Flashback: Mulholland Madness

We finish our tour of Paradise Pier and Disney California Adventure with a look at a recently-extinct attraction, Mulholland Madness. Named for and inspired by Mulholland Drive, the scenic 50-mile stretch of road from North Hollywood to the Malibu Coast, this "wild mouse"-style coaster offered guests a twisting, turning ride much like portions of its famous namesake.

The face of the attraction was adorned with a gigantic, unfolded road map of Mulholland Drive. Depicted on the map was everything from Marilyn Monroe to a landslide on the Pacific Coast Highway. Of course, while traffic was jammed on the PCH and the Hollywood Freeway, everyone was freewheeling along Mulholland... so much so, that the cars of the ride even appeared to crash right through the map at one point! The map also included a nod to Alamo Rent A Car (operating sponsor of the attraction from 2004-2010) and an image of a swimming pool shaped like Mickey Mouse.

Each of the coaster cars on Mulholland Madness featured four bucket seats and its own custom paint job. There were hot rods and Woodies and even squad cars of the California Highway Patrol.

Cars and car culture were the principle design motifs on Mulholland Madness. Everything here contributed to the story, from the orange net fencing around the perimeter to the "Cast Members Only" sign made to resemble a license plate. Even the height stick looked as if it belonged on the side of a highway.

The use of road signs in the queue and load areas continued along the ride path as well, with the addition of billboards advertising things like Mulholland Drive-Thru Donuts and Mulholland Madness the movie, starring Teri Fide and Rolly Coasta.

Mulholland Madness closed in October 2010, to be re-imagined as Goofy's Sky School. The new attraction is set to debut this summer.

The district of Paradise Pier which included Mulholland Madness, stretching from Burger Invasion to Dinosaur Jack's Sunglass Shack and roadside merchandise stand Souvenir 66, was intended as an homage to California's infatuation with the automobile. While these opening day features may have driven into history, the park is actually preparing to hit the gas on an even bigger tribute to cars, chrome and the "Mother Road" with the 2012 debut of Cars Land.

Guests visiting Disney California Adventure now can get a sneak peek at the new land under construction. The wall in front of the project has been dressed as oversized postcards, touting some of the new attractions and destinations opening next year. Among my favorite details on the wall: perforations between the cards and the price tag!

Rides of the Boardwalk

In the ten year history of Disney California Adventure, the Boardwalk of Paradise Pier has seen attractions come and go, while others have remained the same.

Down along the shore, Jumpin' Jellyfish gives a colorful kelp and sea creature overlay to a traditional parachute drop ride. Twelve parachute vehicles, dressed as jellyfish, make a "jump" straight up a couple of 60-foot kelp towers, before gently floating back down to the beach.

For such a simple attraction, the details are actually very well done. From the starfish height stick and jellyfish umbrellas in the queue to the rockwork and seaweed-like landscaping, everything contributes to a sense that the tide has receded and allowed us to wander a space typically found beneath the waves.

Nearby is another attraction unchanged since opening day, the Golden Zephyr (my apologies for not having a better photograph). This type of classic "spinning spaceship" ride had not been built for 35 years, but the wait was worth it. Flying in one of the six Flash Gordon-style rocket vehicles, the sense of speed and height reached is far more thrilling than you might imagine. It's actually my favorite Paradise Pier attraction and a "must do" on every visit.

One thing the above photograph does manage to show is a pair of now-extinct rides of the Boardwalk. The attractions may be history, but luckily you can just follow the links from here for one more look at the Maliboomer and the Orange Stinger.

Rounding out the Golden State

At the opposite edge of Grizzly Peak is the Golden Vine Winery, celebrating Napa Valley and the California Wine Country. The main attractions here are the wine tastings and Wine Country Trattoria, a fine dining establishment that feels worlds away from a theme park, but there are also lots of little details around this area.

The main building of the Golden Vine Winery was inspired by California's Mission Period, with red tile roof and Spanish-style architecture. Nearby, an actual mini-vineyard is growing on a hillside. Look for the hawk perch, used to invite birds of prey to help control pests in the vineyard.

Depending on the season, you may actually spot grapes growing on the vines. These aren't plastic. They're the real thing. A sign nearby describes the common varietals grown in California, although the only vine grown here is Johannesburg Riesling, due to its resistance to Pierce's Disease. Anaheim was once a big wine-producing region, until Pierce's Disease wiped out the crop in the 1880s and farmers switched instead to oranges.

A theatrical attraction entitled "Seasons of the Vine" was once presented in the winery's barrel room, a dark space populated with oak barrels, an antique wine press and a cabinet filled with cooperage tools for barrel making. In the show, a vineyard host would welcome guests, and then proceed to open a pair of large doors at one end of the room, revealing an expansive vineyard beyond (actually rear-projected HD video). The scene magically dissolved into a seven-minute presentation on the craft of making wine.

Today, the former "Seasons of the Vine" theater is home to the Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar, a preview center for all the new development now happening throughout Disney California Adventure. You can take a virtual peek into the Blue Sky Cellar at the preview site, here.

Around the corner from the winery is a nod to the Bay Area, with a row of classic Victorian residences reminiscent of those built in San Francisco in the early 1900s. The facades hosted a short-lived video game arcade during the park's X Game Xperience event in 2003. Today, they house expanded area restrooms built to handle the increased attendance driven by the addition of the World of Color nighttime spectacular on nearby Paradise Bay.

The focal point of the Bay Area district is the replica of the famous Rotunda from San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts. The original was created for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. The Disney California Adventure version served as the entrance to Golden Dreams, a film attraction which highlighted the people and events that helped shape the unique character of the state of California.

The film, shown in a large Art Deco theater, was hosted by Calafia, the "Queen of California," as portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg. The story covered ground from Native Americans and Spanish missionaries to Chinese railroad workers and Cesar Chavez, Gold Rush and Hollywood pioneers to visionaries like John Muir and Steve Jobs. The presentation concluded with a musical montage of famous faces and events (similar to that at the end of The American Adventure at Epcot), set to the song "Just One Dream."

Golden Dreams saw its last performance in 2008, but the Rotunda still stands. Soon, it will represent a transition from the Bay Area to Paradise Pier and the grand Victorian aquarium where guests will experience one of the park's newest attractions, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure.

Favorite Things: Attraction Toys

For those of you who are celebrating Christmas today, I hope Santa was good to you. Maybe you even got some new Disney toys under the tree. The collection of Disney attraction toys on display in my study at home is rather extensive (and harder each year to keep out of reach of my 5-year-olds).

Some of my favorites are toys from attractions that are no longer in the parks. In the grouping pictured above, you can see a couple of toys sold during the early years at Disney California Adventure. That's a working model of the California Screamin' roller coaster (with original Mickey ears icon) and a spinning toy of the Orange Stinger swing ride (since replaced by Silly Symphony Swings).

A closer look reveals that the toy even sports the bumblebee seats that were on the real ride at opening, but didn't survive long (they kept cracking into each other).

This grouping also includes Mickey and Grrr plush from the Golden State area of the park, a Block Party Bash ball (acquired when the parade was still in California), an Autopia car promo piece from Chevron and a Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage Vinylmation figure.

There's even a boot-shaped mug I picked up at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon on my very first trip to Disneyland back in 1991. I'm not sure if they still offer these mugs or not, but every time I look at it, I can still taste the root beer I had in mine.

This Is Main Street, Main Street Station

Main Street is a town in transition, a place of arrival and of heading out on new adventures. This story parallels the experience of Walt Disney World Guests entering this section of the Magic Kingdom. It's a place of comings and goings, with a bright future ahead (be it the "new century" or exciting theme park adventures that await in other lands). It's fitting that the town and the street are anchored by a train station.

Train stations like that of the Walt Disney World Railroad were often the point from which towns in America formed and grew. The railroad was the lifeline of the community, where supplies, mail and other goods would come and go. This is also the place where new people arrived in town and bold citizens set out on adventures in the uncharted west.

The ticket office at the front of the station is packed with detail, much of which is difficult to photograph (so you'll just have to visit for yourself). Once you have your ticket, head inside to wait for the train. Here, you can take in the lovely wood furnishings, gas chandeliers and marble flooring, or keep yourself entertained with the Mute-o-Scopes and other entertainments (moved here in 1995 after the closing of Main Street's Penny Arcade).

The interior also features large murals at either end, which help tell the story of how the railroads opened up the American West. The first shows lumberjacks felling trees to clear the land and build trestles, allowing trains to pass across rugged and uneven terrain. The second depicts the ceremony of the Golden Spike, when the last spike was driven into the ground at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869, completing the First Transcontinental Railroad.

The Station Master calls out, "The Walt Disney World Railroad now arriving from a grand circle tour of the Magic Kingdom." With a whistle and a belch of steam, a genuine antique locomotive rolls into town, bringing new passengers along with it. For those of us boarding at Main Street, we'll be headed west. Next stop: Frontierland.

Into the Wild Frontier

Disney Legend Fess Parker passed away yesterday at the age of 85, but he will live forever through his portrayal of Davy Crockett (above image ©Disney, from a terrific article on Parker at the D23 site). A generation grew up wearing coonskin caps as they watched the adventures of Crockett and Russell (Buddy Ebsen) on television. This weekend, I'll be breaking out my Walt Disney Treasures DVD collection of Davy Crockett episodes to share with my children.

The Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes plied the Rivers of America at Walt Disney World from 1971 to 1994 (the attraction still operates seasonally at Disneyland). The canoes boarded from a low dock near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland, taking their twenty Guests on a scenic trip around Tom Sawyer Island. This was no free ride, though. Aside from the "C" ticket required in the early years, the canoes also made their passengers work for the trip, paddling the whole way. The Cast Member at the front of the canoe coached the Guests in their efforts and narrated a bit of the journey, while the fella in back was responsible for steering the craft in the right direction.

The photo above offers a glimpse not only of a former attraction, but also the original Frontierland shoreline. In the 1990s, to help alleviate congestion during parade times, the Frontierland Riverwalk was established. Today, a peaceful stroll along this series of docks and piers at the water's edge makes it difficult to imagine Frontierland without it.

In the coming week, we'll be exploring Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom, looking at the many stories and details to be found out on the wild frontier. To prepare, maybe you too will put on an episode of Davy Crockett. When you do, send a fond "Thank You" to our lost friend Fess Parker, a true King and Legend.

Flashback: Fantasyland Theater

In an earlier post, we explored the Royal Concert Hall in Fantasyland, home to Mickey's PhilharMagic. This spot has actually hosted a number of different attractions over the years. When PhilharMagic opened in 2003, it replaced Legend of the Lion King (94-02), a stage show which combined large-scale puppets and special effects to retell the story of the 1994 animated feature.

Going back a bit further, we discover that Mickey's PhilharMagic was also preceded by another 3-D presentation, Magic Journeys. Magic Journeys had originally been a feature of the Journey Into Imagination pavilion at EPCOT Center, playing there from 1982-1986 until it was replaced by Captain EO. The following year, it shifted to the Fantasyland Theater where it was screened along with a 3-D pre-show of the 1953 animated short "Working for Peanuts."

In the years between 1980 and 1987, the theater bore the generic marquee of Fantasyland Theater, often playing host to Cast Member events. During the warm summer months, the theater was also open to Guests who were invited in for continuous screenings of classic Disney animated shorts.

The original occupant of this space was actually a direct cousin to PhilharMagic, the Mickey Mouse Revue. This attraction featured popular Disney characters in musical vignettes from their films, all brought to life through Audio-Animatronics. The show ran at Walt Disney World from 1971-1980, at which point it was relocated to Japan for the opening of Tokyo Disneyland (it closed there last year to make way for Mickey's PhilharMagic).

Flashback: Skyway

In the last post, you may have spotted the Skyway cab rising in front of Space Mountain. The Skyway attraction took its Guests on one-way trips between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, from 1971 to 1999. While Skyways also operated at Disneyland (passing through the open grottoes of the Matterhorn) and in Tokyo Disneyland, the Walt Disney World version was unique in that it was the only such attraction that made a 90° turn.

After traversing the skies over Tomorrowland, the cabs would come down closer to ground level at the edge of the Grand Prix Raceway (today's Tomorrowland Speedway). There, a switching station seamlessly transferred the cabs to another line, lifting them up again toward Fantasyland.

The photo below indicates where some of the towering Skyway pylons were located in Fantasyland. Although the resolution isn't the best, eagle eyes might also spot the old Fantasyland trash can designs, original blue and metal rental strollers, and the roof of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea extended queue (at bottom right).

At the other end of the line, the Skyway cabs came down to a beautiful Swiss chalet before changing passengers and heading back out to Tomorrowland once again. Since the closing of the Skyway more than a decade ago, the Tomorrowland station and each of the pylons have all been removed. This chalet, though, can still be found on the western edge of Fantasyland, where today it provides a scenic backdrop for the stroller parking area near It's a Small World.

Many Disney Parks fans lament the loss of the Skyway. It was certainly a classic attraction, having originally debuted at Disneyland in 1956, and it offered spectacular views of sections of the park.

For my money, though, I was okay with the Skyway floating into history. While it may have been a unique attraction when Walt Disney added it to Disneyland in the '50s, decades later sky rides just like it had become commonplace in parks across the country. It also never quite worked for me as part of either a fairy tale village or futuristic setting.

As for those views, some were certainly magnificent. Guests aboard the Skyway were also treated, however, to looks at backstage areas and barren rooftops. From this vantage point, Mickey's PhilharMagic, for example (below), would look considerably less magical.

The Skyway was fun in its day, but as is often the case in the Disney Parks, the time came for a change. Even though Walt brought the Skyway to his park, he also introduced the idea of constant evolution:

"[Disneyland is] something that will never be finished. Something that I can keep developing, keep plussing and adding to. It's alive. It will be a live breathing thing that will need change. A picture is a thing, once you wrap it up and turn it over to Technicolor you're through. Snow White is a dead issue with me. A live picture I just finished, the one I wrapped up a few weeks ago, it's gone, I can't touch it. There's things in it I don't like; I can't do anything about it. I wanted something alive, something that could grow, something I could keep plussing with ideas; the Park is that."

- Walt Disney

Todayland

Disney's animated feature Meet the Robinsons is filled with fun references, from the use of the song "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" to the quote from Walt Disney at the end. It's this blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot, though, during Lewis's initial trip to the future, that I enjoy the most.

It's funny because for so many years it was true. Tomorrowland in the Disney Parks was originally envisioned as a realistic portrayal of what the future might hold. Unfortunately, the future kept becoming the present faster than the parks could react. It's a challenge even Walt Disney faced in the early days of Disneyland.

Tomorrowland has since transitioned from science fact to science fiction, rendering it far more timeless. With apologies to Werner Weiss, the Tomorrowland of our memories has become Yesterland. Today, we take a quick look back by way of a few pictures from my second Walt Disney World visit, this time in 1983.

The entrance to Tomorrowland was once flanked by these two giant monoliths. From 1971 to 1982, the towers and walls were painted powder blue and water cascaded down from the peaks. By the early 80s, the waterfalls had proven unreliable, and an enhancement effort brought the colorful tile pattern you see in the image above (work on the tile was completed during the first half of my June 1983 visit).

In the distance, you can just make out the oval signs touting Mission to Mars (on the left) and America the Beautiful in Circle-Vision 360 (on the right). At the end of the promenade is another sight that wasn't there on opening day, the rocket pylon of the Star Jets sitting atop the platform for the WEDway PeopleMover.

The Star Jets opened in November 1974 as the first part of a major expansion of Tomorrowland that would be completed in 1975 with the additions of the PeopleMover, General Electric's Carousel of Progress and Space Mountain.

Space Mountain was originally sponsored by RCA, as Guests could plainly see from anywhere in Tomorrowland. It was RCA computer technology that helped make Space Mountain possible, with a ride system capable of controlling multiple trains on the track simultaneously.

The rocket car seen on the pylon out front was intended to help communicate to Guests just what sort of experience awaited them inside. This was, after all, the first time a roller coaster had been built inside in the dark. A similar technique was later deployed at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Disney's Hollywood Studios. There, the train is inverted to clearly show that the ride will turn you (and the music industry) upside-down.

Closer inspection of the rocket car also reveals the original seating arrangement on Space Mountain. Passengers would sit straddling one of two benches, with a friend or family member sitting in their lap (the Matterhorn at Disneyland still uses this configuration). Seat belts held passengers in place during their journey. By 1989, the seat belt cars had been replaced with the current trains, in which each passenger has an individual seat and lap bar.