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

1955 Article Introducing Disneyland - Part Two : Peter Pan's Flight Original Design, and more

Thanks to Matt Hunter Ross and David, two faithful Disney and more readers, i've found the second double page of this great 1955 article announcing the opening of Disneyland with great original artworks by Disney artist Bruce Bushman!

In this one - just like in the part one which was showing the original concept for the Snow White dark ride that you can see HERE if you've missed it - we have the original concept for the Peter Pan's Flight ride. This Peter Pan sketch is a perfect example of illustrating a ride, and pretty faithful to the opening day show, the only surprise in it is that the track mechanics are shown on the sketch of the boat at the upper left in the picture above.

Also on this double page a sketch for Mr Toad's Wild Ride vehicle...

...but also this concept of a Donald ride that never was in which "seagoing visitors would have been captain of their own electric powered boats in the shape of wash tubs. Inflated inner tubes would have encircle each craft to absorb the shock collisions." It's funny, but when i see this artwork i thought that they still could do it using the same old Flying Saucers technique, the one they used at DCA for the Luigi Flying Tires attraction.
As for the Dutch mill in the background this one was finally built by Imagineer and DLP Fantasyland show-producer Tom Morris at Disneyland Paris Fantasyland - although with a slightly different design - and was of course a tribute to Disney's short animated and Academy Award winner The Old Mill.

A great idea - specially for a pre-show decor - was this decor of a huge table from Alice in Wonderland which would have made DL guests feel like Alice did after the potion made her tiny...

Last but not least, the artwork of the Alice Mad Hatter tea cups ride is another one showing an attraction that has been built, except that we don't have the table with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare in the center of the ride. It was probably not possible for technical reasons, but it would have been a good idea to have the tea cups turning all around this unbirthday party table...

Thanks again to Matt and David, and if you had a good year with Disney and more why not making a kind donation through Paypal - see the post below.

Pictures: copyright Disney