusing comments on the changing ideas about what tickles a funny bone. On the Cail-o-scopes, you can see such stories as Yes, We Have No Bananas, in which a suitor slips on a banana peel and is ridiculed; Tough Competition, in which sailors come to blows over a pretty girl; Texas Rangers, where the good guy lassos the robber; and Run Out of Town, in which one unfortunate man has paint dumped on him, falls into a manhole, is knocked over by a car, sits on a freshly painted bench, and knocks over a paint bucket - all in a single day. During A Raid On A Watermelon Patch, two fellows do and are discovered. Oh Teacher concerns the antics of a teacher's pest. Brigitte On A Bike shows a real sourpuss taking a tumble; it might be subtitled, "Or The Trials of Riding In A Long Skirt." Particularly interesting is Captain Kidd's Treasure, in which a pirate lass shows knees, bare arms, and ankles. The display of skin - which would rate a solid G today - must have looked positive risque three quarters of a century ago.

"Among the Cail-o-scopes , the best are probably Expecting, which is a funny cartoon about people waiting, and Knock Out, which documents a World's Heavyweight Boxing Championship between Joe Louis and German fighter Max Schmeling; but some of the others are also worth a peek - and the cost is only a penny."

Ye Olde Good Times!

10 Things I Miss About Walt Disney World

2008-07-22T00:01:00.002-04:00

Time for another one of my world famous (in my mind) lists! This time it's Ten Things I Miss About Walt Disney World. This isn't necessarily a list of attractions, because I think we'd all have pretty much the same list. These are things, big or small, that have changed or disappeared over the years. Of course, we encourage you to leave your own list in the comment box or post your list on your own blog. We had some great lists posted in the comment section last time. So now, keep your arms and feet inside the blog and let's take a look at some things I miss from Walt Disney World..

10) AM Information Radio - If you were driving on WDW property you would see road signs informing you to tune your car AM radio dial to a certain station and you'd hear a continuously running loop of information about everything Walt Disney World has to offer, including park times and entertainment offerings. This kind of thing used to be standard fare at most theme parks but this being Disney, it was a well produced recording often featuring character voices and theme park music. This station operated somewhere into the 1990's. On an average weeklong trip I'd probably listen to the entire loop two or three dozen times.

9) Original Monster Sound Show Pre-show The old Monster Sound Show at Disney-MGM Studios was great, with the Haunted House movie staring Chevy Chase and Martin Short. Back in the early days, while you were waiting in line there was a video playing of Disney sound effects artist Jimmy Macdonald showing David Letterman how sounds form different animated classics were created. The clip was just a segment from Letterman's old NBC show "Late Night" but it was bookended with new footage of David Letterman. Back in the 80's, before Dave was the household name his is today - I was a HUGE Letterman fan and was totally blown away that he was included in this new theme park. I still remember at the end of the video Dave said something along the lines of: "When the automatic doors open please move into the theatre in an orderly fashion or else men in mouse suits will drag you and your family out of the park!" I don't remember it word-for-word but it's classic Dave!

8) Previous Gift Shops on Concourse Level of Contemporary Resort I know they recently gave this area of the resort a makeover, and I was only able to see it passing by on the monorail on my last trip. I see they've made quite a few changes but I've always loved the quiet shopping in the Contemporary. In contrast to the noisy and exciting Chef Mickey's, the gift shops on the same floor have always offered a quiet and relaxed shopping atmosphere. In the Fantastia gift shop there used to be an animated figure of Sorcerer Mickey with fiber optic fireworks in the background. I Cherish the home video I took of the setup in 1990. Next to Fantasia was Concourse Sundries & Spirits where I used to always pick up a couple of packs of Mickey shaped fruit jelly candy. On the other side of the concourse was BVG which was one of the last remaining spots where you could find a few unique items. Smack in the middle was the Pin Trading stand where I've had many enjoyable conversations with the cast members.

7) "The Best Time of Your Life" I realize that "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" is a Sherman Brothers classic, not to mention the original tune that held together the General Electric Carousel of Progress. But for the bulk of my childhood visits to WDW the catchy little number that played everytime that theatre began to spin was "The Best Time of Your Life" and that song would be stuck in my head for months after every trip. This song was part of the show from the time Carousel debuted in Florida in 1975 until 1993 when they brought back the original song. I also prefer the "future" scene with the family watching the New Year's Eve fireworks from Disney World on their big screen TV...but that's another story!

6) Main Street Cinema - Still kicking in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Cinema slowly faded away over the course of time. I've always loved going to the movies, and I've always had a love for old black and white slapstick films. When I was a kid, I was lucky if we got to the movies once a year so stepping into this dark old time Cinema was just as good as going to the Multiplex for me. Plus you got to see Mickey Mouse on the (somewhat) big screen! That was the greatest! In the late 90's they turned up the lights and started adding merchandise inside the theatre and had one film playing on one screen. Eventually they filled the whole spot with stuff to sell and the last remaining screen is used to promote parks around the world. Obviously, it's just not the same effect.

5) Fiesta Fun Center - Arcades are a dime-a-dozen these days, but old school Disney World had one of the greatest arcades I ever encountered. Located in the bottom of the Contemporary, this space (now known as the Food and Fun Center) was one of the earliest offerings for evening entertainment. Going way back, there used to be a huge shooting gallery in there, plus a gigantic assortment of coin-op games. There was also a small theatre in one corner that showed classic Disney animated films. I only made into that theatre once and saw The Little Mermaid on a 1993 visit but seeing a Disney film on Disney property is extra magical!

4) Original Voice on the Monorail - I know I'm not the only one who misses Jack Wagner, the original announcer on the monorail system and also the "voice of Disneyland". His authoritative yet friendly voice was such a part of any Disney trip that if you heard him on a TV special at home you'd have an instant flashback to your most recent trip to WDW (or Disneyland, I guess!)

3) When Gift Shops Were Gift Shops - Shopping at Walt Disney World used to be as much of the experience as any ride or show. But as we've all noticed in the last decade or so, most of the shops in the parks and resorts now pretty much sell all the same stuff. Remember all the cool shops in the Magic Kingdom that sold stuff that had nothing at all to do with Disney or all the random movie and television related merchandise you could pick up at Disney-MGM Studios? That little merchandise spot near the exit to Sounds Dangerous used to sell all kinds of cool movie and tv show hats, shirts and mugs. Now it's just another spot for plush characters and High School Musical stuff!

2) Actual Television and Movie Production - In the early days of Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park there was so much real honest-to-goodness film production going on that it really was like visiting a real Hollywood Studio. I've been obsessed with film production since I was a child, when STUDIOS opened I was 15 - it was like heaven! Just seeing real movie cameras was enough for me, yet alone seeing actual shows and movies in production! I can remember looking down from the catwalk of the Backlot Studio tour as they were working on scenes for DICK TRACY and seeing them at work on HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KIDS. And I must have spent at least a half hour staring at people working on the editing of a Little Mermaid Happy Meal Commercial in the old Animation Tour. Another time, I couldn't have been more excited to see two of the female Mouseketeers recording a song for the Mickey Mouse Club. I also sat in the audience for a taping of some Animal Planet talk show...but that wasn't as exciting. It's a shame that most of the filmed entertainment industry has died off in Orlando.

1) Penny Arcade - Of all my favorite things to do at WDW, nothing ever ranked higher than spending some quality time at the Main Street Penny Arcade. Sure they had a bunch of antique coin-op games on hand, and I gave them a play every once in a while but the real attraction for me was the turn of the century Mute-o-scopes which cost one penny. These machines had a huge Roladex inside them filled with hundreds of photographs. When you inserted your money the inside of the machine would light up. Then you would look through a viewfinder and turn a crank which would flip the cards and in turn animate a story before your eyes. Most of the stories at the Penny Arcade were comedies (slapstick and cartoon) but there were also sporting events and even dramas. As for the comedies, I must have watched each one of them 50 or 60 times each. I wonder what my parents were doing all that time!? Some of the machines from the Penny Arcade have found homes at other spots in WDW, but it still - to this day - doesn't feel right walking down Main Street U.S.A. and not hoping into the Penny Arcade for a couple of flicks with my pocket change!

Disney Adventures Cover Gallery #3

2008-07-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

This third collection of early covers from Disney Adventures magazine puts less emphasis on cartoon artwork and gives the celebrity guest of each issue the spotlight. Some of these 1990's celebrities laid low for a while but are currently enjoying surges in their popularity...

I guess Hulk Hogan never really went anywhere, but after a string of kiddie movie flops he's resurfaced in the last couple of years as a reality show star with Hogan Knows Best and American Gladiators.

Neil Patrick Harris was off the radar for quite a while after Doogie Howser, M.D. but his star has recently risen as one of the stars of How I Met Your Mother, not to mention he plays a mean game of Million Dollar Password!

Ahh...Paula! Nobody saw much of her after a couple of hit albums in the early 90's, now she's on the highest rated show on television, American Idol.

Surprise For Mickey Mouse

2008-07-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

This 1971 Little Golden Book is not only a Surprise for Mickey Mouse but it's also a surprise for readers. With no indication on the front cover, this book is actually about one of the original attractions at Walt Disney World. The story starts off with Mickey Mouse receiving a telegram informing him that he is to conduct the orchestra at Walt Disney World's new Mickey Mouse Review. Mickey is so excited that he rushes to tell Minnie the good news. However, Minnie doesn't seem all that interested in Mickey's good news. When Mickey bumps into some of his other friends like Horace Horsecollar, the Three Little Pigs, Geppetto and Donald Duck, none of them seem to find much interest in Mickey's new gig either.

Sometimes when you pick up older kids books like this one you'll find a few words or phrases that have dropped off the "vocabulary radar" in more recent times. In this book my two favorite sentences are: "Mickey walked on feeling terribly forlorn..." and "...Mickey brooded all the way to Florida." They crack me up every time. I also like the part: "Good luck," said Practical Pig calmly, "And don't touch my new wall. The mortar's still wet." Just an odd word that you don't see often in a Little Golden Book.

In the end, Mickey and his nephews make their way to Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom...

...and all of Mickey's friends surprise him by being part of the Mickey Mouse Revue.
In case you're not familiar with the Mickey Mouse Review, it was an audio-animatronic show featuring dozens of Disney characters singing a medley of tunes from Disney films. The show ran in Fantasyland (where Mickey's Philharmagic now runs) from opening day until September 1980. The stage show got a second life when it was moved to Tokyo Disneyland in 1983.

I can imagine how exciting it must have been to have had this book as a child in the 70's, read it a thousand times and then to get to Walt Disney World and see that the Mickey Mouse Review was actually there waiting for you beyond the castle walls. That must have been very magical!

City Island - Harrisburg, PA

2008-07-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

You never know where a little Disney magic (authorized or not) will spring up!

I've been a resident of Pennsylvania for five years now. For the first time, this past weekend I ventured into our capital city of Harrisburg to do a little sight seeing. In the middle of the downtown area is a public park known as City Island. There's several attractions on the island including a minor league baseball stadium, miniature golf course, places to shop and eat and batting cages. They also have a small train ride and a children's carousel.

The carousel is a portable 3 row model from the 1950's that's found a home at City Island in a nice gazebo. What's all this have to do with Disney!? Well...not much! Except that the carousel building featured cut outs of many Disney characters. They were actually pretty good representations for unauthorized characters. The picture on the right shows the entrance to the ride, Mickey and Daisy look on from the side. Inside there were more characters as well as some of the Looney Tunes gang. But there was another surprise inside...

This image of Mickey made out of mirrors adorns two sides of the middle of the carousel.

Not a great big deal, I know...but it's kind of cool to find Mickey Mouse hanging out on a ride in the middle of a city park.

Summer Fun with Mickey & the Gang

2008-07-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here's Mickey and friends enjoying their summer in a handful of children's books...

1983, Random House/Wonderful World of Reading Book Club

Originally published 1950, Golden Book/Western Publishing

1991, Disney Books by Mail

1974, Golden Book/Western Publishing

2007, Disney Press

Odyssey Memories

2008-07-10T00:01:00.001-04:00

This picture was taken in May of 1991 inside Epcot's Odyssey restaurant. That's a 17 year old me on the right -with my Touchstone Pictures ballcap and Disneyland 35th Anniversary watch. On the other side of Mickey is my best friend Grant (who recently designed this blog's new banner.) In the middle of course is Mickey Mouse, sporting his futuristic space age metallic rainbow jumpsuit from Epcot's earlier days. I have a feeling that suit eventually went missing from Disney's wardrobe department and ended up in a Gay Pride parade somewhere...but I digress...

I have a great memory from my visit to the Odyssey. In 1991 I was lucky enough to attend Grad Nite at Walt Disney World. About 20-30 of us from the senior class flew from Baltimore to Orlando on a Friday afternoon. That evening we attended the Grad Nite festivities at the Magic Kingdom from 11:00pm to 5:00am. Saturday, we were whisked back to WDW for a day at Epcot Center. Between being 17 years old and not having the invention of the internet, I was pretty sure I was the world's foremost expert on everything Walt Disney World. Therefore, I was personally offended when some members of my class chose to tour Epcot on their own instead of having me as their tour guide.

After spending the better part of the day taking in all the headlining attractions at Epcot Center, my group and I had diner at the Odyssey. We had a teenager approved meal of hamburgers, chicken strips and whatever other fast food delights we wanted. We were also, unexpectedly, treated to a live stage show featuring Mickey Mouse and friends singing and dancing around the restaurant. As many members of the group had never been to Walt Disney World before, meeting Mickey and the gang face to face was a real highlight of the trip. After our meal and show we headed back into the park and sampled more attractions.

As the park closed, we headed back to our bus and met up with the rest of our classmates. The rest of the class couldn't have been more disappointed in how their day had gone. It seems without my "expert" knowledge they decided to have dinner at Les Chefs de France. They ended up waiting a long time for a table, a longer time for their food, and then they were served the kind of food that didn't exactly fill the tummies of a group of high school seniors on a field trip. Meanwhile, everyone in my group went on and on about how they got to meet Mickey and Donald and we got our pictures with them and the food was really good and we rode all the rides...

My honor had been vindicated!

Ward Kimball & His Trains

2008-07-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

Disney Beat was a fun little department in the earliest of issues of Disney Adventures magazine that shared some little bit of Disney-lore with it's young readers. Instead of reporting on some new bubble gum pop group or the latest Disney flick at the Cineplex, Disney Beat actually featured stories on good old fashioned Disney fun. Today we have a two-page article on animator Ward Kimball's enormous train collection, taken from the March 1991 issue. Enjoy!

Inside Disney Movie Club

2008-07-07T00:01:00.001-04:00

The mail-order Disney Movie Club is starting to offer a great deal of worth-while material from the legendary Disney vault.

It's easy to dismiss the Disney Movie Club as just another mail-order club that will have you buying things you don't want (or need) for the next five years. And with the limited DVD selection that print ads feature, die-hard Disney fans might feel joining is unnecessary because they buy all their Disney DVDs when they are released to stores. But the club offers two great advantages to Disney fans...access to DVD titles that you can't just pick up in Wal-Mart or Target anymore and the Disney Movie Club Exclusives, which is a list of titles that is rapidly growing.

In the club's earlier days, a small selection of Exclusive titles were available to club members. The majority of these releases were recent Disney Channel movies and some theatrical obscurities from the 90's. But then within the last two years, Disney has slowly been releasing gems from their vault exclusively to club members. They started with some random episodes from the studio's anthology series that has seen VHS releases. In the past few months, Disney has really reved up their exclusives releases.

The most recent mailing from the club announced the first-time DVD availability of the 1965 Annette Funicello comedy The Monkey's Uncle, the unusual-for-Disney 1962 political satire Moon Pilot, and the beloved 1948 semi-classic So Dear to My Heart which is said to be one of Walt's personal favorites.

Just last month the club added the rare gems The Legend of Lobo, The Boy Who Flew With Condors, and the ultra-hip Bob Craine vehicle Superdad (which is one of the most dated movies you'll ever see!)

Some of the other recent releases include Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue, Treasure of the Matecumbe, and The Story of Robin Hood. They've even got Donald in Mathmagic Land in all it's uncut glory on DVD!

In addition to these exclusive offers, the Disney Movie Club gives you the chance to add some of the great live-action Disney films from the 50's, 60's and 70's to your collection. I've stocked up on some of my obscure favorites like Charlie the Lonesome Cougar and The North Avenue Irregulars (I love that one!).

If all that weren't enough, Disney also often slips in a little something extra to your month mailing. Along with a catalog and fliers for movies you'll sometimes find something fun like stickers, tattoos, bookmarks or calendars. Nothing big, but it's a nice little Disney touch...plus who else do you know that has a sheet of Cinderella III stickers!?

If you're looking to add some new titles to your personal Disney Vault, you might want to take a look at what Disney Movie Club has to offer!

Happy 4th!

2008-07-04T00:01:00.003-04:00

When you get home from the fireworks tonight, fire up the ol' TiVo and set it to record "Studio DC: Almost Live!" which is scheduled to air Saturday July 19 (EST) on Disney Channel. It's a brand new Muppets special pairing Jim Henson's timeless characters with the Disney Channel stars of today. Kermit and the gang will perform with The Jonas Brothers, The Cheetah Girls, Ashley Tisdale and of course Miley Cyrus! I know we're not all big fans of what the Disney Channel has become, but any chance to see The Muppets is a-ok in my book!

My 10 Favorite WDW Attractions

2008-06-30T10:18:00.006-04:00

I love lists! I like making them, and I like reading them. I want to do more lists on this blog and I encourage you to post your own list, either in my comments section or on your own blog. Here's a list I've been wanting to do since my last trip to Walt Disney World. After much soul searching I present my new list of the top attractions at the Walt Disney World resort that I love the most.

#10 - The Enchanted Tiki Room - Under New Management Yes, I wish the new management would sell it back to the original owners. The WDW refurb of this Disneyland classic is not even half as charming as the original. However, I loved the old show so much that even screaming Iago and his rap music can't make me stop loving this birdbrained show. I love how the show is literally all around you and there is nothing standing between you and putting your fingers in a Tiki guys mouth.

#9 - Splash Mountain - To me, the 52-foot drop isn't the coolest part of the ride. I love the way the boat meanders around the exterior of the mountain, taking it's sweet time before you get inside the mountain. Once inside, the ride still takes it's time floating through scene after scene of audio-animatronics. It really sucks you into the story. And I really like the way the set pieces are bright and colorful and cartoony - such a contrast from some of the other AA based epic attractions in the Magic Kingdom.

#8 - Pirates of the Caribbean - I remember riding this when I was little and just totally feeling like you were in another world. I mean, before you even got to the ride the queue just completely separated you from the theme park outside. And I really thought we were outside once we started sailing in our boat. Nowadays, I appreciate the grandness of the set pieces and how everything is all around you. Unlike Haunted Mansion, where your line of sight is controlled, there's all kinds of stuff to look at all over the place in this masterpiece. I think the new characters added to the ride recently bring a little something extra for younger generations to connect with, without taking away from the ride as a whole. This is one of my sons favorite attractions too and they just love spotting Jack Sparrow along the way.

#7 - Living With the Land - I gotta admit, I never really thought much of this ride until recent years. I'm all about simplicity and this ride couldn't be more simple. Plus, it's one of the last remaining attractions that hasn't changed much at all since Epcot opened 25 years ago. When I was younger, this ride couldn't have been more boring. When I ride it now I'm amazed at how fascinating growing plants can be. You can't go wrong with Mickey shaped pumpkins. Not to mention, you've got the tunnel with the live animals in it at the end to look forward to.

#6 - Space Mountain - Just simply one of the best thrill rides built anywhere!

#5 - Muppet Vision 4-D - I've been a huge Muppets fan all my life. In fact, in my younger days I was probably more into Muppets than Disney! Naturally I was excited when they announced this attraction. Even after all these years, and having seen this film dozens of times, it's still funny! It's very funny!

#4 - Test Track - Here's where I'll geek-out on ya and tell you the reasons I love this ride. I love the pre-show and how they tried to make it look like it's live. I love any ride where the vehicles start and stop or change speeds during the show. I love going up the curvy mountain road in the beginning. I love the way you twist and turn and make your way through that massive building. I love how that truck off to the side gets me every single time!

#3 - Gran Fiesta Tour - This one is a little hard for me because El Rio del Tiempo was my absolute most favorite ride in all of WDW for many, many years. I loved it's simplicity and mild incoherence. It also featured my favorite gag in any Disney ride - the film of the merchants as they followed your boat while you floated by three windows. While Gran Fiesta Tour carries over many similar elements from the previous attraction it just isn't the same for this El Rio fan. I like the addition of the characters and now the ride has a story and it's funny. But I'll always miss the random clips of people cliff diving and having drinks in a hot tub.

#2 - Mickey's PhilharMagic - This is just one of the coolest things in the world! Swimming with Ariel, flying with Peter Pan & Aladdin, and I love the kaleidoscope effect during the Lion King number. The effects are awesome and the whole thing is simply jaw dropping every time! This is now home to my NEW favorite gag in all of WDW. When Donald Duck gets shot out of the movie screen and crashes through the wall in the back of the theatre, his little feet hanging out of the wall brings a huge smile to my face every visit!!

#1 - Tomorrowland Transit Authority - I was disappointed when they replaced the more serious narration with the silly space-themed voice over but this is still a cool ride. I love the way the trains quietly glide alone the track, slowing down and speeding up and zipping through all the different attractions in Tomorrowland. Alot of rides end at a gift shop, but TTA takes you through a gift shop - how cool is that? Plus you've got the EPCOT model and that alien chick getting her hair done...what's not to love!? With the demotion of the Mexico ride, TTA (or WEDway Peoplemover as I still call it) is my new #1 favorite ride in Walt Disney World!

DVD Spotlight: World's Fair, Toy Trains

2008-06-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

The 1964 World's Fair is an hour long documentary produced for Public Television in 1996. Overall the show is a bit disjointed and unfocused but it is filled with loads of glorious footage from the two year event. A combination of promotional footage, newsreel/archive footage, and amateur home movies offer a first hand look at the New York World's Fair. The narration, provided by Judd Hirsch, is more of a trivia track than a narrative history or tour of the fair. The program does start off with the development of the fair but quickly jumps around to covering attractions and buildings as well as memories shared by people who visited the fair. Of course, the 1964 New York World's Fair was to be the stage for one of the last great chapters in Walt Disney's life. This DVD acknowledges Walt's role in the fair but offers little insight beyond what is general knowledge to any Walt Disney historian.

There's footage of the Disney characters dancing and interacting with fair goers throughout the program. And although it is mentioned several times that Walt Disney was one of the major attractions to the fair not much is discussed about the Disney attractions. As you know, Disney had a hand in four shows at the `64 Fair. Two of these shows: Ford Motor Company's Magic Skyway and the State of Illinois' Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln aren't even mentioned in the show. There are some brief glimpses of the exterior of Pepsi Cola's It's a Small World, including the legendary Tower of the Four Winds. There's also a brief shot of the mammoth building that originally housed General Electric's Carousel of Progress. The documentary takes you inside the Carousel via a grainy home movie that shows some of the sets the exact same way they appear today and even a look at how the show's final "futuristic" scene played out in 1964.

The show doesn't ignore Disney's involvement with the fair, but it hardly gives Disney the coverage they deserve. However, what does make this DVD program worth hunting down and watching is the extensive footage of the General Motors pavilion, a massive ride through experience called Futurama II. The GM ride had it's roots in a similar attraction from the 1939 World's Fair called Futurama. Both versions featured a look into the future and the modern conveniences new technology would bring to everyday life. It's been noted several times in the Disney blogosphere that many of the original attractions at Epcot Center were inspired by the Futurama show at the 1939 World's Fair. A good chunk of this DVD is devoted to a professionally produced film of the interior of Futurama II. From a look at the unusual ride vehicles, which were an endless conveyor of three side-by-side chairs, to the miniatures that made up the numerous scenes; the extensive look at Futurama II becomes the real treat of this program for any theme park aficionado.

While not an outstanding program, The 1964 World's Fair is worth a look for those curious about the landmark event but weren't present to experience it. You can find the DVD for sale on the internet (including Amazon) but it's more of a rental title so luckily you can also find it at Netflix.
Speaking of Netflix, I had also rented Great Toy Train Layouts Disc One. I've been on a bit of a toy train kick lately and I enjoy seeing great big layouts that people build in their basements or garages. The first disc of this three disc set features the collections of eight different men. I wasn't expecting this DVD to have anything to do with Disney so you can imagine my surprise when the first of the eight collectors turned out to be veteran Disney animator Ward Kimball. In addition to working on all of the great classic animated films from the golden age of animation, Kimball is also known the world over as a top collector of model trains.

Ward Kimball has two large buildings behind his house where he keeps all his wonderful toy trains. This video will give you a very detailed tour of his collection. If you've never seen one of these Toy Train Videos before, they can get a bit nerdy and technical. It's all about the gauges when it comes to collecting, and Ward spends a bit of time showing off his collection and talking right to the avid train collector. Still, for a Disney fan who's heard of Ward Kimball's love of trains, it's a real treat to see his collection up close.

The segment on Kimball runs about 23 minutes, most of that is devoted to his toy trains. In fact, it's not until about 18 minutes into the show that Kimball's connection with Disney is even mentioned. After a brief biography, the real pay off is a look outside of Ward's collection buildings and a look at his famed Grizzly Flats Railroad. The video wraps up with a look at all of Ward's full scale collection that he had scattered across his backyard. It's wonderful to get to see all this great stuff that is so much a part of the Disney story.

You'd probably have to go to a toy train shop to find Great Toy Train Layouts on a shelf. There's plenty of sites on the web where you can purchase such a DVD, including Amazon. If you're just interested in seeing it you can check out Netflix, which also has the DVD. (Make sure you put Disc One in your queue.)

Wall-E Wednesday: Coloring!

2008-06-25T00:01:00.001-04:00

Wall-E is just 48 hours away! With all the positive reviews coming in, it's sure to be Pixar's ninth smash hit in a row! Here's a fun little coloring page from the latest issue of Disney & Me magazine. Just click on the image below to enlarge it, print it out and then give it to the kids to color. If any one wants to send in a colored picture we'll run it next week!

Disney Adventures Cover Gallery #2

2008-06-23T00:01:00.000-04:00

Fun character art and celebrities from various levels of fame make up our second look at the covers from early issues (#5 - #9) of Disney Adventures magazine...

The Shower Scene

2008-06-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Speaking of bathrooms...
The theme of Disney's All Star Movie Resort carries on all the way into the most intimate of locations. The tile work in the showers of the guest rooms is made up to look like a reel of film. The film strip motif can be found throughout the resort, including the chairs in the food court and the railings of the guest buildings.

Black Hole Golden Book

2008-06-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

As I've stated before The Black Hole cracks me up. Don't get me wrong, it's a good film and all but it's just such an un-Disney movie from a time when Disney films were very formulaic. Thirty years later the merchandising still makes me smile. Case in point, this Little Golden Book from 1979. First, you've got the title: The Black Hole: A Spaceship Adventure for Robots. That sounds like the literal title translation from an overseas market. Second, you've got a Little Golden Book, famous for cute stories like The Poky Little Puppy and The Saggy Baggy Elephant and this one is about murderous robots about to be sucked into the dark abyss of cold, empty space.

Poor Black Hole, it doesn't even get the fond recognition that other not-so-classic Disney films get, like Pete's Dragon, Bedknobs & Broomsticks and The Aristocats have achieved.

Anywho, here's some of the slightly bizarre uncredited illustrations...

I don't care how big of a Disney fan you are, ya gotta admit V.I.N.C.E.N.T. has always been a poor man's R2-D2.

Wall-E Wednesday: Toys!

2008-06-18T00:02:00.005-04:00

The Wall-E merchandising invasion has begun. Books of all kinds (story, sticker, coloring, punch-outs, activity) started popping up at book stores a few weeks ago. Now the toys are starting to make their way to the shelves of fine retailers everywhere. I haven't seen anything at Wal-Mart yet, but at Toys R Us at the end of an isle full of Star Wars and Iron Man stuff there was one column jam packed with Wall-E goodies. The "action figures" come in two sizes. The collection you see above are traditional action figure size and most of them have a special feature. The Dance `N Tap Wall-E has a pull string that makes him wiggle and dance all over the place. The U-Repair Wall-E is basically a Wall-E where all the parts are removable (and therefore lose-able too.) We picked up the Cube `N Stack Wall-E where his front panel opens and you can pop out little cubes of trash. It comes with two cubes and you can make more with Play-Doh...a messy feature I'm not telling my kids about!

There's another set of figures that are smaller, about the size of standard PVC figures. They come two to a pack and feature many different scenarios from the upcoming film. They've also got a remote control Wall-E who is considerably larger than the other figures. One of the coolest items was a Wall-E gripper hand where you pull the handle and Wall-E's hand opens and shuts...it's kind of like those Robot hands you've seen at a toy store where you can pick stuff up with them...but this one is way cooler.

It looks like there will be more toy options with Wall-E than there were with last year's Ratatouille.

Here's the back of the packaging from the Cube `N Stack Wall-E.

A Quick Game Before Breakfast?

2008-06-17T00:01:00.002-04:00

Croquet balls and mallets become decorative wall fixtures at the Cape May Cafe in Disney's Beach Club Resort.

One of the neat features of this spot's breakfast buffet is their Yogurt Bar, with a few different flavors of yogurt and about a dozen fruity, nutty, and crunchy toppings to mix in to your selection.

Studio Entertainment - 1989

2008-06-15T23:45:00.004-04:00

The Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park wasn't even two months old when I was lucky enough to pay my first visit. This Entertainment Program managed to make it through a day at the park and then survive another 19 years. One of the things that I miss most about the original days at the Studios was the cool movie merchandise that you could buy there. On that first visit I got an awesome Touchstone Pictures baseball hat that I wore for years. (I loved that hat!)

It doesn't look like there was a whole lot to do back when the park first opened. But it still took you all day to cover the park. The Backstage Studio Tour was a much more grand affair than it is now. This attraction took at least 2 hours to go all the way through.

One of the original ideas for the Studios Theme Park was to always have a celebrity on hand, no matter when you visited. They would participate in the "Star Conversation" show at the Theatre of the Stars where guests could ask big time Hollywood stars whatever questions they wanted. The stars also rode in parades and sometimes put their hand prints in cement in front of the Chinese Theatre.

In case you're wondering here, Morgan Brittany was on the CBS 80's Prime Time soap opera Dallas and Susan Sullivan was part of the cast of another CBS drama, Falcon Crest.

You're Invited to Another Block Party

2008-06-13T21:00:00.000-04:00

Not to be confused with the Block Party Bash going on at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney Music Block Party is a new CD chock full of classic Disney tunes. It's amazing how many times they can put out a CD with the premise of "Classic Disney Songs interpreted by...." but I guess as long we keep buying them, they'll keep putting them out. And that's good because this latest release is a really fun addition to any Disney music collection. Here, we get 13 tracks recorded by artists familiar to the Playhouse Disney crowd. Now if you don't have kiddies in your house, don't let that keep you away from this CD. There are some great new tracks here.

The first thing that I really like about this CD is that of the 13 songs 10 of them are good old school Disney tunes. When doing these modern "cover" albums there tends to be an emphasis on the songs written in the last 20 years but here we get mostly the older stuff. There are songs from The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Toy Story. The remainder of the tracks date back to 1964's Mary Poppins or earlier.

Speaking of Mary Poppins, for my money this CD is worth the price of admission alone for track #7, Mickey Mouse and Goofy singing "Let's Go Fly a Kite". I think it's a great idea to have Mickey and the gang singing classic Disney tunes. I'd love to see a whole "cover" album like this with all the tunes sung by Mickey, Donald and the rest of the gang. It would be nice to have a Mickey Mouse CD that wasn't him singing children's songs or raps about cheese! "Let's Go Fly a Kite" is great selection for Mickey as it doesn't get remade all that often.

Two other dittys from Mary Poppins make it onto this CD as well. "Jolly Holiday" by Dan Zanes and "Chim Chim Cher-ee" by Kay Hanley; both offer moody and sophisticated rerecordings of these Sherman Brothers standards.

The CD kicks off with a rockin' rendition of the Mickey Mouse Club March from Ralph's World...a great song to start off any album, if you ask me. They Might Be Giants offers their own take on a Disney hero with "Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space). Fun Stuff!

Alot of friends from Playhouse Disney show up to do a song, like the Doodlebops, Johnny and the Sprites, Choo Choo Soul, and even Playhouse hosts Ooh and Aah. There's some names here that I'm not familiar with like Kay Hanley and Gwendolyn and the Goodtime Gang but they're songs are fun so they are a welcome addition.

One odd inclusion in the artist line-up is Wayne Brady who, besides providing a guest voice on Higglytown Heroes, has nothing to do with Playhouse Disney. His cover of The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room is a hip-hop dance track that sounds as if it would be at home on a Rihanna CD. An odd song choice and and even odder celebrity choice, Brady's Tiki Room ends up being one of the highlights of the CD.

Good stuff all around on Disney Music Block Party! This new disc offers some new takes on old classics while introducing your kids to a few of the older songs in the Disney Music library. I discovered this CD at Walt Disney World a few weeks ago, but since have seen it for sale in Wal-Mart as well as on Amazon and Disney Shopping.com. It is also available on iTunes.

West Coast Chest

2008-06-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

Last week, Craig over at Earning My Ears featured one of his favorite pieces from his collection of theme park memorabilia - a Secret Panel Chest from the Haunted Mansion. At first, I thought he had beat me to the punch. The Haunted Mansion puzzle box is a prized piece of my Disney Park collection as well and I was planning on doing a post about this classic souvenir in the near future. Then I noticed that his Secret Panel Chest was from Walt Disney World while mine was from Disneyland. Both of the chests feature artwork depicting the exterior of the attraction, and since the East and West coast versions of this ride are so different...it looks like there's room in the blogosphere for a post on both versions of this long gone gift shop item.

My Secret Panel Chest came into my possession through my father, who picked it up on a visit to Disneyland in 1971 (a few years before I was born.) The chest has secret panels on it that when moved in the correct order open up to reveal a secret compartment. It features the original Haunted Mansion located in New Orleans Square in Disneyland. The sign, which reads "The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland c. Walt Disney Productions" is the same as the sign on the WDW version of the box except of course for the park logo and the words "Haunted Mansion" seem to be printed smaller than on the Orlando box.

There doesn't seem to be much history or backstory to these mysterious souvenir chests. The ultra-informative website DoomBuggies.com offers this trivia:

Another popular souvenir was the "Secret Panel Chest," a wooden puzzle box that had a colorful illustration of the Haunted Mansion on the top that could only be opened by using a secret combination of movements. The boxes were constructed by a small company in Hikone, Japan, using many types of wood for each box. They were available in three different sizes. These are desirable collectibles in the Disneyana marketplace, bringing anywhere from $50 for a well-worn piece to over $200 for a box in excellent condition with the instruction sheet

There's a scan of the instructions up at Earning My Ears but I guess all the spooks and spirits left my box sometime over the last 37 years because I can't seem to get mine open. I still have the instructions that came with this Disneyland Chest. They are safely locked away inside the Haunted Mansion Secret Panel Chest.

The Models of Toonland

2008-06-11T00:02:00.000-04:00

Here's a fun little one page piece about animation models that appeared in issue #4 of Disney Adventures magazine, way back in February 1991. You can click the article to enlarge it.

Disney Adventures Magazine

2008-06-10T00:01:00.001-04:00

Disney Adventures magazine made it's debut in the Fall of 1990, around the same time the syndicated block of Disney produced television series known as The Disney Afternoon began. The publication was to serve as a companion to the afternoon cartoons, offering more adventures with the Disney Afternoon characters in comic book form. In addition to the comics, each issue featured news and interviews with celebrities popular with kids and real world stories of sports, adventure and travel. Many issues also included behind the scenes pieces on the world of Disney. The digest sized magazine sported colorful covers, usually spotlighting a celebrity appearing with Disney characters. The cover featuring the Ducktales gang running from a rhino was used on a special preview issue of the magazine that was available the summer before regular printing began. It's dated "Fall 1990" and was only available by mail-order from sending in proofs-of-purchase from (Kelloggs?) cereal.

What follows is the first in a series of galleries showcasing the cover art of the first few years of Disney Adventures magazine. Not only do these covers offer some unique Disney artwork, they also illustrate some of the forgotten celebrities of the early `90's.

Hot off his hit Disney film "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", Rick Moranis graces the first issue available on newsstands.

The Wonder Years star with the Rescue Rangers...pretty cool, eh!? Fred Savage is actually quite busy with Disney work these days. He's directed several episodes of Phil of the Future, Wizards of Waverly Place, and the mega cash cow Hannah Montana.

Alyssa Milano in a cover reminiscent of "Ducktales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp"

Who would have ever guessed that Bob Saget would still be around and Roger Rabbit would be a thing of the past?

My Son, The Padawan

2008-06-06T22:28:00.003-04:00

Jumping on the Star Wars Weekends bandwagon, I wanted to share some pictures from my trip to Walt Disney World a couple of weeks ago. My kids are all Star Wars nuts, especially my 4 1/2 year old son Elias. It was, without a doubt, the most magical moment of our trip when Elias got picked to go on stage at the (kind of) new Jedi Training Academy show at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Elias spends most of his time at home playing with his lightsaber, so when he donned the Jedi robe and was handed a lightsaber to train with, he felt right at home. (That's him in the middle, with the hood up and the purple lightsaber.) He was so into it and it actually brought a tear to the eyes of both my wife and I. It's a simple little show that is just done so well and really lets kids live out their fantasies.

Simply awesome!

Meet The Robinsons (in 25 Minutes From This Point)

2008-06-05T00:01:00.000-04:00

Adventureland's Swiss Family Treehouse attraction is a sentimental favorite for anyone who enjoys the slow-paced, low-tech side of Walt Disney World. It's a sure fire bet that after finishing off your Dole Whip at the nearby Aloha Isle stand you can hop right inside the entrance of the Treehouse and start exploring the tree's 1,400 branches. But can you imagine ever having to wait in a long line to visit the Swiss Family Robinson's home? As soon as you enter the attraction and begin across the bridge to the treehouse, stop and turn around a look back where you came from.

Just off to the lower right hand side of the entrance you can see a rather large queue area to hold guests waiting to enter the Swiss Family Treehouse...

This queue area sits just out of sight from guests walking in Adventureland. Even though this has got to be one of the least used queues in all of Walt Disney World, it's still themed perfectly to the attraction. The railing around the platform is similar to what you would find around the main deck of an old boat, such as the Robinsons had. This line would have taken you right up to where you enter the attraction now...

But it looks like you would have entered the show from this point, which sits quite a distance west of the current entrance, near the benches close to Aloha Isle. There's actually a hole in the top of the tallest pole from where a sign was. From this entrance, you would have walked down and around to the right and entered the covered queue area.

Here's a closer shot of the Swiss Family queue. It kind of has a ghost town like vibe to it!

This mid-to-late 70's souvenir park map shows the treehouse with it's full entrance structure. The entrance is near the number 43. Note the slanted roof (near 44) which can also been seen over the queue in the first picture above.

Next time you're crossing the bridge to the Swiss Family Treehouse, take a moment and turn around and catch this little lost space in WDW.

Wall-E Scholastic Art

2008-06-04T00:11:00.004-04:00

It's funny how sometimes the movie studios do everything in their power to keep details about plot and characters in the summer blockbusters hush-hush and then they release books with the whole story inside a month before the movie comes out! Yesterday the mailman dropped off our latest shipment from the Scholastic Disney Wonderful World of Reading club. My kids (and I) were excited to find a copy of Wall-E tucked inside the envelope. I'm going to try and keep the kids from making me read it to them before we go see the movie because last year the Little Golden Book of Ratatouille kind of gave away the ending of the movie before it was in theatres. Anyway, the cool thing about some of the kids books based on the Pixar films is that the illustrations are done in a stylistic fashion that looks different than the actual movie. I don't think there's any spoilers here, but I will say there are some cool looking things in this book. Here's some of the art work from this adaptation of the movie which opens June 27.

Paying The Bills

2008-06-02T00:01:00.001-04:00

The Mouse Gear shop in Epcot's Innoventions is always busy with loads of people looking to stock up on WDW goodies to take home with them. It's one of the biggest retail spots in all of Epcot. It takes extra hands to run a store of this size so many of the citizens of Duckburg pull double duty working behind the scenes of this shop. Why ducks? Come on, this ain't no Mickey Mouse operation!

If you look up above the shopping fixtures in many parts of the store, you'll notice the silhouettes of many hard working ducks. In one room, chaos reigns as paper airplanes fly, Donald looses his temper and Huey, Dewey and Louie run wild.

In another area of the store, over by the watches and jewelry you'll find Scrooge McDuck firing off a memo to his secretary, Daisy. Daisy Duck is jotting down the memo while sitting in a very sexist old-fashioned secretary pose. But my favorite employee can be found in the last window of this scene...

... the often overlooked Gyro Gearloose is busy crunching away the numbers on, what appears to be, one of his crazy inventions. My guess is that Gyro invented a machine that could display enough numbers needed to show how much dough Mouse Gears rakes in on any given day!

Meet Bill Peet

2008-05-30T00:01:00.001-04:00

Bill Peet is known to Disney enthusiasts as a storyman with the Disney Studios from the early days. His involvement with the studio's animated films culminated with screenwriting duties on 101 Dalmatians and The Sword and the Stone. Peet also had a second career (outside of the world of Disney) as a children's book author and illustrator. His 30+ published works include How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head, The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg and The Caboose Who Got Loose. In 1989, Bill Peet became his own subject as he penned his autobiography simply titled "Bill Peet - An Autobiography". Although Peet is obviously front and center as the main subject of the book, he spent a good chunk of his life working for the Walt Disney Studios and as such Disney plays an important role in his life story.

His story, however, begins with his childhood and his love for drawing. Somewhat similar to Walt Disney, Peet had a cold and rather harsh upbringing and found peace and escape in his drawings. There were many points in Peet's young life where his talent for art was both a blessing and a curse. He was able to secure some odd jobs with his artistic talents but teachers often found him odd and unfocused. Peet tells about the few wonderful memories he had from his childhood and how they helped shape who he became. Peet met up with the Disney organization in 1937 and was hired on as an "in-betweener" mostly on Donald Duck shorts but also finding some side work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Peet worked for Disney because he needed a job, but he hated the assembly line type work of drawing the same thing over and over. One day after a new assignment of Donald Duck drawings came in, Bill snapped and made quite a scene in the middle of the studio. Fed up with the repeativeness of his job, Bill stormed out of the building hoping to never return. He did return the next day, however only to pick up his jacket. It was then that he discovered that he had been let go from his job as an in-betweener and reassigned to the story department.

Peet went to work in the story department, drawing panels for the storyboards for Pinocchio. His first project was working on images for a proposed scene called Bogyland which featured little creatures and monsters. The scene was eventually cut and Peet went on to sketch storyboards for more films. All the time while at Disney, Bill Peet had hoped to one day on his own create books for children. Many of his ideas he scratched as he lacked confidence in his own writing abilities. After some successful contributions to Walt Disney's Cinderella, Walt asked Peet to develop some ideas of his own into cartoon short subjects. Peet went back to his own personal drawing board and took some of his abandoned ideas and turned them into to animated shorts. Lambert the Sheepish Lion, Goliath II, and Susie the Little Blue Coupe were all stories that originated from the pen of Bill Peet.

This book offers an interesting perspective on Walt Disney, the man. So many works about Walt Disney offer portraits of the man in either extreme. Often you get the corporate-approved, mythical, perfect Walt Disney that did no wrong and had no bad ideas. Other books set out with an agenda to paint Walt as an evil Nazi, racist, control freak. Bill Peet neither idolized nor hated Walt Disney. Peet offers a fair peek behind the curtain at this great man that we all love so much. Walt and Bill had their moments good and bad, and Peet isn't afraid to share what he though about Walt sometimes. As documented in the recent Jungle Book DVD, Peet and Disney came to odds over the script for The Jungle Book and eventually Bill Peet left the studio before the project was finished.

Bill Peet - An Autobiography offers a unique look into both the Walt Disney Studios of yesterday and the man Walt Disney. Oh yeah, and it also gives you a look into Bill Peet's life as well. You'll find this a fair but different portrait of Walt Disney than you are used to seeing. At almost 200 fully illustrated pages, Autobiography is a breezy informative ride into the Walt Disney cartoon factory and a look at a man trapped inside.

Magical Beginnings Maps

2008-05-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

If you haven't traveled to Walt Disney World with very young children recently, you may have missed Disney's recent push to promote their resort as a destination friendly enough for kids of all ages. They call this preschool promotion Magical Beginnings. I hear from so many new parents that they want to wait until their kids are older to take them to Walt Disney World so they'll remember it. As most of us that read and/or write Disney blogs will attest, it is possible to remember visits from very early in our childhood, but more important that that - taking your small children to Walt Disney World really isn't about the memories they'll have it's about the memories you'll have. You'll never forget the first time your child runs up and gives Mickey Mouse a hug, or the wide-eyed look on their face as they travel on "It's a Small World" for the first time.

Touring the Walt Disney World resort theme parks with small children does require a different approach than visiting with school aged kids. Disney has taken some of these tips, suggestions and reminders and put them together in a colorful little brochure that can easily be found at any of the parks Baby Care Centers. In addition to all the useful information in this hand-out, the centerpiece of the publication is some really cute simple maps that present the theme parks from a preschool perspective. They look as if they might have been inspired by the Mary Blair art of "It's a Small World". Since this isn't something every visitor to the parks is likely to pick up, I'd thought I'd share these whimsical maps with you...

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor...

2008-05-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

At Disney's All-Star Movies Resort, the walkways around the 101 Dalmatians buildings are covered with various bones and doggie treats. The multi-colored bones are provided courtesy of Kanine Krunchies, the official sponsor of the dalmatian puppies favorite television program Thunderbolt.

In the movie 101 Dalmatians the Kanine Krunchies jingle is sung by voice actress Lucille Bliss. Ten years earlier, Lucille Bliss provided the voice of stepsister Anastasia in Disney's Cinderella. It would be many decades later before she went on to her most famous role as Smurfette on the popular Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning series The Smurfs.

Hangin' Out In Andy's Room

2008-05-23T00:06:00.007-04:00

I spent the last week in Walt Disney World where my family and I had an amazing time, as always. On Sunday night at Disney's Hollywood Studios we were on our way to visit Walt Disney: One Man's Dream but instead of making it inside that great attraction we were invited to take the brand-spanking new Toy Story Midway Mania for a spin! Best of all...there was no wait!

The new attraction, which has an advertised opening of Summer `08, is a delight for Disney Theme Park fans. First of all, it starts off with a wonderfully elaborate and detailed queue. Add to that, a new ride system that blends elements of an omni-mover with a carnival scrambler ride. Now top it all off with the most impressive use of 3-D technology in any of the parks plus interactive game play that makes Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin seem old fashioned and you've got a home run of fun!

Here's some of the pictures I took as I raced to get on board before there was a breakdown:

The queue takes you through Andy's room where there are all sorts of toys and pop culture items as seen through the eyes of the toys.

One of my favorites was this giant View Master reel, which of course is Disney related and makes me want to snatch it and use it in the big View Master at the Buzz Lightyear ride.

The famous Candy Land squares lead the path in one section of the queue.

A nice tribute to all the work Pixar has done over the years, the company's mascot Luxo (the desk lamp) makes an appearance near the end of the queue area.

There are several items and references from the Toy Story movies, like the homemade cardboard box houses that Andy uses in the films.

After the first room of never ending isles for the queue, you go upstairs and then down again to the loading platform.

Here's a couple of shots of the ride vehicles leaving the ride area and entering the ride load station:

While Toy Story Midway Mania may not elicit the same kinds of "oohs and aahs" as Soarin' or Everest , it's a real fun ride that sure to make it to the top of everyone's must-ride list! Kids are going to love it and older guests will enjoy the technology behind this one of a kind attraction!

I'm Going To Disney World!

2008-05-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

That's my younger brother all tuckered out after a day of fun at the Magic Kingdom back in 1978. Speaking of taking a nap, The Blog Wore Tennis Shoes will be asleep until Friday, May 24. We're packing up the minivan and making the 900+ mile overnight trip to Walt Disney World tonight! But, for all the new visitors who've sailed in here from a plug at The Disney Blog please bookmark us and comeback next weekend for lots more fun!

The 36 Year Old Disney Sandwich Pick

2008-05-13T00:01:00.002-04:00

When I told my mom I was looking for anything she might have laying around her house from our numerous trips to Walt Disney World, she was very quick to offer this little gem. What's more, she knew exactly where this item was...tucked away in a drawer that I don't think I ever even went in all the years that I lived there! Anyhow, I was delighted to be handed this plastic pick from one of the dining establishments at the then newly opened Polynesian Village Resort - 1972. It looks like the kind of pick they'd use to stick an olive on top of a big ol' sandwich, but my mom seems to remember it coming from a drink. So, perhaps it's the kind of pick they jab through a piece of fruit and a cherry and drop in your drink. Bottom line is: It's cool, it's old, it's bizarre that someone would still have it and it's the kind of neato thing that pops up on someone's Disney blog. As you can see, the pick features the Polynesian Resort logo and the words "Walt Disney World - Florida".

Eastern Winds Lounge

2008-05-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

In my last post I shared some pictures of the Polynesian Village Resort circa 1972. One of the pictures featured an old ship docked at the resort. I was pretty sure that ship was no longer at the Poly, but I had no other info on it. Well, I seemed to get some pretty healthy feedback on this particular picture as it spotlighted one of Walt Disney World's earliest hidden treasures. The photograph I used last week was a wallet sized photo but I was able to also find the regular sized picture so I scanned that larger picture so that I could share with you a slightly more clear image. Here it is:

The ship, known as a Chinese Junk, was apparently part of the Polynesian Village Resort from 1971 to 1978 and was home to Eastern Winds a nightclub/lounge that I'm sure played a fair amount of disco. The ship was 65 feet long and had a deck lounge as well as a cabin lounge. You could also find staterooms on board. One of the selling points of this venue that was used in various publicity at the time pointed out the attractiveness of the cocktail waitress and their authentic costumes.

Eastern Winds is really one of those old WDW spots that really only survives through guest's memories. There is very little information about this nightspot online or in any of the older published materials that I looked through. Even a Resort Guide that I have from a 1978 visit does not list Eastern Winds among the Poly's offerings. However, while looking for info I came across this great website that I had never seen before: Tikiman's Unofficial Disney's Polynesian Resort Webpage. This site is filled with tons of images, stories and information about the resort. Maybe ya'll have heard of this site before, but it was a new find for me and I spent quite a bit of time reading through all the pages Tikiman has to offer. I even swiped a couple of pictures of the Chinese Junk from his page to share here.

I guess tomorrow would be a good time to share a really odd souvenir I have from the early days of the Polynesian Village Resort...

Polynesian & Contemporary - 1972

2008-05-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here's the last set of photos I have from my parents honeymoon to Walt Disney World in June 1972. Most of these shots are pretty unremarkable but this first one is pretty cool...

Before Space Mountain, the Contemporary Resort is in plain sight from the Magic Kingdom. You can still see the Contemporary from the park to this day, but without Space Mountain the resort almost sits right in the Magic Kingdom park. I guess it's architectural style fits in with the original look of Tomorrowland. Also, check out the (in-use) station for the Sky Way in the background. Nowadays, the Sky Way is gone but that building lives on as the world's largest building to house regular sized rest rooms.

Here's some shots of the Polynesian Village (as it was known then.)

Beanyland

2008-05-08T00:01:00.002-04:00

In an episode of the classic children's series "Beany and Cecil" (and later in a comic book) the title characters learn of their creator's plans to build a theme park that bares a striking resemblance to a certain California theme park that we all know and love. Beanyland was to be an out of this world theme park built on the moon. Instead of Fantasyland, Beanyland was to feature "Castle Wall Street" where you could buy stock in the show's characters. While Disney has it's Matterhorn, Beanyland featured a whole mountain range called the "Amos and Andes." Tomorrowland became "Science-Fictionland" and in a slightly eerie bit of foreshadowing there were also plans for a section called "Thrillsville" featuring the "Rock `n' Roller Coaster".

This was all in a cartoon, but in real life a struggling Santa Monica, California amusement park known as Pacific Ocean Park contacted Beany and Cecil creator Bob Clampett (also of Looney Tunes fame) in the hopes of creating some park attractions based on elements from his television series. However, Clampett's plans for converting Pacific Ocean Park into Beanyland never saw the light of day and Pacific Ocean Park went belly-up after just ten short years of operation. (Disneyland is still open.)

source:
Onosko, Tim. Fun Land U.S.A. Ballantine Books; New York. 1978

Tencennial Parade - 1982

2008-05-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

These selections from the ol' family photo albums are of Walt Disney World's Tencennial Parade, a daily event which celebrated the Florida park's 10th Anniversary. The parade appeared at the Magic Kingdom for one year beginning October 1981, these photographs were taken in January 1982.

Breakfast with the Chipmunks

2008-05-05T10:08:00.003-04:00

Here's the original flyer for one of the earlier versions of a character meal at Walt Disney World. "Chip & Dale's Country Morning Jamboree" was a revamped version of "Breakfast with Melvin the Moose" another old school character offering. The shows kind of served as an early morning edition of the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review. They served plenty of food, offered a family-friendly Hee-Haw style show and provided guests interaction with Disney characters - mainly the Country Bears and then later Chip n' Dale were added to the mix. It appears the Ft. Wilderness breakfast shows sprung up in the mid-80's but were all but a memory come the early 90's.

All I can really offer you here is a scan of the brochure. If you want more info on this attraction check out Walt Dated World for pictures, memories and a little more detail.

Mickey Mouse's Truck Book

2008-05-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

I realize I've already covered one kids book this week here on the blog, but yesterday we dug this great little book up from the bottom of a basket of books in our living room. It's honestly been a couple of years since I've seen it. Mickey Mouse's Truck Book is a simple little board book from 1984 that shows Mickey doing different jobs all with the help of a truck. I guess it's supposed to tap into that natural fascination that little boys have with trucks. As I was reading the book to one of my kids I was appreciating how simple and low-key the illustrations were. I guess I'm getting used to Mickey books being rendered in the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse style. The pictures here seem almost old fashioned and then I noticed that the book is only 24 years old...and then I felt old! Anyhow, I thought some of you guys might also have the same appreciation for these quiet drawings so since the book is only 10 pages long, I scanned the whole thing.

Vintage Wonderful World Book Ad

2008-04-29T03:27:00.000-04:00

This ad appeared in the back of a Little Golden Book. This particular book has been sitting on the used book sale shelf at my local library since October. It's missing the back cover and several pages inside, but for a dime I figured it was worth salvaging just to scan this ad. However, the title page of the book is among the many pages missing. Therefore, it's hard to date this ad. The latest movie mentioned in the books is Robin Hood which would make this ad mid-70's, however if they are talking about the live-action Robin Hood and not the 1973 animated feature this ad could date back to the early 60's as Sword in the Stone and 101 Dalmatians is mentioned. Either way, it's a neat 4-page ad with some vintage character art work. These books are pretty easy to find at an antique mall or flea market. I've even seen the whole set, with the box, for $20.00.

Baby Gyro

2008-04-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

Baby versions of the Disney Characters (known oddly enough as Disney Babies) have been around for almost 25 years now helping sell baby clothes, baby furniture, baby bedding and anything else you might need for a baby. They've also appeared in a number of books geared towards the under 4 set. Usually the Disney Babies consist of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto. Of all the other Disney characters out there, it's kind of strange to find Gyro Gearloose presented in his younger years. In the 1991 book, Safety First, you'll find Baby Mickey along with his good buddy Baby Gyro getting ready for a day at the park. It's odd that they chose Gyro Gearloose for this story, as he's an inventor and yet there are no inventions, gizmos or gadgets in the book.

Here we see Baby Gyro and Baby Mickey, apparently home without adult supervision, enjoying some delicious scalding hot soup. Careful guys, that soup is hot! Always wait for a grown up to fill your bowl with soup! What...no grown ups!? OK, go ahead!

Here Baby Gyro and Baby Mickey head off to the park in the big city all by themselves. At least they remember to stay on the sidewalk and always use the crosswalk!

The Disney Nieces

2008-04-22T02:43:00.000-04:00

Everybody knows that Donald Duck has three nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They've appeared in animated shorts, comic books, and they've even had two television series. And most Disney fans are familiar with Mickey Mouse's nephews Mortie and Ferdy, having also appeared in comic books as well as one brief screen appearance plus dozens of children's books. But a group of relatively unknown and low-key group of characters in the Disney universe are The Disney Nieces.

Yes, Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck also have young relatives whose exploits are not as well known as their male counterparts. Daisy Duck is actually "Aunt Daisy" to three feisty little gals named April, May and June. According to the official Duck Family Tree, the girls are daughters of Daisy's brother Fred. They first appeared in a 1953 story "Flip Decision" featured in issue 149 of Walt Disney Comics and Stories. As with many of the early Disney characters there seems to be no organized or pre-planned history and background of the characters. An entry from the website HooZoo seems to have best captured the girls history...

April, May and June first appeared as three unnamed nieces of Daisy Duck (WDC&S #149 in the "Donald Duck" Flippism story, Feb. 1953). April was the first to be named ("Dell Giant" #35 in "The Course in Confusion,"1960), and the others were probably assigned names in the "Dell Giant: Uncle Donald and His Nephews, Family Fun" #38 (1960) where they are clearly listed on the Duck Family Tree, as well as being in attendance at Grandma Duck's ranch house. While we do not know who their parents are, it can be assumed that they are probably the daughters of a sister of Daisy Duck's, as was shown in their first appearance. Even at family gatherings their parents are not present, and Daisy usually brings them with her. Unlike the Nephews, they do not live with their Aunt Daisy, though they do visit her quite frequently. The Nephews, their cousins, have a 'love-hate' relationship with the Nieces. Sometimes the boys are fawning over them (i.e., "Dell Giant" #35 in "The Course in Confusion,"1960 or Dell 4C "Daisy Duck's Diary" #1055 in "The Double Date," 1959), while other times the girls are fawning over the boys (i.e., Dell Giant" #38 in "Clubhouse Crashers," 1960); but most times they seem to dislike each other (i.e., "Dell Giant: Donald Duck, Merry Christmas" #53 in "Tough Sledding," 1961). The girls are members of the Junior Chickadee Patrol under the brawny mistress Captain Ramrod, and are often in competition with the boys in the Junior Woodchucks. Most of their adventures concern Daisy or the Nephews, but the have had their own adventures as well (i.e., "Dell Giant: Merry Christmas" #39 in "April, May and June: The Bewitched Dolls," 1960).

The folks at Disney also recognize Millie and Melody as two nieces of Minnie Mouse. They made their first appearance in the Gold Key Comic "Mickey Mouse Album" issue 1 from 1963. The name of the story was "The Late Show." It is also considered that Millie and Melody made their only screen appearance in 1983's "Mickey's Christmas Carol" as the daughters of Bob Cratchit.

There isn't a whole lot of information about Minnie or Daisy's nieces available as they are only bit-players in the grand scheme of the Disney Universe. Perhaps if you've got some old comic books you can do a little hunting and find some tales of April, May, June, Millie and Melody.

Hidden Mickeys: Homemade Edition

2008-04-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

This is the kind of thing that separates the casual Disney fan from the kind of Disney fan that names their child after Walt Disney. This is also the kind of thing that could have gotten a fella on the Johnny Carson program. Perhaps you do this too, but my family and I see Hidden Mickeys everywhere. Not just in the Disney theme parks but in the world around us. Like this slice of green pepper here on the right. That's one whole slice, don't ask me how it came out that way!? I just took the picture! Here's some more...

You can make Mickey shaped fried eggs, but it's not every day the yolk just plops right out of the egg and onto the frying pan in a perfect Mickey shape.

This Mickey cloud is extra special. Not only is a big ol' Mickey looking down on us from the heavens, but we spotted this happy cloud at Walt Disney World on the first day of our trip last year as we were heading to the parks for the first time. How cool is that?

I guess this one is kind of a stretch, but this is the way the salad was handed to me at a local restaurant. The dimensions of this Hidden Mickey are too perfect to just overlook...and then eat!

I probably would have not even noticed this parking lot oil slick slightly reminiscent of Mickey except that the parking lot in question is the Disney Cruise Line parking lot. We spotted this "out-of-shape" Mickey after a 4-night cruise back in 2005.

Got any Homemade Hidden Mickeys of your own? Send `em in and we'll run another segment on this topic! discomickeymouse@yahoo.com

The National Toy Train Museum

2008-04-16T00:01:00.001-04:00

Last month we looked at Geppi's Entertainment Museum, in Baltimore, which is overflowing with Disney history on every wall of the building. The next stop in our "Disney Outside of Disney" series doesn't offer an overwhelming amount of Disneyana but it does offer a subject near and dear to Walt's heart as well as a few fun touches of Disney.

The small town of Strasburg, PA offers quite a number of world class railroading attractions from full size historic locomotives to the only officially licenced Thomas the Tank Engine Store. There's even a hotel where you can spend the night in an actual caboose. Strasburg is also home to the national headquarters of the Train Collectors Association and their National Toy Train Museum. The museum houses five detailed toy train layouts with plenty of buttons to operate trains and various other elements within the layouts. While the subject of Walt Disney and his love of trains is not a subject explored at the museum, where ever you find an exploration into pop culture you're bound to find a little Disney magic somewhere.

Here's some pics of great Disney items that me and my one track mind (pun intended) took while visiting the museum.

The name Lionel is synonymous with model railroading but in their early days they produced an assortment of children's playthings. Some of those items are on display at the museum including this vintage Mickey Mouse Club record player. If you look slightly to the left of the top of the needle arm you'll see the Lionel "L" logo.

Here's a wall of handcars featuring some famous friends of ours.

These Mickey & Minnie handcars debuted at Christmas 1934. They were produced in orange, red, green and maroon by the Lionel Corporation. They sold for $1.00 each which ended up being the perfect price for families who couldn't afford an electric train during the Great Depression. Sales of the handcars were so astronomical that Mickey Mouse is credited with saving the Lionel Corp. from bankruptcy.

One of the layouts has a train that travels into a mine. If you follow the tracks you'll find an opening in the side of the mine where you can spot this vintage Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs mine train set.

Last we have a few snapshots of some engines and cars on display. These are mostly from a large series of models produced in the mid-90's. At a nearby attraction, Choo-Choo Barn, you can see many of these pieces in action.

Not Just Any Disney Joke Book

2008-04-14T10:27:00.002-04:00

Get ready for some big time comedy, folks! This isn't just any ol' joke book - this is The ULTIMATE Disney Joke Book by Chip Lovitt (1995, Disney Press). I dug this out of a used book store this weekend. It's 64 pages of zingers and puns featuring a who's who of Disney animated characters. Most of these jokes have probably been printed 1,000 times before in slightly different forms in books like 101 Best Hamburger Jokes and Super Silly Sports Riddles. But ya gotta give this book credit for including characters from just about all the classic Disney animated features. A good deal of Disney's output in the mid-90's centered on "the new Disney" characters from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. You'll find all them here along with Mickey and the gang, Snow White, Pinocchio and even Prince Philip.

Get ready to dust off your funny bone for a sampling of comedy Disney-style:

What's Mickey's favorite type of TV show?

A Minnie-series.

Why is the movie Bambi like ninety-nine cents?

Both are about a buck.

Why won't Cinderella ever be a great soccer player?

She runs away from the ball.

One more...

What has sixteen legs and catches flies?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs playing baseball.

You can go get a tissue now to wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes.

To Stroller or Not To Stroller

2008-04-10T00:01:00.001-04:00

Word on the street has it that Walt Disney World has raised the price of stroller rentals at it's theme parks. Where a one child stroller used to set you back ten bucks a day, and a double eighteen Disney Dollars, they'll now empty out your wallet at $15 and $31 a day, respectively. That's crazy!

First, let me say that my family and I are road trippers when it comes to traveling to Walt Disney World. We make the 14 - 16 hour drive in a non-stop overnight run and we love it. Last year was our first trip to WDW with the need of the assistance of a double stroller. My two boys were 15 months and 3 1/2 at the time of our trip. Their Graco DuoGlider double stroller took up the majority of the storage space in our Plymouth Grand Voyager mini-van. Actually, let me correct that...my wife's luggage took up the majority of the space, when you added the double stroller there wasn't much room left for anything else.

We love having our own stroller while at Disney World. Sure, it's a small pain to fold it up and get on and off the Disney buses quickly. However, once you get back to your resort you can pop open the stroller again, plop the kids in it and make your way back to your room which can often be quite a hike. When you rent a stroller at the parks, you've got to leave it at the gate on your way out. You are on your own from the turnstiles for the rest of the night. But even though we really like having our own stroller with us we also like having clothes to wear and space for all the souvenirs we're going to go home with. So this got us to thinking about other options for our stroller needs.

Of course our first solution was to rent a stroller. A quick hop over to the internet to look at stroller rental prices revealed that we'd be paying $126.00 for the use of Disney's strollers. That was a good deal of our merchandise budget having to be redirected towards something boring. Plus I wasn't too thrilled about having to deal with getting in line to get a stroller each day. For $126 you can buy a pretty nice stroller.

That got us to thinking back to a 2005 visit to WDW where we had to stop at a K-Mart near Universal Studios and buy a new stroller because in a rush to pack the car an hour before we left home I broke the stroller trying to shove to much stuff into the trunk. There's plenty of places in the Disney area to buy a stroller - cheap. There's Wal-Marts, K-Marts and other kinds of Marts all over I-4, 192, and International Drive. The K-Mart near Universal had a lovely selection of strollers. At the time, we only needed a single and found a real nice one for around $50. We liked it better than the Graco one we got as a Baby Shower gift and we still use it, while the Graco still sits, broken, in the garage. So, buying a stroller in Florida is always an option.

However, to solve our dilemma we opted to get a storage unit for the top of our van. You know, one of those "turtle shell" things. We figured, even if we only use it for Disney World once, we could still use it for trips to the beach and other family outings. In the end, buying the storage unit and having the guys at Sears put in on the van for us cost us $124.00. So we saved two dollars, and we still have the unit if we need it for future trips. Which is good because a week with a double stroller would now set us back $217.00.

O.K....so, my point?! There's options to shelling out big bucks to lug around some Mickey Mouse stroller for a week. Think about adding storage space to your vehicle. Explore the possibility of getting a smaller stroller than your normal one. You only need to use it for a few days. An umbrella stroller (even a double) can fold up pretty tight.

If you're in Orlando without a car, it might even be worth it to call a cab and have them take you to a near-by shopping establishment of your choice to grab a low-price set of wheels.

There can be many advantages to having your own stroller while touring Walt Disney World. If you think outside the box you might be able to save yourself a few dollars in the process.

Preview of 10 Upcoming Disney Films

2008-04-09T23:48:00.002-04:00

Here's a quick link to a brief (but to the point) article at Yahoo Movies about 10 films on the horizon from Walt Disney Pictures. Oddly enough, the one I'm most excited to hear about is a reissue!

Adventureland & Frontierland - 1972

2008-04-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here's another round of unspectacular, but fun, photographs from Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in their first summer of operation.

I thought the interesting aspect of this picture is how minimal the Jungle Cruise boat is. Just from this point of view it seems very plain and certainly not as "themed out" as it is today.

As with many of these old photos, the most striking thing in this photo from the Jungle Cruise is the lack of foliage around the set pieces.

Interesting vantage point, I would assume taken from the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House.

Is this whole get-up still there...or did we take that land too!?

First of all, when is the last time you saw a character in a gift shop? Second, notice the store doesn't seem to be stocked with just pins, snow globes, photo albums and plush.

A Doggone Memory

2008-04-07T00:02:00.003-04:00

Every visit to Walt Disney World is full of magical moments that leave you with magical memories for years to come.

One that comes to mind for me is the time good ol' Pluto used my son's head as a chew toy.

Mickey Is Happy

2008-04-04T22:57:00.001-04:00

Here's another one of those great used book store finds! MICKEY IS HAPPY (1992, Disney Press) is a very simple book made up of only five sentences. Each sentence tells how one of the Fab Five is feeling, and each feeling is accompanied by a fabulous illustration by Richard Buerrstein. The pictures are bold, colorful and full of expression! My kids love this book and even though it's only 12 pages long we spend quite a bit of time with this book when we read it. Each of the kids shows off their happy, sad or scared face with the turn of every page.
I could easily scan the whole book, but I'll just share with you a few of the wonderful graphics that make this book special in our home:

There's two other books in this series; In-Out A Disney Book of Opposites and One Mickey Mouse A Disney Book of Numbers.

Simple Disney Board Games

2008-04-02T22:21:00.000-04:00

Back in the day all ya needed to do was simply slap pictures of Mickey and his pals on a tried and true game and you had yourself hours of fun. I grew up learning how to play checkers with Disney Checkers. Each piece had a different Disney character on it. I spent hours playing that game with my family. Such a simple little joyful childhood memory!

This early 80's comic book ad plugs three very simple Disney games: Mickey Mouse Tic-Tac-Toe, Goofy Game, and Disney Checkers. Each one of these probably only a few bucks when they were brand new and you can still find them reasonably cheap on E-bay, although Goofy Game seems to be the most rare of the trio.

Il Libro della Giungla

2008-04-01T22:18:00.000-04:00

Today's little offering is some unusual depictions of characters from The Jungle Book by Italian Disney comic artist Giovan Battista Carpi and Claudio Mazzoli. These appeared in an English translation of an Italian Disney Encyclopedia series back in the early 70's. First up is King Louie dressed for either a night out on the town or an audition for a local dinner theatre production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Down below we have a cool picture of Chip n' Dale grabbing a ride on Bageria's back. This picture isn't all that crazy, but I always love when characters from different films interact. (How cool would a cartoon of Chip n' Dale annoying Bageria be?!)

And last we have this picture...I'm not sure what the scenario is supposed to be here. It appears Donald Duck is dressed as a Canadian Mountie and raking Baloo's back. I'm sure Baloo appreciates a good back raking, but I don't thing this would make as good a cartoon as Bageria and Chip n' Dale.

Cinderella's Castle & Liberty Square - 1972

2008-03-28T16:01:00.001-04:00

Here's another round of personal photographs from Walt Disney World in 1972. Again, these are just some random shots that my folks took on their honeymoon...nothing special. They do, however, offer a look at the Magic Kingdom in it's very early days. The biggest thing you'll notice in these pictures is the lack of foliage around the park. There seems to be a lot more open space in these photos. After 16 years of only having the smaller Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland, Cinderella's east coast counterpart must have seemed very majestic to Disney enthusiasts at the time. This picture on the left shows the grand backside of the castle, probably from the vantage point of the Sky Ride.

Didn't there used to be alot more topiaries around the resort!? Who's idea was it to scale back the topiary budget? Check out the "tail" end of a topiary creature slinking it's way across the bottom right corner of this picture.

The Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat docked.

A very crowded queue for the Haunted Mansion. The house looks kinda different sitting there all by itself - not surrounded by big trees.

Main Street U.S.A. - 1972

2008-03-26T01:01:00.000-04:00

The other day I shared some WDW Resort ID cars from my parents' honeymoon in 1972. I've uncovered some other goodies from that trip, and today we're going to open up the family photo album and share some pics from the Magic Kingdom circa June 1972. We'll start our tour, as all visits to MK do, on Main Street U.S.A. These shots aren't earth shattering but it's always fun to see old photos of Walt Disney World, especially when you're going back to the days when the resort was only nine months old.

Here's Mickey at the 2:00 "Character Parade".

Donald waves hi from the fire truck. A nice shot of the Borden sponsored Plaza Ice Cream Parlor.

I guess at this point, these parade pictures are pretty self-explanatory.

Last, we have a double decker bus making its way around Town Square.

Free Comic Book Day

2008-03-24T01:01:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd piggyback off yesterday's excellent Gyro Grearloose post over at 2719 Hyperion and offer up some fun news concerning the Duckburg inventor. Walt Disney's Gyro Gearloose will be one of the featured titles on this year's Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, May 3. If you can't figure it out from the name, Free Comic Book Day is a day where you can go to your local comic book store and pick up free specially produced issues of tons of different comic books. It's a great way for new people to discover the world of comics and for seasoned comic readers to try out some new titles. This years offering includes this Gyro book with stories by Carl Barks and Don Rosa. The official word on the book:

Scrooge and Launchpad join their gadget-man pal for a book full of inventive adventure! Gyro creates a super cheese in Carl Barks’ and Don Rosa’s “Pied Piper of Duckburg”; a money rescue system in “Cave of the Winds”; and several awesome — but not quite uncrashable — planes in William Van Horn’s “All Quacked Up!”

This exciting Disney freebie is known as a Silver Book, meaning that every store participating in Free Comic Book Day is not going to have it. Last year they announced a Mickey Mouse book as part of the offerings. When I showed up at my local comic shop they had not only the Mickey but also a Donald Duck book and an Uncle Scrooge title. So, it's worth the trip out just to see what they might have.

Other free comic books to be available on May 3 include The Simpsons, Transformers, Jughead, Gumby, and Superman among many others plus mini-figures from the world of Star Wars and Iron Man. Happy Comic Hunting!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-22T01:01:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite parts of any holiday is working Disney into the picture somehow. There's always lots of Disney decorations and sometimes even Disney candy to go around. One of the nice things about being so obsessed with Disney and in particular Mickey Mouse, is that people give me Disney stuff all the time. My mother-in-law found this old Mickey Mouse Easter Egg Color Kit at an antique mall and picked it up for me a few years back. This item was produced by SunHill Industries of Stamford, CT. There's no date on it, but I'm guessing it's from the early 80's based on the artwork and the old Walt Disney Productions copyright on the back.
All the box contains is four standard dye tablets and the traditional "egg dipper". The Disney fun comes on the back of the box where you can cut out two pairs of nifty little Mickey Mouse Club hats for your eggs, and the two Egg Holders. At the most, you would have had two Mickey eared eggs and two more eggs sitting on the little cardboard rings. Still, a fun item and a reminder of more innocent times.

SunHill also produced these Little Mermaid Instant Egg Art beauties. Sadly, my ownership of this item does not come from a flea market or antique store. My mom recently found this tucked away somewhere from when I had bought it sometime in the early 90's. And yes, I made a batch of Little Mermaid eggs back then too. But these suckers were cool. This kit comes with 12 egg wrappers which are basically little plastic sleeves that you put the eggs into and then you dunk the eggs into boiling water for 3 seconds and the wrapper shrinks around the egg making very clear and pretty eggs with different characters from the movie. The package doesn't lie..."Prettiest Eggs in Only 3 Seconds!" Then when you cracked the egg the picture just came apart with the shell as if you had hand painted it on the egg! Very cool item! I remember taking some over to my friend Chris' house for dinner Easter night. I'm sure his parents and their other guests thought I was out of my mind...seeing as how I was 19 years old at the time.

This entry into the Disney Easter Egg Decorating Kit cannon is from a couple of years ago. I found them at Dollar Tree of all places! These bad boys come to us from The Paper Magic Company of Scranton, PA. (Rivals of Dunder Mifflin, no doubt!) Here we get FIVE dyes and the bent coat hanger...I mean, egg dipper, plus we get 48 stickers featuring all the four wheeled friends from the CARS movie. The package also promises "9 Fun Tops" and a "Punch Out Drying Tray". The tray, is the box itself with little perforated circles that you can punch out on the back to lay your wet eggs in. The "Fun Tops" are the little cardboard circles that you punched out to make the tray. The box instructs you to "Punch out the circles from the back of the box and push a toothpick into the center, then spin like a top!" Wow...how lame is that? I'm sure our CARS eggs impressed the Easter Bunny though!

Thanks for checking in with The Blog Wore Tennis Shoes and have a safe and happy Easter weekend!

Really Old WDW Resort Cards

2008-03-21T22:40:00.001-04:00

Here's one of the cooler pieces of my little ol' Walt Disney World memorabilia collection. These are resort ID cards dating back to the first summer of operation - 1972. My parents honeymooned there and were cool enough to save this little treasure. The ID card itself is the white part which is perforated and separates from the yellow card. That's the part you're supposed to carry around with you and show the folks at the monorail station before you hop on. (Yeah, right!) The yellow part you could just throw away, but my folks saved the yellow card on the off-chance that their first born son would one day cherish every little scrap of paper produced in Walt Disney World.

It's interesting to note that these cards could be used to charge purchases to your room but only in the hotels and campground. You could not use your room account in the Magic Kingdom park.

These cards are printed on a thick paper stock, like an old library card or time clock card. Later the resort updated to thin plastic cards before moving to the thick credit card style Key to the World card that they issue now.

You can click on the image to enlarge it. Note: I used MS Paint (poorly) to white out our last name.

Geppi's Entertainment Museum

2008-03-20T15:12:00.000-04:00

Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a jaw-dropping treasure trove of all things pop culture. From comic books, toys, and movie memorabilia, there is something in this museum that will make everybody say, "Hey, I had that!" Since no one has had a hold of popular culture so long as Walt Disney, stepping into Geppi's is the next best thing to a tour of the Disney Archives. There's plenty of Disney history and other goodies on display on every wall of this museum.

The museum's tour of all things fun over the last 100+ years begins with the largest comic book collection you've ever seen. The books featuring the first appearances of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Spiderman are all on display as well as the first Disney comic books ever produced and scores of obscure titles and movie-tie ins. The exhibits then move in a chronological order from the very first comic strip characters to be licenced and merchandised all the way up to Spongbob Squarepants. Along the way, you won't believe the amount of Disney stuff you'll find. This place is awesome! Here's a few of the sights you see:

One of the earlier pieces of Mickey Mouse merchandising, a tin Mickey circus tent and circus train. I never had one of these but just seeing it made me nostalgic for the old days. (Which is strange because I also didn't live through the 30's.)

Original one sheet for Halloween Hilarities, a 1953 theatrical compilation of Disney animated shorts - released by RKO shortly before they ended their association with Disney.

You'd have a hard time finding Professor Von Drake merchandise from today, yet alone from the original days of Wonderful World of Color.

Here he is! The infamous Little Orange Bird, the subject of many a blog post.

This exhibit piece displays nine panels of a comic book in crystal clear large images. The screens change every couple of minutes, and display the complete story of a few books. One of the stories is the classic Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. You can really appreciate all the detail and color when the frames are blown up in this fashion.

Geppi's Entertainment Museum is a real treat for Disney fans and anyone who likes cartoons, toys and all that good stuff. You could spend several hours soaking in all the museum has to offer. It's definitely worth a drive if you are in the surrounding area. They currently have a Uncle Scrooge exhibit in their temporary gallery space which I hope to get down to soon and report back on.

WDW on Fine Living

2008-03-19T04:30:00.002-04:00

I stumbled across the listings for two programs of note that are airing on the Fine Living cable network. If you've never heard of Fine Living, look in your local cable lineup in the 100's - it's probably up there around Channel 131 between The Biography Channel and the Fox Reality Channel or other such necessary outlets of broadcasting excellence!

This Saturday night at 11:00pm ET they are airing Great Family Getaways: Orlando. Spotlighted in this show will be not only Walt Disney World but also the ever-growing Sea World resort and Universal Orlando. In addition to a Disney fix, we might also get some previews of Universal's new Simpsons ride and Sea World's new roller coaster and water park.

Then next Thursday, they've got something called What You Get For Your Money: Walt Disney World. This program promises to show you how you can visit all four Disney theme parks for under $1,600. Sounds like it might be more of a promotional piece than informative or entertaining, but as long as it features lots of footage of good ol' WDW...we'll lap it up!