The Big "U"

Per my last post, here a "U" that once hung as part of one of the two ATIS signs. I wonder what ever happened to the other letters...

To answer a question on the comment board, the U is about 13-14 inches high and weighs, I would guess, about 8-10 pounds. It seems to be made out of unpainted iron, but what do I know about metals? There is nothing on the reverse, although the metal is hollowed out; it's not completely solid.


Here's a photo that shows part of the ATIS sign. If anyone has a photo showing the complete sign(s), I would LOVE to have it.


If any non-blogger out there has other artifacts from the park, I would love to see and possibly post photos of them. Of course, I would NEVER do so without your permission, and if you'd like for me to post a photo but would like your identity kept confidential, you can either tell me that or simply not identify yourself to me in the first place. If you have artifacts and ARE a blogger, then post the photos for crying out loud!

My Atomobile

Continuing on with the ATIS theme, I have two artifacts from the ride itself, one internal and one external. Here is the internal piece, a miniaturized Atomobile rescued from the destruction of the Mighty Microscope. There are a few of these floating around, but I've never seen a duplicate configuration of riders. This one is a father and son, but I've seen a mother and daughter, a father and daughter, and at least one mid-aged man riding alone. This came out of an auction a few years back. It's in pretty nice shape, and I had a stand and case custom-built for it.

My external piece is a big silver "U" from the ride sign. There were 4 U's on the sign (one in "Adventures" and one in "Thru" on each side of the ride's two surrounding walls). That came from Disneyland collecting Hall-of-Famer Dug Miller a few years back. I once saw it in his apartment and swore to myself that it would be mine someday. When he put it up for sale, I snagged it. Sometimes dreams do come true. I will try to snap a photo of it if you're interested.

Inner Space Atomobile Sticker

I can't remember where this came from, but I'm sure of one thing...I didn't steal it from the attraction itself. First of all, when the ride closed, I was too young and naive to even consider vandalizing my favorite attraction.

However, as I became older, stealing Matterhorn stickers from the front of the ride vehicles was a part-time hobby in which I was mentored by a Disneyland-collecting pioneer (you know who you are...if you actually read this thing). It was tough to get them off complete, but as long as you started picking at the sticker from the top right corner and peeled slowly downward, you were in like Flynn. Back in those days, there were no cameras on the lift-hill, so you had to peel it, fold it in half and stuff it down your shirt before emerging into the sunlight. These days, I wouldn't try it. Damn you, infra-red!

Ug...Sorry About That

I apologize for the repeat yesterday; I totally forgot that I posted that piece way back in December. I'll try not to let that happen again.

Back from Hibernation...

Hi, everybody. I hope everyone out there is still interested in this blog after my prolonged hiatus. If you check in and you know of others who have stopped, please let them know that it's safe to return.

Per Don Ballard's request, here is the very colorful (and BIG) flyer featuring both the Monorail and the Grand Canyon Diorama in fairly accurate reproductions of their respective attraction posters. A super cool flyer and tough to find unfolded. I believe this is what you (Don) were referring to in your comment, but if not, let me know.

Someone also requested something from the Haunted Mansion, but since my collection is exclusively 1955-1969, there's not much. I do have the press pass for the attraction's opening day, but it's black and tough to scan. I may just snap a photo of it and post that. Coming soon...

Freedomland's Tornado Ride

Over at Gorillas Don't Blog, the Major posted some very rare and cool Freedomland photos. In the comments section, I mentioned that I rode the former Freedomland ride Tornado at Great Escape a number of years ago and paid the operator $20 to let me ride it twice with the lights on so I could take some photos. At any rate, here's the link to my photos, which I provided to Laff in the Dark, a very cool site about dark rides.

The photos are not great. First of all, I was moving at the time. Second, they were shot on something called....what is it again?...oh, yeah: film. I did not have a digital camera back then, so these are scanned snapshots.

Thought you might enjoy...

http://www.laffinthedark.com/articles/tornado/tornado.htm