Today's photos both show Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A. in December 1966. The place is almost empty in the image above, which was taken by someone working for Knott's Berry Farm. By contrast, look how many people are in the Disney promotional photo below. Personally, I'd rather go to Disneyland on the day shown above.
Walt Disney died that same month, exactly 43 years ago today. Heaven knows what else he and his companies might have accomplished had Lucky Strikes not taken him so soon..
In any case, only three days after his death, "Disneyland Around the Seasons" was broadcast on national television, feature Walt as its host. A clip of that program, showing a jetpack flight in Tomorrowland, is available on YouTube. The entire program is available on a great DVD set entitled, Disneyland: Secrets, Stories & Magic.
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That jet pack flight was right out of the old Cox Thimble Drome Flight Circle. We closed the operations of model flights in September that year (my avitar photo is of that last day), and they started demolition in early 1967. The flights took place during the Holiday season only. The flights were only about 30 seconds long because of fuel, but it seems Disney added a little footage of the Matterhorn to add to the drama. There is a second video of the actual flight time at a stadium on U-Tube.
And today Roy E. Disney passed away at 79 years old.
Would you believe that I have home movies of that very parade (follow the link to "Disneyland Around the Seasons"), and even the moment all the balloons were let go at the end
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