Happy Easter and Is This Right?

Happy Easter Everyone! Here's a Disneyland Trading card from 1965 showing the White Rabbit and Mrs. Rabbit (I didn't know he was married?!), getting ready for an egg hunt.

While I was going through my trading card collection looking for today's card, I noticed the above card with Mickey Mouse and the Disneyland Marching Band. Something about the card looked a little odd. Being a trombone player myself, I thought that they were holding their instruments backwards. Then, a quick check of other shots of Sleeping Beauty Castle, and BAM! Sure enough, somebody had flipped the negative on this card.

Geez, where's quality control.

Guide Book #28 - Close To The End

This 1977 Pictorial Souvenir Guide Book makes my 28th Guide Book. I'm getting closer to the end, that is getting every single Guide Book from 1955 to the present day. But, now I enter the territory of hard to find and/or very expensive. We'll have to see how my luck and finances hold out.

With this edition we get the same front cover as 1976 edition but the back cover switches from concept art of Space Mountain to full-page night time shot. Also, almost every section in the book gets at least one updated photo from the previous year.

Here's something I found very surprising. In the aerial photo of Main St. you can still see the America On Parade floats backstage. The parade stopped running in Sept. 1976. I pulled out the rest of the my Guide Books and this photo was used well into the 1980s.

Back to our book. Photos of the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland are removed (due to construction of Big Thunder). New photos of the Matterhorn show increased snow coverage on the mountain. The Matterhorn is now almost completely white from top to bottom. Space Mountain gets added to the Tomorrowland section. Main St. Electrical Parade returns to the Disneyland After Dark section after taking a hiatus for America on Parade.

Pictorial Souvenir of Walt Disney's Disneyland 1986

Tons of changes to the Guide Book in just one year. That is, from 1985 to 1986.

The Golden Horseshoe Revue is replaced by the Golden Horseshoe Jamboree. While the text still says Country Bear Jamboree, the photos have been replaced with the Country Bears Vacation Hoedown. In Tomorrowland, the subs get painted Explorer Yellow - gone is military grey. The sleek Monorail Mark V replaces the old bubble-top Monorail. Captain EO and Star Tours both get the full-page treatment. And, in the back of the book, Walt Disney World get reduced to one page.

If anyone out there in the blogosphere has a complete collection of the Disneyland Guide Books (especially mid-80s to mid-90s), I'd love to hear from you. Just click on my profile photo in the bottom of the right column, and the email link will be on the next page.

Disneyland Bicentennial Year

Quite a few changes since the 1974 edition. In this 1976 edition, we get a new cover (although it's still Sleeping Beauty Castle) and the back cover changes from America Sings to concept art of Space Mountain.

Almost every section of the Park gets a few updated photos. Mr. Lincoln returns to the Guide Book after getting bumped by The Walt Disney Story. The Main Street Electrical Parade is removed from the Disneyland After Dark section (due to it's hiatus for America on Parade which ran during the Bicentennial). America Sings is added to the Tomorrowland section. And, the Anaheim Convention Center gets added to the Disneyland Hotel section.

It should be a busy week for Guide Books. I'm expecting three more in the mail this week.