Opening Day Train Ticket

To be honest, I'm not even sure where this came from. Ebay? A private seller who was there on 7/17/55? No idea.

This is a letter sent to a VIP instructing him/her where and when to report in order to ride the train that Walt Disney drove into Main Street Station to open the broadcast on Opening Day. As you can see, it gives the car number as 102 and leaves space for a ticket.

Well....here is the ticket with 102 written on the reverse. When I got this, the conductor's check was already separated, and the "keeper" part of the ticket (the piece one would keep as a souvenir once all the stubs were removed) was missing. However, it is stamped "Jul 17, 1955" on the back of the ticket, and the conductor's check is punched with the same star punch that my opening day Mark Twain ticket has. Also, the serial number of the ticket is really low.

Weird item, but I'm thrilled to have it as part of my Opening Day collection.

Disneyland '59 Press Program

I think I promised this awhile ago...

This is the program from the Disneyland '59 opening, and boy do I wish I had been there, but that was biologically impossible. However, thanks to DVD I can relive the event for myself.

In fact, I recommend that you color laser print this entry, staple it together, get your lifesize Meredeth Wilson cut-out from out of the closet, and reenact the event in your very own living room! Hey! There's Julie Nixon!

I want to offer another shout-out for requests. I gotta lotta stuff, so if there's something you want to see, let me know. If I can find the time to scan them, I may start uploading my Disneyland merchandise catalogs....

GREAT NEW BLOG!

Attention Vintage Disneyland Fans:

There's a great new blog in town: The Original Disneyland Hotel:

http://magicalhotel.blogspot.com/

It's being written by Don Ballard, a super nice guy and author of the definitive history of the Disneyland Hotel. Check out his book on the blog.

Singing With the Dapper Dans!

I LOVE this little card from 1960 for so many reasons.

Selfishly, I love it because it's the only one of its kind that I've ever seen. I also have tremendous affection for the freebie paper handed out at attractions in the park's early years. They range from the rather common (the TWA flight certificate) to the very rare (such as this card). And its design is just so great.

The only part of owning it that I DON'T love is that it came out of Leon Janzen's collection after his passing. I wish Leon was still here and that this little item was still in his ownership rather than mine. That said, I think of Leon with great, great affection everytime I look at it, so I'm happy to have it as a reminder of him.

If you're interested, here is the raw data: the reverse side is blank, it's printed on card stock, and it's about the size of a credit card.

3 Different Autopia Licenses

Here are the three different card stock Autopia licenses I have in my collection. Let's play Highlights Magazine and see who can spot the differences.

What's interesting to me is that two of them are stamped within six months of the park's opening. Does that mean the paper license from my last post from from later in the 50s? I always thought it was earlier, but then I looked at these two more carefully, and now I have no idea.

Or...was the paper one made available only to people who bought the specific attraction ticket and the card stock ones only for ticket book holders???

Autopia License w/ Stub

Here's another entry in my "With Stub" series. This time, it's an early Autopia license still printed on paper rather than the later card-stock versions. Pretty cool that the license is an extension of the admission ticket to the attraction. I wonder if there were different licenses if you were paying via your ticket book. The world may never know.

By the way, there are at least 3 different versions of that card-stock license, and probably more. Maybe I'll post the 3 versions in my collection next.

New Orleans Square Opening Program - 7/24/66

As I've said before, I wish I had the ticket for this one. I also wish I had the press badge that's mentioned in the introduction. Thanks to a blog reader, I've seen a photo of them, and they look very cool.

Sorry that the cover didn't reproduce very well. There's no contrast on the photo; it's like a raised watermark, but not actually printed.

Again, my apologies for the infrequent posts. I really do mean to provide something new every other day, but life and sleep is getting in the way these days. I will try to step it up.

****FIXED THE SCANS!!! WOO HOO!

1965 Press Event Ticket

Here's another press event ticket for the 1965 Tencennial Celebration at Disneyland, which was held 10 years and a day after the opening.

I've seen footage of this event...gotta love that dancing cake.

1959 Press Pass

Here's a sticker that was given to the press for the 6/14/59 dedication of the Matterhorn, Monorail, and Submarine Voyage. If you look closely on the recently released Disneyland '59 DVD, you can see people wearing this sticker (well, not literally THIS sticker, but ones just like it) on their shirts and jackets. I have the program from this day, too, and will post it soon.

Apologies

I'm sorry for the lack of updates this week. Life has caught up to me, and my free time is at a premium. I will endeavor to post something new (other than this, of course) by Friday night.

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln - Invitational Ticket

This 1965 ticket (printed on Globe paper for those of you who track such things) was issued to guests of Walt and Roy Disney on the occasion of the GMWML debut on 8/6/65. The first photo shows the front of the two-layer ticket when closed. When opened, the red bottom half is revealed in full.

I love these preview tickets. I have a few more, but not the one for New Orleans Square, which makes me crazy, because I once saw it for sale, but passed on it. Never saw it again. If anyone out there has one....please email me a photo or even better, sell it to me!

Counter!

I added a counter to let me know how many of you are out there.

Just a courtesy notice...

Skyway Round-Trip Card

This is a weird one, but I think it's cool...

This is from the early years of the park, but I'm not sure how early. If you were riding the Skyway and purchased a round-trip ride rather than one-way, you would carry this sign with you on the journey, hand it to the operator on the other end, and s/he would leave you in the vehicle for your ride back to the Fantasyland chalet or Tomorrowland station.

I am not fluent as others in the way of tickets. Were the ticket book tickets and ticket machine tickets for one-way or round-trips? Did it take two one-way tickets to equal a round-trip? Definitely leave a comment if you can clarify.

****To clarify a question on the comment board, this piece isn't techinically a ticket. It's a hard-card mini-sign (about 6 inches by 4 inches). Thanks for VDT for clarifying the Skyway ticket situation. I guess this sign was a special way to identify people who bought a round-trip ticket, since one-way was more customary.

Great New Blog

I think all of my readers will enjoy this. I can't wait for more posts:

Walterworld: http://freetv-airconditioned.blogspot.com/