Tag Archives: Disneyland

Disneyland’s 55th Anniversary Art from Kevin Kidney & Jody Daily

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Objets de Tiki and tagged with , , , ,

A day at Disneyland is not complete for me without a visit to the Disney Gallery, and its new-ish, larger location at the end (beginning?) of Main Street makes it easy to drop in on your way out of the park.

Just adjacent is the Opera House lobby, where you can admire this incredible piece of Disney history. The plaque says that this is the park bench (from Griffith Park’s merry-go-round) where Walt Disney dreamed up the idea of Disneyland. I can also attest that that circa-1926 carousel is a magical place, indeed.

And on the topic of Disneyland’s origins, artists Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily have been designing a slew of things to celebrate the park’s 55th anniversary, such as this “Disneyland ’55 Paper-Sculpture-O-Rama” (much better pic at their link).

On these wrapped canvas giclées, it’s easier to see how each of the main themed areas are represented with symbols of attractions from when Disneyland opened in 1955. Some are long gone, but there’s still the Jungle Cruise, Tea Cups and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (a favorite of Mr. Baseball).

On this closer shot of the Adventureland one, you can see a Marquesan tiki next to the Jungle Cruise boat. You’re thinking The Enchanted Tiki Room, right? Wrong! (It didn’t open until 1963.) In Daveland’s collection of vintage Disneyland photos, you can spot this tiki propped up between two benches. (FYI, the store also had prints of the individual lands for about $30, though the stack I sifted through only had Frontierland.)

The Disney Gallery space used to be the Bank of Main Street, and the vault has been housing a couple of Shag’s original paintings from the Haunted Mansion anniversary. How neat! (And prudent, too, considering I think they’re priced at about ten grand each.)

Shag Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary Product Release

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Events, Shag and tagged with , ,

Shag Haunted Mansion Merchandise Event at Disneyland

I’m interrupting my sizable backlog of summer’s tiki vacation posts to write about the Shag Haunted Mansion Merchandise Event at Disneyland a few weeks ago. I’ve been a fan of Josh Agle‘s for years and you can pretty much trace my love for tiki and retro style back to his art.

Rather than spend the two Benjamins or so to attend the VIP cocktail party the night before, I decided to take my chances with the masses the next morning at The Happiest Place on Earth. I’d read horror stories  about the anniversary product releases for The Enchanted Tiki Room—folks standing in three hour lines to find out that most things were sold out—but I was hoping that The Mouse & Co. would get their act together, and indeed they did.

Lining up outside the Disneyana store

We got there a few minutes after the park opened at 8 a.m. and there was already a large line of people waiting to get in to the Disneyana store. (This was likely due to the fact that on most days of the week, guests of the Disneyland Hotel can get into the park an hour before it officially opens.)

Last stop in the assembly line

There were tons of “cast members” keeping the line organized and passing out print-outs with photos and prices of all the merch so you could figure out what you wanted ahead of time. You then marked off what you wanted, they rang it up and then shuffled you off to another table to collect it.

Shag's Haunted Mansion cookie jar urn, Aloha shirt, tee shirt and lunch bag

We got the lunch bag (shown), postcard set, art matte of the hallway portraits, Shag-inspired Mickey ears hat and the cookie jar urn (shown), which was sold out when I checked back later that day. I thought all the items were designed quite nicely and that everything looked better in person than it did online.

Knowing I would certainly be waiting in at least one long line that day, I hadn’t really intended to get any of the stuff signed as it would involve waiting in another line! However, that queue was significantly shorter than the previous one, so we decided to give it a go.

Shag and I

And I’m glad I did because Shag said he liked my shirt! (A tiki-fied number I’d just gotten from the BouTiki at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.)  🙂

You can see the rest of the Shag-designed stuff for the Haunted Mansion’s 40th Anniversary here—you should definitely check out the paintings at the bottom—plus I have a few more photos after the jump!

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Enchanted Tiki Room – Disneyland

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki Sites and Stores and tagged with ,

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Surprisingly, I was never really that much of a fan of the Enchanted Tiki Room until fairly recently. That is to say, I wouldn’t trace my tiki fanship back to some formative childhood visit here.

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However, it deserves a lot of respect for being one of the classic Disneyland attractions, plus it pioneered the audio-animatronic technology that made so many other rides possible. Not to mention it’s a great place to take a nice air-conditioned break and rest your feet….but when you’re a kid, you’re much more interested in going on Space Mountain for the fifth time, so I never really got around to appreciating it until much later.

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However, I have always been intrigued by the exterior, and I love how the tiki gods introduce themselves.

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“The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room” song is catchy enough, obviously, as it will be stuck in your head all day at the park. It’s stuck in my head as I type this (and I’m sure it’s taken over your brain by just reading it!).

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But the serenading orchids sort of remind me of “Little Shop of Horrors,” so they strike me as being inherently evil behind their animatronic facades.

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The talking birds of paradise, on the other hand, I have no beef with them.

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The parrots start to lose me with the rendition of “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing,” though the song’s saving grace is Jose crooning like Bing Crosby (and another bird imitating Louis Armstrong).

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Artists Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily created bowls based on the Rongo statue above, and they were so popular that they made them in a new glaze.

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Just had to take this little dude home with me! I found some in the Adventureland store but I hear they’re also on Main Street. The cashier said they have to restock them often since they’re selling pretty well (they’re from an edition of only 500).

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I also spotted one of the highly sought-after replicas of the tiki fountain. They have running water and everything, but I just couldn’t shell out one hundred and fifty smackaroos for one.

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Perhaps the best part about the Enchanted Tiki Room is that you can oftentimes bypass the queue for that beguiling pineapple Dole Whip by entering the waiting area and lining up there.

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Enchanted Tiki Room
Disneyland
1313 S. Harbor Blvd.
Anaheim, CA 92825