Im a blogger Dottie...a rebel

20 Feet Under The Sea

2012-01-26T13:31:00.000-08:00

Did you know that at Disney's Castaway Cay there is a sunken Nautilus from the old 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride? Did you also know that I went there in December and braved the cold water to take photos of it for you guys? Well, I did!

Here's a picture of a Nautilus in its glory days.

What's interesting is that the parts you could not see when the ride was open are now the only parts you see. Meaning, it is now upside down, sunken in the sand.

I also found this guy hanging out down there.

Shake it like a Polaroid picture

2012-01-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

Over the summer I decided the buy a Polaroid camera, this turned out to be harder than I imagined. The first problem is that most of the ones being sold online usually say "I think it works." which was a gamble I was not willing to take. Then, like a sign from the gods, I saw this on my Grandma's couch.

She was pretty surprised by my enthusiasm over her old camera, so she gave it to me. Next step, find film! In case you did not know, Polaroid no longer makes 600 instant film. This means that your main option is buying expired film online for $35 (and up) for one pack (which is 10 pictures). Luckily some die hard Polaroid employees started The Impossible Project, and they make the film now.

Their film will still run you about $30 (for 8 pictures) but they have some pretty awesome film options. I went with the Color Shade film because it gives the pictures a real 70's/80's look. The only problem was that it took me 4 pictures to figure out which way to push the light meter. In one video they said towards the light end which washed out my photos. You also have to shield the photo from light for the first 5 minutes, this meant that I shot the photo right into the film box. I left the other photos inside which caused a few blemishes on the developing picture. So, like I said before, it took me 4 of my 8 shots to get everything right. Was it worth it, I think so. I have already bought a few more packs to experiment with for my next trip. Anyway, enough chit chat, let's just look at the pictures.

My first shot was of the Mexico Pavilion. The brown spot is where the film hit the box...

The Imagination Pavilion. With this one I had pushed the meter more towards the light end because at the time the Mexico shot was not full developed.

The sun really got me on this one, and it was after this I decided to ignore the advice and switch the meter over to the dark side.

Things started looking up at the Haunted Mansion. It was after this shot I realized the picture had ran across the other 3 shots in the box (causing the brown spot) and took them all out before taking the next one.

Becky in Frontierland, we finally got it right.

Again in Liberty Square

Here'e me! (the white at the bottom was the box we were taking the pictures into, it was Becky's first try, cut her some slack)

She redeemed herself with this one.

There you have it kids. My advice, go buy a Polaroid 600 camera and some Impossible Film, you won't regret it. Plus, now that you know what not to do you can start off taking great pictures. I plan on brining the Polaroid every time we go to the parks now. Let's start a gang!

Epcot Phone Booth

2011-11-30T13:16:00.000-08:00

First off, there will be some kind of wedding trip report this week, but until then read this post. While in Epcot last week, my new wife wanted to have her picture taken in the phone booth outside the England Pavilion in Epcot. I crammed her, my sister, and my cousin in the booth and took a shot.

I stepped in to have my picture taken when the phone started ringing. I answered it not knowing what to expect, until I heard a little girls voice.

Kid: Hello

Me: Hello?

Kid: My name is (random kid name I forgot) what's yours?

Me: Donnie, nice to meet you (random kid name I forgot)

Me: Where are you from?

Kid: Hold on..............(asking parents) Fort Worth

Me: Wow, I'm from Texas too, do you know where you are calling?

Kid: Yes, the phone booth in Epicot. (Yes, she said Epicot)

Me: How did you get this number?

Kid: Let me ask my mom, I'll call you back.

So, I hung up and waited a minute and the phone rang again. She gave me a web address where I could find the number, but I really could not understand what she was saying so I thanked her and we hung up.

I did a google search and found the numbers, here they are:

407-827-9861

407-827-9862

Now, go call England and freak out the guests who are brave enough to answer.

WDW Bound!

2011-11-18T12:38:00.000-08:00

Guess where I'm going tomorrow? Yup, Walt Disney World, did I mention I'm getting married too. I plan on going instagram crazy while in the parks, so follow me on twitter (donniedisney) or instagram (donniesaur) and I'll try to take some good pictures.

See ya in a week or so!

1990 MGM Shows

2011-11-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from my families 1990 trip to Walt Disney World. It would appear that in my younger years I really enjoyed watching shows.

Maybe I liked shows so much back then because they were awesome. Rescue Rangers, Yes please. Although, Gadget does look pretty nuts.

Duck Tales and Gummi Bears!

Let's hope that with the new Muppet movie coming out in a few weeks Disney will dust off these costumes.

Don't forget about the Ninja Turtles, it wouldn't be a proper 1990 post without them!

Mondo Disney

2011-11-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

Mondo is kind of difficult to explain in one sentence. It's a company that releases odd cult movies on VHS, they also show mystery movies in Austin and Los Angeles. People will wait in line for days to see an unknown movie and buy a newly designed poster of the film. Today though we are going to discuss their weekly posters. Every week Mondo releases a movie poster from a classic film. These are new posters designed by an artist exclusively for Mondo. In Mondo's weekly email they'll show you what's up for grabs this week, how many were screened, and how much they cost. Let's say you want this weeks poster, it's not as easy as going to their site and buying it. Mondo's poster are very limited, I'm talking about 375-400! To get them you have to be at your computer with your twitter alert sent to your phone. Mondo will tweet at a random time on Fridays to let you know when the posters are on sale. They are usually sold out in two minutes for less.

Last week they had 2 awesome Disney posters for sale:

Here are a few more of their past Disney posters, all of which are no longer available.

Walt Disney World 1981

2011-11-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

I found this brochure from 1981, the pricing is a little confusing. One day adult admission is $13. Under that they have transportation and Magic Kingdom admission for $9.50, is this on top of the $13?

A birthday everyday sound like a precursor to Pleasure Islands "New Years Eve every night!"

Mystery Location: Update

2011-10-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me in the early 80's.

This photo really puzzles me. Where was it taken? My guess is Main Street because of the large window display, but the tile ground (which I obviously have no problem walking on barefoot) doesn't look familiar. Maybe Fantasyland? Where were/are there cement pillars like that? Anybody know?

UPDATE:

Imagineering Disney has found the mystery location!

Thanks to everyone who helped research!

Jaws Film Locations: Part 3

2011-10-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Before we get to the exciting conclusion of this series of posts, I want to take a minute to give you a lesson in Location Stalking 101.

Let's say you want to find the house from Home Alone. This is an easy one, a simple google search will lead you to 671 Lincoln Ave. Winnetka, Illinois. See:

There are times when the internet has no clues for you. Maybe you can find photos of the place but no address. This was the problem I was faced with years ago when I was looking for Rushmore locations. In this situation your best bet is paying attention to address numbers, street signs, and landmarks. I found the Barber Shop from Rushmore and the Pawn Shop from Pulp Fiction based on the washateria across the street (Rushmore) and the address numbers (Pulp Fiction). Google street siew is also an amazing tool to make sure the address from the internet is correct, or to see if the location still exist (In the case of Pulp Fiction, most are gone). Finding Chief Brodys' house was by far the most challenging location I have ever tried to find.

Since Jaws is such a famous film, I assumed that it would be a piece of cake to find the film locations. There are a bunch of sites devoted to the film, pictures and videos of the locations, but no addresses. I was on Google street view so much when I was looking for Brody's walk through town that when I was on the street I knew where everything was.

The best clue I had for finding his house was this description:

Out of Oak Bluffs, I trekked north on Commercial Ave.,

then along the coast on Highland Rd. About 15 minutes later,

I rounded a corner on the northwest point of East Chop,

and there it was Chief Brody's house.

Using Google maps, I narrowed it down to this area:

I drove this area in street view for longer than I'd like to admit looking for the house.

Let me remind you how it looked in the film:

Would you believe me if I told you this was it?

Don't believe me? Here is the proof. Chief Brody leaving.

Look at the houses he is driving towards. Here they are now.

Yup, some genius remodeled the house. Which is why all of these are street view pictures, I didn't waste my time seeking it out when I realized it was unrecognizable.

This is one thing I don't understand, wasn't the fact that this house was used in the movie Jaws a selling point? There's no way these people bought the house not knowing this, I'm sure they had to pay extra because of it. The Full House is being sold for 3 million more dollars than the houses around it, because it's "The" Full House.

Walt Disney's Carolwood home, Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace, Rudolph Valentino's home, why buy a famous piece or real estate only to tear it down? I'll never understand it.

Jaws Film Locations: Part 2

2011-10-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

Alright kids, for this installment we are going to jump around the film a bit, starting with Brody's drive into town.

Here he is driving to work.

When I first compared the two pictures it struck me that maybe these scenes were filmed in the fall after the summer crowds had died down. That might explain the dead grass.

Here is another shot taken a few seconds later.

This area has really been built up since.

After this shot he drives past the Amity sign, for some reason in my rush to take pictures I forgot to get the current shot. Just so you know, it's a giant field, no remnants of the sign...

Later in the film, Brody talks to the Mayor. The lighthouse is right across the street from where the Amity sign was.

This scene is very deceptive. I couldn't line it up the way I wanted, and as you can see below the lighthouse (Gay Head Lighthouse) is blocked by a large bush/tree. The lighthouse itself is also further back than it appears in the films scene. The Mayor must have been parked in the bush area.

This shot is from the scene where the shark enters the pond area where Brody's son is swimming.

The bridge has been re-done since, and was crowded with kids jumping off.

Finally, the beach

The beach is kind of over grown with grass, so the majority of the patrons were on the other side.

At this point you might be wondering "Hey, why haven't you shown us Chief Brodys' house yet?" I am saving that story for part 3 which will be up on Friday. The whole post will be devoted to it.

Jaws Film Locations: Part 1

2011-10-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend works as a life guard on Cape Cod over the summer. I do not normally visit her due to my hatred of rich people, but when she suggested we spend a day on Martha's Vineyard I decided to give it a go. I put my Jaw's dvd in and spent a few days taking screen shots and doing a lot of google mapping.

Let's start with Chief Brodys' walk through town.

Here he is leaving his office.

The building has been slightly remodeled.

Then he reaches the end of the street.

Unfortunately the street was littered with cars, but you get the picture.

Further down the street

There was a plaque on the tree saying it was 100's of years old.

Saying hello to this guy.

This place has had some work done to it.

The Newspaper office.

Has not changed

Here is where some old guy stops him.

Here it is today.

Main Street

The store on the left is where he buys his "beach closed" supplies. Now it's a convenient store.

He comes out of the store with his supplies.

Someone thought it was a good idea to put a pole in the way.

Then he talks to the Mayor

Here it is today.

There you go, a five minute scene with a lot of great locations you can still visit. I have about 2 more posts worth of photos, so stay tuned.

Rebel Rebel

2011-09-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

I thought this picture was pretty funny.

It's me in 1985. I can just hear my Mom saying "It's okay run over to that rock and sit down, now look over here."

This must have taken awhile because my Dad ran back to get this set up shot.

Two camera family, classy!

Avatar-ded

2011-09-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

Confession: I have not seen Avatar.

I think big budget CGI films are what is wrong with the film industry. There is a "forget the story, this looks awesome" mentality and most people buy into it. (I'm looking right at you Transformers.) Disney has even admitted that with tent pole films the plot doesn't really matter.

Having said this, let's talk about Avatar land in Animal Kingdom. This seems to be Disney's solution to Harry Potter World at Universal. Harry Potter is a time tested franchise, it's a world wide phenomenon. Avatar is the biggest block buster of all time, I credit this to the film being released in 3D and Imax, where your ticket price is going to be $30 a person. The general consensus I hear about Avatar is "The story was kind of dumb, but the special effects are awesome." This is a terrible way to describe a film.

I don't think Disney needs to rely on third party franchises to base their attractions/lands on. It worked well with Star Wars, but that is also a time tested franchise that people cannot get enough of. (Even when George Lucas keeps screwing them up) Does Avatar really have the following of Harry Potter and Star Wars, or was it so hyped up that people went to see it?

Back to Avatar land. If they build it at Animal Kingdom I won't really care. The closest I ever get to that park is eating at Boma. So keep your movie themed land in your worst park, I'll meet you at Epcot. Still, is this something that 6 years from now will have to be remodeled and renamed because no one cares? (This time I'm looking at you American Idol Experience!)

The Brer Rabbit Defense

2011-09-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

This morning I was looking at a list of "The 26 Most Disturbing Children's Films." The list consisted of movies like, Willy Wonka, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Bambi, and Dumbo. The majority of the films listed were ones I grew up watching, then I noticed Song of the South. Here was the description:

All the ingredients for a happy-go-lucky kid flick are there: The rabbits are cute, the foxes are adorable. You and your kids could watch the whole thing and sleep an undisturbed sleep. But later, maybe days later, it strikes you: "My sweet Jemima, that movie was racist!" I don't mean kinda offensive, but so racist it will make your eyes sting. Realizing that you and your kids consumed nearly radioactive amounts of antiquated stereotypes hidden in the Trojan Horse of fluffy anthropomorphized Disney animals — now that's scary.

While you let that sink in, I'm going to give you my personal Song of the South history. I first saw Song of the South during the 1986 re-release, I was four years old.

What I remember of the screening was that I was in Florida at the time visiting my grandparents, the theater was full, and Bobby Driscoll's character was hit by a bull (spoiler alert). Six years later Splash Mountain opened and all the memories of seeing the film in theaters came back to me. I wanted to see it again, but where was it?

We had just come back from a recent Disney trip and I was telling one of my Mom's friends about Splash Mountain. I said I wanted to see the movie again and she told me that was impossible. Why, I asked? She said Disney would never release it because of its repeated use of the N-word and other racist scenarios. Since I had very little recollection of the film aside from the bull and Brer Rabbit, I took her word for it. I believed this for almost the next 10 years. During that time the only access I had to Song of the South was a VHS tape of Disney sing-a-long songs that featured the final Zip-a-dee-doo-dah sequence.

I became obsessed with trying to find a copy of the film to see if it was really as bad as I had heard. I would look on ebay for PAL versions (British VHS) but they were almost $80. Then finally after almost 10 years of wanting to see the film again a friend of mine bought me a PAL version for Christmas. I had to take it to a video tape copy company and have them transfer it to VHS. The picture was awful and the sound was even worse, but I finally had a copy.

I popped the tape in and started watching. When it was over I was confused, did I have an edited copy? Where were the N-bombs, where was the racism? I would consider the film more boring than it was racist. The animated scenes are some of the best Disney ever made, but the story itself is lacking, it is really just a vehicle to get you to the animated sequences. I would show it to my friends and they had the same reaction.

So, back to the description above, did this reviewer even watch the film? I know the standard response now is "The film is insensitive" and thats why Disney will not release it. Instead of defending the film, Disney refuses to show it to the (uninformed) public which only make it seems worse than it actually is. Uncle Remis is the hero of the story, he is not a slave because the film takes place after the civil war. The black characters are the most likable ones in the film. What is so racist about that?

We live in a very strange time where an album like Tha Carter IV will sell over 1 million copies in a week while simultaneously being one of the most vulgar and offensive records I have ever heard. films that depict gratuitous sex and violence make hundreds of millions of dollars, but Song of the South will sit on a shelf collecting dust forever. I can guarantee you that if it was not made by Walt Disney it would be just another film no one gave a second thought about.

Thoughts?

Tales From The College Program: The Angry Lemon

2011-09-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have written on of these, so I decided to go with one of my favorite stories from my time in the College Program. I have always been fascinated by angry people in the parks. I know its hot, crowded, expensive, and you've spent the entire day waiting in line, but would you rather be at work? Well, what follows is my encounter with one of these individuals.

I'm not sure about the exact date of this tale, but it was around fall/winter. I know this because all of the unpleasantness was the result of buying a hoodie. My co-worker, Dan and I were at the Emporium looking around when we came to the children's clothing section. It was there that we found a girls hoddie that came in baby blue and pink that said 'The Princess Club." On it was a picture of all the Princesses (Snow White to Jasmine). We thought is would be funny to wear them when we went to the parks. I bought the baby blue, and Dan the pink. We went with the largest size they had, (XL) which was almost big enough to fit us.

Fast forward a few weeks later, Dan, myself, and Dan's roommate, Rickli were at MGM/DHS (whichever you prefer) waiting in line for Tower of Terror. We had reached the end of the queue and were standing on our numbers waiting to board. I noticed the woman beside kept turning to look and me and Dan in our Princess Club hoodies. Then she would nudge to her kids, give a head point, they would all turn, stare at us, turn back, and laugh out loud. She had 3 kids all elementary school aged. Now, I have done some silly things in my time, like this hair dye job:

So, a Mom and her kids laughing at our children's hoodies did not really phase us. Then the woman turned to us and in a tone like she was the most clever person on the planet said "Did you guys lose a bet!?" I was kind of surprised that this Mother of 3 would decide to insult some strangers she was going to spend the next 7 minutes with, but before either of us could answer, Rickli came to our defense and said "No, did you?" Ordinarily a comeback like this be as insulting as "I know you are, but what am I?", until you hear the description of this woman. She was short, portly and from head to toe in yellow. Tank top, fanny pack, shorts, you name it, it was yellow. She looked like a lemon.

You could tell that Rickli's comeback was not what she had expected. She gave us a loud "hurumph", cocked her head back like the Queen of England and quickly turned her back to us. The elevator doors opened, and the three of us put the incident behind us, unfortunately she did not...

At the completion of the ride I had all but forgotten about the incident with the Lemon. As we were about to exit the gift shop we heard someone behind us "What kind of person wears a shirt like that, must be a real smart-ass?!" It was the Lemon, she was referring to the shirt Rickli had on that said something like "Take your 26 rings and shove them up your ass." (It was in reference to the Red Sox having never won a World Series at the time.) She then attempted to scurry past us with her kids, but Rickli was too fast for her. He countered with "What kind of Mother curses in front of her small children?" She did not like this comment one bit, but she was out of ammo, she kept on moving then yelled out something along the lines of "You have no future/ You will never amount to anything" which may have been followed with some more curse words. Rickli cheerfully called out "I go to Harvard, I think I'll be alright." Which was a lie by the way.

She took her group towards Rock n Roller coaster, while we headed towards One Man's Dream. By the time we left One Man's Dream the park was about to close. We decided to run back to Tower of Terror to see if we could get one last ride in. On the way there we passed the Lemon and her gang who were sitting on a bench in the little area around the ToT and RnR entrances. She of course shot the three of us dirty looks. We made it to The Tower to see that they were not letting anyone else on. Our only choice was to leave the park.

Pop Quiz: If you are at the Tower of Terror how many ways are there to exit MGM? That's right, one!

We started walking down Sunset Blvd. Before we reached the bench where the Lemon was sitting, she saw us, grabbed her kids and started walking. She kept looking back in terror like she was being followed by a serial killer even though we were in a sea of hundreds of people trying to leave. Her power walking had put her pretty far ahead of us, but as we approached the park exit there she was, talking to security and pointing at us. I can only imagine what she was saying, but I doubt it was "See those guys in the baby blue and pink hoodies, well I insulted them in line and when they defended themselves I kept at it, now I'm afraid they are following me, along with these thousands of other people." I knew security would believe whatever she said over three guys in their early 20's so I suggested we go into a store for a few minutes. While we were inside security waited for us outside, when we left they said nothing, just looked us over. Finally we thought, no more of the Angry Lemon.

We decided to skip the tram line and just walk to our car. As we walked down the sidewalk a tram pulled up next to us and by some awful final coincidence our walking was in perfect sync with the Lemons row of the tram. We had not planned, or were even aware of this until I looked over in time to hear her scream "Security's got your number buddy!!" I looked at Rickli and laughed "What number, 26?" With that the tram pulled away and we never saw her again.

The Future is here...If you can afford it.

2011-09-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

If you're a Back to the Future fan you have probably already heard that Nike has released the self lacing shoe Marty wore in Part 2.

If you have not heard...guess what?

That's right kids, they're finally here!

Now let the soul crushing begin!

Yes, the shoes exist, the catch though is that only 1500 were made. Every pair is being auctioned off here to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Google and Nike are also matching up to 50 Million dollars to help the cause. Obviously this is great for the foundation and people suffering with Parkinson's Disease, it's not so great for the majority of us that cannot afford $4,500 shoes. Get a good look now....

In case you were wondering, No, they do not lace themselves.

Let's hope that when they start making hover boards they produce more than 1500...

Holly Madison: Disney Enthusiast?

2011-08-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

Last week Bobby Hundreds posted on The HUndreds Blog that Holly Madison was a Disney expert. I assumed this meant she knew all of the songs from Beauty and the Beast. Bobby posted pictures of her house over the weekend and I was pretty surprised by what she had.

Naturally, there was some Beauty and the Beast.

But, she also had this awesome Haunted Mansion dining room.

Check out the wall paper.

Being rich must be nice....

If you want to see the rest of her house, check it out here.

The Bonds go to Disneyland Part 2

2011-08-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from my Mom's teenage trip to Disneyland.

I know this is not the DL Hotel, but it still looks pretty awesome!

Jungle Cruisin'

The gang and the Twain. (why do they all look so miserable?)

Pee-wee Herman Art Show!

2011-08-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I love Pee-wee Herman (in case you did not know, the title of this blog is a Pee-wee reference). Tomorrow is the last day of Gallery 1988's Pee-wee Herman show, so I decided to share a few of the pieces with you guys.

Loner, Rebel

I love these two! (above and below)

Every time I go to the Alamo I ask about the basement.

Everyone I know has a big but, C'mon Simone, tell me about your big but....

Pee-wee held a live chat yesterday and I asked if he had seen the show. He actually wrote back and said he had seen all the prints online but was not able to go to the show. Then he asked if I had seen it. So, for those of you keeping score at home thats 2 tweets and a chat response I have gotten from Pee-wee, does this make us friends?

The Bonds go to Disneyland

2011-08-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken when my Mom went to Disneyland as a teen with her family. I found a 1975 guide map, so my guess is that was when this trip went down.

First Stop, America Sings

Looks like Sandy and Memaw are having a great time on the Motor Boats.

Here we have Cindy, Nancy, My Mom, Memaw (My Grandma), and Sandy

I have a lot more from this trip, so expect more this week. Today was just the ABC's

Blogger Appreciation Day

2011-08-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

January 2008 is when my profile says this blog was created. Back then I wrote a few well thought out posts, but no one read them so I eventually stopped. I started using my site as a place to keep links for all of the other sites I visited. A year or so later I decided to start it back up. This was after I had visited Marceline Missouri and thought other people might like to see Walt's home town.

Shortly after I received an email from George over at Imaginerding. He told me he wanted to include one of my posts in his "Geek-End Update." I was pretty excited, here was a guy with a real blog who wanted to share my blog with other people! I then made it my goal to try and write something worthy of the Geek-End Update every week (and I succeeded more than I thought I would).

Another one of my favorite sites is Imagineering Disney, and like Imaginerding I would consider them a much more legitimate site than mine. So, imagine my surprise when the gang has my little blog listed under their friends! Not only that, but they also tweet links to my posts to all of their followers! (Seriously, these 2 sites double my views when they share links!)

Thats what this post is about. Saying thank you to not only the 2 sites mentioned above, but to everyone who reads this little blog. I appreciate all the views, follow, and comments (shout out to my frequent commenters: TokyoMagic, Daveland, and Disney renegade Hoot Gibson). I am going to start paying it forward and tweeting links to great posts too. There are a ton of Disney related blogs out there and I really appreciate everyone who takes time out of there day to look at mine!

Oh, the 80's

2011-08-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

I wonder if these costumes are somewhere in backstage Epcot?

The perm is my Mom, the kid my sister, and the barely visible Goofy hat is yours truly.

Katie looks worried.

Tumblr

2011-07-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hey kids, I created a tumblr account. Since this blog is mostly Disney related I wanted to have a place to show some of my other interest like: Classic films, old photos, World's Fair stuff, and music. So, if any of that sounds interesting you can click here!

Rushmore Film Locations Part 1

2011-07-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

Wes Anderson is one of my favorite modern directors. Rushmore is in my opinion his best film, not only because its wonderful, but it was filmed in Houston (which is where I live).

The Rushmore school is actually St. John's school. Wes Anderson picked this location because it was where he went to school. Sadly, there has been major construction since 1998, and none of the buildings look the same. Yet another reason why I should have done this 10 years ago when I first thought about it.

As you can see new buildings have been added.

Here is where Max first meets Mr. Blume.

Aside from some new windows, the chapel has not changed much.

This is from the same scene.

The courtyard area is now a parking lot.

Here is the circular drive that appears in a few scenes.

and currently

Here is the barber shop Max's Father owns.

It actually was and still is a barber shop.

After Max is expelled from Rushmore he attends Grover Cleveland High School.

Grover Cleveland is actually Lamar High School and is right across the street from St. John's. Lamar was built in the 30's and still has that awesome art deco look.

This shot took me a while to locate.

Most of the school is surrounded by a chain link fence, so that's what I was looking for. I parked here to take the picture of the Rushmore gate. When I walked back to my car I realized it was the side front of the school. The gate is long gone, or was possibly put there for the film.

Here is a great scene.

Mr. Blume stops by Grover Cleveland to run over Max's bike. Here it is today.

Another shot from the same scene.

Almost identical today.

If you are wondering how I located the barber shop, it was this scene. I read the sign "11th Street Cleaners" I only knew of one 11th Street in town so that's where I went.

Here it is today, repainted and falling apart.

There are a couple more places I have found that I need to photograph. I really want to go inside the chapel from the opening scene, we'll see if I can sneak in there one day. Until then enjoy Part 1.

Tales From The College Program: Wait, Wait, RUN!

2011-07-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Greeting Boils and Ghouls (See what I did there?)

A little recap for those of you just joining us. I was in the WDW College Program in 2003, I worked on Pleasure Island at The Missing Link Sausage Company, and I had no car.

I would say that for most CP's the bus system was not too bad. The schedule was not bad, and if you worked with other CP's you could try and catch a ride with them. The Pleasure Island bus was not that way though. I said before that Vista Way was across I-4 from Pleasure Island, so it was literally a 5 minute drive. The "F" bus that I took to get to work on my first day took 45 minutes! It stopped at the other apartment complex then at The Crossroads (which is a strip mall across from the DTD entrance). It took less time to ride the bus to The Magic Kingdom, but that was the least of my problems.

The bus ride home is where all the trouble came from. I would get out of work anywhere from 1:30 am to 2:30 am. 1:30 was the earliest we could get out of there and it was perfect timing for me to watch the bus drive off as I was leaving Pleasure Island and walking towards the Cast Building on the other side of the parking lot. I did not have a bus schedule with me, so I didn't even know if another one would come. Instead of waiting around to see if another bus would come, I started walking.

The walk was about 3 miles. I would go down Hotel Plaza Boulevard, (where I would get rained on by water sprinklers) take a right on 535 and another right on Meadow Creek Drive. It took me about 45 minutes, which was the same amount of time it would take for the next bus to stop at Pleasure Island. It was kind of a catch 22 situation. I decided there had to be a faster way to walk home. I walked behind all the hotels hoping I would find something, but there was no other road, so I kept walking my usual route every night.

I was the only CP working at The Link, so there was no one I could ride home with. Until one day (2 months later) the sausage gods smiled down on me and brought a fella by the name of Dan to The Link. Dan was also without a car, (that isn't exactly true, but that's a story in itself) I explained the bus situation, and he started walking home with me. Dan also assumed there had to be a faster way, I told him that I had already looked and that the only way to get to Vista Way in less than 45 minutes was to run across I-4, and that's exactly what we did.

We walked behind the hotels on Hotel Plaza Boulevard looking for the perfect place to jump the chain link fence that separated us from the freeway. We found a great spot where there was a tree we could climb and jump straight over the fence. Over the fence was a grassy hill that led to the freeway. This was Orlando at almost 2 am, so the road was not very busy, that didn't make it any less stupid. We waited till one side was clear and ran to the middle, from there we did the same thing and we were home free, or so we thought.

As we walked down another hill towards Vista Way we saw an even taller chain link fence, what made it worse was that it was in the middle of a ditch. We started climbing, it was shakey. When we got to the top we had to coordinate our jump down with the swaying of the fence. Basically, we had to perch one leg on top of the fence and at the right second use your other leg to heave yourself over (climbing back down the other side was not an option because of the swaying). Remember what I said before about the ditch? This made the jump down even further by a few feet, but we made it!

The 45 minute walk was now a 15 minute climb, jump, wait, run, wait, run, climb, jump. We did this for a few months until I went home and drove my car back. Occasionally on the local news I hear about someone who tried to run across the freeway at night and was killed. They usually show their shoe in the middle of the street. I always end up thinking "Why would you ever run across the freeway at night?" Then I remember that it was almost a daily habit of mine for a few months.

The Save Disney Campaign

2011-06-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

2003 and 2004 was a wild time for Disney. Everyone wanted Michael Eisner out and he responded by forcing Roy into retirement. I was a CP at the time and I remember hearing about Roy's forced retirement and the letter he sent out that day.

One of my main goals while living in Florida was to meet Roy, unfortunately that never happened. I did hang out in the Animal Kingdom Lodge lobby once while he was staying there in hopes he would walk by, but he never did. Anyway, here is what Roy's letter said:

Dear Michael,

It is with deep sadness and regret that I send you this letter of resignation from the Walt Disney Company, both as Chairman of the Feature Animation Division and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.

You well know that you and I have had serious differences of opinion about the direction and style of management in the Company in recent years. For whatever reason, you have driven a wedge between me and those I work with even to the extent of requiring some of my associates to report my conversations and activities back to you. I find this intolerable.

Finally, you discussed with the Nominating Committee of the Board of Directors its decision to leave my name off the slate of directors to be elected in the coming year, effectively muzzling my voice on the Board — much as you did with Andrea Van de Kamp last year.

Michael, I believe your conduct has resulted from my clear and unambiguous statements to you and the Board of Directors that after 19 years at the helm you are no longer the best person to run the Walt Disney Company. You had a very successful first 10-plus years at the Company in partnership with Frank Wells, for which I salute you. But, since Frank's untimely death in 1994, the Company has lost its focus, its creative energy, and its heritage.

As I have said, and as Stanley Gold has documented in letters to you and other members of the Board, this Company, under your leadership, has failed during the last seven years in many ways:

1. The failure to bring back ABC Prime Time from the ratings abyss it has been in for years and your inability to program successfully the ABC Family Channel. Both of these failures have had, and I believe, will continue to have, significant adverse impact on shareholder value.

2. Your consistent micro-management of everyone around you with the resulting loss of morale throughout this Company.

3. The timidity of your investments in our theme park business. At Disney's California Adventure, Paris, and now in Hong Kong, you have tried to build parks "on the cheap" and they show it, and the attendance figures reflect it.

4. The perception by all of our stakeholders — consumers, investors, employees, distributors and suppliers — that the Company is rapacious, soul-less, and always looking for the "quick buck" rather than the long-term value which is leading to a loss of public trust.

5. The creative brain drain of the last several years, which is real and continuing, and damages our Company with the loss of every talented employee.

6. Your failure to establish and build constructive relationships with creative partners, especially Pixar, Miramax, and the cable companies distributing our products.

7. Your consistent refusal to establish a clear succession plan.

In conclusion, Michael, it is my sincere belief that it is you who should be leaving and not me. Accordingly, I once again call for your resignation or retirement. The Walt Disney Company deserves fresh, energetic leadership at this challenging time in its history just as it did in 1984 when I headed a restructuring which resulted in your recruitment to the Company.

I have and will always have an enormous allegiance and respect for this Company, founded by my uncle, Walt, and father, Roy, and to our faithful employees and loyal stockholders. I don't know if you and other directors can comprehend how painful it is for me and the extended Disney family to arrive at this decision.

In accordance with Item 6 of Form 8-K and Item 7 of Schedule 14A, I request that you disclose this letter and that you file a copy of this letter as an exhibit to a Company Form 8-K.

With sincere regret,

Roy E. Disney

It was shortly after Roy's resignation that I heard about savedisney.com, a site that Roy and Stanley Gold had started. They were giving away free stickers, so naturally I asked for one. I have a bad habit of hoarding stickers so I kept it.

There were others with similar phrases, but this was the one I was sent.

The site also had pins and other things, which looking back now I should have bought, at least I still have the sticker!

If you would like to know all about the Michael Eisner saga I suggest you buy the book Disney War.

Walt Disney's Guide to DIsneyland 1958: Part 3

2011-06-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

The final chapter, let's do it.

Did Rolly Crump design that "Fun with Water" display? It looks very Tower of the Four Winds-y

More Viewliner action as well!

Multiple pages dedicated to The Jungle Cruise!

1958 and they already have the Haunted Mansion concept art in the guide book.

That pool does look pretty fabulous...

Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland 1958, done!

Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland 1958: Part 2

2011-06-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

Alright kids, here is part 2 of 3. (click to enlarge)

I love this map!

This is my favorite page of the whole book. 20,000 Leagues Walk Through, View Liner, and The House of the Future!

I'm also a big fan of the classy clothes.

Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland 1958: Part 1

2011-06-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

I love these old Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland. I have a couple, the oldest being 1958. I scanned the entire book a long time ago, but never got around to posting it. The book is almost 30 pages, so I'll chop it up into 3 posts. Here we go!

I like this "almost" Tink, look for her again on page 3.

I wish I was one of those kids!

Seatbelts? We're already in Hell! I think I'll wear a suit next time I go to the park.

Olly Moss

2011-05-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Olly Moss recently had a show at Gallery 88 in Los Angeles. He made over 200 pop culture silhouettes, and a good portion of them were Disney related. He posted the majority of them on his blog. Here are a few of the Disney ones.

I told you they were awesome....

This one was titled "Life is like a Hurricane" and was priced at 1 Million Dollars.

He isn't Disney, but you know I love him!

I love Remy under the hat.

If you like these, go to his blog (which is where I took these pictures from) and look at the rest. It's amazing how you can recognize the character just by their silhouette.

Tales From The College Program: My Role

2011-05-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, in our last installment I told you about the College Program housing system. Today I'm going to tell you about where I worked, but first a little bit more about housing. I found this map of Vista Way while doing some scanning last night.

Vista Way has 40 apartment buildings, the only one not occupied by CP's in number 26, which is where you could take college courses (if you sign up for them, and if your school accepts them). Each building has 12 apartments, 4 on each floor. Each apartment has 6 CP's (except the 4 on third floor that only have 4). This comes out to 24 CP's on the first and second floors, and 16 on the third, making 64 per building. Multiply that by the 39 apartment buildings and you have about 2,496 CP's living at Vista Way. Remember, Disney has two other apartment complexes, so CP's make up a pretty good chunk Cast Members.

Anyway, back to our story. Ralf and I had just selected our housing option, it was time to find our our roles (Disney's term for job). Ralf went first, and was told he would be working Magic Kingdom ODF (Out Door Foods). A pretty sweet gig, it's the Magic Kingdom!

The volunteer pulled my file and said "Oh, your going to love this, but you have to get a hearing test first!" I was rolodex-ing through my brain trying to think of where on Disney property I would be working that would require a hearing test. Since Ralf and I had been hired at the same time and was working Magic Kingdom, I thought my odds of also getting the MK were pretty good. Turns out I was wrong. "You will be working at The Missing Link Sausage Company!" Ralf and I both blurted out "WHAT?" at the same time. The Missing Link Sausage Company? What is that? Where is that? Then he dropped the second bomb on me, The Missing Link Sausage Company was located on Pleasure Island. Ralf laughed, I was horrified.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that The Missing Link was the smallest restaurant on Walt Disney World property (it was torn down a few years ago). Here's a PI map to show you exactly where it was.

The Link is number 17 on this map, it was across from 8 Trax. What's funny about this map is that the area they are claiming is The Missing Link is actually three places. The Link was sandwiched between two gift shops.

Like I said before, the place was tiny. Name me another WDW restaurant that is run by two people Monday through Thursday. This meant that when one person went on break you'd end up doing everything yourself. You would ring up the orders then walk down to the grill and cook it.

The Link was set up like a shoe box, on the far end from the door was the register, and the end closest to the door was the grill. This could cause traffic jams late at night when the drunks would stumble in and not know where to go. The Link also had what appeared to be (but wasn't) a walk up window. Drunks would also stumble up to it, knock and try to order.

This is Dan at the grill, check out the costume we wore!

There were a lot of perks to working at The Link though, the first being it was rarely busy. We would have a few rushes a night, but for the most part it was a pretty chill job. The Link also did not open until 7 p.m. This meant I did not have to go into work until 6. I could sleep till noon and still have time to go to the Magic Kingdom before work. Going in late also means getting home late. We would usually be out by 1:30, but our hours were 6-2. All of my roommates would be asleep when I got home and at work when I woke up.

The Link had 3 managers who also worked at Cirque Du Soleil, so a few times a month I would work at Cirque as a backer for the concession stand. Obviously not the best roles on property, but definitely not the worst. I know some of you might think "Who cares dude?" I had to tell you these stories first to set up my CP back ground. Believe me, I have some good College Program Tales coming. So stay tuned for the next installment.

Horizons

2011-05-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

I've been a busy bumble bee, so I have not had much time to post. I've decided to make up for it by posting some pictures of everyone favorite extinct attraction, Horizons. Im pretty sure if you polled Disney's fans asking what attraction they want back, Horizons would win by a landslide. It's was an imagineering marvel. Anyway, lets look at some pictures.

(This is from Space Ship Earth...womp womp) Thanks Hoot.

One Man's Dream currently has this robot from Horizons on display, and an original Figment!

What do you think we can do to convince Disney to create a Horizons 2.0?

Siren Saga

2011-05-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

One of my first posts was about my Pee-wee Herman bike. I bought a rusty vintage Schwinn on ebay a few years and wanted to fix it up like Pee-wee's. I soon realized that finding Pee-wee's tiger siren would be the hardest part of all. You'd think that it would be easy to locate given sites like ebay and Craig's List. Well, the tiger siren is harder to find than you'd think. There are bike forums online where people try to track them down. In fact I've only seen two on ebay in the past two years (and one went for over $700).

If you are not familiar with the siren, here's what it looks like.

Here it is on Pee-wee's bike on the movie poster.

This is where things get tricky. That bike is not the bike from the movie. It's missing all of the gadgets. The siren on this bike isn't even the same siren from the film. The original siren has a jewel on the tiger's forehead. Check out this screen shot from the film.

Not only is the jewel missing, but the tiger is painted differently. So, even if you buy the original siren you have to modify it if you want it to look just like Pee-wee's. Well, I had all but given up on finding one, until I met Jack.

Jack makes replica tiger sirens and occasionally sells them on ebay. After losing an auction I emailed Jack to see if he had anymore he would be auctioning off soon. He told me that he would custom make me one! Of course I jumped all over that. Jack actually has the original siren, he uses it to make a mold for his replicas. He even took the jewel off so his sirens look just like Pee-wee's!

Here she is:

The siren works too!

There you have it kids, I'm one step closer to a finished Pee-wee bike. Next I have to figure out those saddle bags....

Tales From The College Program: Housing

2011-04-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

In my last College Program related post we basically covered the interview process and that I was selected as part of the Fall Advantage 2003 program. Fall Advantage really just means that I worked from June to January instead of August to January (which is the Fall programs schedule).

At the time Disney had 3 apartment complexes where CP's lived. Vista Way and Chatham were for regular CP's and The Commons was where the kids in the International Programs lived. Chatham was much nicer than Vista Way, but in May they had moved everyone from Chatham to Vista Way to save money, so we had no choice. At this point you might be wondering "Hey, where is Vista Way?" Next time your driving down I-4 past Downtown Disney and you and your family are staring at the Casting Building, look on the other side of the freeway, thats Vista Way.

Vista Way is the oldest of the three, and from what I've heard has been used by CP's since the 80's. Ralf and I arrived bright and early and were the second people in line to check in. We were given 2 options for living arrangements. We could move in with 4 guys from the Spring Program who would be moving out in July/August or move into an empty apartment that they would fill up that day with new recruits. We decided on the already occupied apartment because the guy doing the check in told us we had a good chance of having the apartment to ourselves after our roommates moved out.

The gave us apartment 1205, which should be an important number to all of you Disney fans. The apartment wasn't bad, especially for have 6 guys living in it. There is a living room with an open kitchen. Three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. One bathroom is off the living room and the other is inside one of the bedrooms, so four guys share one and two guys get the other. The bedrooms have walk in closets and each guy gets a side, plus a locker to lock up any valuables. We had a view of the parking lot, but there are plenty of man made ponds all over the complex.

Rent at the time was $65 a week which was automatically deducted from your check. We did not have to pay for electricity, cable, or water. If you are under 21 when you check in (like I was until September) you have to live in a "Wellness" apartment which meant no alcohol allowed. If you are over 21 though you can live in an apartment with others of legal drinking age and have all the alcohol you want. If you turn 21 during the program and want to drink you have to move out of a Wellness apartment. That's pretty much it as far as College Program living.

During check in we also took pictures for our Vista Way ID. You cannot get into College Program housing unless you have an ID or have been signed in for the day by a CP. The Vista Way ID cards are color coded and change when one program moves out. They also let security know if you are under 21 (in case they break up a party)There is a security booth at the entrance that checks the Vista Way ID of everyone in your car. As you will learn in future posts though, sneaking in is not very complicated. No overnight guests are allowed, security will come after midnight to make sure anyone you have checked in has left.

We were also give our job/role (which will be the topic of my next CP post). The first day of the program is actually very hectic, there are all sorts of meetings going on. I actually still have all my paper work so I'll scan the first day schedule and post it.

Here's a much younger me at the door to 1205.

Disney Photography: Is it cheating?

2011-04-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen an incredible Walt Disney World/ Disneyland photo and thought "Wow, how did they do it?" For years I have enjoyed looking at various peoples Disney Park photos on sites like Flickr and WDW Magic. I would stare at these pictures of attractions I have seen hundreds of times looking more colorful and new than I had ever seen before. I decided it must have been a combination of an expensive camera with an expensive lens. So, a few years ago I emailed one of the people who was taking some of these incredible shots. He told me all I needed to do to take great photos was to learn all the manual functions of my point and shoot camera. He also suggested reading a digital photography book, but assured me that it had nothing to do with the camera.

I had always shot in manual mode but never dabbled with the shutter speed and aperture functions. I studied up and he was right, my photos became 100 times better, but I still was not getting the same draw dropping shots. Then one day it all became clear.

One of the photographers I followed posted one of his signature shots, but also posted the "before" shot. This before shot was not impressive, in fact the shot could have been accomplished with a disposable camera. I realized that all of these people I thought were great photographers were actually great photoshoppers.

So, my question for you kids is "Is this cheating?" My opinion is yes. When I emailed this guy had he said "Well actually I do a great deal of photoshopping to my pictures before I post them." I would have said, Ok, so that's how it's done. But, to post them and take all the praise without saying "These photo's have had more work done to them than a Beverly Hills house wife" is cheating in my book.

Now don't get me wrong, Im not saying these guys are not photoshop wizards or that I do not like looking at their photos, but man up and admit that you are more of a photoshopper than a photographer. Why buy the top of the line DSLR and a slew of expensive lenses when the actual shot you post doesn't even resemble the original?

Thought? Am I crazy?

Kitchen Cabaret: Update

2011-04-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Let's travel back to 1984, when Epcot Center was at it's best and look at a couple shots from Kitchen Cabaret inside The Land. I do not remember much about this show, so your on your own for commentary.

I'd love to know what happen to these Animatronics, anyone know?

Cousin Orville was kind enough to share these amazing pictures with us!

He looks pretty beat, but at least he's still around.

Our pals over at Imagineering Disney commented that some of the Animatronics are still kickin' around Epcot!

Hey, help us out!...please

2011-04-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

As you all (or as we say in Texas "Ya'll") learned in my last post, I am getting married in Disney World in November.

Well, Becky and I recently entered this Disney contest to win a Disney Wedding, but we need people to vote for us, and since the current leaders have over 800 votes we really need to jump on it. Here's the link if you feel like helping us out.

Thanks!
xo - Donnie

Disney Wedding: Simple or Giant Pain?

2011-04-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

As you know, I went to WDW a few weeks ago. Our main reason for the trip was because we are having a Disney wedding in November. First, if you are planing on having a Disney wedding I can tell you right now, the most annoying thing about it is when EVERYONE you know asks you "Oh, is Mickey doing the ceremony?" "Is the Beast going to be there?" "What character are you going to dress like?" Now, imagine 100 different versions of these questions.

So, you've decided on a Disney Wedding, what do you do next? You send Disney a deposit to hold your date, location and time. Once that is all set they send you a ton of paper work with venue and menu options. Then you find time to fly to Orlando and spend an afternoon planning the entire thing. Oh, and one more thing, Disney also sends you these:

Free (sort of) Annual Passes!

When you eventually go down to Orlando to plan the wedding you've already decided on the ceremony/reception venues and the reception menu. You then meet with your wedding planner at Franck's Bridal Studio (named after Martin Short's character in Father of the Bride) located next to Disney's Wedding Pavilion. Let the marathon day of wedding planning begin. First though she takes you to the Wedding Pavilion and your reception. Here's a few shots inside the chapel.

The planning is actually pretty easy. I won't bore you with all the details but the planner basically just goes down a list of options and you pick what you want. Then the person in charge of flowers comes in and goes through her list. They bring you cake samples and you pick that as well.

After all the planing is done it's time for a break. After an hour we met back up with the planner at the Contemporary Resort (our reception location) for a menu tasting. I thought this was going to be a very causal thing, like walking through the kitchen with a hair net while we all take bites out of one entree. This was not the case. We walked into the resort and saw our names on the list of events happening at the resort that day.

Our planner took us to one of the convention center rooms where we met the 2 chefs who would be preparing the food for the wedding. There was a table set up for all of us to sit at, a bar with a waiter who would bring us drinks and serve the food, and another station with a chef who was making the food. They also had a TV screen on the back wall with a congratulations Donnie and Becky animation on it. We ate everything that was going to be served at the reception with the chefs right beside us taking notes on what he liked and what we didn't like. It was much more than I was expecting. After the menu tasting you are done. All you do now is wait a few weeks for Disney to send you the budget, which is a list of everything you asked for and it's price. From there you can add or trim away anything.

Sounds simple right, and it is, unless you want to change something. We decided, "Hey, since our wedding is going to be small why not just scrap the reception and take everyone to Ohana instead.

This new idea had us even more excited than the original plan, until we found out that Disney will not let you have a ceremony only, they force you to have a reception. So even though we were having one by taking our wedding party to Ohana, by Disney standards it is not a reception. We could however move our reception at one of The Grand Floridian restaurants (not including Victoria and Alberts) or the California Grill at the Contemporary. To do this though we would have to move the wedding to 10 am and be done eating by 3 so they can get the restaurant back in shape before it opens to the public at 5.

This also requires that we pick a new menu since this will now be a brunch reception. So, we pick a menu and a new location (California Grill). Turns out California grill has a different menu than the GF resorts and has a $3000 minimum food requirement, not including the cake.

So, thats where we are now. I know what you are thinking "Why don't you just go back to the original plans that you made when you planned the wedding?" Trust me, we can't and the explanation of why would take me pages to explain. There you have it kids, what it's like planning a Disney wedding.

Im Lazy

2011-04-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

Hey kids, did you like old photographs? Well I do, in fact I have another blog where all I do is post old pictures that I found in a box in my Mom's attic. I think my Dad found them when he worked at a retirement home and kept them. Anyway, since Im really too lazy to update both multiple times a week I'm going to start posting some of those pictures here. Here is one of my favorite pictures from the box.

I posted this one a while back on the picture blog, but it's so good I decided to post it again. Here's what is written on the back.

I looked at old St. Louis photos and I guessed it was the State Hospital. Well I sent the picture to a St. Louis Historical Society and they actually researched it for me!

I did some research on your photos, and I think they are of the City Infirmary which was located at 5900 Arsenal Street. It was also called the City Isolation Hospital and U.S. General Hospital #40. It was on the same street as the State Hospital (5300 Arsenal Street), so you were very close!

The architecture matches some photographs we have of the City Infirmary much more closely than that of the State Hospital. I also looked up the names of the nurses from the back of your photo in a 1914 City Directory and found a Bessie Bray listed as a nurse, an Alice Hachard listed as a housekeeper, and a Nellie Hatchard listed as an attendant all at the Infirmary.

Hope that answers your question. I enjoy solving these sorts of mysteries, so thanks for the challenge!

So there you have it kids, More posts coming your way, not necessarily Disney related, but in my opinion still pretty neat.

Interactive Queues...The Future?

2011-04-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Like a grand and miraculous space ship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time and for a majority of that time, we have been waiting in lines. When I was a kid (and since the beginning of theme parks and DMV's) waiting in lines has just been a part of the game. In fact whenever I tell someone I am going to Disney World the first thing they mention is the lines. (but really I never wait over 15 minutes for anything)

I grew up close to Six Flags Astro World (RIP) and the closest thing they had to an interactive queue was TV screens showing old Looney Tunes shorts. Disney World had something similar with the wacky video in the Space Mountain queue staring AC Slater. The first real interactive Disney queue I can think of was Indiana Jones in Disneyland and to a lesser extent the Madam Leota tombstone. These were little touches that most people did not pick up on while they waited in line. In fact, when a friend of mine told me there was a bamboo pole you could lean against in the Indy queue that would cause the ceiling to drop I called him a liar to his face.

I knew that Disney had moved the tree from the Pooh play area to the entrance of the Pooh attraction, I had no idea they had totally redone the queue!

The old Fast Pass area has been turned into a Tigger jumping area (which was closed the whole time I was there). The new Fast Pass area is located at Mickey's Philhar Magic, because that makes sense.

Next we see Rabbit's garden.

When kids pump the see saw (whatever it's called), water pours on the plants and the pumpkins grow.

I really like the "Kids this way/Adults this way."

One of the more annoying aspects of the interactive queue is the noise makers.

The box at the back left is by far the worst idea in the queue, kids turn handles and make balls pop inside a cage, it's constant noise.

Hey look, it's Eeyore's house!

Kids can pull a rope here that will make gopher and his friends pop out of the ground.

Finally we come to this bee hive. It has plastic bees that kids can push along the track.

The first night we rode Pooh, the line was short so we just admired this dripping honey wall as we walked past. The next day though we realized you could play with it!

I listened to Mitch and Lily from Imagineering Disney talk about how Ipad like screens are a bad idea for an attractions queue, but I thought this was pretty great. You can move the honey around to reveal the Pooh characters. (I understand their dislike though)

Final Thoughts:

Some people claim that the new Haunted Mansion grave yard has ruined the attraction for them. My opinion, these queues are made for little kids to pass time while they wait for an hour to spend 2 minutes with Pooh and his friends. What's wrong with letting the kids immerse themselves in Pooh's world while they wait? Word on the street is Peter Pan is next, and personally i'd really like to see what Imagineering has cooked up for that queue.

What do you think????

Farley Granger: 1925-2011

2011-04-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

I had no clue that Farley Granger passed away on March 27th. If you are not familiar with him, he starred in two of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films, Rope and Strangers on a Train. Last year I wrote him a letter and he was kind enough to sign this picture for me.

Spoiler Alert: Strangers on a Train ends with a carousel fight...

As far as I know he has no Disney connection, but if you're an avid reader of this blog you'll know that I sometimes stray from Disney topics. So, search your netflix (or whatever you people use to watch movies) and watch Rope and Stranger on a Train this weekend for my boy Farley Granger.

The Iron Spike Room

2011-03-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I asked if anyone knew where in Walt Disney World can you find items owned by Walt Disney. Of course, George Taylor knew the answer (what doesn't he know?). I actually had no clue this place existed until my trip 2 weeks ago.

I'm going to blame my lack of knowledge on the fact that I also have a lack of money. You see, if you want to see two cars from Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad, you will need to go to the Disney Vacation Club area of The Wilderness Lodge. I don't know about you guys, but I'm glad Disney is finally giving perks to it's wealthier guests. The time has come for these people get a little special treatment!

Anyway, onto The Iron Spike Room. Like I said before, to get here you need to head to The Wilderness Lodge. Walk through the lobby and take a right when you see the gift shop. This will lead you outside, keep walking straight until you reach another building. Once inside take another right and you will run into this:

Inside is a lounge with checkers, chess, and chairs to sit and relax in. Plus, this fancy fire place.

In the back of the room though is what we came to see.

Two cars from Walt's backyard rail road!

The room is full of pictures of Walt, trains, and this model.

This was behind a frosted/wavy glass case.

Here's a few more close up shots for you.

So, next time your in Walt Disney World, take some time to check out these amazing Disney artifacts!

Trivia!

2011-03-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

Where in Walt Disney World can you find items that belonged to Walt Disney himself?

Hint: I'm not talking about One Man's Dream...

I'll post the answer tomorrow.

Picture Pages

2011-03-22T13:05:00.001-07:00

Corn fed she be! a photo by donniedisney on Flickr.

In an effort to give you guys more bang for your buck, I've decided to post pictures from my trips. Don't worry, you won't have to see boring pictures of me eating, just mediocre attraction shots.

I'm no pro photog (obviously) but I recently upgraded from a point and shoot. So, I might as well do something with all of these pictures!

Here's one I took last week, if you do not recognize this scene you are probably reading the wrong blog.

The New Haunted Mansion Queue

2011-03-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

Every morning last week when I rode the Haunted Mansion the new queue area was blocked off with plants. Waiting in line you could see workers in the new area, and hear a lot of sneezing. Whenever we asked when the new queue would open, the Cast Members had no idea. Then, the one day I was not at the Magic Kingdom it opened from 10-3. My last day (which was a half day) was Friday. The queue still was not open and I had pretty much given up all I hope that I was going to see it. We had Fast Passes for Space Mountain, and decided to ride it before heading over to Epcot.

We got off Space Mountain and headed up the moving side walk to the gift shop. In the gift shop I realized my iphone was gone, it had fallen out sometime during the ride. I knew it must have been in the seat, so we ran to the entrance and told a Cast Member. After waiting around for a few minutes they told me "You can come back tomorrow, if it fell out during the ride we can turn the lights on tonight and look for it." I explained that we were leaving in a few hours so they told us to come back in an hour.

We headed over to the Haunted Mansion which had a 20 minute wait. We asked the CM if the new queue was open. He replied "I guess you'll have to wait in line and find out." We took this as a yes and got in line, as we walked away we heard "Psssst." We turned to see the CM nod his head with a sly smile on his face.

So, as you can imagine as excited as I was to finally see the new queue, I was more concerned about my phone. Taking photos was also a little complicated since people were all over the place, posing with the figures, and touching everything. Anyway, let's see this thing!

First, we have a new set of busts.

Some of the old graves have been relocated.

I like how in the last 3 refurbs (Space Mountain, Pooh, and now HM) Disney has added interactive touches to help the time pass. When you touch the instruments on this wall, they play!

On the opposite side the instruments are more fiendish looking.

Then we come up to the Sea Captains grave.

One awesome touch is that it's leaking water. This grave is also the source of all the sneezing I heard. The captain will randomly sneeze and water will spit out of the top of the grave.

Guest can also play this organ while waiting in line. Smoke comes out of the pipes and skulls. Check out the brand!

The books in this book case pop out while you wait.

If you are wondering why there is a bookcase in a cemetery, it's because the grave belongs to a writer. A ghostly voice recites a poems that magically appears on the book in her tomb. Towards the end of the poem she gets writers block, that's when it's your turn to yell out what word she should use, which will then appear in the book.

One of my favorite new additions though is this wall of crypts.

Paul Frees, Ken Anderson, Rolly Crump, and Blaine Gibson are now immortalized in the attraction they helped create.

The old grave yard has been slightly rearranged as well.

There you have it kids, the new Haunted Mansion queue. I think it's great, and honestly how can you not? New busts with funny deaths, the Sea Captain gets a grave after all these years, musical and talking graves! If you do end up hating the new additions I don't think you will ever have to walk through it. There was a Cast Member in the queue telling people if they wanted to see the new additions they could take the long way, if not they could proceed through the regular (shorter) line.

Incase you were wondering, when I went back to Space Mountain an hour later they had my phone. Great end to a wonderful trip!

Magic Kingdom: 1985

2011-03-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

Alright kids, next week I will be in Walt Disney World and away from the internet. So, like any good Dad I will leave you with a present before I go. Here are a few pictures I selected from my Aunt and Uncle's honeymoon in 1985, enjoy!

I love this shot, check out the old Tomorrowland entrance, not to mention the Astro Blasters.

I like this classic Tomorrowland, now it just seems so busy.

Who doesn't love the old barker bird.

This is my Aunt Nanette, you might recognize her from my earlier post where she was pictured with Dream Finder.

Welcome to Hell!

We made it! All he lost was the sleeves to his shirt (that is not my uncle).

Is this from If You Had Wings?

If you want to keep up with my WDW Adventures, follow me on twitter: @donniedisney. See ya real soon!

WDW College Program: Intro

2011-03-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

Are you in College? Do you want to work at Walt Disney World? Do yourself a favor and try to join the Walt Disney World College Program. I was a CP back in 2003. At the time I was a blue haired punk being followed around the Disney Store by the manager, who I can only assume thought I was there to steal DVD's. Eventually, he realized that I knew more about Walt Disney than he did and followed me around to discuss Walt. One day while I was in the store he asked me if I had ever heard about the WDW College Program. I had no clue what he was talking about, then another Disney Store employee (sorry, they are not Cast Members) told me they were going to be at the University of Houston later in the month. I did not go to UH but I decided to attend the presentation anyway.

A few weeks later there I was with 100 or so other kids learning about the College Program. My friends (Ralf and Steven) and I signed up for interviews for the next day. I was nervous since this was a pretty important interview. I mean, it was up to this woman if my life long dream of working at WDW would come true. She let the three of us interview together (I think they do the interviews over the phone now) so my nerves vanished. She started by asking us what "role" we would like. I said custodian (because they get to roam the parks answering questions). Steven said he wanted to be a character. The recruiter told him that to be a character he would have to drive to Louisiana and audition. Steven decided that a better idea would be to run around the room like King Louie in hopes she would see what a great performer he was and hire him on the spot. The recruiter was not amused. She went on asking us questions about our favorite attractions and Disney films. Steven went on blowing the interview.

When it was over Ralf and I thanked Steven (who was oblivious) for ruining our chances of being accepted. Weeks went by, Ralf received an email congratulating him on being accepted, I heard nothing. Then one day a giant envelope arrived in the mail congratulating me on being accepted. Steven also received an envelope, it was much smaller....

Turns out Ralf and I were 2 out of 3 people accepted from the University of Houston presentation. I still have no idea how the recruiter looked past all of Steven's tomfoolery and accepted us, but I'm glad she did.

Obviously, my CP experience doesn't end there, but I will continue the saga as long as you guys want to hear about it. So let me know!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'll work on that for next time.

Want to hear me talk about Walt Disney?

2011-03-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Do you guys/girls listen to Mousetalgia? This weeks episode is about seeing Walt Disney history outside of the parks. Since I have been to Kansas City and Marceline they asked if I would be on the show to talk about it. Naturally, I said yes....

You can stream the episode on their site, or if you want to download it so my soothing voice can rock you to sleep, you can download it for free on itunes by searching Mousetalgia.

If you have never listened to Mousetalgia before I highly recommend it (it's actually the only podcast I listen to). It's because of these guys I was able to meet John Lasseter a few years ago. The hosts, Dave, Becky, Kristen, and Doom Buggies creator Jeff are very knowledgeable and cover a wide range of Disney topics. Plus they're very entertaining to listen to. So give them a listen!

Fun at the Fair!

2011-03-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

These advertisements are from The Official Guide to the 1964 World's Fair. As you probably know Disney contributed four exhibits (plus Rolly Crump's Tower of the Four Winds). I'll have to look through the guide again to see if there was any mention of Mr. Lincoln and The Carousel of Progress.

Many people do not know this, but the boats actually sailed through gallons of Pepsi. (Ok, I made that up)

The Skyway seemed like a really great attraction, it's too bad Ford did not allow Walt to take the whole thing back to Disneyland.

Banksy in Disneyland

2011-02-26T05:20:00.000-08:00

Banksy has been in Los Angeles this week because his film Exit Through The Gift Shop is nominated for an Academy Award (Best Documentary). He will most likely not be in attendance since he keeps his identity secret. He has been busy though making sure everyone knows he is in town. If you didn't know, Banksy is a street artist.

The film is about a guy (Therri) who discovers his cousin is a street artist named Space Invader. He starts following his cousin around, video taping him while he displays his mosaic pieces all over France. He starts filming other street artist which is how he eventually meets the secretive Banksy.

While Banksy is in LA preparing for his first American show he decides to go to Disneyland.

He passes through security with no problem.

Then walks around the park until he finds the perfect place for his newest piece, this leads him to Frontierland. He opens up his back pack and starts to blow up a dummy he made to resemble a Guantanamo Bay detainee.

He jumps the fence and heads towards Big Thunder.

And sets up his detainee.

Therri sticks around to see what happens while Banksy slips into a restroom to change his clothes. According to the film, Therri notices plain closed men who look like security and starts to walk away. They follow him and eventually grab him and take him to the infamous Disneyland jail where he is questioned for 4 hours.

During this time, Therri tells them he was just taping because he saw the man. He tells security that he has already deleted the pictures from his camera (while he had the video tape stuffed in his sock). Where was Banksy during all this? He was riding Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean....

The film is actually very interesting and worth watching. You can watch it for free on YouTube, but if you only want to see the Disneyland part, start towards the end of Part 5 and the beginning of Part 6.

Motor/Boater Mania !

2011-02-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I loved riding the ferry to The Magic Kingdom. Not because it's just as fast as the Monorail (I love this lie the Cast Members try to tell you when the Monorail line is long). I loved the ferry because you could watch Donald Duck and Goofy ski!

Does anyone know when they stopped doing this?

I cant remember the last time I saw it...

Check out Goofy's swimsuit, and the shirtless driver (Captain?).

I tried skiing once when I was a kid, the result was me getting pulled underwater for what seemed like forever. These costumes must have been made differently than the park characters, I can't imagine falling off the skis and feeling your costume soak up water and sink you like an anchor.

When I was in the College Program (A topic I plan on discussing soon) they would have a few parties a year where the characters would show up. The craziest thing was Mickey and the gang would all be in their swim suits and would actually swim in the pool! The first time I saw it my mind was blown.

SHAG!

2011-02-21T06:22:00.000-08:00

I must have been living under a rock for the past month because I had no clue that Shag made this awesome piece for Walt Disney World's 40th.

Shag (or Josh Agle) has done a bunch of art for Disneyland, but this is the first time (that I can remember) that he has made something just for WDW! If you want to buy this piece, sorry you're out of luck. Only 300 were printed and sold out right away. They have been selling on ebay for around $250. Happy bidding!

Magic Kingdom: 1979

2011-02-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

My Dad grew up in Florida about 2 hours from Walt Disney World. He said the place was pretty dead during the 70's. All of these pictures were taken in 1979. Here he is on the carousel.

Nice shirt, is that a ticket book in his pocket?

I miss the skyway.

Have you ever seen the track so empty?

I had a much better Electrical Parade picture but it refused to upload.

This is the only parade I enjoy watching, the soundtrack is amazing!

Frommer's, you are insane!

2011-02-14T09:21:00.000-08:00

I went to Target over the weekend and I saw a Frommer's 2011 Mini-Walt Disney World Guide. Now, I go to a Disney Park at least twice a year so do I really need to read a guide? No. I just wanted to see what it was all about. I opened to a random page and this is what I saw:

My mind was blown....

Check out the ratings for Spaceship Earth and Test Track. Now, if this was Fred and Ethel's Home Made Disney Guide I would be fine with them saying Spaceship Earth is an overrated C and Test Track is an A+. Well, this is not Fred and Ethel's WDW Guide, this is Frommer's, a legitimate company.

A few posts back I told you my opinion on Test Track. As a recap here's some more of my insight. When I was a kid (and I'm sure most of you were the same) the one thing you want to do is drive. This is why go-carts and Autopia were awesome. Test Track is all the fun of being in a passenger in a car without the fun of driving. I was going to guess that the high speed part lasted 30 seconds, well according the the above picture it's 12. Really, 12 seconds of a speed (that is slower than most freeways minimum speed) makes an A+ attraction?

Meanwhile, you have an imagineering marvel with dozens of Audio Animatronics taking you through the history of communication and you call it overrated? WHAT!

I hope Disney does not use these guides as some sort of consumer consensus on their attractions. I think that from the mid 90's until Toy Story Mania Imagineering was in a slump. I know that I am probably the minority here but I think Animal Kingdom is a waste of space. How can you open a park twice the size of the Magic Kingdom with only 3 attractions? Horizons was torn down and in it's place Mission Space was built. Mission Space is really just a fancier version of Star Tours. Then Soarin' came along. They are the same ride except in one of them you hang and in the other you spin. I think Toy Story Mania is great, yes you stare at a screen but at least your ride vehicle moves and they found a way to make it interactive. The days of Omni-Mover Audio Animatronic based attractions has been dead for years. I know that Dinosaur has giant Audio Animatronics and it is a good ride, but it is not good enough for me to waste an hour of my day riding the bus to Animal Kingdom, riding it, and leaving.

I have really high hopes for the new Fantasyland. With Lasseter working with the Imagineers I think he will help bring back that classic attraction feel. We are finally getting a new dark ride and I've been wanting to ride in a mine car ever since Temple of Doom.

Wow, this was a long post. I'd love to hear what you guys think about modern Imagineering and this C rating for Spaceship Earth.

Oh, and one more thing. Reading that page and seeing Frommer's Test Track tips I'm going to throw in my own advice. First of all let me tell you that I have not ridden Test Track since 2004, but that doesn't mean I do not know how to work the system. Frommer's advises you to get a Fast Pass because the line can be over an hour long. Here's some better advice, break up your group and get Single Rider Passes. This way you do not waste your fast pass, you can get on the ride in less than 10 minutes most of the time, and you do not have to walk half way across The World Showcase when your Fast Pass time comes around. The seating on Test Track is goofy anyway so if you are in an even numbered group (excluding 6) you will be sitting by a stranger anyway. With the Single Rider pass you will still probably end up in the same car as your group members and save yourself all the hassles I just mentioned... You are welcome

One Picture

2011-02-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

That's all this post needs, because it's a good one.

I thought this was from Disneyland when I first saw it! My guess is this photo is from 1985, taken by my Uncle David on his Honeymoon. I was three at the time, his only nephew and not invited....

Anybody remember this guy? It looks like the final scene, but I could be wrong. It's weird because the Audio Animatronics they crank out now move like real people, but I think this guy looks more life like. Maybe I'm crazy....

Oh, and how many pirates is he sitting on top of?

Domain-ation

2011-02-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

Were you confused why my blog was titled "I'm a blogger Dottie...a Rebel" but my URL was tape player? Well, I came up with tape player because I like cassette tapes and the title because I like Pee-wee Herman. Yeah, I know it doesn't make sense. So, In an effort to fix all of that business I bought a domain. Now all you have to do is go to www.imabloggerdottie.com

How easy is that? I know what you are thinking "Hey, great job stupid, most of your post are about Disney but your blog is named after a Pee-wee Herman reference." Gimme a break ok!

Epcot Center: World of Motion

2011-02-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

When you think about 80's Epcot most people go straight for Horizons. Why not, it was an imagineering marvel, but let's not forget about it's next door neighbor, World of Motion.

It's my understanding that WOM closed because the sponsor wanted something different. I can understand that, people do not flock to Walt Disney World every year to see hundreds of Audio Animatronics telling you the hilarious history of transportation. I know that when I drive 15 hours to Florida the first thing I do when I get inside Epcot's gates is think "Boy, I sure miss sitting in my car." That's when I run as fast as I can to Test Track where I can experience what it's like to go 60 miles an hour in a car!

There are about a zillion things that made Epcot Center amazing, one of my favorites is the logo's they had for each attraction. Here is WOM's:

WOM was full of visual gags because it was worked on by Imagineer extraordinaire Marc Davis and my boy Ward Kimball.

I believe this was part of The World's First Traffic Jam.

I read somewhere that these chickens are now in Disneyland's Pirates.

I love how I have pictures taken by my Dad and Uncle on different trips and all of their pictures are taken 10 seconds apart.

This post is heavy on pictures, which I'm sure none of you mind.

This is from an old Epcot Guide Map. Take a look at the Sea Monster. Did you know you can walk right up to this guy in Disney's California Adventure?

He's in the Hollywood Backlot area across from Monsters Inc. Why is he here? Who's brilliant idea was this? How did they pitch it? "Hey you know that empty corner in DCA, how about we put that Sea Monster from World of Motion in that spot?" I do not know the answers to these questions, but I'm glad he's out and about and not collecting dust in a Disney warehouse.

Epcot Center : Journey Into Imagination

2011-02-01T06:43:00.000-08:00

My plan for this week is to post pictures of Epcot Center. I really miss that name, and all the awesomeness that was 1980's Epcot.

First, Journey Into Imagination!

The current version of this attraction is just embarrassing. Bring back Dream Finder!

You can still see part of Dream Finders machine inside the Mouse Gear Store.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Epcot Disney set up a small exhibit in one of Epcot's many unused spaces. On display was this model.

On rare occasions you can find Figment in the park (and by rare I mean almost never).

In the 80's you could meet Dream Finder himself!

(You will never see a crowd like that outside the JII pavilion today)

The Lilly Belle: Part 2

2011-01-27T07:08:00.000-08:00

When we last left our hero he (I) had just spent $110 for 2 Lilly Belle tickets. Another funny thing about this is that you cab write in how many people are in your party on the ticket so I really only needed one. Like I said though, I thought they were only $5 so why not buy 2?

Fast forward to September 2010 and I bring my Lilly Belle ticket to City Hall to see if I can actually use it to ride in the private train car. Now, I thought they would just sign it and I'd be on my way. Even if you have a ticket and the Lilly Belle is running you have to set up a time to ride it. A Cast Member had to call the station and set up a time when an extra Engineer/Conductor would be available to ride with me and my family. Luckily my tickets were good, she filled them out and all I had to do now was wait until my designated time.

4:00 finally came around and it was time for our ride. Here is what the Lilly Belle looks like from the outside.

Here's an inside shot:

I always heard that the inside of the Lilly Belle was furnished with things from Walt's apartment. Our Cast Member told us that the chair (at the bottom left) and the carpet were the only things he had heard came from Walt's apartment. Let's take a look at this picture from National Geographic of Walt in his apartment.

Maybe Walt had the carpet replaced after this picture was taken...?

Maybe he purchased the chair after this picture was taken...?

One thing he knew for sure though was that the coat hanging on the wall was donated by Lillian Disney herself (It was one of hers not Walt's)

Here's a few more pictures of random things inside.

We decided this was a shade placed in front of the window to block the sun.

Thank God this was here or I would have had to spit all over the floor...

Even though it may or may not be Walt's chair I still had to sit in it.

If you want to ride the Lilly Belle my advice is go to City Hall and ask. Apparently if you know enough about the car to ask and show general interest in a ride a Cast Member will usually hook you up. It's much easier than spending $110....

The Lilly Belle: Part I

2011-01-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

This post is going to be two parts (hence the part I in the title). The first explaining how I purchased the ticket and the second about the ride. I just did not want to write one huge post.

Back in September 2009 I went to a sneak preview of the Walt Disney Family Museum. I am a Carolwood Pacific Historical Society Member and Diane Disney held a few tickets for members to attend (along with D23 members).

I was in the gift shopping grabbing everything in sight like a mad man when I stumbled upon a small table with large tickets on it. There was another guy checking them out and had no clue what they were, I grabbed one and saw that it was a ticket to ride the Lilly Belle. According to the sign these tickets were uncirculated left overs from ones Lillian Disney had printed to give to friends and family visiting Disneyland who wanted to ride in the VIP car on the Disneyland Rail Road. I thought "Wow, these must cost a fortune." When I turned it over and saw they were only $5 I thought "Well, why don't I buy 2 of them!"

I went the the register with my 2 Lilly Belle tickets and the rest of my swag and was confused when my total was $100 over what I had added up in my head. I thought either this girl does not know how to use a cash register or I am worse at math than I thought. I decided not to say anything and just check my receipt. I scanned it for an error and that's where I saw it. In my excitement at the thought of riding the Lilly Belle I misread the price. They weren't $5 each...they were $55.

I did not want to go back to the register like an idiot and explain my lack of basic reading skills so I sucked it up and left. I figured my worst case scenario was getting to ride the Lilly Belle twice.

So stay tuned for part II and see if one trip around Disneyland in a special train car is worth $55.

Book Review: The Vault of Walt.

2011-01-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

Jim Korkis advises the reader in the forward that this book should be treated like a box a chocolates. That we should savor and enjoy the stories. Well I read this book the same way I eat a box of chocolates and gorged myself until it was finished.

If you're like me and you've read the majority of Walt Disney biographies you know the feeling of getting a new one and reading variations of the same stories you've read in every other biography. Vault of Walt is not a biography, it's a collection of stories about Walt and other Disney related topics. It promises never heard before stories and it has plenty of those.

My only complaint is that it's more like Vault of Disney than Walt. The book starts off great with all sorts of stories about Walt himself. Then you get to the next section which is stories about Disney Films, followed by a section about Park stories. It's not that I did not enjoy these other stories, but the further you get into the book the less you hear about Walt. The tag line is also a bit misleading because "Unofficial, Unauthorized, and Uncensored" had me thinking I was going to get some dirt along the lines of Hollywoods Dark Prince which is not the case (which I will one day write about my love of that book).

I would still highly recommend this book though, especially if you thought you knew everything there was to know about Walt. If you've read a lot of Disney history you will encounter some repeats but for the most part there is a lot of new tidbits to read about. I never fully understood Walt's FBI involvement and this book tells you all about it in a way no other book has, so stop reading this and buy it!

The Pee-wee Herman Show!

2011-01-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

What a break! It's been so long kids. Let's do this!

I flew to New York over the break to see the Pee-wee Herman Show and it was amazing! The show ended January 2nd but not to worry (if you missed it) because HBO is taping it later this week and will be airing it soon!

The show was great, he took his original stage show from the 80's and added all characters from Pee-wee's playhouse (well most of them, sorry Floory fans). The show was at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, half a block away from Times Square.

I went to the theater early to take some pictures and to find the stage door so I could wait after the show to meet Pee-wee. I had my girlfriend ask the box office if they had any sort of "meet and greet" opportunities available. The guy looked at us like we asked if we could kill his dog. He snootily told us he did not even know what a meet and greet was (obviously the name implies nothing). I decided to take my chance at the stage door after the show.

After the show we ran to the door where a barricade was already set up. After a couple minutes he came out.

He spoke for a few minutes thanking everyone for coming to the show and for waiting to see him after. Then he started taking questions from the crowd. The first was a girl in her 20's with a Pee-wee doll. She asked if he would sign it. Pee-wee told her he could not because it would not be fair for everyone else who wanted a signature because he could not stay out all night signing everything. He broke this rule though for a 7 year old girl who kept screaming "PEE-WEE!!!!" When he invited her inside to take a picture and get his autograph you could feel hatred from all the late 20's and early 30's kids crowd who had grown up with Pee-wee. Watching this kid get an autograph she would probably lose in the next few days was a little hard, luckily she was a really cute kid.

When Pee-wee left so did most of the crowd. It went from over a hundred to about 15 of us. As we waited the cast started coming out and I had them sign my Pee-wee Herman Show poster. After over an hour of waiting (in 30 degree weather) security came and took down the barricade, it was not looking good. Then a few minutes later Miss Yvonne (from the original stage show and play house TV show) came out. She was nice enough to sign stuff for the 8 of us still waiting even though there was a car waiting to pick her up. The group dropped down to four, I couldn't even feel my toes anymore when a woman came out of the stage door. "Who are you waiting for?" she asked. One of the guys told her Pee-wee. She told us he had left half an hour ago. He must have left through a different exit.

It had been almost 2 hours and I did not meet Pee-wee. This was the scene at the stage door when myself and the other 3 finally left.

We left New York and headed to my girlfriends parents house in New Hampshire. There I wrote a letter to Pee-wee and sent along my playbill from the show. I asked him to sign it, I'll keep you posted on how that turns out.

Even though I did not get to meet him it was a great experience and I cannot wait for the HBO special! And if your one of those Pee-wee haters out there you might be interested to know that Prince was in the audience the night I was there. How awesome is that!? he played at Madison Square Garden the night before and stuck around to see Pee-wee.

WELCOME BACK PEE-WEE!!!!

Hidden Joe

2010-12-17T05:45:00.000-08:00

If you are not familiar with Joe Ranft you better read his wikipedia. You could also read this book:

Then watch Waking Sleeping Beauty.

Anyway the guy is one of the best story men of all time. He worked on every Pixar film from Toy Story to Cars. Sadly he passed away in 2005, but obviously he has not been forgotten.

Cars and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride were both dedicated to him. Henry Selick even gave him a cameo in Coraline.

Joe's cameo is in the opening scene, his brother plays the other mover.

Quick post today. I'm going to New York tomorrow to see Pee Wee Herman! Expect to hear about that soon.

The Hundreds x Disney

2010-12-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

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 stuff jump on it now!

Will Tron be the hit Disney is expecting?

2010-12-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I was listening to the radio (which I usually never do but I had borrowed my Grandma's truck to pick up a Christmas tree). The DJ says "If you're the 9th caller we will give you two free tickets to see a preview screening of Tron." I decided to give it a whirl and wouldn't you know it the phone started ringing. My first thought was that I had misdialed and was about to ask a random stranger if I had won Tron tickets. Then someone picked up "Hello, Mix 96.5 you're caller 8." So close....

Disney's marketing campaign for Tron is one of the biggest I have ever seen them do. When Wall-e came out I couldn't find a Wall-e toy until months after the film opened, and that's including the Disney Store. There has been a Tron section at the Disney Store close to my house for over a month. They have every Tron toy or shirt you could want.

It has me thinking, is Tron really going to be that big of a hit? The first movie was a box office flop that eventually built up a cult following. I doubt the same advertising money would be spent on a Howard the Duck sequel. Walt Disney World has Tron monorails and Disney's California Adventure has the ElecTronica show. Rumor has it there is also a third movie planned.

Bobby Hunderds even went to a Tron pop up shop where they had Tron/Hurley apparel on display:

This brings me to my second question. Why did the original Tron not get a special DVD release before the sequel opened? Tron has not been released on DVD since 2002, you'd think they would re-release the original version so people new to the films would understand the concept. The trailer basically explains it all to you but still why not a new DVD or Blu Ray release? It's not like Disney did not have time to get it together.

My opinion is they do not want people seeing the old Tron. Who is the target audience for this film? I'd say teens and nerds. You already have the nerds excited for it because they all love the original Tron. If you show a 16 year old kid the original Tron he's going to laugh at the computer graphics and not want to see Tron Legacy (remember the original was a box office flop) I think Disney is taking their chances with showing this awesome new Tron trailer and keeping the original tucked away in the vault until they see how the Tron Legacy does at the box office. That way if the sequel is a success "If you loved Tron Legacy you'll love the original!" "See how it all started" "Relive the magic"......

What do you think? (For the record I'll be there opening day to see it)

The Archive Series: Design

2010-12-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

It's just a review kind of week.

How can you not love John Lasseter? Yeah, he's the only Pixarian who has not responded to one of my letters, but he was probably busy making wine or buying hawaiian shirts so I can't really blame him.

Walt Disney Animation Studios Archive Series Books are his brain child. Design is the third in the series. The first two are Animation and Story. Design is full of concept art and back ground paintings from artists like everyones favorite Mary Blair and my boy Tyrus Wong.

What's great is that these books go in chronological order, Design even has art from Tangled in it (if you're into that sort of thing). Don't worry though because The Archive Series mainly focuses on the old Walt classics. You will not find any Chicken Little here! Sadly you won't find The Wind in the Willows either......

The Archive Series books DO NOT have any words in them, so if you are looking for Disney history you will not really find it. They do tell you who drew each piece and there is always a forward from John Lasseter.

If you have not picked these up I really suggest you do!

Waking Sleeping Beauty

2010-11-30T06:14:00.000-08:00

Could this DVD have been released at a better time?

Everyone knows that Disney's animated films released in the early 80's tanked at the box office. The company experiencing a changing of the guard. The nine old men were retiring, new animators were being hired on, and the people at the top didn't care about animation.

Waking Sleeping Beauty is the story of how Disney went from making films like The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron to the classics like Little Mermaid and Aladdin. The film is directed and narrated by Don Hahn who was a producer at the time and saw it all go down.

The story takes place from 1984 to 1994 and shows you how Disney went on to make these great films. the compnay was doing great financially but on the inside though there was a power struggle between Michael Eisner, Jeffery Katzenberg , and Roy Disney. if you've read Disney War you are familiar with this story. If you have not read it I highly suggest it.

Disney War is obviously not authorized by Disney and Waking Sleeping Beauty was released by Disney which leads me to believe that Don Hahn could not give us the entire story in the film. The movies opens with an excited young animator giving a tour of the Animation building. He and the camera man go into animators offices and introduce them to the camera. We see a young Tim Burton at his desk drawing and looking very un-enthused. Then the camera man introduces himself "And I'm John Lasseter." We do not hear about Lasseter or Tim Burton again until Toy Story and Nightmare Before Christmas are being made towards the end of the film. In my opinion these are two huge stories the film just ignores. John Lasseter was fired by Disney in the 80's and now he practically runs the place. Why not dive into that story a little? I can see Tim Burton not caring to discuss his time at Disney but John Lasseter, how hard is it to find him?

Earlier I said this movie was released at the perfect time, well here's why. This film stops in 1994, right before Disney was eclipsed by Pixar. After Lion King was released Disney fell off the wagon again. Sure some people like Mulan and Hercules but the studio has not had another huge (memorable) hit since 1994...until now.

Tangled made almost 60 million dollars over the weekend. Are we at the beginning of another Disney comeback? Looking at the trailer for the new Winnie the Pooh film i'd say yes, but only time will tell.

Walt and El Grupo

2010-11-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

Walt and El Grupo is another movie I tried to have shown in Houston. Eventually I found a theater showing it and when the day came they cancelled the showing. So I was not able to watch it until today.

If you plan on watching Walt and El Grupo I would suggest reading South of The Border with Disney first.

If you've read Disney biographies you know that the story Walt's South American trip is usually over shadowed by the studio strike. Well South of the Border with Disney gives you all the facts about the trip and every South American film the studio made. On to Walt and El Grupo.

Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this film. The only reason I suggest reading South of the Border with Disney first is because the movie seemed a little short on facts. Disney's South American trip happened in 1941, since then every member of El Grupo (the artist that went along with him) has passed away. Luckily their spouses and family members have kept all the letters they sent home during the trip.

The film was made by Theodore Thomas the son of legendary animator (and member of El Grupo) Frank Thomas. He did a great job tracking down people that met Walt and El Grupo during their trip. There is not a lot of video footage from the trip shown in the film, instead Thomas found a way to make the still photographs taken at the time come to life. My favorite part of the film is the comparison shots. They will show you a picture of Walt taken in 1941 and slowly fade it to the same location now. It's great to see how the areas have for the most part stayed the same.

Aside from learning more about Walt another reason I wanted to see this film so bad was to learn more about Mary Blair. Mary Blair's section is short but in my opinion one of the most important parts of the film. Mary's son shows us how his mother was influenced by the trip. Before the trip Mary and her husband Lee had almost the exact same style of painting. It was the South American trip that made Mary Blair the artist she became.

So like I said if you're a real Disney nerd I'd say read the book and see the movie. If you are unsure watch the movie first and if you want to know more than read the book.

If you want to see Goofy smoking a cigarette you can watch the original version of Saludos Amigos in the bonus features.

DVD Madness!

2010-11-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

The mail man was good to me yesterday:

The Boys, Walt and El Grupo, & Waking Sleeping Beauty on DVD

If you are not familiar with these movies you're in luck because I'm going to give you my review of all of them...after I watch them all that is. I've only had time to watch The Boys so why don't we start there.

Let me start off by saying that Disney does not respect my opinion enough to send me free DVD's, so yeah I bought them on my own.

The Boys is the story of the Sherman Brothers, who have written such fantastic songs as "Feed the Bird's" from Mary Poppins and "Pineapple Princess" for Annette Funicello. You would think that brothers working together writing hit songs for their entire adult life would have a great friendship, but that is not the case.

The movie was directed by Jeff and Gregory Sherman, the sons of Dick and Bob. They spoke for the first time in 40 years in 2002 at the opening of the stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. At public events the brothers always appeared together for photos but then sat on opposite sides of the theaters, the cousins never knew why. They decided to make a movie about their famous fathers exploring their history as song writers and what exactly tore them apart.

I do not want to give away the entire story so i'll just tell you to stop reading this and buy the film! Not only do you hear the story from the Sherman Brothers themselves but the film is full of interviews with other Disney legends like Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It's sad to see two guys who claim to have nothing in common tear up when they have to talk about Walt Disney's death. Watching this film is going to make you want to get out all of your Sherman Brother musicals and watch them all day long, it was a truly touching movie.

My only complaint is with Disney, they should have given this movie a wider release. I contacted theaters all over Houston and could not get it shown here. So do yourself a favor and buy this DVD, and while your at it pick up The Sherman Brothers Song Book.

Mary Blair's House for Sale!

2010-11-22T05:37:00.000-08:00

First Ward Kimball now Mary Blair.

For $725,000 you can own Mary and Lee Blair's old house.

Here's the listing

Look!

2010-11-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

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 little bleak but do not worry my friends next week you will get to see some shots of the Hanna-Barbera character carousel!

Disneystrology

2010-10-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

It looks like my random Disney blogging has finally paid off kids! This week I received a free copy of Disneystrology in the mail. I feel like some kind of George Taylor !

Well here she is:

Disneystrology: What Your Birthday Character Says About You

I'm all for quizzes that tell you what Disney character you are most like but the questions are usually pointless until the last one where you answer "I like to have a good time with my friends" so they say "You are Cogsworth!" Lame, so a book that will tell me who I am based on my birthday seemed like a winner.

I was pretty excited to flip to good ol' September 18th to see who I was. Ready for it? Dick Ricker.....

I know what your thinking 'Who is Dick Ricker." What if I told you he was in The Incredibles...still no help? Okay, he's the lawyer who keeps the Parr families secret identity safe. Cool right? Apparently I am very "Honest, Enigmatic, and Matter-of-Fact."

My mom is Bambi, how a male deer gave birth to an old man I will never know.

The book does a pretty good job of having characters from almost every Disney movie, but I wonder about some of there choices. There are 8 fairies from the Tinkerbell movies but none from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. It's a little heavy straight to video sequels. I'm also wondering who decided the personality traits of the mushrooms from Fantasia. Maybe I'm just mad that I'm Dick Ricker...

It's a fun little book to look through though, especially if you know 365 people who were all born on different days.

We Played Here!

2010-10-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-09-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

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?

Disney's BIG Announcement

2010-09-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Is a new marketing campaign......

Seriously? Disney doesn't need some stupid gimmick to make people come to the park. It could be called "A Year of Stealing Your Money" and people would still come.

You'd think by now I would have learned that when Disney goes out of there way to tell you how great something is going to be that it's probably going to be awful. (Just wait till "Tangeled" comes out)

So what did we learn today?

1. Tom Burgeron should not be allowed to host anything while he's still tipsy.

2. There's a new show called World Of Color, and a Little Mermaid Ride going to DCA (Who would have guessed?)

3. Disney has 2 new cruise ships (who cares!?)

4. They are building a resort in Hawaii (because there aren't enough hotels there?)

5. Disney is going to use your home videos in their commercials

6. They're going to project your home videos on Cinderella Castle in WDW and Small World in DL.

7. Michael J. Fox is still awesome.

The End. Thanks for nothing.

They didn't even play "Makin' Memories".......

Land vs. World Half Marathon Edition

2010-09-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

Round 2:

Weather/ Expo.

I guess that even more important than the course itself is the weather.

I have been to WDW during marathon weekend (early January) twice times now. Both times it was unseasonably cold. This year it was below freezing and sleeting for almost the entire run. I saw reports about lizards freezing and falling out of trees. Not the best weather to run it. Especially after you've finished and you are suddenly hit by this bitter cold as your body temperature dropped.

California on the other hand was beautiful. It was overcast for almost the entire run, nothing to complain about there.

Winner: Disneyland

The Expo:

The Expo was my biggest complaint about the Disneyland run. In WDW the Expo is held at the Wide World of Sports. Getting there is a breeze from any Disney resort and there is more than enough room (not to mention parking). There are 2 rooms, one for picking up your number and another for Disney Marathon Merchandise and Third Party Vendors.

Disneyland in my opinion was a nightmare. I did not receive the email saying that the Expo would be held at the Disneyland Hotel. I asked a Cast Member who told me it was at the Anaheim Convention Center. So I walked the mile there to find out that it was in fact not being held there. I called other people who were running it and they and no clue either. I walked past the convention center on the back side of California Adventure towards The Disneyland Hotel. There were no signs about the expo!!! Finally we found out it was at the Disneyland Hotel. So we went to the convention center area and were told we had to pick up our numbers before we could go in the convention area. And where were the numbers you ask? On the bottom floor of the parking garage obviously. They only had signs on one side of the hotel (which was not the side I came in). Picking up your number on an astro-turfed parking garage is not all that great but I guess it's all they have to work with. The convention area was nice but probably half the size of WDW so walking around was kind of a nightmare.

We have an obvious winner here: WDW

Next time I'll show you the medals, these change every years though so don't pick your run based on them.