Tinselman

Early Mickey

Ah, Mickey. That adorable, big eared mouse, with whom we've laughed and cried! Just a mouse. Just a drawing. But to us, he was human! The first animated being of his kind.

But was he original after all? It appears not! 1000 years before Mickey ever appeared in Plane Crazy, a French artist fashioned a bronze brooch that looks astonishingly like Mickey Mouse. Of course, he didn't mean to invent Mickey; he was trying to sculpt a lion but failed miserably, inadvertently stumbling upon the most famous cartoon character of all time.

• Discovery Article about the brooch

(via: boingboing)

Highway in the Sky

Do you love mod streamline? Do you love elegant 1960s duotones? Do you love vintage Disney? If so, If so, The Republic of Tinselman highly recommends this 1966 Disney Story Guide and Operating Procedures manual. A handsomely designed, 31 page pamphlet: it's the finest kind of manual for Walt Disney's finest kind of Disney attraction. I promise, you'll get your fill of some fascinating reading. Like this paragraph from page 5, "The Story Behind the Story:"

The Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System was unveiled at Disneyland June 14, 1959 by Walt Disney and Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Mrs. Nixon and their daughters, Tricia and Julie, also participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremonies, which were viewed by a national television audience watching the special "Disneyland '59'" TV show. Since that time, the Monorail trains have carried most of the heads of state–kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers–who have visited Disneyland, as well as millions of other Disneyland visitors from every state and nearly every nation.

Of course, this is just the beginning. There are also the intriguing (and detailed) procedures. And maps. And diagrams and photographs throughout. Stuff from the park has posted this Disney treasure in its entirety. Take a look!

Note: Stuff from the park's server is now overloaded and the operating procedures are temporarily unavailable. However, Tinselman has kindly saved a few photographs from the manual for your viewing pleasure (click all images to enlarge). Enjoy.

• Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Operating Procedures
• Disney's Haunted Mansion Operating Procedures
• Previous Tinselman Disney posts

Splash

Night at the Fair – click to enlarge

It was grand. It was colorful. It was futuristic. It was the 1964-1965 New York Worlds Fair! In a 25 page photo spread, National Geographic called the fair, "A journey round the world. A look back in time, and a window on the future. A treasure house of religious faiths. A procession of products. And a dream of 'Peace through Understanding.'" Modern Mechanix has been kind enough to post the article in it's entirety, and it's stunning.

Looking through the photos, you can't help but notice It's a Small World, the Disneyland ride which made it's premier at the fair and is still popular at Disneyland. It wasn't the only Disneyland attraction (or technology) that made it's premier at the fair: Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and Carousel of Progress, introduced at the fair, were popular at Disneyland for a long time after. Most importantly, the animatronics and the omnimover transportation, introduced at the fair, are still in use today at all the Disney parks.

• Previous posts – Disneyland
• Previous post – Rides and Attractions

 

Pirates of the Caribbean

Today the tinselman time machine takes us back to 1976. Apple Computer has just been started, The Ramones have released their first album, and you have just been given your 48 page Standard Operating Procedure for Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean.

You open it to page 2...

Avast there, mateys, and welcome aboard the Pirates of the Caribbean!

Pirates is Disneyland's most complex audio-animatronic adventure, where guests journey back to the days of pirateering on the Spanish Main.

Read the following pages carefully... there is a lot to learn.

If you have any questions, please ask your working leader or supervisor.

(Warning... there are no pages 35 or 47)

• Page 1: Table of Contents
• Page 2: Introduction
• Page 3: Fact Sheet
• Page 4: Fact Sheet
• Page 5: Fact Sheet
• Page 6: Admittance Policy
• Page 7: Guest Control
• Page 8: Turnstile
• Page 9: Loader
• Page 10: Unloader
• Page 11: Unloader
• Page 12: Utilities
• Page 13: Dispatching
• Page 14: Dispatching
• Page 15: Dispatching
• Page 16: Breakdown Procedures
• Page 17: Breakdown Procedures
• Page 18: Breakdown Procedures
• Page 19: Attraction Breakdowns
• Page 20: Attraction Breakdowns
• Page 21: Types of Breakdowns
• Page 22: Types of Breakdowns
• Page 23: Types of Breakdowns
• Page 24: Types of Breakdowns
• Page 25: Types of Breakdowns
• Page 26: Machinery Operation Description
• Page 27: Machinery Operation Description
• Page 28: Machinery Operation Description
• Page 29: Machinery Operation Description
• Page 30: Control Panel
• Page 31: Control Panel
• Page 32: Control Panel
• Page 33: Dispatch Panel
• Page 34: Dispatch Panel
• Page 36: Opening/Closing Procedure
• Page 37: Control Tower, Opening/Closing Procedure
• Page 38: Control Tower, Opening/Closing Procedure
• Page 39: Tips for Hosts and Hostesses
• Page 40: Emergency Procedure
• Page 41: Emergency Procedure
• Page 42: Working Leader Procedure
• Page 43: Working Leader Procedure
• Page 44: Working Leader Procedure
• Page 45: Working Leader Procedure
• Page 46: Door Identification
• Page 48: Door Identification

See previous post, Your Cadaverous Pallor, the 1975 Operating Procedure for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

Update: Michael Still has been kind enough to compile this Operating Procedure into a downloadable PDF document... Thanks Michael!

Yesterday's Transport of Tomorrow

What a day you've had browsing through the 1900 Paris Expo! You've just taken a ride on the Mareorama and now you're relaxing in front of the stunning Palais Lumineux. You sigh: it's all been so staggering, so futuristic, but now it's finally time to head on home.

Which would be fine except your feet and legs are a raging fire. All this walking, walking, walking and you swear you can almost hear the sound of your shoes crushing and twisting your poor flesh and bones into grossly unnatural shapes (especially because, in 1900, it is the fashion for you to wear a full shoe size too small or, if you're a woman, to have had your smallest toes cut off). No problem... to ease the pain you hop on board the moving boardwalk.

a

The Moving Boardwalk. Of all the glitz and glamour and the expo, you can't help but be most impressed by this seemingly simple mechanism. This, you think, this could be the future: speeding through crowded thoroughfares, zooming down to the neighborhood coffee shop, or maybe even finally even making it to that next airport terminal just in time! All with the help of these new-fangled sidewalks.

Pressing forward a bit and what ever happened to all these moving sidewalks (besides the ones in airports)? Seemingly the dream was forgotten. But not by everyone; Mr. Walt Disney kept it alive for awhile. And then some!

b

Disneyland was chock full of clever transportational devices. Monorails, trains, People Movers, tram cars, boats, buggies, and yes, even a few moving sidewalks. Walt was big into this transportation thing: from an entertainment point of view, convenient transportation was the key to getting tired guests off their feet and keeping them happy. But perhaps more importantly, these vehicles were all part of Walt's vast laboratory – Disneyland was his place to tinker, evolve and perfect some of the hardware required for his much larger vision: a city. This is why Walt was probably flattered when James W. Rouse, Urban Developer of the New Town of Columbia, said in his keynote address before the 1963 Urban Design Conference at Harvard University:

I may hold a view that may be somewhat shocking to an audience as sophisticated as this; that the greatest piece of urban design in the United States today is Disneyland... I find more to learn in the standards that have been set and in the goals that have been achieved in the development of Disneyland than in any other piece of physical development in the country.

c

Walt revealed EPCOT in October, 1966. EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. EPCOT was to be "showcase city", a continually evolving community that "doesn't presume to know all the answers," but would take it's cue, Walt said, "from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will," he said, "be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing, testing and demonstrating new materials and new systems."

Following in the footsteps of Disneyland, EPCOT would be based on central urban hub encircled by an outer wheel of radial housing, schools, parks and recreation. Transportation "spokes" would run inhabitants to and from the heart of the city. (Which so far reminds me of a much older and smaller city, Palmanova.)

d

e

But EPCOT parts ways from its Italian predecessor with a much more serious implementation of the monorails and People Movers that were pioneered at Disneyland. The city is described as relying on a vastly complex public transportation system, to the extent that inhabitants are "completely safe and seperated from the automobile." There would be an underground level for car travel but public transportation would be preferred simply because there would be zero wait time for the next People Mover.

I can't help but have negative feeling about Walt's EPCOT. Not because I think he couldn't have pulled it off – I've no doubt he could have – but because I don't agree philosphically with the reasoning behind it. Nonetheless, I encourage you to take a look at this short film, in which he describes his first rough plans for the city. It's fascinating. Keep in mind it's the last film he ever made... Walt died later that year and his great dream never came to fruition.

And while you're at it, take a step back to 1900 and watch this short film of the Paris Expo moving boardwalk.

Note: The current EPCOT at Disney World in Florida holds no resemblance to Walt's EPCOT. Anyone who's ever been to it is only too aware that they are required to walk for (what seems like) hundreds of miles... in the blistering sun. It is pure hell. There is no transportation of any kind. There are only your blistered feet and your screaming kids who want to leave because they hate the place and you're trying tell them that it's great but you hate it too. This is not the EPCOT of Walt's dream. This is what Walt would roll over in his grave at (except he's frozen)... Miseryland and Tragic Kingdom.

f

Note 2: The People Mover, the Skyway Tram. These have been removed from Disneyland. God knows why. (But why God? Why?) And then that big gold (flashy) monstrosity in Tomorrowland! Yes it certainly does catch everyones eyes! We all gasp! And run to Huck Finn's island. Ahh... relaxation.

a. Moving Boardwalk, Paris Expo
b. Disneyland transporation
c. Walt Disney and EPCOT
d. EPCOT radial design
e. Palmanova aerial photo
f. People Mover

• Great photos from Paris Expo
• Skyway and People Mover video
• Palmanova – Previous post
• The Sad Side of EPCOT from EPOT Central

Micro Disney

I've been hard at work on my scale model of early Disneyland and I'm now finally ready to reveal it. You will most definetely be impressed!... until you learn that my scale model is only a quick photoshop cheat. But it sure is fun!

(click photos to enlarge)

• Unretouched lagoon
• Unretouched aerial

(via: boingboing)

Your Cadaverous Pallor – The Upgrade

I just returned to an old tinselman post in which I gifted my dear tinselman readers with 12 pages precious pages of the 1975 Standard Operating Proceedure for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. I've just updated that post and now all 24 pages are available for your perusal. But the map is still the best.

Your Cadaverous Pallor Part II

Still interested in the Haunted Mansion? Here's more...

• Doombuggies – An Unofficial Tribute to Disney's Haunted Mansion (and very highly recommend!)
• Grim Ghosts – Provides visual walk-throughs of all the Haunted Mansions.
• Our Haunts – A website run by the inhabitants of the Mansion
• Haunted Mansion Map
• Haunted Mansion Blueprints – For sale on eBay (3 days left – I may not be able to resist this one!)

Your Cadaverous Pallor

"Latest population figures show there are 999 residents at home in the Haunted Mansion, and that they are always looking for #1,000, which might be any volunteer brave enough to enter.

"The ride through the Mansion's labyrinth of cobwebbed-filled halls, pitch-black corridors and deathly-cold rooms is made by means of two-passenger carriages of the continuously moving Omnimover WED Transportation System. Each of the cars is capable of 180 degree turns, both left and right, and are pre-porgrammed to turn in the direction of visisble and invisible sights and toward the sources of unearthly sounds."
...............................................................

The above is a excerpt from the 1975 Standard Operating Proceedure for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. The manual is a little outdated. But it still gives a fun (and rare) behind-the-scenes glimpse of a landmark Disneyland attraction.

• Page 1:  Table of Contents
• Page 2:  The Story Behind the Story
• Page 3:  Fact Sheet
• Page 4:  Rooms and Areas
• Page 5:  Rooms and Areas cont.
• Page 6:  Crowd Control
• Page 7:  Crowd Control cont.
• Page 8:  Turnstile
• Page 9:  The Foyer
• Page 10: Expanding Rooms (cadaverous pallor)
• Page 11: Expanding Rooms cont.
• Page 12
• Page 13
• Page 14
• Page 15
• Page 16
• Page 17
• Page 18
• Page 19
• Page 20
• Page 21
• Page 22
• Page 23
• Page 24: Map

Update: Unbeknownst to me (and quite coincidently), I had no idea that I was posting this on the exact 36th anniversary of the completion of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion: August 9th, 1969. Thanks to The Disney Blog, for enlightening me!

Update 2: I finally posted the rest of the pages and added them to the above list. The manual is complete!

Miniatures of a Great Miniature

In the early 1950s, Walt Disney began toying around with model trains and miniatures. It wasn't long before his miniatures began to grow; soon he needed more and more space to hold them. Eventually Disney accomplished his largest miniature of all by scaling up his beloved model trains to almost (but not quite) human size. Hence, Disneyland was born: Walt's very large scale model of no place in particular which, because of its stunted size, manages to feel oddly close... and cozy. The lampposts are shorter. The windows are shrunken. Even the castles and mountains are dwarfishly snug.

We, the public, have been enamored with Walt Disney's gigantic miniature since it opened in 1955. So what do we do to display our adoration for the park? We built miniatures of it! Here are loads of links to Disneyland miniatures (and other related links).

• Disney Train Model
• Carousel of Progress Scale Model (via boing boing)
• Mosato House Scale Model (see previous link on Monsato House)
• Shuco 1:90 Scale Disney Monorail
• Disney 50th Anniversary Monorail Model
• Disney 50th Anniversary Models
• Walt Disney with scale model of Sleeping Beauty's Castle
• Main Street USA Collection (Connect them all for a complete scale model of main street.)
• Walt Disney: One Man's Dream photos
• Blueprint of Walt Disney's backyard 1/8th scale railroad

        

(Russ Ullner's photos via The Disney Blog)