Happy Anniversary, Mr. Saunders

This month marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Disney incarnation of A. A. Milne's beloved character, Winnie the Pooh.  The animated short subject Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree premiered in theaters on February 4, 1966.  From humble beginnings, an IP empire was born.  It was the only Disney-produced Winnie the Pooh film released in Walt's lifetime.

Surprisingly, unless you have an old school VHS machine or a laserdisc player, you cannot view Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree in its original form.  In 1977, it was absorbed with Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too into the feature length The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  After VHS and laserdisc releases, those short subjects were essentially retired in favor of the longer compilation.

Sally's Question

Certainly even more relevant today than it was on October 5, 1963.  A now sentimental moment when one cultural icon acknowledged another.  Memories of their creators continue to diminish, but Mickey Mouse and Snoopy will live forever.  Perhaps that is what Walt and Sparky would have wanted. 

Let's Get Together for a Perfect "Summer" Movie

Ah, what is the perfect summer movie? Jurassic World? Incredibles?

Solid arguments could be made for these and countless others as well. Since Jaws and Star Wars were released in the mid-1970s, summer has become the season for high energy, popcorn-filled, franchise-driven trips to the local multiplexes. But my candidate for a perfect summer movie predates those two films by nearly a decade and a half, and while it was certainly a special effects powerhouse in its day, it is best remembered for its undeniable charm and the engaging performances of its cast.

The Parent Trap makes me wish I had been a kid back in the summer of 1961. Released ever so appropriately in June of that year, the film remains timeless on many levels despite being so firmly grounded in the post-war, early baby boom popular culture. From the very funny shenanigans and heartwarming discoveries at Camp Inch to the fateful camping trip where gold digger Vickie gets “submarined,” The Parent Trap just oozes summer in nearly every frame of film.

There are so many points of merit to this wonderful movie, it’s hard to know just where to start.

Well, how about the opening credits? This captivating sequence of stop-motion animation was created by T. Hee, Bill Justice and X. Atencio and echoed their earlier efforts on Noah’s Ark and foreshadowed 1962’s Symposium of Popular Songs. Accompanied by Annette Funicello’s and Tommy Sands’ bubblegum rendition of the title song, the clever vignette immediately sets a tone of fun and romance that the entire movie ultimately embodies.

The screenplay and direction of David Swift mix equal parts melodrama, romance and comedy for very satisfying results. Some reviewers, including Disney scholar Leonard Maltin, felt the film uneven in its comedy and ultimately average, a criticism I personally have to disagree with. However, nearly all critics of the time were universal in their praise of the film’s cast. Accolades were deservedly given to romantic leads Brian Keith and the always beautiful Maureen O’Hara, but the film is also notable for its equaling engaging supporting players; among them Nancy Kulp, Frank DeVol, Una Merkel, Joanna Barnes, Charlie Ruggles, Ruth McDevitt and Leo G. Carroll.

But let’s face it; from beginning to end, The Parent Trap belongs to Hayley Mills. Her remarkable performances as both Sharon and Susan are every bit as convincing as the special effects that allow her two characters to share the screen. Studio veteran Ub Iwerks supervised the processes that brought together the two distinctly different twins; it proved an amazing marriage of technical achievement with the exceptional acting of the very talented Mills.

My favorite detail from the film? When Sharon and Susan are placed in isolation at Camp Inch, their discovery of sisterhood appropriately happens within the walls of a cabin named Serendipity. But you’ve got to squint to see the sign by the cabin’s front door.

As I said near the beginning, The Parent Trap is pure summer, in atmosphere as well as setting. Filled with summer camp antics, poolside pratfalls and treks through the wilderness, it is a shining example of family entertainment made the old fashioned way. While I’ll likely be visiting places such as Isla Nubar and Metroville in the coming weeks, I will also be doing some R&R at Camp Inch and Mitch Ever’s southern California ranch. 

One minor postscript: While the 1998 Lindsay Lohan remake was not a bad movie, it was certainly unnecessary. It was one of the less than remarkable results of Walt Disney Pictures “recycling” phase of the late 1990s that begat the likes of Flubber, and the live action 101 Dalmatians among others.

The Ghosts of Marceline: The Midget Autopia

It was a somewhat haunting experience, to say the least.

My son and I arrived in Marceline, Missouri early on a Tuesday morning in the midst of an unrelenting thunderstorm.  It served to make this very small and quiet Midwest town even quieter.  We had some time to kill before the Walt Disney Hometown Museum opened, so we decided to drive to the south end of town and see the Walt Disney Municipal Park.  There we would find the remains of an early Disneyland attraction: the Midget Autopia.

A postcard of the Midget Autopia at Disneyland

The park seemed a quiet place, regardless of the poor weather.  It appeared as an almost forgotten area.  The nearby swimming pool was drained and apparently retired.  Playground equipment looked old and unmaintained.  I wondered if the park was more the destination of visiting Disney enthusiasts than Marceline residents.

The Midget Autopia was donated to Marceline during the summer of 1966.  The attraction had been removed from Disneyland when Tomorrowland received its famous makeover in the late 1960s.  It opened for the younger residents of Marceline following a dedication ceremony on July 3, 1966.  A faded and weather-stained dedication plaque remains:

Relocated from the Magic Kingdom of Disneyland as a gift to the children of this community from Marceline's favorite sons Walt and Roy Disney.  Accepted in appreciation July 1966 Mayor C. A. Young

It presents a mystery for the uninitiated; no sign remains of the former attraction, and it is not identified by name on the plaque.

What is left of the Midget Autopia lies now in stark contrast to the flash and flair we have come to associate with Disney entertainment.  Forgive the cliche, but it was indeed part of a much simpler time, especially in relation to the Disney Company and the corporate behemoth it has now evolved into.  A simple queue, cement tracks, a tunnel and overpass, and very sincere words on a small standing monument are what remains to remind us of this once bright moment in  both Disney history and the chronicles of Marceline.

Windows to the Past: The Ugly Dachshund and the Fur Rondy

Sure, you could look at this picture and assume that a team of sled dogs has arrived in town to see one of their own on the big screen.  A whimsical scenario certainly, but alas not an accurate one.

The location is Anchorage, Alaska.  The time is late February of 1966.  The occasion is the annual Fur Rendezvous, or the Fur Rondy, as it has come to be known in recent years.  The Rondy is a 75-year tradition; it began in 1935 and quickly became an annual celebration of Alaskan history and heritage.  The festival originated at a time of the year when miners and fur trappers would return to Anchorage with their winter yields.  Sled Team 14, seen in the above image, is preparing to line up for the World Championship Sled Dog Race, a Rondy tradition that began in 1946.  Coincidentally, Walt Disney's feature film The Ugly Dachshund is the top-billed attraction at the nearby 4th Avenue Theatre.  The film's original release date was February 2, 1966.

Ah, but the Walt Disney's connection to the 1966 Rondy extended beyond the 4th Avenue Theatre.  Standing at a place of honor on the race's trophy table?  Why none other than Nikki, star of the 1961 Disney feature Nikki, Wild Dog of the North.

Photographs are from the Alaska Digital Archives.

What a Character! - Moby Duck

Well remembered? Hardly.  Significant?  Not really.  Creatively dynamic?  No.  But Moby Duck is enough of a Disney curiosity to warrant at least a few paragraphs here at 2719 Hyperion.

Moby Duck is not altogether dissimilar to Uncle Scrooge.  He was born out of comic books and was featured in one animated vignette in the 1960s.  But where Scrooge McDuck went on to become a major player in the Disney character canon, Moby quickly returned to relative obscurity where he has largely remained for the past five decades.  One could almost imagine him sitting in a seedy dockside tavern, crying into a pint of grog and lamenting opportunities missed and paths not taken.

Moby Duck first appeared in the comic book Donald Duck #112, published by Gold Key in March of 1967.  In the 14-page story, A Whale of an Adventure, written by Vic Lockman and drawn by Tony Strobl, Donald accidentally drifts out to sea on a rubber raft where he is rescued by Moby Duck and his pet porpoise Porpy.  In exchange for the rescue, Donald agrees to be the first mate on Moby's boat, the Miss Ambergris.  Moby returned to Donald Duck two issues later in the story The Jewels of Skull Rock, and then Gold Key launched him in his own title in October of 1967.

The producers of The Wonderful World of Disney wasted no time drafting Moby Duck for a television appearance.  Pacifically Peeking was first broadcast on October 6, 1968.  Directed by Ward Kimball and Ham Luske, the show was a series of South Pacific travelogues sewn together with animation featuring Moby. It was almost as if Ludwig Von Drake took an unexpected sabbatical and Moby was asked to fill in at the last minute.  Disney veteran Paul Frees provided the voice of Moby for the program. 

While his tenure in animation was distinctly brief and unremarkable, Moby Duck did live on, albeit again in unremarkable fashion, for another decade.  His own Gold Key Comic lasted thirty issues before ending in 1978.  Well known cartoon writer and comics scribe Mark Evanier scripted a number of Moby Duck stories early in his career.  The character appeared in a series of the Donald Duck daily comic strips at around the same time.  He was also exported to Disney comics overseas but with no real lasting impact in any market.

A Great Role in the Wonderful World of Color

Among Disney historians and enthusiasts, November 15, 1965 is perhaps best remembered for the numerous news photos that were snapped of Florida Governor Haydon Burns seated between Walt Disney and Roy Disney with a nearby sign proclaiming Florida Welcomes Walt Disney.  The setting was the Egyptian Room of the Cherry Plaza Hotel in Orlando.  While this particular press conference was the first official joint announcement from Burns and Disney about the "Florida Project," the Disney cat had been let out of the Florida bag some three weeks earlier when Burns confirmed speculation (primarily from Orlando Sentinel reporter Emily Bavar) that Disney was indeed coming to central Florida.

Disney historian Jeff Kurtti notes in his Disney World history tome Since the World Began  that the November 15 press conference, ". . .  was a cavalcade of vagaries and generalizations."  Most news accounts characterized the information presented as being almost entirely devoid of details.  Walt himself stated that specific plans were at least 12-18 months from revelation.  According to an Associated Press report from November 16, 1965: 

Disney said only that he envisioned two corporate municipalities--one a City of Yesterday and the other a City of Tomorrow in which use of automobiles would be restricted. He said the cities, built mainly to serve an expected 4,000 employees, who would be required to operate the Disney attractions and a Florida branch of Disney productions, would be in addition to "whatever Disney does in Florida."

The City of Tomorrow is an easy enough reference to decipher as that concept evolved into Walt's grand vision of EPCOT.  But the City of Yesterday is a bit more enigmatic.  It is described as one of two corporate municipalities and held separate by Walt from "Disney attractions" and whatever else "Disney does in Florida."

A UPI report stated that Walt, " . . . declined to be too specific about the type and scope of the attraction, but said it will be principally entertainment with some educational value. He added the area undoubtedly will include a number of major industrial plants."

Tom Cope, a reporter who attended the press conference made these observations in an article published on November 17, 1965:

One got the feeling, somehow, that this conference was premature — and one wondered just why it had happened so.  But then perhaps it wasn't: perhaps it was just a case of imagineering to nth degree. Item: the $100 million is yet to be raised. Item: Mr. Disney may build two cities, one of Yesterday and one of Tomorrow . . . and then again he may not. (He did make one sensitive point: science is advancing so fast that a City of Tomorrow might be obsolete before it was completed.) Item: it may be necessary to change some laws to accommodate Mr. Disney's plans, even to calling a special session of the legislature . . . maybe. Item: Mr. Disney may be able to tell "about the first of the year" what some of his Florida plans may be ... or he may not. And one very important item: work on the project "may start" in 18 months or perhaps not before 1968.

While Cope did puzzle over the "vagaries and generalizations" that Jeff Kurtti would allude to decades later, he did provide this wonderfully prophetic footnote:

In Florida, the land of make-believe, it was easy to believe that — not tomorrow, not next year, perhaps — but sooner than later, as surely as God made little red oranges, this great state will be called upon to play a great role in the Wonderful World of Color.

Windows to the Past: The PeopleMover Arrives - 1967

The PeopleMover at Disneyland is the focus of this press photograph from June 29, 1967.  It appears that the photographer was part of press event surrounding the unveiling of the new Tomorrowland that debuted that summer.  The published caption:

TRAFFIC RELIEF?--Goodyear's new transportation system, the PeopleMover, goes through preview run at Disneyland's new Tomorrowland section. Concept is said to offer applications which may ease traffic in downtown areas. Cars are propelled by series of stationary, electric motor-driven rubber wheels between rails. It opens to public next week.

The photo was originally published in the Los Angeles Times and is part of the UCLA Digital Library collection Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs 1920-1990.

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).

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.

A Day at Disneyland - 1963

It was a cardboard box hidden in a corner of an attic, but because of its contents, it quickly became a marvelous time machine piloted by the spirit and memories of a late family member.  It now represents my happiest visit to Disneyland, an intangible but still emotionally charged journey made possible by a few pieces of ephemera, stored away by someone who, though now gone, remains ever so dear to me.

My father-in-law, Tony Mangano, passed away in January of 2009 after a prolonged battle with cancer.  He was a kind, loving and generous individual who is greatly missed by the family and friends he left behind.  He would no doubt be embarrassed by this sentimental testimonial from me on his behalf.

Tony was not one to callously discard even the most insignificant of items and his attic was filled with numerous popular culture mementos from his travels across the 20th century.  The items collected from one of his more notable journeys, a cross-country vacation taken during the summer of 1963, are what we discovered in the aforementioned cardboard box shortly after his death.  And mixed among this collection of road maps, brochures, postcards and matchbooks was evidence of a visit to Disneyland that occurred on August 20th of that year.  Needless to say, for me personally it was a joyous, enlightening and emotionally charged discovery.

Here is the Disneyland that Tony experienced on that summer day in 1963, as represented by the items he carefully preserved upon his return home.

This folder-map provided Tony with a basic introduction to the geography of the park and various guest services offered.

A second small flier outlined guided tour and ticket options.  The Big Ten Ticket Book (Admission to Disneyland and tickets to 10 attractions)--just $3.95.  Spend an extra dollar and get the The Deluxe 15 Ticket Book with an additional five attraction tickets.  A two-hour "Happiness Tour" cost a mere $5.00.

The flier also featured a promotional piece dedicated to the 4th Annual Dixieland at Disneyland that took place on Friday, September 27 and Saturday, September 28.  Al Hirt was the biggest name listed among the performers and the Firehouse Five +2 was also featured.  For $5.25, a Dixieland ticket gave a guest admission to Disneyland and unlimited use of all attractions (except the shooting galleries, of course).

One of the highlights of Tony's visit was very likely The Enchanted Tiki Room which had just premiered two months earlier on June 23, 1963.  The Tiki Room was beyond even E-ticket status that summer.  As this brochure indicates, Tiki Room tickets were not included in Disneyland Ticket Books and had to be purchased separately at the Gateway to Adventureland.

Tony used two Courtesy Guest Ticket Books for his day at Disneyland.  Each included five tickets that could be redeemed at any Disneyland attraction, including interesting enough, The Enchanted Tiki Room.

Tony used the Adventures in Disneyland checklists on the inside back covers of the ticket books to document his day at the park.  (Editors note: it appears the ticket books do not match the 1963 visit; I am currently attempting to determine if Tony made a subsequent visit later in the decade.)   He checked off seven of the ten attractions he visited:

• Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
• Skyway to Fantasyland
• Submarine Voyage
• SF & D RR Trains through Grand Canyon & Primeval World
• Jungle Cruise
• Monorail via Disneyland Hotel
• Mark Twain Steamboat

Then a bachelor in his early thirties, Tony apparently had no interest in the more whimsical attractions of Fantasyland.  However, knowing of his lifelong passion for science and mechanics, I have no doubt that he experienced the various free shows and exhibits such as Monsanto's House of the Future, America the Beautiful and the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry.  I also imagine that the Moon Rocket was where he used one of his undocumented tickets.

I imagine that Disneyland was one of the highlights of my father-in-law's vacation back during the summer of 1963.  In a small way, he has extended his experience to us nearly five decades later.

Editor's Note: We will be sharing more pop culture artifacts from Tony's Attic on our companion site Boom Pop! in the days and months ahead.  You can currently see Tony's Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters of America Secret Manual on this recent Boom Pop! post.