Webmaster Richard
Welcome to our April 2010 Newsletter.

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We have the complete video of Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walk Through. I personally filmed this in 2010. Top Story Video.

Steven Orsinelli our newest guest columnist takes us back to the 1970's and relives some wonderful memories with his first article: Disneyland Memories. Steven Orsinelli Column

This month we have the rare opportunity to have an article written by a man that worked for Gil Gray Circus. Does that name sound familiar? The Gil Gray Circus was the circus that performed at Disneyland in 1955-56 as Mickey Mouse Club Circus!  I Love You Baby, But The Season's Is Over Part 1 Dick Steele Column

With have added 12 new backstage photos. With the Rivers of America drained we thought we would show you what is going on behind those construction walls! We also have some great photos of the construction of Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse taken in 1962.  . ..and Much Much More!!  Backstage Photos

In April we added 13 new articles.  We now have over 1,000 Disneyland Articles! Disneyland In The News

Spotlight on DLDHistory.com is a column that will point out a little known area of DLDHistory that may interest you. This month we present: Complete show of Beauty And The Beast Video  Spotlight On DLDHistory

We have added 34 new onstage exclusive photos: including 13 photos from 1988 thanks to Gale Smith! 11 photos I took on my most recent trip to Disneyland. A great photo of the load area of Peter Pan from 1955.. ...and lots more!!  New Onstage Photos

I took 2 videos while I was at the resort: There is lots of work being done near the Settlers Cabin on Tom Sawyers Island. I took a video of it from the train. Are they going to bring the fire back? The second video is a complete video of Sleeping Beauty's Walk Through. I had not been through this since it re-opened. There was almost no one in the passage ways so I took a video that captures the music and dioramas.  ...and lots more!! New Videos

We are working on creating a full length Disneyland History DVD. The DVD will be a 5-6 hour video covering the full history of Disneyland. Including all attraction openings, parades, deaths, injuries, trivia, backstage photos and lots more. To my knowledge no DVD has ever been created with this type of content. We are now offering previews as we put together the DVD.We have added a few more new chapters this month Disneyland History DVD

Have you missed one of our Newsletters? In this newsletter we have included links to our Previous Newsletters.

You can now follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. This gives you more ways to find out the exciting things happening at DLDHistory.com. Find Us On The Web

Thank you everyone for helping us make DLDHistory.com The Most Unique Disneyland History Site.

I hope you enjoy our latest newsletter and I want to say a big THANK YOU to all that have made a donation, you are the ones that allow DLDHistory to continue growing

--Richard
See ya next month...

Winter Quarters

October 20, 1955

At age 17, I graduated from Dorchester High School in Boston in and soon ran away from home to join my older brother, Tony, who was a flying trapeze artist with the Gil Gray Circus, traveling throughout the Mid-west and South.

I had started with the show in mid July, playing 25 dates in 77 days, traveling through seven states: Nebraska , Texas , New Mexico , Arizona , Kansas , Arkansas and Oklahoma .  We were now heading to Winter Quarters at the fairgrounds in Enid Oklahoma. ...

Click Here To Read Complete Part 1 Article

Next Month:

I Love You Baby, But The Season's Is Over Part 2:

The Mickey Mouse Club Circus

Opened Friday, November 25th 1955

Well, here it was – opening day at Disneyland !  This was no longer the mud show with the misnomer of The Show Beautiful. This was the Mickey Mouse Club Circus – everything perfect to the last detail. Every piece of rigging was shining, every costume clean and bright, each animal and person groomed to perfection.  

The complete book

I Love You Baby, But The Season’s Over

A memoir by Dick Steele

It chronicles the personal experiences of a seventeen year old and his travels with a circus in 1955

At DLDHistory.com we offer Mr Steele's 89 page book through our site for $25 including shipping and handling.

Copyright 2010 by JoDick Productions

Dick Steele can be contacted at:

Sitting here in the hub of Main Street, coffee in hand, and hands sticky from the cinnamon roll I just devoured, I would like to start my first article with the past, my past, and my early Disneyland experiences that have implanted themselves in my heart and brain over the years.

“Here age relives fond memories of the past”  
-Walt Disney

Today, as a man at the tender age 51, the first Disneyland park visit I can remember was probably back around 1963. I was raised about 3 miles from the park in Garden Grove California .  Being of Italian descent we would attend the park as a family whenever relatives from back east would come west for a visit. My Mother would pack homemade foot long meatball sandwiches, cold macaroni, and rent a wheel chair to carry it all in. I was constantly embarrassed as a child when we would sit at the Carnation Cafe and watch my dear Mother pull out our feast while on lookers stared at us and our home brought meal.   

Though my Mother rarely noticed the attention, she would immediately offer a sandwich to a gawking on-looker now and again and to my amazement, most of the time they would accept one of those incredible foot longs and we would all become friends through my Mothers food sharing network.  I could not wait until I got older and was able to buy my own lunch inside the park and eat like everyone else.  To this day I will not bring outside food into the park. When at Disneyland I want to experience all it has to offer, the good, the bad and the ugly. My wife does not understand this “buy food” concept, if I allowed her, she would tote egg salad sandwiches and fruit, so if and when she does attend, my way is the only way. Too bad this does not work at home!  

Click Here To Read Complete Article

Steven grew up in Orange County. He worked as an entertainer at Disneyland and in Los Angeles on Disney films.

 Steven can be contacted at :

Onstage Photos

Click the image above to take you to thumbnail index.

We have added 34 new onstage exclusive photos: including 13 photos from 1988 thanks to Gale Smith! 11 photos i took on my most recent trip to Disneyland. A great photo of the load area of Peter Pan from 1955.. ...and lots more!!

*Onstage Photos are available to ALL of our Members.*

Click the image below to take you to thumbnail index.

Backstage Photos

*Backstage Photos are available to our Deluxe, Premium, Silver, Bronze and GOLD Members.*

New Videos

Click the image above to take you to thumbnail index.

I took 2 videos while i was at the resort: There is lots of work being done near the Settlers Cabin on Tom Sawyers Island. I took a video of it from the train. Are they going to bring the fire back? The second video is a complete video of Sleeping Beauty's Walk Through. I had not been through this since it re-opened. There was almost no one in the passage ways so I took a video that captures the music and dioramas.  ...and lots more!!

*Video Clips are available to our Silver, Bronze and GOLD Members.*

While at the resort I rode Monsters Inc. Mike And Sully To The Rescue and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters for the first time...I had ridden Super Star Limo (by far the worse ride I think the Disneyland Resort has ever had) which this ride replaced before. Monsters Inc. felt like just a overlay of Super Star. The track was the same as Super Star. Also the vehicles themselves were modified Super Star vehicles. The ride over all in my opinion was a small step up from Super Star but not up to Disney standards. The ride felt very temporary like it could be changed to something else soon. While at the resort I also rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters for the first time. This was a very good use of the space that use to be occupied by Circle Vision (and after that a queue for Rocket Rods). This was the first ride at the resort that was interactive. It seems to be very popular. Most of the time I was there the wait time was well over 30 minutes. I love the vehicles! They are similar to Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin vehicles but much easier to turn. As a disclaimer though my favorite rides are the old school non-interactive rides like: Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Matterhorn, Big Thunder, Pirates, Haunted Mansion.. etc..

I was looking at DLDHistory one day and realizing the huge amount of content that we have that no other site has. 

The problem is trying to sort through all of it and put together a nice time line of the History of Disneyland. I also watched most of the Disneyland Historical DVD's available, official and unofficial. None of the DVD's seem to have the complete history of Disneyland including backstage photos and information about deaths and injuries rare video clips etc. 

We are working on creating a full length Disneyland History DVD. The DVD will be a 5-6 hour video covering the full history of Disneyland. Including all attraction openings, parades, deaths, injuries, trivia, backstage photos and lots more. To my knowledge no DVD has ever been created with this type of content. 

We are now offering previews as we put together the DVD. The previews are low resolution working copies. The voice over has not been added yet. We will add background music and a few more edits. We will add more chapters as they are completed. The table of contents of the DVD will be:

• Chapter I-Title

• Chapter II-Before Disneyland
  Includes rare video clips from Coney Island and Pacific Ocean Park

• Chapter III 1955-1959
  Opening Day
  Adventureland
  Fantasyland
  Frontierland
  Holidayland
  Main Street USA
  Tomorrowland
  

• Chapter IV 1960-1969
  Adventureland
  Fantasyland
  Frontierland
  Main Street USA
  New Orleans Square
  Tomorrowland

• Chapter V 1970-1979
  Adventureland
  Bear Country
  Fantasyland
  Frontierland
  Main Street USA
  New Orleans Square
  Tomorrowland

• Chapter VI 1980-1989

• Chapter VII 1990-1999

• Chapter VIII 2000-2009

• Chapter IX The Future

• Chapter X Credits

• Chapter XI Extras

One very unique feature that will be available on our DVD is a quick way to access additional information on DLDHistory.com about an attraction. The final DVD will be a high definition video. We are predicting that the DVD should be complete mid 2010.

DVD Previews Can Be Seen HERE

*DVD Previews are available to our Bronze and GOLD Members.*