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The Hundreds x Disney

In my last post I used some pictures from Bobby Hundreds Blog.  If you are not familiar with the Hundreds it is a street wear clothing company based out of California.  They just released an awesome collaboration they did with Jim Davis; the creator of Garfield.  You can check that out  here . Well a few years ago they did an even better collaboration with Disney.  Im actually surprised that Disney would work so closely with a street wear brand, it seems like a lot of corporate red tape would get in the way.  Anyway, The Hundreds compare themselves to the Lost Boys so what better characters so use than them: They even used Skull Rock as the inspiration for their San Francisco shop.   I love how they modernized (street weared?) these characters that have just been collecting dust in the Disney vault since the 50's.  If you want to purchase any The Hundreds x Disney stuff...sorry it sold out right after they released it.  So if you like The Garfield stu

Look Magazine

These pictures are from a 1964 issue of Look Magazine.  The entire magazine was a preview for the 1964 World's Fair.  Since Walt Disney was contributing four attractions to the fair (Small World, Carousel of Progress, Mr. Lincoln, Ford Magic Skyway) there were a few pages dedicated to him. Whoa is that the silhouette Walfred Hitchsney? You always hear about the infamous Walt Disney eyebrow.  Looks like this caveman is getting it. That's probably the best picture of Walt I've ever seen!

Toy Story 3 and The Shining

I really like how Pixar always hides easter eggs in their films.  Toy Story 3 is full of them but today I am just focusing on the references to The Shining.  If you know anything about Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich it's that he loves The Shining.  So here are the three references in the film that I know of. Check out the license plate on Sid's garbage truck. and this screen name. Both are references to room 237, the room Danny is told never to enter in The Shining. This next one is a little tougher. Check out the crazy design on the tissue box. This is not the first time Pixar has used that carpet design either.  Can you find it in the original Toy Story?

Hanna Barbera Land: Attractions

Back to my 1985 birthday at Hanna Barbera Land.  Check out the Paddle Boats. That's me in Quick Draw McGraw and the rest of my gang in Snagglepuss. It looks like Huckleberry Hound might be waaaay back there. I would love to know what happened to these Carousel characters. So we have Yogi, Scooby, Dino, and.....Train Car? I have one more batch of photos from the birthday bash.  Next up characters in the park!

Hanna-Barbera Land

In September 1985 I spent my 3rd birthday at Hanna-Barbera Land.  I think it's pretty safe to say that no one reading this ever had a chance to visit.  Im sure that most Houstonians don't even remember it, probably because it was only open from 84-85. Im not going to pretend that I remember everything that happened on my third birthday but I do remember the riding this mini train. Look at this lady killer Hanna-Barbera Land only had a few attractions which probably explains why it only made it one year, but here's some of the my party guest were able to experience: A Carousel, Scooby's Ghost Coaster ( I wish I had pictures of that!), Silly Sitx Jungle Jim, Bumper Boats, Water Body Slides, Puppet Show, Papa Smurf's Forest Restaurant, and a band that played Hanna Barbera theme songs! (Thanks Wikipedia) This is part one of three posts I have of "Birthday Party 85" pictures.  I have too many pictures for one post so this one is a littl

Ward Kimball Post Card

Did everyone read this article on Cartoon Brew last week about Ward Kimball's house being sold? Hopefully his house will not suffer the same fate as Walt's Carolwood house which was torn down.  So in memory of Ward today I'm going to share one of my favorite pieces of memorabilia. Check out this postcard: We played here! How exciting, but what does that mean?  Well if you didn't know, Ward Kimball was the leader of the Dixieland Jazz Band The Firehouse Five Plus Two.  The group was made up of Disney artist including Frank Thomas.  They even made an appearance in the Goofy cartoon "How to Dance." There is a great Firehouse Five reference in The Princess and the Frog too.  At the end of the film when Lou is playing in Tiana's restaurant the name of his band is "The Fireflies Five Plus Lou."  How awesome is that! Stay tuned for some more Firehouse Five related post because I love this band!

Everyone I Know Has A Big But....

Yesterday I bought tickets to see Pee Wee Herman in New York!  I couldn't be more excited.  In fact I told him so on twitter, and he responded!!!! If I meet Pee Wee I think all of my life goals will be complete! Did anyone see the show in LA?

Walt Disney: Public Menace

Look at this picture: Cute right? Good ol' Walt Disney playfully sticking up a stage coach full of kids at Disneyland.  You know why he's grinning like that?  I'l tell you, this isn't the first time Walt has pulled a gun on someone.   Hopefully those kids made out better than this guy:  Yup, there it is.  Walt Disney beating an unidentified man senseless with the back of a gun on a roof top.  Don't forget Walt was born in Chicago, birthplace of organized crime in American.  We all know Elias moved the Disney's out of Chicago in 1906 to escape all of the big city crime.  Was this the truth or was he moving 5 year old Walt away from his childhood gang? Well, after spending a few years in Marceline away from all of his gangster friends Elias thought it was safe to move the family back to the city, and this is what happened..... Alright, this is obviously a joke, here is the whole picture: Hey, we still don't know who this

The Benton Grammar School

This building is only a few blocks away from the Disney's House in Kansas City Missouri.  What is now a retirement home was once the Benton Grammar School, and in 1910 Walt Disney was one of it's students.  The Disney's left Kansas City in 1917 and the schools name was changed to the D.A. Holmes School.  The name is still on the building. This was the school Walt attended everyday after his early morning wake ups from Elias to go out and deliver The Kansas City Star.  I did a little Bing mapping to show you how close the school was to the Disney's house (in case you ever find yourself in the neighborhood) This was as close as I could get.....dang fence P.S. If you remember my adventure trying to find the Disney's house than pay attention to the map above.  You can see the garage and the end of Bellefontaine Ave & 31 St. where the friendly mechanics took my down the alley to see Walt's shed.  You can read that story  here .

Lyric Ave.

Let's visit another one of Walt's houses. Walt bought this house as a kit and had all the parts delivered.  I hate trying to put toy models together, imagine a model the size of a house being dropped on your property. (Not that Walt had any part in putting it together) Now from the other side.... What's even better about this is that Roy lived next door! (Maybe that's his BMW...) Walt and Roy lived in these houses during the 20's and 30's.  Walt moved out in 1933 to his much larger home on Woking Way.  These houses are only a few blocks away from where the old Hyperion Studio was. They're also very close to the original Disney Brothers Studio and Uncle Robert's house. In fact I drove past and recognized Walt's house (which is on the corner) as I was driving to Uncle Robert's.

Mr. Toad Painting's Update

I decided it might be a good idea to watch some old attraction videos of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to see if I could find the paintings I discussed in my previous post . They call them dark rides for a reason, so these are the best screen shots I could get.  In the first room you can see the photo of Toad dressed as a guard. Like I said before, this was the best I could get. In the next room (which i'll go ahead and call the Jungle Room) you can see the painting of Toad and the lion. If you stare at this one like you are trying to solve a 3D Magic eye.... There you go my friends. Boy do I miss that ride.

Tales From The College Program: Fast Pass Scam

When I arrived in Florida to start my College Program with Disney I was dumb enough to think that i'd be given some kind of pass that would let me skip the lines (well hoping for one at least).  I soon found out that Cast Members had to wait in line with every one else.  My new mission was to find a way around that.  The solution was acquiring Fast Passes.  This was back in 2003 when Cast Member's did not pay attention to the tiny date printed on the bottom of the pass.  Here are the ways I collected: 1. Ripping off the Fast Pass Machine:  If you know how to do this, good for you (if not...sorry).  This was somewhat complicated because you needed 2 to 3 people to pull it off.  One look out, one guy to do the deed and one guy to catch all the passes that were going to shoot out. 2. Asking a fellow CP for a rider switch pass: Instead of just asking for multiple Fast Passes the best thing to do was ask a Cast Member for a rider switch which would get you and 3 friends on

Mr. Toad Paintings

Back when I was in the Walt Disney World College Program (2003-2004), one of my favorite things to do was explore backstage areas.  Most of the time it was the Magic Kingdom I was exploring.  Down in the utilidor (tunnels running under the Magic Kingdom) they still have a plate on the wall that indicates "This way to Mr. Toad and 20,000 Leagues." I used to have a picture of it but cannot seem to find it. Well one day while exploring backstage I came across a custodial break room.  The entrance is very close to the restrooms that are connected to the Enchanted Grove:   (Somewhere in that general area) Through a small window on the door I could see Mr. Toad staring at me. I went inside and found another one! At the time I did not own a digital camera which should explain to you why these pictures are so off center.  I also took them very quickly because I did not know if I would get in some kind of trouble. I've always wondered who decided the

Close your mouth Donnie we are not a codfish....

I think I can die happy now.  As you may I enjoy writing letters to celebrities.  I'm not one of these people who just sends out hundreds of letters a week to any random person either.  The majority of the people I write to are Disney or Hitchcock related.  Well about 6 months ago I wrote to Dick Van Dyke and 3 months later he sent back my Mary Poppins dvd cover signed.  It was immediately after this I remembered that I had the Mary Poppins soundtrack on vinyl.  I decided that I would try sending it to Julie Andrews hoping she would sign it.  So I wrote her a note and sent along my album cover.  I knew my girlfriend would be jealous if Mrs. Andrews actually singed my record so I sent along the book jacket to her autobiography asking if she would sign it for Becky. On all of the sites I had read about Julie Andrews autograph seekers the feedback was this "Sent her a photo, received it back unsigned with a photo of Mrs. Andrews also unsigned."  I was hoping that sending s

"I love that story"

A while back I bought a 1953 Schwinn Flying Star.  My objective was to clean all of the rust off of it, repaint it, and transform it into a Pee Wee Herman bike.  Well I am at a point now where the bike itself is done and all I need to do is find as many Pee Wee accessories as I can and hand make the rest.  I follow Pee Wee on twitter so I decided to send him a picture of my bike. He is taking his stage show to Broadway so I sent the picture and said "In case you need a ride to NY."  Well Pee Wee retweeted it!!!!  AHHHHH.  Don't believe me?  Here's a screen shot.

The Disney's Marceline Home.

 This is the house the Disney Family lived in while they were in Marceline. It is actually the first thing you see as you drive into town.  Sorry this photo is blurry.  By this time I was completely soaked from running through the rain all afternoon and the Disney house is on the main road leading into town so I really had no place to stop.  The people who bought the house have added onto it.  The Disney's lived in the small section consisting of the two windows, everything to the right was added on. Behind the house is where the Walt's Dreaming Tree and the Disney barn is.  I blogged about those here , in case you missed it. This is the end of my Marceline Adveture.  I think I've shown you just about everything Disney related the town has to offer.  I did come across a few more Main Street pictures though, and I will post those later.

Main Street Marceline

How about we take a stroll down Main Street USA in Marceline this week?  I always hear people say "Main Street USA is based on Main Street in Walt's home town of Marceline Missouri."  Well, as you can see this really is not the case.  That doesn't make it any less awesome though. Marceline's Main Street is actually N. Kansas Ave.  The few blocks that run though down town have been renamed "Main Street USA." Check this out, they even have an Emporium.  Just like in the parks! I wish I could park my mini-van at the Magic Kingdom's Emporium so I wouldn't have to take all my souvenirs on the monorail..... And here's the old Uptown Theater! You can't go 5 minutes in Marceline without seeing something dedicated to Walt Disney or hearing a train. You can tell that Marceline is responsible for Walt's love of trains.  Like I said before a train runs through this town every 5 minutes.  The Walt Disney Home