And let me share a Bob Gurr FB post from today....
>>
On this day 64 years ago, Disneyland previewed for the first time. It was on that day when Walt had a beautiful, famous redheaded movie star and her young twin boys with him as the first parade was about to start.
Since she wanted to tag along with Walt, he told her Bob Gurr would be delighted to babysit the boys for her! We had a large number of untried Autopia cars in the parade which constantly stopped with fuel vapor lock. They were restarted by hard stomps on a kick starter, and my legs were becoming cramped in the 100 degree heat. All I needed was some little kids to watch. They loved the parade view from inside the cars as their mommy waved back.
Later, her sons had to ride with me in one of the two police cars that were supposed to pace guests in the regular Autopia cars. Their idea of pacing was to get me to chase their mother's show biz friends with red light and siren. 'Git him!' they hollered as we pursued a short man wearing an eye patch. We hit him and he went over the curb onto the grass, giving us a startled look. The next morning's paper had photos of the famous guests, and sure enough—it was Sammy Davis Jr. I didn't see her until very late after dark when she finally came back to Autopia to collect them. If she only knew what a wild day we had!
So many opening day guests were in a frenzy to ride every attraction that they just went nuts. As the number of available Autopia cars dwindled due to mechanical breakage, guests jumped over the railings and ran up the track. They stopped the returning cars, pulled the occupants out, and drove off right past the ride entrance.
It was possible to spin out the Autopia cars and reverse the direction of the ride. Several super head-on collisions took place while the ride operators were trying to hold back the crowd at the gate. One crash injured two little boys. One, holding his knocked out teeth carefully in his hands for me to see, came over to me. When I escorted them to the City Hall first aid, they began to cry. They thought they would not be able to come back and finish their Autopia ride.
Starting out with 40 Autopia vehicles (two of which were police cars and one on display as 'Walt's Car') left 37 for guests. Mechanical failures happened faster than we could fix them. Since all the mechanics were repairing other attractions, which were vitally needed, I pitched in with my own tools to help the lone repairman. Shortly we were down to just two running cars. All the rest were hopelessly wrecked.
When Walt came by and saw our 'junkyard', he sat in the little car shelter sadly staring at the scene. No mechanics. No maintenance. No tools. No place to work. Nobody to go get parts. All my time was spent fixing, none on improving the first design. I wondered if I should haved stayed in Detroit as a car stylist, now that I was an 18 hour day auto mechanic.
Walt looked at the whole scene and asked, “What do you need?” I told him we needed mechanics to work on the cars, and we didn’t have any kind of facilities. In less than an hour, here comes this tractor dragging an old building and the driver says, “Here’s your damn building. Walt told me to bring it to you. Where do you want it?” We had mechanics the next morning.
In a few days, the area began to show signs that Disneyland would indeed live. Walt responded to reality and we were off to 35 wild years!
On this day 64 years ago, Disneyland previewed for the first time. It was on that day when Walt had a beautiful, famous redheaded movie star and her young twin boys with him as the first parade was about to start.
Since she wanted to tag along with Walt, he told her Bob Gurr would be delighted to babysit the boys for her! We had a large number of untried Autopia cars in the parade which constantly stopped with fuel vapor lock. They were restarted by hard stomps on a kick starter, and my legs were becoming cramped in the 100 degree heat. All I needed was some little kids to watch. They loved the parade view from inside the cars as their mommy waved back.
Later, her sons had to ride with me in one of the two police cars that were supposed to pace guests in the regular Autopia cars. Their idea of pacing was to get me to chase their mother's show biz friends with red light and siren. 'Git him!' they hollered as we pursued a short man wearing an eye patch. We hit him and he went over the curb onto the grass, giving us a startled look. The next morning's paper had photos of the famous guests, and sure enough—it was Sammy Davis Jr. I didn't see her until very late after dark when she finally came back to Autopia to collect them. If she only knew what a wild day we had!
So many opening day guests were in a frenzy to ride every attraction that they just went nuts. As the number of available Autopia cars dwindled due to mechanical breakage, guests jumped over the railings and ran up the track. They stopped the returning cars, pulled the occupants out, and drove off right past the ride entrance.
It was possible to spin out the Autopia cars and reverse the direction of the ride. Several super head-on collisions took place while the ride operators were trying to hold back the crowd at the gate. One crash injured two little boys. One, holding his knocked out teeth carefully in his hands for me to see, came over to me. When I escorted them to the City Hall first aid, they began to cry. They thought they would not be able to come back and finish their Autopia ride.
Starting out with 40 Autopia vehicles (two of which were police cars and one on display as 'Walt's Car') left 37 for guests. Mechanical failures happened faster than we could fix them. Since all the mechanics were repairing other attractions, which were vitally needed, I pitched in with my own tools to help the lone repairman. Shortly we were down to just two running cars. All the rest were hopelessly wrecked.
When Walt came by and saw our 'junkyard', he sat in the little car shelter sadly staring at the scene. No mechanics. No maintenance. No tools. No place to work. Nobody to go get parts. All my time was spent fixing, none on improving the first design. I wondered if I should haved stayed in Detroit as a car stylist, now that I was an 18 hour day auto mechanic.
Walt looked at the whole scene and asked, “What do you need?” I told him we needed mechanics to work on the cars, and we didn’t have any kind of facilities. In less than an hour, here comes this tractor dragging an old building and the driver says, “Here’s your damn building. Walt told me to bring it to you. Where do you want it?” We had mechanics the next morning.
In a few days, the area began to show signs that Disneyland would indeed live. Walt responded to reality and we were off to 35 wild years!<<
