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11:25 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
Julie Andrews still had her role to play. It was her duty to unveil the
final golden ride vehicle, and perhaps the most special of all: Jingles
on the King Arthur Carrousel.
Jingles was the first horse purchased when putting together the carrousel
for Disneyland, and has always been a notable element of that attraction
for park fans. The event itself was pretty much the same as the earlier
ones today, with a little patter followed by the unveiling.
Julie Andrews poses with the covered Jingles. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
The reveal: No revelry ensued; there was a cocktail party waiting. Photo
by Frank Anzalone.
Julie Andrews poses with a very nice gold Jingles. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
11:15 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
Yes, I feel a little cheap feeding the celebrity machine by running a
bunch of photos of people just because they’re famous and attending a
party mere mortals couldn’t even get a glimpse of. But hey, it’s 11:00
p.m. and I’m short on sleep. What else do I have to do with my time?
The most interesting event of the “gold carpet” arrivals involved
Michael Eisner. As you’ll see in the photo below he was carrying a set
of gold Mickey ears. Many of the celebrities wore theirs, while others
just carried them. However, when asked by a photographer to put his Mickey
ears on, Eisner’s attending publicist responded with “not a chance.”
Read into that what you will.
The gold carpet down Main Street, U.S.A. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
Cast members were indeed used to provide some excitement. Photo by Frank
Anzalone.
Author Ray Bradbury. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
Disney musical legend Richard Sherman. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
Film critic and author Leonard Maltin with family. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
Disney CEO Michael Eisner not wearing his Mickey ears. Photo by
Frank Anzalone.
Art Linkletter, still spry at 92. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
John Lasseter and Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook. Photo by Frank
Anzalone.
Disney fan and television star John Stamos. Photo by Frank Anzalone.
10:20 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
I finally escaped the prison of this laptop for a while when I was assigned
to go check out Disney’s California Adventure and see how the crowd was,
as everybody but media was cleared from Disneyland.
Standing at the gate of DCA, watching the masses leave Disneyland—the
number heard was somewhere around 15,000 invited people were at Disneyland
today—it was a bit of a slap at DCA to see that at least half the
people were immediately heading for the trams rather than taking advantage
of their free entry into DCA.
Wandering into DCA in time for the 5:45 performance of Block Party Bash,
the first two show stops absorbed almost the entire DCA crowd. Almost
nobody was at the third show stop near Paradise Pier, and even after the
parade the crowds remained thin. Reports were that every ride, including
California Screamin’ and Soarin’ Over California were walk-ons.
At around 6:00 p.m., after Disneyland has been emptied. Those few in the
park are lining the road near A Bug’s Land for the parade. Photo by Alex
Stroup.
At about the same time, the bridge to Paradise Pier shows the same thing:
No crowd. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
10:05 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
We have three videos that may be of interest. The first is a ride-through
of the reopened Jungle Cruise, the second is a complete run-through of
the Remember… fireworks and the third is a complete video of
the Parade of Dreams.
Obviously you shouldn’t watch these if you wan to save yourself for seeing
them in person. All three are in Windows Media Format (.wmv; because that
is what we can produce most quickly with what we have). The last two are
particularly long and the files approach 20 megabytes.
For technical reasons we had to remove the videos we were providing.
We should be able to provide something along these lines at some point
Thursday.
5:05 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
Of interest to some, Disneyland has put up a new wall around the submarine
lagoon.
A new, more interesting, construction wall around the submarine lagoon.
Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
A close-up of one of the signs on the wall. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
4:50 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
The following is a brief description of the new film that has replaced
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. If you prefer to wait to see this yourself,
just skip this entry.
The film starts with an introduction by comedian Steve Martin, saying
that Disney wanted a host who had been there since the beginning. Donald
Duck volunteers, but Martin dismisses him as “too animated.”
The film then goes into a photo of Martin when he was a cast member at
the Magic Shop in 1960.
Next, you see the famous clip of Walt Disney explaining why he came up
with the idea of Disneyland (wanting a place he could have fun with his
children and grandchildren), with Martin interjecting with “uh huhs”
and “good ideas” as if he were interviewing Walt.
Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney in a photomosaic on display inside 50 Magical
Years. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
What then follows is a sequence of video clips from the early days of
Disneyland, many of them familiar, including a time-lapse of Disneyland’s
construction, Walt’s opening day address, and blooper footage from “Black
Sunday” (that is, the day Disneyland opened). In one video, Art Linkletter
is talking, and Donald takes the microphone away from him and is close
captioned—because nobody can understand him. Donald Duck then attacks
the caption, chasing the letters off the screen.
After this is a land-by-land overview of attractions from the park’s
first decade and an overview of animatronic figures used in park attractions,
and a retrospective of live entertainment at the park from Slue-Foot
Sue’s Golden Horseshoe Revue to Boy George. The film closes with Donald
trying to blow up Steve Martin with fireworks—but he changes his
mind and launches them over the castle instead.
One of the exhibit displays in 50 Magical Years. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
Closing images are photos pulling back to a photomosaic of the castle,
which fades to a rendering of the castle.
Steve Martin and Donald Duck in battle during 50 Magical Years film. Photo
by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
4:14 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
Some odds and ends:
- We found out why John Lasseter was spending so much time on the Jungle
Cruise. After his studying of the script and many consecutive rides,
Lasseter took the helm of a Jungle Cruise boat for a very limited audience
of premiere media outlets. Word is he’ll do it again at some point to
be filmed. - If you’re seriously considering one of the $30 desserts (at least
one staff member here is, the fool) you might want to know that your
dessert options are a Mickey truffle filled with a raspberry chocolate,
a banana split, warm chocolate sundae, or apple pie with caramel sauce. - Throughout the day they have been putting up a large stage in the
moat next to Sleeping Beauty Castle. This will host a 70-piece orchestra,
which will accompany LeAnn Rimes at tomorrow’s public kick-off event. - We’re working to get some decent photos from inside 50 Magical Years,
but the lighting is terrible and time inside is limited. If we get any
they’ll be our highest priority.
4:04 p.m., May 4, 2005
by Alex Stroup
Another unannounced opening this week is the Nestle Junior Chef program
at Plaza Pavilion. In this program, which is held five times a day for
of up to 20 children ages 4 through 10, the kids do all the work to mix
cookie dough.
The ingredients are stored in canisters that pay homage to Main Street
stores. Examples are “Candy Palace” vanilla and “Gibson
Girl” sugar. Once the dough has been mixed the cookies “bake”
for 3 minutes in one of Mickey’s magic ovens. Each child then gets to
take a cookie home with them after the show.
Between shows, children get to decorate and color chef hats and coloring
sheets.
The chef who helps them through the program. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
Children coloring between shows. Photo by Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix.
We’re not done yet! We’ll be updating this page throughout
the day on May 4 and 5. Keep reloading and we’ll do our best to keep
you up on all the current events and links of interest from around the
web. If you have anything of interest, contact Lani Teshima here,
as Alex Stroup is in the park all day and is not checking email.
