Dinner Plans?

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.

Magic Kingdom Club Cards - 1977

Surprise For Mickey Mouse

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!

The 36 Year Old Disney Sandwich Pick

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

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

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.)

Vintage Wonderful World Book Ad

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.

Adventureland & Frontierland - 1972

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.

Cinderella's Castle & Liberty Square - 1972

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

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.