Pinup, vintage fashion, vintage home, Jane Austen's Emma, and Miracles from Molecules!
I’ve got some post-projects lined up for this spring and summer, running the gamut from fashion to home decor! Please stay tuned while I finish up my work for this semester…
Meanwhile, behold the backside of North America! One of my photos of the Unisphere from Corona Park…
My dad and my uncle recently uncovered my grandma Sally’s scrapbook, which chronicled her activities from the end of junior high (1937) to the year she married my grandfather (1941). As a San Franciscan, her adventures included a 1937 visit to Curran Theatre to see legendary film star Leslie Howard onstage as Hamlet, a day at the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition, experiences at the legendary Omar Khayyam’s restaurant and bar, and graduation from Galileo High School. Continue reading “My grandmother’s childhood scrapbook”
The Clairol Color Carousel was the most interesting fashion/beauty-related attraction at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. Bill Young’s Nywf64.com has cool content related to the Carousel, including ephemera actually distributed at the Clairol pavilion. Take a peek at mid-60s hair and makeup culture!
“For Women Only! Take a ride on the Clairol Color Carousel. See yourself as a blonde, a brunette or a read head! Your friends will ask, “Does she… or doesn’t she?”
So the talented and dedicated Michael Sweeney just notified me that he was able to finish reconstructing the late 1970s-1993 Walt Disney World Adventureland Veranda area loop! You may remember that two years ago I purchased and ripped a copy of George Bruns’ Moonlight Time in Old Hawaii album, the source of several of those generation 2 Veranda loop tracks (I’ll just call it version 2/generation 2, because we’re only aware of one other area loop presumably used for this restaurant area, complied in the early 1970s by Jack Wagner, voice of Disneyland/WDW and curator of the Main Street Christmas area loop).
Anyway, Michael obtained a live recording of this later Adventureland Veranda loop from Mike Lee of Widen Your World and went to town. Find the updated Adventureland Veranda tracklist here:
Groovy Adventureland Veranda area loop links:
From the White House, Barack Obama’s recording session for the NEW Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World. His apparent lack of knowledge regarding audio animatronics indicates that Dude needs to get his butt to a Disney theme park, STAT!
I’m a huge, huge, huge 1964-65 New York World’s Fair fan. And on May 23, I finally got to visit the Mecca of NYWF fandom – CORONA PARK at Flushing Meadows in Queens! My good-natured friend Dasha accompanied me. In fact, she assisted me greatly by taking a few photos (See a galleryful of my Corona Park images here).
Here are a few pics of the Unisphere, the fair’s official symbol and the embodiment of the fair’s aim: Peace through [global] understanding.
“It will remain as a permanent reminder of man’s aspirations for peace through understanding, and a symbol of his achievements in an expanding universe. Unisphere is truly the miracle in the meadow.”
This 900,000 pound stainless steel structure was designed by Gilmore Clark and engineered/constructed by United States Steel’s American Bridge Division.
You can learn more about the Unisphere, the NYS Pavilion, and the rest of the fair at NYWF64.com, an excellent resource for NYWF enthusiasts.
Updated: See part two of this saga here!
Okay kids.
Awhile ago I bought an old, rare-ish LP of Hawaiian string exotica arranged by famed Disney composer (and traditional jazz trombonist and tubaist) George Bruns. This is the guy who wrote the tune part of “Pirates Life for Me” (X Atencio wrote the lyrics). The album’s called “Moonlight Time in Old Hawaii,” and it includes several tracks from the later Adventureland Veranda restaurant area loop at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (I know of two different loops playing in that location; this material is from the second incarnation, ca. 1980s-1993). The title track – “Moonlight Time in Old Hawaii,” one of three tracks on the album that are original Bruns compositions – was actually featured in the International Gardens area loop at the 1964-65 World’s Fair’s Ford Pavilion (You can buy a copy of the “Walt Disney at the World’s Fair” CD set, which includes the fair version of the piece, here).
I’m not sure if the “Moonlight Time” track actually made the Adventureland Veranda (update: it did), but if you remember hearing it playing in situ, please tell me. So far, I’ve IDed a grand total of three songs from the album as AV area loop definites. If you know more, TELL ME. 😀 If you have even crappy snippets of live audio from your vaycay videos, pleeeease let me know!
I’ve bolded the three tracks that I know were used. Side one, tracks 2 and 3 apparently ran in order in the AV loop.
Side One:
1. South Sea Island Magic
2. Hawaiian Paradise (the tailend of this track shows up at the beginning of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkYXoCgXqwA)
3. Moonlight and Shadows (it’s the track that comprises the bulk of this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkYXoCgXqwA)
4. To You, Sweetheart, Aloha
5. Paradise Isle
6. Song of Old Hawaii
Side Two:
1. Blue Hawaii (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZEBkZUb0uw – the piece in the video is obviously Blue Hawaii, even if it doesn’t match the album version…but it seems to)
2. Moonlight Time in Old Hawaii (seems identical to the Ford Pavilion/International Gardens version released on the WF box set…no clue if the track was ever part of the AV loop)
3. Sweet Leilani
4. Aloha Nui Hawaii
5. My Tane
6. Ka Pua (The Flower)
Anyway, you can download my full album rip as a torrent via Mousebits.com, here. For individual tracks, see this torrent.
Groovy Adventureland Veranda area loop links:
Have fun!
