Buena Vista Obscura: Captain Cook's Followup

Just a brief addendum and followup for those of you whose appetite was whet by my previous post regarding that ubiquitous early Polynesian Village lounge, Captain Cook's Hideaway. This functions as both an extension and a rectification of my previous post.

I can now say with more certainty that I have identified the original location of Captain Cook's Hideaway, and it was not where I thought it was. In my original post I indicated that photographs of the establishment seem to be rare. Although pictures of the entrance and inside certainly are, almost any early promotional photograph of the Polynesian Village is certain to contain some part of Captain Cook's Hideaway... ...assuming the photograph is an exterior view, taken from the air.

Here's just one example, taken from "The Magic of Disneyland and Walt Disney World".


Based on the foliage growth and completeness of the Golf Resort in the background, I think this photograph was taken no later than 1974. If we move in closer the item of interest, typically, is right on the crease of the page, which I have rejoined digitally. Take special note of the circular structure in the lower left.


This outdoor patio is certainly the original location of Captain Cook's. There's a palm tree growing right up through the middle of it. The location of all other original Polynesian eateries has safely been established to be inside the lobby structure, and Captain Cook's Hideaway is the only original eatery which advertises an outdoor area:

"CAPTAIN COOK'S HIDEAWAY Dockside cocktails served inside or outside at the Polynesian Village. Open from 11 am until 2 am. Entertainment." - Walt Disney World News, Vol. 1 No. 1, October 1971

"For guests desirous for a dark rendezvous and the strains of a haunting guitar, Captain Cooks Hideaway provides both, as well as an outside patio romantically bathed in soft candlelight." - Walt Disney World Vacationland, Spring 1973

So here it is, the Captain Cook's Hideaway dockside patio. Though the torches ringing the patio burn bright, and it may not be dark enough yet to get the full effect of a romantic candlelight, it is bright enough to see that palm tree extending through the patio on the left and that circular building out by the pool in the background. This means that Captain Cook's Hideaway occupied a spot *just west* of the current location of the food court it later gave its name to, and where the indoor arcade is now. This image is from the 1977 "Walt Disney World ... a pictorial souvenir".


"Time takes on a leisurely tempo in the romantic South Seas environment of the Polynesian Village. As guests wander along palm-lined paths beside tropical pools, the throb of Tahitian drums announces the nightly torchlit luau held on the white-sand beach i front of the low-silhouetted guest "longhouses"."

As originally constructed almost every room in the Polynesian Village faced the water.

--

Previous Buena Vista Obscura entries:
Captain Cook's Hideaway
The Lake Buena Vista Story: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four
The Golf Resort

"Snapshot" series at Passport to Dreams Old & New:
Olde World Antiques
The Great Southern Craft Company

Windows to the Past: King-Size Latex Toys

Kids today with their high-tech games and gadgets have no appreciation for minimalism in toy design.  Case in point--wonderful king-size latex toys from the height of the baby boom.  Remember!  If it was advertised on the back page of a comic book, you could be guaranteed it was a quality product.  At least that was the argument we made to our parents when attempting to cajole the $1.25 needed for the order.

Oh, and by the way-- King-Size Latex Toys = (a bag of balloons).

Snapshot! - Main Street Helium and Color

Just having a little bit of fun with an iPad app called ColorSplash. 

Buena Vista Obscura: Captain Cook's Hideaway

One aspect of the Walt Disney World Vacation Kingdom in her earliest days which is least likely to translate appropriately to our modern experience is how the entire resort was constructed as a multitude of experiences of which the Magic Kingdom was only the centerpiece. While it's true that this is still the case and the most remarkable things you can do at Walt Disney World are oftentimes the ones you don't even set foot in a theme park to experience, it takes the repeat visitor oftentimes to finally wrestle herself free of the lure of the parks and really get to exploring the intricate backwaters of Walt Disney World. Now those who have explored the pages of an old issue of Walt Disney World Vacationland may be surprised that, yes, there are indeed articles about the Magic Kingdom, but the bulk of the issue is devoted to all the other things you could do at Walt Disney World, even in those early days.

There's good reason for this. For the first ten years of the resort's existence, the Magic Kingdom ran very short operating hours unless it was a holiday season or the summer rush. Open at 10 am and close at 6 pm. That's an eight hour operating day for the centerpiece of Walt Disney World for most of the year.

To put this in perspective, the absolutely shortest regularly scheduled operating day at the Magic Kingdom today is one of those days when the park closes early for a hard ticket event - 9 am to 7 pm, a ten hour operating day. Closing at 6 pm is pretty extraordinary. None of the sit down restaurants would even make it into the dinner rush! There were two very simple parades daily - various entertainers and characters would pile onto the Main Street Vehicles and proceed in haphazard fashion through the park - and there were no fireworks unless the park was open past midnight.

Given these circumstances even the day tripper would be likely to maximize their effort and retreat to one of the Disney hotels on the monorail to take in dinner or a show such as the Electrical Water Pageant, and this is just how Disney wanted it. Although the Magic Kingdom may have closed at 6 pm, the Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village was open every day until 10 or later, and every resort had at least one bar or night club open until 2 am, complete with live entertainment - the Trophy Room at the Golf Resort, the Village Restaurant at Lake Buena Vista, The Top of the World at the Contemporary. So the oft repeated canard that Walt Disney World was once a place with less emphasis on the Magic Kingdom may be rephrased to emphasize that Walt Disney World was once a place *designed* to make you take advantage of the offerings outside the gates of the Magic Kingdom.

This was the time period in the resort's history when it was most markedly different than what we have today. With the park's closing designed to force most guests out of the theme park and into Walt Disney World's other areas, Disney was coming up with ingenious night time entertainment offerings such as the Eastern Winds and Moonlight Cruises. It was a time when tourists and cast members alike flocked to the new modern hotels being built on property along SR 535 near the Preview Center, which offered the newest night life and dining, such as Howard Johnson's "Place For Rib". It was a time when the campfire sing-along on the beaches of Fort Wilderness was as important a part of your day as riding Space Mountain or Pirates of the Caribbean, and the sounds of a Dixieland quartette echoed across the Seven Seas Lagoon from a dimly lit sidewheeler, pacing the waters on a romantic moonlight "showboat" cruise.

Great Ceremonial House, looking south on the second level, 1972 or 1973

I provide all this set up because by itself, Captain Cook's Hideaway isn't much to talk about. It was, in fact, a single room, dimly lit, located on the ground floor of the Polynesian Village's Great Ceremonial House. Across from the South Seas Dining Room, a simple buffet, these two establishments occupied a small side hallway on the ground level where currently the large open "BouTiki" shop is located. In those early days before the various Gift Shops and Eateries were modified in such a way to open up into the Polynesian's dramatic atrium, the Great Ceremonial House mostly resembled an open box with two levels and fairly featureless bamboo walls.

But Captain Cook's was the very original Cast Member hangout, long before the Adventurer's Club or the Big Bamboo was a glimmer in anyone's eye, and as such maybe deserves more attention than it would otherwise receive. On pages 125 and 126 of Realityland, author David Koenig relates Disney World's efforts to get SR 535 modernized to handle the large amounts of employee traffic currently traveling on it - a problem they had, of course, created, the road itself predating Walt Disney World by many years. Disney was unwilling to contribute the needed funds for adding shoulders, lanes and such, but they were willing to launch a massive PR campaign which included a song by Captain Cook's resident musical duo, the improbably named Salt Water Express - 'Can You Arrive Alive on 535?' The song was submitted to local radio stations and even plastered on billboards. Disney got their road widened on the government's dime, and such is the lot of obscure facets of Walt Disney World that they are often mixed up in stories bigger than their actual profile may suggest. One wonders how many Disney guests those many summer nights ago were confounded by talk of "Arriving alive on 535".

Disney described their creation in more romantic terms in a 1973 Vacationland:

"For guests desirous for a dark rendezvous and the strains of a haunting guitar, Captain Cooks Hideaway provides both, as well as an outside patio romantically bathed in soft candlelight."

There are very few photos of the inside of the place, which probably indicates that it wasn't much to look at. Salt Water Express began their sets at 9 pm and went until 2:30 pm, except on Monday, either seated in a corner romantically lit with a soft purple light or amongst the patrons. The real attraction, of course, was a cozy getaway from the bustle of what was already one of America's busiest fun centers, with the comfort of a potent tropical cocktail.

The namesake of the establishment, Captain James Cook, was killed by Hawaiians after trying to take hostage of the King of Hawaii in 1779. Although probably nobody was killed by the Polynesian Village resort staff in Captain Cook's Hideaway during the watering hole's run, the notion of the white man gradually succumbing to intoxication via one of the bar's potent tropical cocktails while the folk strains of Salt Water Express ring through the room makes for a strangely appropriate connection. In later years, as the resort became more of a family centered enterprise, Captain Cook lent his name to the new food court which, albeit many renovations later, still bears his name.

In a way it's hard to be too excited about these sort of places at Walt Disney World on an individual basis, and indeed it's not Captain Cook's Hideaway but what it represented in its time which fascinates today. There is very little at Walt Disney World today which resembles it, and even the darkest of dark bars is likely to serve lemonade and punch in light-up cups along with their adult-only concoctions. It's simply hard to reconcile the child-centric wonderland of Walt Disney World today with a place that used to promote restaurants serving "Gallic fair in a high timbered room smelling of cedar" (the Lake Buena Vista Club) or "nightly floor shows featuring top name performers" (the Top of the World).

In a way, then, perhaps Captain Cook's Hideaway is of interest. The Polynesian Resort is, of course, today quite notable for her lack of a real tiki bar, a truly dark and adult escape into a world of imagined exotic pleasures. Captain Cook's may have been Disney's concession to the "Trader Vic's" crowd, an establishment which is itself today as endangered and rare as early Walt Disney World. So next time you're in line waiting to buy your massive Dole Whip or pulled pork flatbread, raise a refillable mug to the original Captain Cook's Hideaway and the Salt Water Express - now just a hazy, rum soaked memory flitting elusively across time, dancing off the waters of the Seven Seas Lagoon, the waves from the phantom wave machine, the ghost boat on a moonlight cruise to nowhere.

--

Previous Buena Vista Obscura entries:
The Lake Buena Vista Story: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four
The Golf Resort

Vinyl Magic - Yippi-A, Yippi-I, Yippi-O!
By Jeffrey Pepper
Originally published June 5, 2008

As Disney enthusiasts and historians, we attach ourselves to the obvious and too often overlook the equally notable and precious. This can be especially true in the Walt Disney Company's long and significant musical history. I have long been passionate about Disney music and had assumed I'd "heard it all." But over the past few years, primarily due to the efforts of music producer and archivist Randy Thorton and authors Greg Ehrbar and Tim Hollis, I have discovered a wealth of amazing material that lies beyond the higher profile feature film and theme park melodies and songs that people most commonly associate with Disney musical entertainment. It is a legacy of vinyl magic from bygone days that has thankfully been quietly reemerging into the digital age.

In the summer riding, singing, Yippi-I, Yippi-O

Back the echoes come a ringing, Yippi-I, Yippi-O

So sway in the saddle and swing all along, and sing another chorus of the Triple R Song

Yippi-A, Yippi-I, Yippi-O!

A shining example of this now diminished vinyl magic is a campfire song that for a brief time in the mid-1950s embodied the happy charm and widespread popularity associated with the daily Mickey Mouse Club serial The Adventures of Spin and Marty. "The Triple R Song" may be a simple sing along tune, but it resonates a nostalgia for a time and place held dear by baby boomers such as myself.

"The Triple R Song" was penned by Stan Jones, a former National Park ranger who became well known for his 1949 hit "Ghost Riders in the Sky." As Ehrbar and Hollis note in Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, "The campfire tune used multiple verses to sustain the plot and provide exposition. It was among the first tunes recorded for the Official Mickey Mouse Club Records released in 1955." Jones also composed the song "Goodnight Little Wrangler" for the series, and would continue his association with Disney Studio until his death in 1963, producing two different albums of western songs and the hit "Wringle Wrangle" for the film Westward Ho the Wagons.

Due to the disjointed nature of its presentation on the Spin and Marty serial, a studio recording of the song was also produced in 1955 and was included on the record album Walt Disney Presents Songs from the Mickey Mouse Club Serials. Tim Considine, in his persona of Spin Evans, featured prominently in the recording and was joined notably by famed Disney actor and voice performer Dallas McKennon, who performed the parts of Marty's butler Perkins and George the camp cook. In an interview feature on the Disney Treasures Spin and Marty DVD set, Leonard Maltin and series star Harry Carey, Jr. (Bill Burnett) made special mention of "The Triple R Song." Maltin observed, "I don't know how to explain it, but there is something about that simple song Way Out Here on the Triple R . . . it just stays with you."

"The Triple R Song" is just that--engaging in its very simplicity as it tells an encapsulated version of the summer's events at the Triple R Ranch from that very first of the Spin and Marty serials. It is heartfelt and true and speaks clearly to the bittersweet nature of summer camp experiences: friendships forged, happy and exciting adventures, and the inevitable and emotionally painful goodbyes at the season's end.

With lyrics that include phrases such as "doggoned pretty song" and "he just couldn't be so doggone swell" it is no doubt easy for many to mock rather than appreciate the old fashioned 1950s era sensibilities that the song in many ways communicates. It matters not, for in the end the happy nostalgia and unabashed sincerity of Yippi-A, Yippi-I Yippi-O transcend any amount of jaded cynicism younger generations of viewers may wish to deliver upon it.

The day of parting now draws near, Yippi-A, Yippi-O

Tomorrow is the day we fear, Yippi-A, Yippi-O

Back home to school and scattered far,

But we'll never forget the Triple R

Yippi-A

Yippi-I

Yippi-O

Walt Disney Presents Songs from the Mickey Mouse Club Serials and "The Triple R Song" are available from the iTunes music store.

Mount Disney: The Legacy of Walt at Sugar Bowl
By Jeffrey Pepper
Originally published March 6, 2008

Hide in plain sight.

As a student of Disney history I have come to embrace that particular cliche. Simple and almost always overlooked details in Disney entertainment can often lead to very enjoyable and enlightening journeys of historical discovery. I recently embarked on such a journey after watching the Goofy cartoon The Art of Skiing.

Released in late 1941, The Art of Skiing was the first of Goofy's many sports-related how-to shorts. The cartoon opens with a panoramic sweep of snow covered mountains, eventually focusing in on a rustic ski lodge, within which the Goof is awakening and subsequently preparing for a day on the slopes. A sign identifies the building as the Sugar Bowl Lodge. That identification lasted just a few seconds on the movie screen, but proved a window into a little remembered chapter in the life of Walt Disney.

In the late 1930s, Walt Disney met Austrian skiing champion Hannes Schroll. Walt became acquainted with Schroll while vacationing at Badger Pass where Schroll was the head of the Yosemite Ski School. The two became good friends. In 1938, Schroll and business partners purchased land for the intention of building a ski resort in the east Sierras near Donner's Summit and the small town of Truckee. The land encompassed an area around two mountains--Hemlock Peak and Mount Lincoln. Schroll had sought financial assistance from Disney in purchasing the land as funds from his native Austria had been appropriated in the spring of that year, when Hitler annexed that country. Schroll wired Disney in June seeking help; Walt was unfortunately out of town when the cable arrived and Schroll had to find others to advance the needed funds to secure the land purchase. One year later when Schroll was seeking additional investments to build the resort, he again approached Walt who in turn wrote Schroll a check for $2500, and became one of the initial stockholders of the newly christened Sugar Bowl resort. To honor Walt's support and partnership, Schroll changed the name of Hemlock Peak to Mount Disney.

Among the preeminent enticements that drew skiers to Sugar Bowl in those early years were the chairlift up Mount Disney, the first such lift in California; and the lodge, designed by architect William Wurster and later featured in the Goofy cartoon. A newspaper report from November of 1939 announced:

"The Sugar Bowl, located about 1 1/2 miles from Norden Station, near the Donner Summit, has been developed by a private corporation headed by Hannes Schroll, Olympic ski champion, for use this season as a winter sports area. This year a new upski and a new lodge have been constructed. The new chairlift lifts skiers 1,000 feet vertically to the top of the Sugar Bowl’s rim. The lodge, which will open on December 15, accommodates 40 persons and has 10 double rooms and two dormitories, one for men and one for women. Other features include a lounge, bar, dining hall, lunch counter and rest room facilities."
Walt vacationed at Sugar Bowl in early 1941 with wife Lillian and daughter Diane. A photograph survives showing the three with Hannes Schroll at the resort. Of that trip, Diane Disney Miller recalled, "That was a long time ago, and I seem to myself to have been 7. There were twins, boy and girl, who were the children of the manager, that were one year younger than me. I remember that I very much wanted to learn to ski, that the twins--the boy, at least--drove me crazy, and the highlight of the trip was when Hannes took me up the chair lift, with my parents, on Mount Disney and skied down with me on his shoulders."

In their book Skiing With Style, authors Robert Frohlich and S. E. Humphries related how Walt once performed duties beyond just his role of stockholder. According to John Wiley, the resorts first winter sports director, Walt once filled in for a bartender at the lodge's bar. Wiley recalled, "There was no television in those days, so he tended bar almost incognito for about two hours."

Other notable Hollywood personalities found their way to Sugar Bowl as well. Among them were Levi Strauss, King Vidor, Norma Shearer, Errol Flynn, Jean Arthur and Claudette Colbert. In spring on 1941, exterior scenes for the MGM film Two Faced Woman were shot at Sugar Bowl. The film starred Greta Garbo and Melvin Douglas, but the two never left their Hollywood studio. Stunt doubles skied in their places for the second unit filming.

The Art of Skiing was produced throughout 1941. It is interesting to note the now famous and trademark "Goofy yell" originated with Hannes Schroll. An accomplished yodeler, Schroll was recruited by Walt to record material for the cartoon. In November of 1941, the world premiere of The Art of Skiing was held at the Fairmont Hotel in nearby San Francisco as part of the city's Annual Skiers Ball. Walt and Lillian attended the event and presented the cartoon.

Despite turning away from the sport in later years, Walt remained a part of the resort for some time. He sponsored events such as the Disney Junior Challenge Trophy and the Sugar Bowl Perpetual Goofy Races for children. And the legacy of Walt's involvement with the resort remains apparent. In addition to Mount Disney, there are specific runs named the Disney Nose, the Disney Meadow, the Disney Return and the Donald Duck. A modernized lift replaced the original Disney Chair and is now called the Disney Express.

Walt revisited his interests in winter sports and skiing in the 1960s. He produced the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1960 Winter Olympics held at Squaw Valley, California, and at the time of his death was formulating plans for a ski resort at Mineral King valley near Sequoia National Park, a project ultimately unrealized.

Special thanks to Diane Disney Miller, David Lesjak and also Jennie Bartlett from Sugar Bowl for generously providing assistance in my research efforts.

Art of Skiing Images © Walt Disney Company

Sugar Bowl Images Courtesy of the Sugar Bowl Resort

Lost Imagineering:  RCA System Communication Center
By Jeffrey Pepper
Originally published October 15, 2007

"The focal point of WEDCOMM would be the RCA System Communication Center, open to the public as a highlight of the Tomorrowland area of the new Theme Park. Through this operational nerve center, the staff would be able to monitor, receive and transmit information to guests and operating personnel.

All communications would tie into the Center -- including telephones, radio paging and two-way radio, computer operated displays, television and signals from the automatic monitoring and control system. Contact can be quickly established with any location and key personnel can be reached without delay."

WEDCOMM? The RCA System Communication Center? In Tomorrowland???

Those were in fact the plans that RCA proudly announced back in 1969 as the Walt Disney Company made public much of its initial planning for Walt Disney World. One of Disney's key corporate partners, RCA was set to create and produce the computer and communications infrastructure for the entire Disney World project. The system was named WEDCOMM--Walter E. Disney Communications Oriented Monitoring and Management System.

This very ambitious plan vanished quickly, at least from public view, when RCA sold its computer division to Sperry Univac in 1970. RCA would ultimately sponsor Space Mountain in the Magic Kingdom a number of years later. Sperry Univac would in turn sponsor The Astuter Computer Revue at EPCOT Center which was a clear evolution and relocation of the RCA Communication Center.

The above passage was from a RCA press release, that was part of a press kit released to media in 1969. Here is the release in its entirety:

ORLANDO, Fla., April 30 — What shape will electronic information handling take by the year 2000?

RCA is developing plans to provide a dramatic preview of tomorrow's system technology at Walt Disney World — establishing the first 21st Century information-communications system as a total service for guests, residents and management.

The advanced concepts under study would range from personal TV bulletins for visitors to computerized profiles of guest activity. Called WEDCOMM (Walter E. Disney Communications Oriented Monitoring and Management System), the program was designed by the RCA Systems Development organization in conjunction with Disney personnel.

As a planned "System of Systems, WEDCOMM would link computers, telephones, automatic monitoring and control devices, mobile communications and television in a multi-faceted network capable of expansion as growth demands. Through a modular design concept, it would unfold in phases over several years to take advantage of operational experience and technological advancement.

Robert W. Sarnoff, RCA President and Chief Executive Officer, declared that "today the systems approach is being turned to a new task --to meet increasingly urgent social and economic challenges including problems of health, urban planning, natural resources and education.

"RCA Systems Development was established to explore these needs and focus the diverse capabilities of RCA in fulfilling them. One of the first assignments of this new organization was to help develop the integrated information-communication system for Walt Disney World."

WEDCOMM's design will capitalize on the framework for electronic innovation created by the Walt Disney World hotel and recreational complexes, as well as its residential community.

Among the system's first tasks would be a continuous electronic tracking of events throughout the widespread Vacation Kingdom. News and previews of Walt Disney World activities will be broadcast over special television channels into hotel rooms and at other locations.

Plans also call for the use of a closed-circuit TV system to train new Disney employees, and to monitor shows and attractions.

The computer will link administrative, financial and operational functions into a single management information system unique in scope and providing a new dimension in control of a major enterprise.

RCA officials said the WEDCOMM computer system will help Walt Disney World guests make reservations for hotel rooms, entertainment and recreation quickly and simply during their stay.

In addition, it will automatically build "guest profiles" to assist the staff in progressively improving their service to return visitors. Through attendance predictions and inventory control programs, the computer will help insure an adequate staff and sufficient food and supplies at all times.

The focal point of WEDCOMM would be the RCA System Communication Center, open to the public as a highlight of the Tomorrowland area of the new Theme Park. Through this operational nerve center, the staff would be able to monitor, receive and transmit information to guests and operating personnel.

All communications would tie into the Center -- including telephones, radio paging and two-way radio, computer operated displays, television and signals from the automatic monitoring and control system. Contact can be quickly established with any location and key personnel can be reached without delay.

RCA officials said WEDCOMM encompasses proven product line components in an original advanced system configuration.

It will be continually fed by a stream of new technology from RCA laboratories and technical centers, particularly to meet the expanding requirements of EPCOT (the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow).

The system is expected to contribute to broad improvements in education, health, safety, utility operations, municipal government, monetary systems, recreation and transportation. These will be an outgrowth of such WEDCOMM applications as computer assisted instruction, multi-test health screening systems, safety monitoring, automated reading drills, and billing and collection for utility services.

RCA said its approach to the design of WEDCOMM is based on experience gained from major systems projects — among them color television, automated information systems, microwave networks, and the TIROS/ESSA weather satellite series.

"We of RCA are proud to be associated with Walt Disney Productions in a project that holds so much promise for the future of human society," Mr. Sarnoff said.

Windows to the Past: Picketing the Reluctant Dragon

Most images we have discovered relating to the 1941 strike against the Walt Disney Studios feature picket lines outside the studio's Burbank location.  This particular photograph from the archives of the Los Angeles Examiner shows about a half a dozen members of the Screen Cartoonist Guild picketing in front of the RKO Palace Theatre in Los Angeles.  Ironically, the film playing at the theater was The Reluctant Dragon, which featured an inside look at a very happy, productive Burbank studio.

Two of the picketers wear masks--one is Mickey Mouse, the other is a Snow White dwarf.

The photograph is part of the Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection of the USC Digital Library.

What is Propaganda

I always enjoy digging around through the many, many online digital archives.  On a recent expedition through the Illinois Digital Archives, I stumbled upon a certain Disney duck featured in one of his typical agitated states.  In 1944, our good friend Donald faithfully served his country by appearing in a War Department publication that discussed the nature and potential dangers of propaganda.  What is Propaganda was classified as War Department Education Manual EM-2.  It was part of the G.I. Roundtable series, a series of pamphlets that was also designed to be the basis of potential discussion groups attended by servicemen.

 

Donald's appearance in the 48-page pamphlet is minimal, but still distinct.  He appears on the cover and on two interior pages.  He is never mentioned in any of the text.  He is featured at the beginning of the manual on a page with the heading, "Defining Propaganda," where two different portraits of the duck are used to separately represent the positive and negative natures of propaganda.

He reappears at the end of the pamphlet in a simple cartoon with the somewhat ambiguous caption, "Well, What is Propaganda?"

The booklet features a number of other cartoon illustrations including caricatures of enemy leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Herman Goebbels and Benito Mussolini.

We recently featured another War Department G.I. Roundtable publication on our companion site Boom-Pop! -- Can War Marriages Be Made to Work?

Welcome Boy Scouts of America

This really wonderful twelve minutes of vintage Disneyland has been hiding in a remote corner of the Internet for quite a number of years.  Identified only as Amateur Film Amusement Park, it is comprised of home movie footage that focuses on a troop of Scouts visiting Disneyland sometime between 1963 and 1965.  It has been part of the Prelinger Archives at archives.org since 2003.

Among the film's many notable vignettes:

• Mickey Mouse leading a marching band down Main Street USA
• The Eagle Dance at the Indian Village
• Great views of various attractions as seen from the Skyway
• Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules and Mine Train

The listing at archive.org provides no information whatsoever about the film.  It is an interesting piece of Disneyland history both mysterious and entertaining.

What a Character! - The Aracuan Bird

By Jeffrey Pepper

Originally published February 18, 2008

A 1940s era Disney cartoon star that breaks the fourth wall and circumnavigates the borders of the movie screen, engaging in inspired insanity that ranges from mischievous pranks to over-the-top attempts at suicide.

Wow . . . . what a character!

Born out of the 1945 animated feature The Three Caballeros, the Aracuan is that rare bird that at times was more akin to his Warner Bros. or Walter Lantz counterparts than to his slightly more benign Disney cartoon costars. His antics bears strong associations with avian cartoon cousins Daffy Duck and Woody Woodpecker, but with a South of the Border sensibility owing to his origins in the Disney Latin American film canon.

The Aracuan Bird debuted in the Rare Birds segment of The Three Caballeros, memorably emerging from a home movie screen and crawling up the projector beam to shake hands with a befuddled Donald Duck. He reappears later in the film to derail the train taking Donald and Jose Carioca to Baia. As the train travels through a stunning chalk drawing-inspired landscape, the Aracuan cleverly uses his own piece of chalk to draw new rails that split apart the engine, its cars and the caboose.

Studio veteran and Disney Legend Eric Larson created and animated the Aracuan Bird for The Three Caballeros. Despite the character's relatively brief appearances, Larson infused the Aracuan with a frantic, mischievous personality, yet combined it with an innocent, endearing nature that ultimately made him both entertaining and very memorable. In his book Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, author John Canemaker observed:

"Larson animated the the mad bird like a mechanical doll, puttering along, turning an occasional cartwheel as it goes on its giddy way. The Aracuan is a spirit of the film medium itself and its elements . . . he toys with the substance of film itself and its mechanics, literally running off the film frames as they race by--thus affecting the audience's perception of what they are watching."

So great was the character's impact that he was brought back in two subsequent productions. He returned first in the 1947 Donald Duck cartoon Clown of the Jungle, and appeared again with Donald and Jose Caricoa in the Blame It On the Samba segment of 1948 package film Melody Time. He would also bear a distinct physical resemblance to another Larson-created character: Sasha, the little bird with a similar red tuft of hair from the Peter and the Wolf segment of Make Mine Music.

Clown of the Jungle extended the premise first visited in The Three Caballeros, as the Aracuan disrupts another South American birdwatching vignette. But the cartoon quickly spins away from the prior film's generally benign trappings into a fast paced outing very reminiscent of earlier Elmer Fudd-Daffy Duck confrontations. Director Jack Hannah recreated the bird's trademark song and the here-there-and-everywhere popping in and out of frame innovated by Larson. But suddenly, and hilariously, the short exhibits somewhat darker humor. Responding to Donald's rebuff, the Aracuan becomes the centerpiece of a suicide gag where the bird engages in the plausible impossible act of hanging himself from his own arm. The gags continue fast and furious, culminating in an uber-violent machine gun attack by Donald that the Aracuan naturally, and quite casually dodges. The escape results in Donald losing hold of his own sanity, and the cartoon ends with him mimicking the Aracuan's now very familiar song and dance.

While his crazy nature remains intact in Melody Time, the Aracuan's malicious mischievousness is replaced with the more noble purpose of cheering up forlorn friends Donald and Jose. As Disney character scholar John Grant notes, ". . . they are in this feature really less like characters and more like 'experiencing objects,' battered around by the whims of the turbulent, pulsing music." The sequence is clearly a return to the style and presentation of The Three Caballeros, but this time making the Aracuan Bird the catalyst for the eye-popping visuals and stunning mixes of live action and animation. The climactic exploding organ sequence featuring Ethel Smith remains one of the most amazing moments in a Disney film, and it was the Aracuan Bird who planted the dynamite stick under the foot pedal.

While Melody Time would be the Aracuan's last big screen appearance, he would return in the television show "House of Mouse." But more significantly, like his Samba costar Jose Carioca, the Aracuan would go on to enjoy a successful incarnation in comic books produced in Brazil. Beginning in the mid-1980s, he would be a featured character in a series entitled Os Adolescentes (translated Disney Teens).

Images © Walt Disney Company

Walt Disney's Los Angeles 1923-1931: Pedaling Past History

Editors Note: When we last left Buddy Robinson, he had just rode his bicycle past the home of Robert Disney on Kingswell Avenue.

Buddy suddenly remembers that he wants to check what's playing at the Vista Theatre, so he points his bicycle south off Kingswell onto Hillhurst Avenue.  He travels the four blocks to the corner of Hillhurst and Hollywood Boulevard where the Vista is located.

He decides that the double bill of Tailspin and The Three Musketeers is to his liking and quickly exchanges a dime for a ticket and a few hours of vintage Hollywood escapism.

It is important to remember that at this time, the movie industry was a growing and pervasive presence in the Los Feliz and Silver Lake neighborhoods, and of course in Hollywood just to the west.  Data from the 1930 U.S. Census indicates that a large number of individuals then living in these areas were associated with work within the motion picture industry.

Across the street from the Vista Theatre was one of Hollywood's then well known poverty row studios.  Monogram Studios produced such B-movie fare as Boris Karloff's Mr. Wong series, The East End Kids and The Bowery Boys and was home to numerous western matinee idols such as a young John Wayne, Tex Ritter, Hoot Gibson, Buck Jones and Johnny Mack Brown.

Walt and Lillian Disney lived for a brief time very near to this location.  The couple rented an apartment at 1307 North Commonwealth Avenue sometime during the mid-1920s.  There is no trace left of the house or building they resided in and in fact the entire 1300 and 1400 blocks of North Commonwealth Avenue no longer exist.  North Commonwealth would have intersected Sunset Drive very close to where the Monogram Studios came into being in 1931.

Today, the entire area, including the original Monogram Studio building, is part of the KCET Studios complex.  KCET is the PBS affiliate for the Los Angeles area.

After watching  movies and filling up on popcorn and Coca-Cola, Buddy pedals his bicycle north on Talmadge Street and eventually passes the former Vitagraph Studios that was sold to Warner Bros. in 1925.

Built in 1912, Vitagraph was one of the earliest of the Hollywood studios and enjoyed the presence of such film pioneers as Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Cecil B. DeMille and D. W. Griffith.  ABC Television acquired the property in 1949.  Disney assumed ownership of the complex when it acquired ABC in 1996.  During the time Walt was active in the Los Feliz/Silver Lake area, the studio would have been referred to as the Warner Bros. Vitagraph or the Warner Bros. Annex.  It was located just a block away from Robert Disney's home.

A few blocks north, Buddy turns right on Franklin Avenue and pedals across the Shakespeare Bridge, a well known Los Feliz landmark.

 Just after crossing the bridge, he turns left on St. George Street.  At the intersection of St. George and Lyric Avenue, he passes two small adjacent houses that were once the homes of the Disney brothers.

Walt and Lillian resided at 2495 Lyric Avenue while Roy and his wife Edna lived next door at 2491.  Both couples moved into the small homes in 1927.

The houses were built from modified prefabricated kits manufactured by the Pacific Ready Cut Homes company.  Michael Barrier noted in his book The Animated Man, construction on the two homes began in August of 1926 and was completed by the following December.  The cost of the land and the two kit houses was estimated by Roy Disney to be approximately $16,000.

In the summer of 1932, Walt and Lillian moved into their second home, a house they had built at 4053 Woking Way in the Los Feliz Hills.  Though not on Buddy's bicycle route, the house was approximately one mile from the Hyperion Avenue studios.

Walt and Lillian lived at this location until their move to Holmby Hills in the late 1940s.  This was the home where the Disney's raised daughters Diane and Sharon.  It was also well known for its swimming pool that was perched precariously on a high hillside.  Roy O. Disney once said, "He hung this swimming pool up on the corner of this darn thing.  It's a granite hill and we were taking bets to see if it would stand."

In 1939, Walt appeared in magazine advertisements for DeSota that featured photographs taken at the Woking Way estate.

Roy and Edna Disney moved out of their Lyric Avenue home in 1934 and relocated to 4365 Forman Avenue in North Hollywood, not far from where he and Walt would build the Burbank studio at the end of that decade.  Roy would ultimately live in two other homes in that same North Hollywood/Burbank area prior to his death in 1971.

Buddy rides his bike a short distance further down St. George where he passes John Marshall High School.

John Marshall High School was opened in 1930 and its tall central tower can often be seen looming in the distance in photos of the Hyperion studio.  It has long been a favorite location of Hollywood filmmakers.  Movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Grease and more recently, Transformers have used the school as a backdrop.

Studio veteran Jack Kinney noted in his biography that he and number of other studio employees lived in apartments on Griffith Park Boulevard just a few blocks away from John Marshall.  He also remembered that he and other members of the story department would sneak out of the studio to watch football games at the high school.  Kinney remembered, "We were too cheap to pay twenty-five cents for a ticket in the grandstands, and we soon discovered that by climbing up an ivy-covered bank we had a first-class, close-up view of the action on the field through a chain-link fence."  According to Kinney, the school's disgruntled principal ultimately turned on sprinklers to discourage the freeloading Disney employees.

Directly across from John Marshall, Buddy turns down Evans Street where after one very long extended block he arrives at Hyperion Avenue.  He turns left on Hyperion Avenue.  He quickly drops off some overdue books at the Hyperion Branch Station of the Los Angeles Public Library, located at 2619 Hyperion Avenue.

After leaving the library, he continues one block up Hyperion Avenue to where it intersects with Griffith Park Boulevard.  He has reached the location of the Walt Disney Studios.

We have arrived at 2719 Hyperion Avenue.

During the studios' earliest of years, the area surrounding 2719 Hyperion was a generally quiet, empty place.  Animation director Ben Sharpsteen remembered visiting for the first time in 1929:

"I walked through what was mainly a residential development, a section of town which had been laid out with streets and curbs, but which had very few homes at the time.  It was late March and the grass and weeds were very tall and they were growing up through the sidewalk in places.  It was not a street that was very much used at the time.  I thought this was a very strange neighborhood for a cartoon studio, but I finally came to a main intersection as directed and I found the number on a small building next to a service station on the corner.  Sure enough, the sign over the door read 'Walt Disney Studios.'"

In the decade that followed, the Hyperion studio grew, in what many observers described as an almost "organic" expansion.  Existing buildings were expanded and extended; nearby buildings were absorbed and additional facilities emerged on the opposite side of Hyperion Avenue.

The Disney Annex was added to the studio sometime around 1936. During the late 1930s, it was in this place that aspiring artists were typically given tryout periods to prove their talent and skills, working mainly as in-betweeners under the watchful and often harsh supervision of studio manager George Drake. Part of the training process also involved art classes taught by Don Graham.

In less than one year following Buddy's travels on that Saturday afternoon in May 1939, the Hyperion studio would be gone.  By early 1940, Walt Disney and his entire operation relocated to a sprawling new studio complex in Burbank.  Buddy's Aunt Connie did not follow the company to Burbank but instead was married later in 1940 and moved to Pasadena with her new husband.  Decades later, a supermarket would occupy the location, and the address, 2719 Hyperion, would cease to exist.

Buddy turns his bike around.  It is getting late and he needs to get home for dinner.  He pauses for a moment and looks up at the large sign on the top one of the studio buildings.  He fondly remembers his birthday in 1933 when his father brought him to this place.  He scans the surrounding street and confirms that he is alone except for the occasional passing cars.  He shyly lifts his hand and waves.  And from the sign that rises high above the address that is 2719 Hyperion Avenue, Mickey Mouse waves back.

Walt Disney's Los Angeles: 1923-1931 is adapted from a presentation made April 10, 2010 at the first 2719 Hyperion Sweatbox. 

Our acknowledgments and thanks to the following individuals who provided assistance and resources that made the Sweatbox presentation and the subsequent site posts possible:  Bob Cowan, Phil Sears, Dave Smith, Jeff Kurtti, Donnie O'Neal, Scott Otis and Diane Disney Miller.

It is impossible to overstate the value and importance of Michael Barrier and his near-definitive Walt Disney biography The Animated Man.

The photo archive at the Los Angeles Public Library was invaluable in our efforts.