Wally Boag pictured here with Walt at the Mark Twain Riverboat dock. Wally played the role of Pecos Bill in nearly 40,000 live performances of The Golden Horseshoe Revue through the shows closing in 1986. He provided the voice of "Jose" in the Enchanted Tiki Room, for which he also co-wrote the script, and also for the short-lived "Barker Bird" Juan who once beckoned guests into the attraction from outside. Wally passed away in 2011.
In a previous post, we visited the twin fiberglass Indian Chief's of Disneyland. Now we visit with the wooden Indian Chief of Ghost Town. The Cigar Store Indian was said to be the most popular trade sign, but other businesses used trade signs too. An Indian was chosen for a tobacco shop because it was Indians that introduced tobacco to early explorers of the Americas. These Cigar Store Indians, standing outside shops, served as an indicator to the Native Americans that the shop owner inside would trade with them. The store is part of the larger Western town recreation known as Ghost Town, and the building, erected in 1944 and still stands in Ghost Town today.
55 years ago, on August 5th, 1967 - Adventure Thru Inner Space premiered in the "New Tomorrowland." Although Walt didn't experience the completed attraction, he did see its development, here reviewing the miniature of the miniaturizer.
Far left is X. Attencio, Script Writer for the Attraction and far right is Claude Coats, Attraction Designer. Two giant gorillas, occupying a region of the Jungle Cruise's rivers of Africa in the early half of the 20th century, were presumably hostile and described as being roughly 600 pounds with an arm-spread of 8 feet. The gorillas used to appear right before the, "Return to Civilization", in the part of the ride now representing the Amazon Rainforest. The gorillas were removed after 1968 with the rough space it occupied. The gorilla animatronics were repurposed in 1978 to represent the Yeti, "Harold" in the rollercoaster Matterhorn Bobsleds with new fur and a face mould by Blaine Gibson. In 2015, this audio-animatronic was removed and replaced with a more updated model. One of the gorilla audio-animatronic was moved to Disney's California Adventure theme-park to the attraction Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!, still appearing as the yeti. Reemploying animation figures is common at Walt Disney imagineering; some of the audio-animatronics from Nature’s Wonderland are now part of Big Thunder, and almost all America Sings audio-animatronics are in Splash Mountain. The 1977-78 major refurbishment of the Jungle Cruise had legendary imagineer Mark Davis working on its upgrade. Part of Mark’s new show for Disneyland included the Gorilla Camp with the tents, overturned jeep, and the family of gorillas unpacking and turning the camp inside out. 1978, the imagineers were also working on another major refurbishment: the Matterhorn. New Bobsleds were being added along with new track, and better brakes for the splash down. It was also decided to put some show in the interior, mostly for the Skyway buckets passing through the Matterhorn. The Bobsleds could see the new icy interiors and crystals as well the very famous Disneyland abominable snowman. Riders can see remnants of the Wells Expedition, a tribute to Frank Wells, the one time president of the Walt Disney Company. Click the arrow to view the slideshow! |
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