America The Beautiful (Circle-Vision 360) Articles
Disneyland Memories
Two months ago, I was warned that my article for the July issue would be about my first memories of Disneyland.
I knew from the outset how hard this would be.
If I had been asked about my first visit to Florida's Magic Kingdom this would be easy. It was November 18th 1988, which was Mickey's 60th birthday. I could write reams about my memories: the parades; my first trip on a monorail; finding ...
Disney Top 10 Innovations Of All Time
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The Walt Disney Company is known for its creativity, innovative thinking and technological advances.
Who, but Walt Disney, could have given us a motion picture like "Snow White," the first full-length animated feature film which was a movie industry first?
Who, but the Walt Disney Company, could have given us Epcot, perhaps the most unique theme park experience in the world?
On a recent ...
California vs. Paris: The Lands of The Future - Part One
This month and next, I shall be comparing the Lands of The Future found in the two Disneyland parks closest to my heart (California and Paris). In California, as per Florida, Tokyo and Hong Kong, this land is called Tomorrowland; in Paris this is called Discoveryland.
For the benefit of these articles, when I say Tomorrowland, I am only referring to the California one; I am also only writing about the ...
Reflecting On Changes At Disneyland
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What could be more exciting for a 10-year-old?
It was June 1955. My family had just driven across the country to our new home in Lakewood. Not only were we returning to our California roots, but the kids' paradise of Disneyland was just about to open for the first time.
My sisters and I used to watch the weekly TV show "Disneyland" in our suburban Washington D.C. home. After various adventures ...
Put Away That Spare Change Theres No More Pay Phoning Home From Disneyland
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The modern era has caught up with pay phones at the Disneyland Resort.
Thanks to the incredible growth of cellphones, the resort has quietly removed all the pay phones from its original theme park.
Locations such as those across from the exit to Space Mountain have been cleared of the phones, and in other areas of Disneyland.
In the 1960s, AT&T, along with Pacific Bell were major sponsors at ...
Disneylands 25 Million Dollar Job Started
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Construction of new facilities in the Tomorrowland area of Disneyland has been started by J.B. Allen & Co., Anaheim and Santa Barbara general Contractors following the company's demolition of practically all the old facilities.
J. B. Allen, president of the firm, noted that the total construction cost projected for work in Tomorrowland totals approximately $25 million.
Under way is construction ...
Disneyland Announces New Attractions For Fall
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Disneyland's fall schedule moves into October with three new adventures open, a fourth nearing completion special private nighttime parties for major groups and site preparations for a new Tomorrowland
During the fall, the relaxed time to see Disneyland following the summer rush, the "Magic Kingdom "is open Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7 ...
This Is How Disneyland Looked And Changed In The 1960s
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It was the '60s, a decade of change. And just like society, Disneyland would change too - in dramatic fashion.
1960
Just like previous years, Walt Disney was constantly tinkering with Disneyland as the decade started. The first year of the decade, he added more scenes to the Rainbow Ridge Mine Train, and changed its name to the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland. The mules got a new name, ...
This Is How Disneyland Changed In The 2000s
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The new century started out with few changes inside Disneyland, as the company was focused on big changes outside the park, but things would liven up as the century progressed.
2000
Parking at Disneyland changed with the opening of the Mickey & Friends parking structure on the land that was a strawberry farm for decades. The more than 10,000-space structure was the largest one when it started ...
Disneyland And Imagineering Part 8
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Picture this
You're an artistic designer;
You're scheduled to attend a design meeting for a project you drew the design that "greenlighted" the project you're currently working on;
Deadlines are rapidly approaching;
And in walks your boss
He looks concerned -- something between worried and extremely serious;
He opens the meeting and begins talking about a specific part of ...
After 40 Years, Disneyland Begins Unisex Assignments For Ride Operators
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For 40 years, the theme park chose ride operators based on gender-with frilly-frocked females working Storybook Land and macho men in pith helmets wisecracking through the Jungle Cruise.
But last month, the first woman took up oars to help guests paddle canoes around Tom Sawyer Island, and the first man in 38 years piloted a Storybook Land Canal Boat through the whale's mouth. Soon, female conductors ...
With The Chinese At Disneyland
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It is a sunny September morning in Disneyland. Bands are playing; people are walking with their children and pushing empty strollers; couples are taking pictures. There is a good proportion of people, buildings, and trees.
The Chinese writers, the UCLA conference hosts, Allen Ginsberg, and I have all just seen a movie, America the Beautiful, put out by Bell Laboratories in the 1950s. On seven big ...
New Fun For The Whole Family At Disneyland
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Imagine it's 200 years ago and you're a passenger on a small boat picking its way carefully along a dark and treacherous stretch of coastline on the Spanish Main. Suddenly pandemonium breaks loose. The air resounds with the roar of cannons and the crack of muskets. A band of pirates is attacking a town and you're right in the middle! The rogues are everywhere-taunting the town council, auctioning off the ...
PSA Joins Disney Family
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PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) has been chosen as the official airlines of Disneyland Park and the Magic Kingdom Club. As a new Disneyland corporate participant, PSA will sponsor an exciting new film, "American Journeys," and what will now be called the "World Premiere Circle- Vision" attraction in Tomorrowland. The film is scheduled for a July 4th weekend premiere to the public.
The "Magical ...
Imagine This If You Can.
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From Glendale Disneyland's new Tomorrowland won't open until May 1998, but in a drab gray and beige industrial building in Glendale the project already is mostly complete.
The building is part of Walt Disney Co.'s Imagineering complex, where ideas are put to paper and then crafted into models of the company's future endeavors. The model for the rebuilt Tomorrowland nearly fills a cordoned, windowless ...
Mouse Memories
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Disneyland's golden anniversary party began Thursday and will run through Thanksgiving 2006. We asked Bee readers to share memories of the park's early days. Here's what they recalled. Pop on your golden mouse ears and take a trip back in time ...
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My wife and I were married Sept. 25, 1955. During our honeymoon we ...
With The Future Set In 1986, Tomorrowland Had To Change
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In announcing a renovation of Disneyland's Tomorrowland, Walt Disney Co. imagineers acknowledged that men on the moon, home computers and time had caught up to the land, one of the five original areas in the 42-year-old-park.
When Disneyland opened, "1986 sounded very futuristic," said Tony Baxter, senior vice president-creative development for Disney's imagineering unit.
Among the rides and ...
Wide World of Walt Disney
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In the world of children. he is the rich uncle-the casual, ordinary-looking man with the graying mustache and the baggy eyes who shows up from time to time, does funny tricks and gives wonderful presents, and then goes away until the next time. He makes everybody laugh, and everybody wonders about him-because like any proper rich uncle, he presents a fascinating mystery. Among other things he is probably ...
Eustace Lycett, 91; Oscar-Winning Special Effects Expert For Disney
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When Eustace Lycett was studying mechanical engineering at Caltech in Pasadena in the 1930s, he figured he'd wind up in the oil or aircraft industries when he graduated. He never considered a career in the movies.
But three days after graduating in 1937, he went to work in the engineering department at the Walt Disney studio on Los Angeles' Hyperion Avenue, where he worked on the studio's new ...
At Disney, Many Hits ... And A Few Misses
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Disneyland
Rocket Rods in Disneyland was the centerpiece of an overhaul of Tomorrowland in the late 1990s, but while the vehicles had a Buck Rogers feel, they had all the kick of Roy Rogers' horse.
The folks at WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) have come up with some pretty spectacular rides, attractions and innovations over the years at the Disney parks. But, sad to say, there have also ...
Phoenix Delivers Blast From The Past
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It's no secret that Disneyland is my happy place. It is, therefore, a pretty good bet that you can find me at the Happiest Place on Earth each July 17 celebrating Disneyland's anniversary.
This year, my daughter and I took a detour on our way to Disneyland's 55th anniversary celebration, stopping by a Garden Grove hotel to view a slide presentation by an entertainer named Charles Phoenix.
I ...
1955: Disney's Tomorrowland Features Circarama
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June 27, 1955: In preparation for the opening of Disneyland, Walt Disney studios unveiled Circarama, a film projection technique to be used in the park's Tomorrowland.
"Eleven projectors utilizing 16-millimeter film were called into service to make possible this completely circular picture on a 360-degree screen," The Times reported. "As one observer said, this new dimension makes it impossible for ...
The Best Disneyland Ride Of All Time
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After our E Ticket discussion from last week, I thought picking the best Disneyland rides would be fun. I might follow up with a worst rides post, although I'm not sure if I want to relive this again.
As I've been riding the local roller coasters for a Chronicle magazine article I'm working on, I've noticed how little concern the newer rides place on production values. Bay Area coasters such as The ...
What Was Disneyland Like In 1968
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While Disneyland is technically and geographically not even in Los Angeles County, it has been a big part of the L.A. lifestyle dating back to the 1950s. A fine pictorial map created by Sam McKim in 1968 shows the Magic Kingdom during a year when the park as most vintage Angelenos know it was in place and making indelible memories.
Baby Boomers can mark stages of their lives by visits to Disneyland, ...
Free Shows And Exhibits
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Walt Disney always believed that entertainment of educational value should be presented so that everyone is able to see it, and the Disneyland staff holds on to that important ideal today.
Since everything at Disneyland is set either in the past or the future, most of the free exhibits deal with history or things to come. Main Street, U.S.A. is a free show in itself a perfect replica of a ...
PeopleMover Innovation In Transportation
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In today's changing world, man is constantly striving for better, quicker, and more efficient means of transportation. The jet age has made business trips across the continent a matter of daily routine for many people. But the biggest problem, the need for transportation from the suburbs to the city and back without dangerous and time-consuming traffic congestion, is yet to be solved effectively.
...
New Tomorrowland Where The Dreams Of The Future Are Reality Today
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Realizing that time had naught It wish Disneyland's Tomorrowland, Walt may and his use at WED Enterprises began research in 1964 for an entirely new Tomorrowland - a $22 million project costing $5 million more than the total initial Disneyland investment.
This complete rebuilding of Disneyland's world of Tomorrow follows Walt Disney, philosophy first expressed Disneyland's Dedication ...
How Club 33 Really Got Its Name It Is Not What You Think
The official version of the Club 33 origin story has a new twist involving 33 corporate sponsors that helped build Disneyland thanks to a 300-page history of the Anaheim theme park that delves into the legend and lore of the exclusive private club in New Orleans Square.
A new history of Disneyland written by the Historic Resources Group for the 17,000-page DisneylandForward Environmental ...
