25 June 2010
24 June 2010
Vintage Disney | Space People of Tomorrowland
"I also remember that the Space Man would stand very still inside the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit, in the shadowed area around where the diving suits were. People would think he was part of the exhibit, until he would jump out. When supervisors found out about it, they put a stop to it. Some parents complained that the children were afraid."
-Dave DeCaro, Disneyland Historian
Completely rebuilt in 1967, Tomorrowland was christened the “New” Tomorrowland on July 2, 1967, with new attractions & scenery (shortly after Walt’s passing). The Carousel Theater, Flight to the Moon, Adventure Thru Inner Space, a new Circle-Vision building, and the PeopleMover/Rocket Jets platform gave Tomorrowland the “World on the Move” theme. Eventually, Walt’s idea of a Space Port opened as Space Mountain; Star Tours & Magic-Eye Theater opened in places of older attractions. 
23 June 2010
Vintage Disney | Enchanted TIki Room of the Sixties
The Enchanted Tiki Room was the first Audio-Animatronic attraction to cost over $1 million and first opened on June 23, 1963. United Airlines was the first commercial sponsor, but it soon changed to Dole (try a delicious Dole Whip at the snack bar!) and was to be a restaurant featuring birds serenading guests as they dined. Since ownership was separate from the rest of the park, a small admission of 75¢ was charged. The Tiki Room was also Disneyland’s first fully air-conditioned building.
The attraction was an immediate hit with its Hawaiian-themed musical show hosted by four macaws whose plumage matches their implied countries of origin. José is red, white, & green and speaks with a Mexican accent; Michael is white & green with an Irish brogue; Pierre is red, white, & blue and has a French accent while red, black, & white Fritz has a German accent. The birds have real feathers with the exception of the chest area which is covered in custom-woven cashmere, allowing the figures to “breathe” in a lifelike manner.
225+ talking, singing, and dancing birds, flowers, the magic fountain, tiki drummers and tiki totem poles perform “In The Tiki Room” by the Sherman Brothers and “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing.” The finale has them performing a rousing version of The Hawaiian War Chant. Exit music is an arrangement of Snow White’s “Heigh Ho” with lyrics thanking guests while encouraging them to exit quickly!
22 June 2010
Vintage Disney | Chicken of the Sea Pirateship 1959
(Aug. 29, 1955—1982) CHICKEN OF THE SEA BACKSTORY: Built of wood in the middle of concrete with a small amount of water surrounding it. Tuna sandwiches, tuna salad (served in mini boats), tuna burgers, and hot tuna pies were served at the Pirate Ship Restaurant at the counter below the deck. The Pirate Ship Restaurant was also known as Captain Hook’s Pirate Ship and the Chicken of the Sea Restaurant.
21 June 2010
Vintage Disneyland | Twiggy and Svengali 1967
On April 27, 1967, super-model Twiggy (Lesley Hornby) and her entourage spent a day at Disneyland, filming segments for her June 1967 show, “Twiggy: Why?” Most of these photos also feature her then boyfriend, manager, and Svengali, Nigel Davies, who changed his name to Justin de Villeneuve. Even back then, people reinvented themselves and their backgrounds. The two split up in 1973 when Twiggy discovered he was taking more than his share of her earnings for himself.
Text and photos courtesy of Daveland
20 June 2010
Happy Father's Day from HDV | 1977
To All the Proud Fathers with Ophthalmic Plastic Aviators...we salute you. Happy Father's Day from HDV!
18 June 2010
Scopitone vs. Procol Harum | Whiter Shade of Pale 1967
Procol Harum with the Scopitone version of A Whiter Shade of Pale, including great candid street scenes of sixties era London, pleasantly lost and wandering in the crowds of Trafalgar Square...We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
And the waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, "There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see."
But I wandered through my playing cards
And they would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open wide
They might have just as well been closed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, "I'm here on a shore leave,"
Though we were miles at sea.
I pointed out this detail
And forced her to agree,
Saying, "You must be the mermaid
Who took King Neptune for a ride."
And she smiled at me so sweetly
That my anger straightway died.
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
If music be the food of love
Then laughter is it's queen
And likewise if behind is in front
Then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
Seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
And attacked the ocean bed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
17 June 2010
Get Her to the Greek | Scopitone vs. Nana Mouskouri 1963
Nana Mouskouri sings To fegari ine kokino for the 16mm Scopitone film of 1963.
16 June 2010
Scopitone vs. Antoine | Les Elucubrations 1966
Sixties French Artist Antoine sings Les Elucubrations in a junkyard...Lyrics loosely translated as follows:
Oh, Yeah!
My mother told me, Anthony, do you cut hair
I told my mother, in twenty years if you want,
I do not care to be noticed,
Not because I find it beautiful,
But because I like it.
Oh, Yeah!
The other day, I listen to the radio when I woke up
Yvette Horner, who was playing the accordion,
Your accordion get tired Yvette
If you played the clarinet instead.
Oh, Yeah!
My best friend, if you knew him,
You could more you separate,
The other day, it was not very smart,
It took a laxative instead of taking the train.
Oh, Yeah!
With my little cousin who is ten years
We watched "Big Teddy Bear" on television,
A teddy bear he said "Good night my good man"
He started dancing the jerk at the Paladium.
Oh, Yeah!
The judge said to Jules, you have killed,
Yes I killed my wife, who I loved
The judge told Jules "You have twenty years"
Jules said: "When you love you always twenty years."
Oh, Yeah!
Everything should change all the time,
The world would be much more fun
There would airplanes in the corridors of the subway
And Johnny Hallyday in cages Medrano.
Oh, Yeah!
If I wear shirts with flowers
Because I'm ahead of two or three lengths,
This is a matter of season
Yours will still have only buttons.
Oh, Yeah!
I received a letter from the Presidency
Wondering, Antoine, you have common sense,
How to enrich the country?
Put the pill on sale in the supermarket.
15 June 2010
Scopitone vs. Raoul de Godewarsvelde | L'Entrecote 1967
Raoul de Godewarsvelde enchants with L'Entrecote (The Steak) about a hard working seamstress who sells her body for sirloin to take care of her little starving french children.
HDV also recommends viewing the massive French eyewear onslaught happening in the background of Raoul's fatherly ode, "C'est Pour Mon Papa":
14 June 2010
Scopitone vs. Lesley Gore | Wonderboy 1964
Lesley Gore / Wonderboy / Scopitone Film 1964
Scopitone is a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm film component. It was a forerunner of music video. Learn the history here!
Scopitone is a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm film component. It was a forerunner of music video. Learn the history here!
11 June 2010
10 June 2010
09 June 2010
08 June 2010
07 June 2010
04 June 2010
The Last of the Independents | Hadrian Belove
Hadrian Belove in Thierry Lasry from Hotel De VilleIn the lobby of the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax, a set of stairs leads to the hidden headquarters of Cinefamily, the outfit that has programmed and managed the theater for the past three years. Upstairs, two walls are lined with dry-erase boards bearing non sequitur lists, the fruits of brainstorm sessions for future programs: Conspiracy Theory, Kusturica, squirmcore (whatever that is). At a table piled with ashtrays and DVDs sits Hadrian Belove, the former video-store owner who has led the charge to turn this storied, reputedly haunted old theater into the site of some of the most vibrant and unusual repertory and independent-film programming in the country.
- From Hadrian Belove: Pathologically Idiosyncratic Programming by Karina Longworth, LA WEEKLY, May 2010
03 June 2010
The Majestic Moral Poetry of Hall & Oates | Eighties Ethics of Excess
Emily Dickinson...Langston Hughes...Walt Whitman...Keats, Blake, Virgil, Shakespeare... have nothing on Daryl Hall and John Oates. Sure, the old masters could write, but could they sing as well? It is one thing to study a poem, to analyze it, and theorize about context and alliterations...but to feel it, like these real men do, that's poetry.
High and dry, out of the rain
It's so easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain
And don't you know that a love can't grow
Cause there's too much to give
Cause you'd rather live for the thrill of it all, oh
You're a rich girl (rich girl), and you've gone too far
Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl)
You can rely on the old man's money
You can rely on the old man's money
It's a bitch girl (rich girl), and it's gone too far
Cause you know it don't matter anyway (rich girl)
Say money, but it won't get you too far
Say money, but it won't get you too far, get you too far
-From Bigger than Both of Us, Hall & Oates (1976)
*Note the Sunglassed Saxophonist Solo amidst the Sensual Smoke
Easy ready willing overtime
When does it stop, where do you dare me to draw the line
You got the body now you want my soul
Don't even think about it say No Go
Now I'll do anything you want me to
I'll do almost anything that you want me to
But I Can't Go For That
No Can Do
I can't go for being twice as nice
I can't go for just repeating the some old lines
Use the body now you want my soul
Oo forget about it say No Go
Yeah I'll do anything you want me to
I'll do almost anything that you want me to
But I Can't Go For That
No Can Do
-From Private Eyes (1981)
*Watch Martika perform Possession Obsession on Kids Incorporated here
You know there's something you need
Right here and now
To fill the space inside of yourself
Money love or power
When you want to have the number one first run anyone
Youre crazy til you own them
You ought to know better than that
The more that you buy the less you get back
Its a case of possession obsession
Gimme gimme
The compulsion to count the percentage of time
Spent between two lovers
Can turn an hour into a crime
And all the good times suffer
Though you know it's only jealousy
You can't help but be
Haunted by your passion
Don't you know it's a matter of fact
The more that you take the less you give back
Just a taste of possession obsession
Brings a case of possession obsession
Gimme gimme
-From Big Bam Boom (1984)
*Performing on the British television series OGWT
Think I'll spend eternity in the city
Let the carbon and monoxide choke my thoughts away
And pretty bodies help dissolve the memories
They can never be what she once was to me (was to me)
She's gone (she's gone) oh, I, oh, I, I better learn how to face it
She's gone (she's gone) oh, I, oh, I, I'd pay the devil to replace her
She's gone (she's gone) oh, I, what went wrong
-From Abandoned Luncheonette (1976)
And lastly, HDV would like to honor to this most rock and soulful performance, live at the Apollo, of their original song, Everytime You Go Away (1985):
If you just can't get enough, click here and here and here and here !
02 June 2010
01 June 2010
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