Salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue - The Video

MiceChat's In The Parks weekly Disneyland post (link) featured the first video of Disneyland's Limited Time Magic Salute to the Golden Horseshoe revue. I'll re-post their video below and the viewer can come to their own conclusions.

Westerns like Bonanza and Gunsmoke on TV eventually faded away to the point where they are almost non-existent in modern pop culture. The market for "the old west" dried up in the current world. Not to say it can't come back because things tend to run in cycles (like Disney's remake of The Lone Ranger) but as of now, the market is limited, especially with kids.

As for the show, I'm just not a fan. Give me the talents of Billy Hill and the Hillbillies in the Golden Horseshoe and things will seem right again. Just a personal opinion.

How does that go? "I see England, I see France, I see ......"

The Oscars, Lincoln, and Disney

The Academy Award nominations came out yesterday and leading the pack was Steven Spielberg's epic biopic Lincoln with 12 nominations including all the major categories outside of Best Actress. Great honor for a worthy effort as Spielberg brought the words of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to life in a memorable movie. 

Yesterday morning a lady I work with, who was watching some of the nomination activity on the TV before coming to work, mentioned that someone had said something about Lincoln being a Disney movie and she asked me if I knew that was true because "it sure didn't seem like a Disney movie". So I gave the explanation again. Lincoln was made by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Pictures along with other financiers (including 20th Century Fox). DreamWorks makes movies but has a long term deal in place for Disney, through Disney's Touchstone Pictures subsidiary, to distribute all DreamWorks live action pictures (not the animated ones like Shrek or Kung-Fu Panda which are separate). Disney has absolutely no say so in the movies that DreamWorks makes. Disney only distributes the movies as they did with Lincoln (and only in the United States, international film distribution is also separate).

So when Steven Spielberg gets up to accept an Oscar or two for Lincoln, which he is favored to do, he will most likely say thanks to Disney execs for their help in delivering his masterpiece to the theaters and the large audience who have seen the movie but the movie is his and not Disney's.

Which brings me back to my soap box and Disneyland's Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I hope with all the attention being brought to the great president, more people are stopping by Disneyland's Opera House to see Lincoln, perhaps the the most advanced animatronic on earth. It's a wonderful show that began with Walt Disney himself as the creator of the first animatronic Lincoln for the New York's World's Fair in 1963. Disney imagineers have continued to change and advance the show through the years and it's all done as a labor of love because no one goes to Disneyland to see Lincoln and there is no Lincoln souvenir shop. 

It saddens me to see scores of people walk (or run) through the entrance tunnels of Disneyland and never once look to the right where the magnificent Opera House stands with open arms. People are too focused on what is down at the end of Main Street - a world of rides and mountains. Hopefully now with more attention being paid toward Lincoln, the Opera House has more than a handful of people to see the short but great Lincoln presentation put on by Disneyland. It is time well spent, just like the movie.

Disneyland In January - Disney Dose

See my latest post on the Disney Dose fan site along with the rest of their Disneyland, WDW, and all things Disney content. Thinking about a trip to Disneyland in January? Some of the lowest crowd levels of the year but unpredictable weather and a variety of ride closures can make things interesting. You pay your money and take your chances.

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Disney Dose - Disneyland in January

One No Vote for the Salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue

The Classic Golden Horseshoe Revue
A Disney Photo

As one of its first events in the so called "Limited Time Magic" (a name I'm already getting tired of hearing) promotion, Disneyland is staging "A Salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue" from January 10 - February 4 in the namesake Golden Horseshoe Saloon. The GS Revue was the original stage show from the classic days of Disneyland's Frontierland when people still had an interest in the old west along with Cowboys and Indians before people knew what it really like to be an American Indian kicked of their land and forced into reservations. The GS Revue featured Disneyland's consummate showman in Wally Boag and his partner Betty Taylor who performed for years on the saloon's stage to packed houses and smiling faces.

The Golden Horseshoe Saloon
A Disney Photo

I vaguely remember seeing those performances as a young boy when I would make occasional trips to Disneyland on summer vacations with my parents. I mostly remember that I couldn't get out of that show fast enough because time was a wasting with staged silliness and forgettable songs when rides were waiting. So the Golden Horseshoe Revue doesn't occupy the same sense of warm Disneyland nostalgia as say the Enchanted Tiki Room or Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln which remain quite special to me to this day which is kind of weird.

This isn't to say that the Golden Horseshoe Saloon as a venue isn't special for me because it is. It's special because the best shows I have seen in there belong to the great Bill Hill and the Hillbillies who can't get back in there fast enough as far as I'm concerned. Surprisingly, others on Disneyland forums and discussion boards have said the same thing. 

And while return of a classic Golden Horseshoe Revue show is welcomed by many let's also not forget that it is something of a money grab by Disney primarily targeted at annual pass holders. A Salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue will bring people into Disneyland during one of the slowest times of the year. And you annual AP's out there, don't forget that for about $35 you can have one of those special dining packages which also features a collectible boot mug, sandwich, and a salad with your reserved seat for the show. Seems like a high price to pay for a show I once couldn't wait to end.

One Day Disneyland Warrior - Disney Dose

Read the account of my friend Mike's annual one day trip to Disneyland at the The Disney Dose along with many fine articles and features.

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The One Day Disneyland Warrior

Walt Disney and A New Years Sentimental Journey

Walt Disney - Grand Marshall of the 1966 Rose Parade with Mickey
A Disney Photo

You get a lot of fluff with the various Disney Twitter feeds - mostly self-serving promotional material. Once in awhile you get a gem, like today, when the @Disneyland feed tweeted out this photo of Walt Disney and Mickey serving as Grand Marshals of the 1966 New Year's Day Rose Parade in Pasadena. Walt would not live to see another New Years Day passing away in December of 1966. Kind of sad. Kind of thankful for all that he left behind and continues to delight and entertain millions of people. What a legacy.

New Years Resolutions - Disney Style

Ah yes, the annual tradition of making New Years resolutions. Here would be my Disney resolutions in 2013 (and as I sit here right now, really plan to keep, unlike most of my non-Disney resolutions).

• Two trips to Disneyland in 2013. Mrs. DisneylandTraveler blurts it out to me at least 5 times a week "I want to go to Disneyland" - I guess that means we are going. My guess is one trip between late spring and early fall and the second trip coming during next year's holiday season. See you there.

• While I'm at Disneyland in 2013, I hope to cross at least 3 things off My Disney Bucket List (hint: those having to do with food are most likely to be crossed off).

• Start a new Disneyland collectible collection. I don't know what, but I'm going to start collecting something (hint: it won't by pins or vinylmation).

• See the Disney / Pixar / Marvel theatrical releases of The Lone Ranger, Monsters University, Iron Man 3, Saving Mr. Banks, and hopefully a new Muppets movie.

• Avoid seeing Oz: The Great and Powerful (simply because it looks creepy and I'm probably the only person alive who doesn't like The Wizard of Oz).

It's a simple list - perfectly do-able (providing the required funding is available). We shall see, we shall see...

Happy New Year from The Disneyland Traveler.