Author: Doug Marsh
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Disney’s ‘So Dear To My Heart’ (1948) Depot – Disney On Location
Take a look at where this train station from ‘So Dear to My Heart’ came from and went in this Disney on Location!
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Souvenir Guidebook 1994 – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
Take a look at the 1994 Souvenir Guidebook for Disneyland on this newest edition of 30 Years Ago at Disneyland!
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Looking Forward to the Fortieth – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
Just a few days ago we were celebrating a rather low key 69th birthday at Disneyland. Everyone knows that they will be pulling out the stops for next year’s milestone 70th. Thirty years ago, the situation was kind of similar, except that the marketing mavens at the Happiest Place on Earth wanted to be sure…
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A Lost Experience: The Original 1989 Disney-MGM Backstage Studio Tour
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the opening of the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park (now Disney Hollywood Studios) in Florida. No other Disney park has gone through as much of a change, or has had as thorough a shift from its original guest experience as this one. Indeed, so swift were certain changes that…
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Pollyanna (1960) Opening Credits – Disney On Location
Walt Disney Productions began making live action films at a time that American studios had begun placing a greater emphasis on location shooting. The 1960 Disney release Pollyanna was shot largely on soundstages in Hollywood, but several key sequences were shot on location in Santa Rosa and the Napa Valley. This column will be devoted…
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Busy Summer Nights – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
The return (again!) of Fantasmic! brought back some very specific memories of Disneyland from thirty years ago. These days, crowds jostling to get good viewing spots for the nighttime spectacular have no idea what it was like back in the early 1990s. In previous columns I have already touched on those first season adjustments that…
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More Construction Mysteries – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
The last couple of months have been spent unraveling some mysterious (for the time) construction that was taking place out in the parking lot to the west of the entrance to Disneyland. Early in 1994 all was revealed when the construction of the Indiana Jones Adventure was officially announced, and a big construction wall went…
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A Construction Mystery – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
The January, 1994 opening of Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin started the year off on a high note at Disneyland. By now, fans had grown to expect something new and exciting on a fairly regular basis. After all, we were approaching the middle of “The Disney Decade.” Even walking through the vast parking lot that…
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Toontown Redux – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
If you were reading this blog a year ago (and I sincerely hope you were), you were sharing the excitement of the grand opening of Mickey’s Toontown, on January 24, 1993. Or January 26th. Or the 25th. (You will have to check out last year’s blog to figure that one out.) And what are we…
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New Orleans Square’s Old New Waterfront – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
The last new “land” that Walt Disney personally dedicated at Disneyland was New Orleans Square. The appearance of the deceptively small area has remained pretty much the same since that July 24, 1966 day, with winding streets and secluded courtyards creating the illusion that it is much larger. One important area of New Orleans Square…
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The Arrival of the Partners – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
Do you remember “The Globe of Death?” If you do, it will remain only a vivid memory. That is because, thirty years ago this month, Disneyland dedicated the Partners statue at the center of the park, creating a permanent tribute to the man who started it all, and the mouse that he said started it…
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Santa Returns for His Annual Holiday Visit to Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
For many Disneyland Resort guests, no visit during the holidays is complete until they have paid a call on Santa Claus. As he has for the last several years, Santa, with his elves, is greeting one and all at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail in Disney California Adventure. Those mischievous elves love to play games,…
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That Christmas Playlist on Main Street, USA – Day Twenty-Three – 23 Days of Thanksgiving
Disneyland holds many things for which I am thankful. With the arrival of the holidays, a big one is the annual return of that familiar Christmas music on Main Street, USA. Who doesn’t love the warmth and nostalgia of Main Street, forever preserved as a quaint microcosm of small-town America, poised on the brink of…
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Step Inside the Reimagined Adventureland Treehouse and Meet Its New Residents
There’s a new family in town! The town, in this instance, is Adventureland, and the new family has moved into that spacious treehouse. The Disneyodendron Semperflorens Grandis (that means “large, everblooming Disney tree,” for those who do not speak Latin) was originally home to the Swiss Family Robinson, and in recent years to Tarzan and…
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I’m Thankful For Big Pieces of Colorful Plastic – Day Twenty – 23 Days of Thanksgiving
Most people tend to get lofty when giving thanks. Or else they consider “the little things,” easily overlooked until brought out and magnified in thoughtful prose. Today’s meditation is neither of these. This is about being thankful for big pieces of colorful plastic. Specifically, themed souvenir popcorn buckets and other food-adjacent ephemera offered up at…
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I Am Thankful For Mickey Mouse – Day Eighteen – 23 Days of Thanksgiving
As every Disney fan is well aware, November 18 is the “birthday” of Mickey Mouse. It was Disney archivist Dave Smith who established the “once and for all” birthdays for Disney characters, based on their first film appearance for the public. Some may quibble with that, but I for one am thankful that Mickey’s birthday…
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Souvenir Guidebook and Disneyland Today – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
If you read this column last year, you may recall we explored the 1992 Disneyland Souvenir Guide, which weighed in at a hefty 32 pages. This month, we will be looking at the 1993 Souvenir Guidebook. The addition of “book” to the guide was most appropriate, as it had expanded to no less than 36…
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No Longer Banking on Main Street – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
Last month’s article was all about an auspicious early July opening (Aladdin’s Oasis, if you missed it). This month’s is all about a quiet closure that took place near the end of July. One of Main Street’s older tenants, in continuous operation since 1955 in fact, closed its doors for the last time on July…
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You Ain’t Never Had a Feast Like This! – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
It will surprise most readers that this month’s column is not about July 17, 1993. Yes, Disneyland did turn 38 years old that day (or on July 18, depending on how contentious you are). But July of 1993 had another auspicious opening, though not for a venue that would have the lasting impact of the…
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Free Exhibit Hosted by Van Eaton Galleries & Auctions Offers Looks at a Staggering Array of Disneyland Artifacts Before They Are Sold Off
The Van Eaton Galleries & Auctions of Studio City is hosting a free pop-up exhibit at the Burbank Town Center Mall. The Joel Magee Disneyland Collection is described as the largest privately owned collection of Disney Parks memorabilia in the world. Highlights include ride vehicles, props, signage, vintage souvenirs, and Disneyland attraction posters, including some…
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A Very Special Episode of Blossom – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
With all the hoopla surrounding the opening of Mickey’s Toontown thirty years ago earlier this year, I managed to get past another memorable event that took place at Disneyland in January of 1993. Fortunately I have photos to share, and some rather fuzzy screen shots from an episode of a quintessential 90s sitcom, Blossom. Blossom…
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Bring the Whole Family! – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
After spending so much time on Toontown this year, this month’s entry will get us back into and around the rest of Disneyland. In May of 1993 (May eighth, to be precise) I again renewed my Annual Passport. This time it cost $119, but I felt the expense was worth it, considering the use I…
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Universal Studios Hollywood Rolls out the Cars of Fast X
Fast X, the tenth entry in the Fast and Furious franchise, hits theaters on Friday, May 19. To celebrate the release, Universal Studios Hollywood is giving their visitors a chance to get up close and personal with some of the film’s biggest stars. You may not be able to spot Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, or…
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Aladdin’s Royal Caravan – 30 Years Ago at Disneyland
Parades have been a part of Disneyland from the very beginning. The live TV special on the park’s inaugural day included a unique one. It would be followed through the years by 60 or so different parades that have since strutted down Main Street. Aladdin’s Royal Caravan made its debut on April 2, 1993, running…