Rare 1955 Disneyland 20000 Leagues Under the Sea Exhibit View-Master Color Pictures

These extremely rare color pictures of the 20000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit which opened at Disneyland Tomorrowland in 1955 and in which were displayed the original decors from the 1954 movie are View-Master pictures. Photos of the DL 20000 Leagues exhibit - specially in color and in this definition quality - are almost impossible to find and it's thanks to Todd Popp that i am able today to share them with you. These 20000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit photos were released by View-Master in 1955. At that time color photography was not as common as it became later and while Todd was doing his research for his upcoming book, he learned that View-Master was one if not the only licensee permitted to photograph Disneyland at its opening in 1955. View-master then released sets of View-Master packets which at the start were sold exclusively at Disneyland as "Park Souvenirs".

Below, a picture showing the entrance of the 20000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit in Tomorrowland in 1960.



The next picture is a Tom Scherman and David Holman artwork showing the different rooms of the exhibit.



On the left after the entrance was displayed a Nautilus model that was used in the film, in front of a Vulcania matte painting by Peter Ellenshaw...



...and on the right the first decor that Disneyland guests could see was the Nautilus wheelhouse.



One of the highlight of the exhibit was of course Captain Nemo Grand Salon in which Disneyland guests could see Captain Nemo's famous pipe organ, which is now in Disneyland Haunted Mansion ball room.



Another picture of the Grand Salon, with Captain Nemo library.



Of course, what amazed Disneyland guests was the giant squid that they could see through one of Nemo Grand Salon window.



A little bit further in the exhibit was the Nautilus diving chamber.



And right in the center of the 20000 Leagues exhibit was the "Nautilus resting place" with a giant Nautilus.



I'd like to thanks again Todd Popp for these rare 20000 Leagues exhibit View-Master pictures, and his high-quality scans! Those of you interested by View-Master will find a whole chapter in my friend Pascal Pinteau excellent book about cult toys called "Jouets Cultes", here.

Pictures: copyright View-Master. Scans by Todd Popp.

Thanks to Daveland for the 20K Exhibit entrance picture.

Artwork: copyright Disney, Tom Scherman

1955 Disneyland Fantasyland Original Design, and more

I've got some great WED Enterprises artworks to share with you today! And we will start by this rare and awesome bird eye view artwork above showing Fantasyland as it was envisioned before Disneyland opening in 1955! If you've read my two articles posted two weeks ago showing a January 1955 McCall's magazine article then you probably remember some of the concepts included in the artwork above.

So, in this artwork done by artist Bruce Bushman you can see that after entering Fantasyland through Sleeping Beauty castle Disneyland guests would have found the Carousel, with on its left the Snow White and Alice in Wonderland rides and on the right the Peter Pan's Flight and Mr Toad rides. Behind the Carousel was located the Donald boats ride as well as the Dutch Mill ride, with behind them, the Monstro flume ride. On the left and right of this Monstro were originally located the Mad Hatter Tea Cups and Dumbo The Flying Elephant rides. And, on the top left and top right you can see the Casey Jr track as well as Story Book Land which apparently were envisioned to be separated until someone probably thought that it would be better to have them both together, as they are now, to avoid a waste of land. Please read the two previous articles HERE and HERE to have more infos about some of these rides.

In addition to this great artwork i also have for you others bird eye views or artworks plans on specific attractions - click on each to see them in big size.  And we start by the one for Peter Pan's Flight.

Next is the one showing the tracks and scenes of the Snow White attraction...

...as well as the one for the Alice in Wonderland ride...

...and a rare artwork showing what was a first version of a Pirates of Caribbean attraction at a time it was envisioned as a walk-through with guests walking through a pirate town...

We will end with this great plan showing the different scenes of the 20000 Leagues Exhibit at DL Tomorrowland as guests could see it in the early years of Disneyland.

Pictures: copyright Disney

Rare 1955 Disneyland 20000 Leagues Under the Sea Exhibit View-Master Color Pictures

These extremely rare color pictures of the 20000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit which opened at Disneyland Tomorrowland in 1955 and in which were displayed the original decors from the 1954 movie are View-Master pictures. Photos of the DL 20000 Leagues exhibit - specially in color and in this definition quality - are almost impossible to find and it's thanks to Todd Popp that i am able today to share them with you. These 20000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit photos were released by View-Master in 1955. At that time color photography was not as common as it became later and while Todd was doing his research for his upcoming book, he learned that View-Master was one if not the only licensee permitted to photograph Disneyland at its opening in 1955. View-master then released sets of View-Master packets which at the start were sold exclusively at Disneyland as "Park Souvenirs".

Below, a picture showing the entrance of the 20000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit in Tomorrowland in 1960.



The next picture is a Tom Scherman and David Holman artwork showing the different rooms of the exhibit.



On the left after the entrance was displayed a Nautilus model that was used in the film, in front of a Vulcania matte painting by Peter Ellenshaw...



...and on the right the first decor that Disneyland guests could see was the Nautilus wheelhouse.



One of the highlight of the exhibit was of course Captain Nemo Grand Salon in which Disneyland guests could see Captain Nemo's famous pipe organ, which is now in Disneyland Haunted Mansion ball room.



Another picture of the Grand Salon, with Captain Nemo library.



Of course, what amazed Disneyland guests was the giant squid that they could see through one of Nemo Grand Salon window.



A little bit further in the exhibit was the Nautilus diving chamber.



And right in the center of the 20000 Leagues exhibit was the "Nautilus resting place" with a giant Nautilus.



I'd like to thanks again Todd Popp for these rare 20000 Leagues exhibit View-Master pictures, and his high-quality scans! Those of you interested by View-Master will find a whole chapter in my friend Pascal Pinteau excellent book about cult toys called "Jouets Cultes", here.

Pictures: copyright View-Master. Scans by Todd Popp.

Thanks to Daveland for the 20K Exhibit entrance picture.

Artwork: copyright Disney, Tom Scherman

Epcot Living Seas Pavilion : The Nautilus Exhibit

Editor's Note: This article is part of my new (and great!) Tom Scherman web site. Tom was the worldwide Nautilus specialist and worked as a WDI Imagineer on many 20K attractions. His master-piece being the full size Disneyland Paris Nautilus that you can discover in a brand new video filmed by me last month at DLP's Discoveryland.

When Epcot Living Seas Pavilion opened to the public in 1986 it was the largest man-made underwater environment in the world at its completion. WDI Imagineer Tim Delaney was the show-designer and you can see lot of great artwork that Tim did in one of my previous Disney and more article HERE. The concept of the attraction was to take visitors under the ocean to "Sea Base Alpha". Guests then would ride the Caribbean Coral Reef Ride in a "seacab" along an underwater tunnel through the aquarium. From there guests would ride around 'Sea Base Alpha' getting an up-close view of the marine life. They would then disembark into the main exhibit area where they could interact with various multimedia displays.



But before guests take an elevator ride to the ocean floor thanks to the "Hydrolator" they would enter a pre-show area and part of it was a 20000 Leagues under the Sea exhibit created with the precious help of Tom Sherman who provided a perfect replica of the Crew Diver suit.

When i was at Epcot fifteen years ago i had the good idea to shoot plenty of pictures of the crew diver suit and here they are in high-res. Click on each picture to see them in larger scale.









On this rare picture kindly provided by Richard Allsmiller, Tom is carrying outside of his apartment a diving tank he made up for the mock-up diving suit with a fiberglass helmet. This might have been the one he sold years later to Walt Disney Imagineering for the Living Seas pavilion.



On the right of the crew diver suit guests could see a great Nautilus model. The model shown there is the studio's 11-foot "hero" miniature used for filming the underwater shots of the Nautilus in the movie.





In December of 2003, Disney started re-theming The Living Seas pavilion with a new ride based on Pixar's film Finding Nemo. Most of the transformation started in exterior elements, but in January of 2004, the interior began to see change as well. On November 16, 2004, Turtle Talk with Crush opened in what was once Module 1C, or the Earth Systems exhibit. Turtle Talk with Crush was just the beginning of changes to The Living Seas. On August 21, 2005, The Living Seas closed for its transformation into a new pavilion called The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Throughout 2006, construction walls hid away the undergoing-reconstruction pre-show area. The Seas with Nemo & Friends was rededicated on January 24, 2007 and the 20K exhibit with Tom crew diver suit was gone forever. But Andrew, a kind reader of the Tom scherman's web site found back Tom's crew diver suit, now in storage in Florida and sent me these pictures shot in 2007.









While we are at Walt Disney World, let's go to the Disney MGM Studios where, in another exhibit, guests could watch a diver helmet replica as well as a replica of the underwater rifle!







Vulcania Volunteers is doing a great replica of the Captain Nemo's underwater rifle and you can find it HERE.

Discover more articles about Tom Scherman and 20000 Leagues under the Sea with lot of gorgeous pictures on my new web site HERE.

All pictures: copyright Alain Littaye, except Tom Scherman picture: copyright Tom Scherman Family Collection from Rich Allsmiller