09-18-2009, 08:17 PM | #1 | |||
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Favorite Disney books
I've collected a number of books about Disney over the years, both about Walt Disney and his theme parks. My favorite one of them all is over twenty years old, written in 1987 by Randy Bright, a former Imagineer who started working for Disneyland in 1959.
The name of the book is called Disneyland: Inside Story It has some interesting stories from the early days at Disneyland. As an example, here are some excerpts (from page 145 of my edition), relating to the planning of the Matterhorn: "One day, an employee from the Disney Studio was visiting the Park and found Walt sitting on a bench between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, sort of staring off into space. 'What are you looking at, Walt?' she asked. 'My mountain,' was the response" "On a trip to Switzerland in 1958, Disney had become fascinated by the dominating, angular peak that sits on the Swiss-Italian border.... Walt had just conquered the summit via his 1959 feature film Third Man on the Mountain. And he was determined to bring the Matterhorn home with him - home to Disneyland." "The Disneyland version of the Matterhorn was scaled down to 1/100 of the original, resulting in a 147-foot summit that would tower above Fantasyland castle. The Matterhorn would become Disneyland's first classic "thrill ride," as guests boarded four-person bobsleds for a high-speed, twisting, turbulent journey down its slopes." "[Joe] Fowler had faced some construction challenges before, but building a mountain with five hundred tons of steel, with no two pieces the same length, proved particularly exasperating. Equally challenging, though, was the task put before Bill Evan's landscape group. For probably the first time in history, landscapers found themselves called upon to determine just what would constitute a "timberline" on a fourteen-story building." "As Construction neared completion, it was time to test the bobsleds that wound their way through the mountain. During the test runs, Disney saw bobsled after bobsled careen down the mountain with their passengers represented in the form of four sandbags. When the bobsleds were ready for a live test pilot, Disney selected the ride's designer, Vic Greene, for the honor of the first run, accompanied, naturally, by three sandbags. Greene survived, and the most unusual roller coaster in the world was now complete." (oops, sorry so long... it's just such a neat segment that it was hard omitting anything) It's unfortunately out of print, but can still be found - try Amazon (linked above) or eBay. I hope someone finds this as interesting a book as I do.
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09-21-2009, 05:06 AM | #3 | |||
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Re: Favorite Disney books
I love books abot Disneyland especially since I have never been there. The fact that Walt actually walked there is HUGE - I wonder how blown away he would be about WDW - both good and back based on his original visions. I have been to WDW 10 times and when my DS is older, we will make the trip to the west coast.
I have a lot of Disney books that I love, but I have an odd obsession with the Haunted Mansion. My dream is to have a home that looks like the Haunted Mansion in WDW and a summer home that looks like the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. My husband found a book called - The Haunted Mansion, From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies by Jason Surrell, 2003. I love to see the differences between all the Mansions in the different worlds - very cool! |
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10-25-2009, 10:10 PM | #4 | |||
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Re: Favorite Disney books
Another book that recently became one of my favorites is called Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever
It is an easy reading book. It doesn't go into too much depth in any one thing, but provides some brief bits of interesting history. It even has several pages of attractions/areas that were never built. The list price of the book is $24.95. Though the price on Amazon (the link abobe) is currently much higher (sold only by Marketplace vendors), they do show some information and a 'look inside' link (try the 'surprise me' link to see example pages). Be sure to look for it if you go to Disneyland (or find someone to buy it for you if they go out there).
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