RIP John Patrick Burke

Alain of Disney and More just shared the sad news that John Patrick "Pat" Burke, longtime designer and (in his own words) "artifact tracker and refitter" for Walt Disney Imagineering, has passed away.

I never got to meet Pat in person but having exchanged countless e-mails over the years I've known him as a kind and generous human being who would never hesitate to share a story or some particular insight from his decades-long career in creating Disney theme parks around the world.

He worked on all four versions of Big Thunder Mountain, on four Indiana Jones attractions and on three Jungle Cruises, among many other lands and attractions. In the case of many of his projects, including Frontierland at Disneyland Paris, he would track down rare antique items across the United States, from oil cans to stamp mills, from ore carts to steam tractors. He then excelled at finding unique and interesting ways to arrange those artifacts in ways that would add authentic texture to an area at first glance and tell entire stories on a closer look.

I can't help but feel that he would have had many more stories to tell.

Euro Disney Resort Map

For the first few years, guests to a Euro Disney Resort Hotel would receive the above map at check-in, with their hotel layout and room number on the rear. Very soon, with all the changes happening around the resort, the map became out of date and was discontinued entirely, making way for other channels to help hotel guests find their way around the resort.

The False Storefronts of Town Square

When Euro Disneyland opened in 1992, there were plenty of actual shops, restaurants and services on Main Street, U.S.A., but in between those, the Imagineers had integrated several façades housing fictional businesses whose doors led nowhere but whose signs and window displays served to complete the illusion of a fully functional small town at the turn of the century.

Spread all over Main Street, a majority of those false storefronts could be found on Town Square. Inspired by recent events, here’s a brief overview of those façades and their history.

Disneyland Paris Postcards, Vol. 2: Phantom Manor

Here are some of the postcards depicting one of my favorite attractions in the park over the years.

The first one I'm going to share is one I don't own myself; a friend was so kind to send me a scan. It was among the earliest postcards produced, when the actual buildings weren't quite ready yet. This card uses Dan Goozee's great concept painting of the manor house, albeit flipped and cropped. To the right (left on the original artwork), you would have seen the unbuilt carriage house queue building.

A Guide to Disneyland Paris Music on CD

On first glance there has been a wealth of music releases at Disneyland Paris since 1992. Over the years, guests could purchase one of over a dozen albums and about 20 CD singles, all in all more than one release per year on average. 

Things get quite a bit thinner, however, when you strip away all the show and parade music. In fact, very little has been released of the park's extensive attraction and area music library – which makes up the bulk of similar releases from the American parks. The first album to include any music of the sort was 1999's Une Journée à Disneyland Paris, and it would remain the only time any new music tracks of the kind were released until this day. Subsequent albums would use the same but constantly fewer cues, culminating in the 20th anniversary release inaccurately titled "The Best of Disneyland Paris" which included a full two (2) tracks of attraction music and none from shops, restaurants or other areas. 

Even looking at the high water mark of Une Journée à Disneyland Paris, however, the selection is baffling. No cues from the iconic background music loop of Main Street, U.S.A., nothing from the queue line of Big Thunder Mountain, no on-board soundtrack of Space Mountain. Instead… well, read for yourselves. I decided to make this list to keep track of the non-entertainment music that has been released over the years, and to possibly help owners of some of the older albums to figure out just where the vaguely-labeled and often obscure pieces actually play (or used to play) in the park. 

Disneyland Paris Postcards, Vol. 1

I don't have anything resembling a serious collection of Disneyland Paris postcards but I thought it might be fun (and instructional) to post a few of those I have been sent or taken home over the years.

Today I'm starting with a few older Disneyland Hotel designs, plus one that's probably among the earliest postcards of the park.

Euro Disneyland, May 1992

On May 29 and 30, 1992, after years of waiting for it to finally open, my dad took me to Euro Disneyland for the first time. Here are some of our photos…

Euro Disneyland Passports (plus Starnights)

Back when Euro Disneyland opened in April 1992, tickets weren’t simply called “tickets.” They were advertised as “passports” which would allow you to enter the magic kingdom of Euro Disney Resort. I scanned a few early examples from my collection.

(Euro) Disney(land) (Resort) (Paris) Logos…

Between its development and today, through its various name changes, The Resort Currently Known As Disneyland Paris has gone through quite a few logos. Here's an overview that should cover most of them…

A Short History of Disneyland Paris Guide Maps

If you haven’t yet seen the Disneyland Paris Treasures blog featuring the 1992 souvenir map created by imagineer Sam McKim, you should do so immediately. The maps I’m looking at today are a little less fancy, though I'd bet they had a substantially higher edition size… 

"it's a small world – celebration" Attraction Poster

"it's a small world – celebration" is the holiday overlay to the popular attraction at Disneyland Paris. Unlike its cousins in California, Hong Kong and Tokyo, the overlay does not consist of adding Christmas imagery to the show scenes but rather showcasing winter holiday traditions from each place represented, mostly through highly elaborate costumes, a number of typical props and various special effects.

The seasonal overlay originally ran from 1999 through 2004 when it was discontinued… When it was picked up again for the 2009 holiday season, Tom, the new project manager, wanted to change and improve the show in a number of ways. He got me onboard for any new graphics, illustrations and audio/video production, gradually updated through 2011.

Euro Disney – "A Dream Come True"

It's been a while since I've last posted something from my vintage Euro Disney collection (Okay, so it's been a while since I've posted anything at all). To make up for it, here's a 32 page German-language brochure that was distributed as an advertising supplement in newspapers and magazines back in 1992.

It's a little worse for wear as you'll see, mostly because I couldn't stop examining the publicity shots in it as a kid. I must have spent hours looking at that aerial view on the next-to-last page alone.

I've kept everything in it, including the park sponsors' ads so you can fully enjoy this little document from a time when magazine ads had more text but fewer footnotes and when Euro Disney actually advertised their resort in Germany.

Where the Birds Sing Words…

I've posted this some time in advance on Twitter but here it is again:

A quintessential Disneyland experience and probably the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of our visit to Walt's original park.

Happy birthday, Enchanted Tiki Room!

The Hillbilly Bear Trio

I'm no Marc Davis. If you don't already know his work inside-out, I urge you to go and seek out his actual artwork rather than looking at this small and quick sketch in which I tried (and probably failed) to imitate his style. With that out of the way…

The Hillbilly Trio has been playing at Frontierland since 1992; I still have some 1994 camcorder footage of one of their songs. A few of their tunes even appear on the park's album releases. When I was working in Frontierland in the mid to late 2000s the same three musicians were still regularly performing at the Cowboy Cookout Barbecue restaurant. More recently they played on board the Molly Brown for its big re-opening ceremony. In short, they're pretty much a Disneyland Paris staple.

I really enjoyed their outdoor sets with banjo, washboard percussion and upright or washtub bass. So here's a little tribute to that group; the Hillbilly Trio as Country Bears.

The Duck Avenger

This week marked the 3000th issue of the Italian "Topolino" (Mickey Mouse) magazine. The Italian comics have expanded the Disney Duck universe considerably and one of their most notable additions was Donald's thief-cum-superhero identity.

Here's a little tribute to that part of the Disney family tree. Paperinik, a.k.a. The Duck Avenger, in art deco style. I grew up on Italian comics along with those by the likes of Carl Barks and Don Rosa so doing this brought me right back.

CG Star Tours

When I first went to Euro Disneyland at age 12, one attraction I wanted to ride again and again was Star Tours. I didn't even know Star Wars at the time (the franchise was pretty low-key in that period) but I loved being transported to this odd yet plausible spaceport in another galaxy.

For most of my teens I would draw Starspeeders and droids; on paper at first, then digitally. Here's a pixel-by-pixel piece from 1995, drawn in what is now MS Paint.

Later, when I would learn to use 3D programs, I would usually do something Star Tours or Star Wars-related to teach myself CG techniques.

Le Carrousel de Lancelot

Let's have a look at another Fantasyland attraction, Le Carrousel de Lancelot, or "Lancelot's Fanciful Carousel" as it's called in the safety spiel (and nowhere else, to my knowledge).

The Beetroot Bird

Why should Florida have all the fun, after all?

Thank you!

So I've actually made it, a new post for each of the blog's first 10 days. Thanks to all my readers, especially those who took the time to comment on here or to share on Twitter.

I'm overjoyed that I've surpassed 2500 page views in that short amount of time, with the most popular post being the first round of attraction posters. So… I guess I had better do more of those?

I will probably slow down a little from here on out – but don't worry (or do, if you disliked my previous posts), I still have quite a bit to share on this blog.

Thanks for reading!

The Queen of the River

Let's have a brief look at the history of the Molly Brown Riverboat, a watercraft exclusive to Disneyland Paris.

During creation of the park, it was decided to recreate the Mark Twain Riverboat from Disneyland and to add a second "big boat" alongside the canoes and keelboats that would sail the Frontierland River. The choice quickly fell on a classic side-wheeler to complement the Mark Twain which has its paddle wheel mounted on the stern of the ship.

Photo by PhotosMagiques

The Imagineers, led by Frontierland show producer Jeff Burke, opted to give the ship a female name and "personality" and soon decided on the larger-than-life character of "Molly" Brown. Margaret Brown, née Tobin, was the wife of J. J. Brown who struck it rich during the gold rush – fitting in perfectly with the Frontierland story. She furthermore grew up in the same town as (and reportedly even met) Mark Twain. Many years later she would survive the Titanic tragedy and become known as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown."