Recreation of Original 1963 Brochure for The Enchanted Tiki Room

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Other Tiki Topics and tagged with Disney, Disneyland, Enchanted Tiki Room, Tiki August 29, 2013

As you may recall, this summer marked the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. At the end of June as part of Disneyland’s Limited Time Magic promotion, annual passholders who visited the attraction received a free recreation of the original 1963 brochure for the Enchanted Tiki Room.

It’s sort of confusing, but the Enchanted Tiki Room was not initially owned by Disneyland but by WED Enterprises, a separate company (belonging to Walt Disney) that developed attractions for the park. (The companies merged eventually and later became known as Walt Disney Imagineering.) Anyway, this meant that guests had to buy a separate admission ticket for the Enchanted Tiki Room, and this brochure was designed to encourage them to do just that. I think my favorite part — besides the great graphics — is where the singing parrots are referred to as the “Four MacAudios.” (Audio-Animatronics, get it?)

That weekend the Dole Whip stand was also selling awesome tiki sipper cups. They were quite popular and are actually back in stock (as of two weeks ago, at least). Other anniversary festivities you can still find at Disneyland include new drawings in the Artist Sketch Program at Disneyana (formerly the Disney Gallery) and the art exhibit “Tiki Tiki Tiki Realms: Celebrating 50 Years of Enchantment” in the Opera House lobby.

Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room 50th Anniversary Merchandise Event

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Events and tagged with Disney, Disneyland, Enchanted Tiki Room, Shag, Tiki, Tiki Art, Tiki Mugs July 9, 2013

Last month marked the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland, so you know what that means — merchandising opportunity! Disney held a product release event June 28-29 at the Disneyland Hotel (and an even pricier $185 cocktail reception with Shag on Saturday night).

It wouldn’t be Disney if there wasn’t a line involved, right? First, you had to go to registration to sign in and confirm that you received all the paperwork (assigned time for the artists signing, etc.). After that, you headed to another station to pick up the merchandise you’d already purchased through the RSP (Random Selection Process). Cast members then unwrapped each item to doublecheck they were correct and intact.

Friday night was so understaffed that this whole process took up to three hours for some people. (Strange since this event had been sold out for weeks so it’s not like they didn’t know how many people would be showing up.) There hadn’t been anything special scheduled for Friday night so I’d decided just to go Saturday, and the wait time was significantly shorter.

So what would compel all these people to pay $89 apiece to basically just shop? For starters, this was another Disney collaboration with Shag, plus several other amazing artists, like Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily. They designed a whole slew of stuff, including pins (oh so many pins), tiki mugs (and a bowl inspired by Disney’s Polynesian Resort that snuck in under the radar), postcards, coasters, prints, a purse, shirts, tiki figurines, original art and more.

Working with The Mouse I believe for the first time was Doug Horne, another one of my favorite artists on the tiki scene. He created these two pieces: “Pele, Goddess of Fire and Volcanoes” and “In the Tiki Room,” which are also being sold as prints ($40).

Everyone was encouraged to wear Hawaiian/Polynesian attire, and it was fun to see folks who really went all out for the occasion.

One woman had turned her walker into a functional work of art by covering it with moss, cardboard packing material, flowers, shells, parrots and tikis.

Upon walking into the huge ballroom you were immediately struck by the scent of pineapple infusing the air. The logo and a few images from the Enchanted Tiki Room were projected on the walls, and surf and exotica music helped set the mood. (I don’t think “In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room” made the playlist, funny enough.)

The ballroom was mostly a space for people to relax or engage in pin trading — a running theme of the event —- but there was also a photo-op area where you could pose with Stitch (and a Stitch-inspired tiki) in front of a beachy background. How could I resist?

Dole has been a sponsor of the Enchanted Tiki Room since 1976, and they supplied goodies for the event, like cans of pineapple juice, fruit cups and recipe cards (the same ones I’ve picked up before at the Dole Whip stand).

All attendees received two free commemorative gifts: an Enchanted Tiki Room bottle opener (doubles as a magnet) and a wooden sign made to look like the 75 cent tickets that Disneyland guests had to purchase to visit the attraction when it opened in 1963 (because technically the Enchanted Tiki Room was not owned by Disneyland but by Walt’s personal company, WED Enterprises). And if you had registered for the event right away you also got an “Early Birdies” pin. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of all the swag.

However, the part that truly made this event worthwhile was the “Memory Room” Q&A panels with original imagineers from the Enchanted Tiki Room and their contemporaries who recently worked on restoring the attraction. Bob Gurr talked about drawing the birdcages that hide some of the mechanics, while Rolly Crump relayed “cute stories” about designing the tikis in the garden and what it was like working with “The Old Man” (Walt Disney).

Many of the merchandise from this event was not limited edition so it’s probably already landed at shops in the park, but I’ve seen how tricky it can be for the stock to keep up with demand. For us, this event was worth it for the convenience and peace of mind (and all the extras Disney ended up throwing in). To paraphrase a famous proverb: “A (tiki) bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

D23 Presents Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Other Tiki Topics and tagged with Disney, Disney Archives, Enchanted Tiki Room, Tiki February 11, 2013

For the past several months, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley has been hosting Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives, presented by D23. This exhibition is truly a must-visit for any Disney geek and it runs through April 30, 2013.

For me, one of the most exciting displays was the three prop storybooks that open at the beginning of “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White” and “Cinderella” to introduce each of the films. They’re so iconic, it was a thrill to see them in person.

Also impressive was the re-creation of Walt’s formal office at the Burbank studios, including his actual desk and personal items like Norman Rockwell sketches of his daughters.

According to the information card, songwriter Richard Sherman — co-composer of “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room” with his brother Robert B. Sherman — would often play “Feed the Birds” (Walt’s favorite song from “Mary Poppins”) at that customized baby grand piano.

Speaking of “Mary Poppins,” this traveling costume from the movie was featured in a section dedicated to Disney’s early live-action filmmaking. Apparently you can spot openings near the pockets where piano wires were attached to her suspension harness for the flying scenes.

And then around the corner I was delighted to find the magician’s case of The Great Emelius Browne, along with the spell book, “Isle of Naboombu” book and bedknob from “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” (If you can’t make it out there to see this all for yourself, there’s a photo tour online of the entire exhibit.)

A giant area downstairs presented props and costumes from more recent projects like “Alice in Wonderland,” “Tron,” “The Avengers” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” such as this 23-foot-long special effects filming model of The Black Pearl.

There were also things from the Disney theme parks, like the giant Maleficent dragon head originally used in Fantasmic, which caused a bit of a stir on our local streets and highways when it was transported to the museum.

So what does all this have to do with tiki? Well, it was this automaton singing bird (manufactured by Bontems in France in the early 1900s) that inspired Walt to develop Audio-Animatronics, and the first attraction to feature that innovation was… the Enchanted Tiki Room. I actually first saw this item at the Walt Disney Archives at the Burbank studios, which are not open to the public unless you’re on a special tour. This temporary exhibit is a rare opportunity to see this interesting piece of tiki-related history.

The Tiki Chick

A California girl chronicling modern tiki culture

Tag Archives: Enchanted Tiki Room

Recreation of Original 1963 Brochure for The Enchanted Tiki Room

Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room 50th Anniversary Merchandise Event

D23 Presents Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives