Disneyland's First Guide Book

1955 - Disneyland is now open for business and we have the very first Guide Book: The Story of Disneyland. It's really more of a pamphlet than a book - coming in at only 16 pages. Produced by Western Printing & Lithographing Company. These are the same folks who brought us early editions of the Little Golden Books. The look and feel of this Guide Book is also reminiscent of the Little Golden Books as it uses pencil sketches and water color drawings. Walt Disney actually apologizes in the introduction for the use of "artist renderings" in this book.

The book is divided into sections, just like every Guide Book that will come after it, into the five original lands in Disneyland. The back of the book features a very difficult to use grid map to the Park. (Let's see, Dumbo is located in section C-E6. Section C is Fantasyland and finding E6 on the map puts Dumbo right next to...a lot of nothing). This type of mapping strategy would be abandoned quickly.

Coming attractions features the Disneyland Hotel. ("This distinctive 650-room resort Hotel and Motor Hotel offers every type of accommodation from comfortable motel units to luxurious garden apartments.")

Disneyland Tenth Annivesary - Comic Book Style

I've got a pretty decent sized Disney comic book collection with titles from Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, and of course, Uncle Scrooge.

I've had my eye on this copy of 1965 Walt Disney's Vacation in Disneyland (Celebrating Disneyland's Tenth Anniversary) for quite awhile and finally decided to pull the trigger. (Why I waited so long, I don't know.)

I just love the graphics on both the front and back covers. The inside front cover contains four black and white photos of Disneyland, while the inside back cover details the upcoming Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and a brief article on Miss Disneyland. (I kid you not).

The rest of this comic contains six short stories in which Disney tries a strange tie-in of familiar Disney characters with the decade old Disneyland. Tinkerbell does a one-panel introduction for each chapter.

The first story is Donald Duck in the Scrappy Skipper in which Donald, with the help of Huey, Dewey and Louie, pilots the Columbia.

This is followed up by Mickey and Goofy in Blizzard Bandit featuring The Matterhorn.

The third story features Uncle Scrooge and Gyro Gearloose in which they make a trip to Neverland. Along the way they meet up with the Beagle Boys, Hook and Smee. (Uh yeah, this makes sense.)

And, if the third story wasn't bizarre enough, the fourth chapter has the Big Bad Wolf being the pilot of the Rocket Ship to the Moon in an effort to capture the Three Little Pigs.

In the fifth story, we get an all-girl cast with Daisy, Minnie, Grandma, and Clarabelle in The Scary All-Girl Safari which contains a very brief mention of the Jungle Cruise.

And finally, we conclude with Scamp, Chip and Dale escaping Monstro the Whale in The Tiny Trouble Shooters. Geppetto and Stromboli also make an appearance.

I'm guessing the intent was to have each chapter or story represent a land in Disneyland, but the whole thing just comes off as being just a little weird.

The Disney Gallery Inaugural Exhibition

In honor of the closing of the Disney Gallery, which was located just above the entrance to The Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, I've tracked down the book that was available during its inaugural season.

This book contains a brief introduction by John Hench (Sr. VP WDI), and then details biographies from several veteran Disneyland artists. There's Harper Goff, Blaine Gibson, Marc Davis, Sam McKim, Herb Ryman, and Mary Blair. For just 20 pages, it is jam-packed full of great images. While most of the art-work used is very familiar, it's always nice to revisit an old friend. The only down-side of this book, is that several images are printed in black and white. These Disney artists put so much detail in their work it's almost a shame to see it reduced to shades of grey.

And, in a bit of irony, the last page details the original private apartment designs by Dorthea Redmond.