Bankruptcy, anteaters, apes, Oral Roberts, Disney, FedMart, etc.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors reach out from 1993 to wish you Happy Holidays. Little did they know that by the following December there would be a lot fewer smiles on the 5th floor of the Hall of Administration. Thanks to Robert Citron and some bad investments, the County was on its way to bankruptcy. Looking at this photo, you wish you could go back in time and warn them.

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The Anteater Antics blog has had some fun posts about UCI lately, including cartoonist Johnny Hart's anteater design, Ansel Adams' visit, and the filming of The Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

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Two celebrities who, (previously unbeknownst to me,) lived in Orange County, also died here this week. First, televangelist Oral Roberts (who I think we all figured lived in the Deep South) and then Roy E. Disney each died in Newport Beach. I saw Roy Disney in person exactly once. I was visiting the old Animation Building at Disney Studios for the first time when an elevator opened near me and the SPITTING IMAGE of Walt Disney walked out. I had no idea who Roy E. Disney was at that point in my life, but the look-alike factor gave me quite a shock. For a moment I wondered if the urban legends about Walt and cryogenics were true.

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Speaking of those who have "passed on" recently, the Pleasant Family Shopping blog has a nice post about Sol Price, the man who brought us FedMart and Price Club. Remember when those chains had stores all over Orange County?

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The Disneyland Nomenclature blog has a great post on the aborted Discovery Bay project at Disneyland in the late 1970s. They even (for a limited time) have a downloadable audio clip related to what could have been a whole new "land" within the park.