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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Charlie LaVere had a million-selling record as a vocalist, and Bing Crosby trusted him enough to rehearse 'Road to Morocco' with him privately — instead of with the full studio orchestra. LaVere wrote the Golden Horseshoe Revue songs a few years later. #ThemeParks

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Disneyland's landscaping budget ran dry. So Bill Evans got ahead of the bulldozers clearing land for the freeways, tagged the trees he wanted, and paid $25 a tree for the demolition crew to leave them standing. His team boxed the roots and hauled them to Adventureland.

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The giant Skull Island gates from the original 1933 King Kong were later burned down for the Atlanta fire sequence in Gone with the Wind. If you know what to look for, you can see them behind Clark Gable and the horse. #FilmHistory

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Disneyland's Jungle Cruise opened in 1955 with almost no vegetation — the plants hadn't had time to grow. Walt's fix: have Bill Evans label all the tiny saplings with long Latin names so the sparse greenery looked instructional. Turn the liability into a feature. #ThemeParkHistory

A vintage Disneyland attraction poster for the Jungle Cruise, featuring ornate illustrated lettering surrounded by lush tropical foliage, exotic flowers, a large coiled snake, and a central scene of …

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Steven Spielberg walked up to the King Kong Encounter programming console, said 'I heard you guys know what you are doing' — and then recognized the engineer as his college roommate and the best man at his own wedding. They hadn't seen each other in six years.

A bass drum head painted with the name 'Firefly Five Plus Lou' sits atop a wooden cabinet in a warmly decorated interior, surrounded by a Tiffany-style lamp, floral arrangements, ornate woodwork, and…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Bob Gurr built the King Kong animatronic so that any mechanical failure would cause the figure to stand upright and hold position. A machine engineered to fail in the safest possible direction. #ThemeParkHistory

Dramatic illustrated artwork depicting a roaring giant gorilla lunging toward terrified tram passengers, with a fiery cityscape visible in the background. The scene captures riders reacting in fear a…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Bonita Granville Wrather — the woman behind the Disneyland Hotel's third tower — was cinema's first Nancy Drew. Four films in two years, starting in 1938. There's also a steakhouse named after her. History contains multitudes.

A vintage promotional brochure cover for the Disneyland Hotel in Southern California, showing the hotel's mid-century modern tower building with 'Hotel Disneyland' signage, and in the foreground, gue…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Bob Gurr built the King Kong Encounter's 10-foot animatronic head with 29 computer-controlled movements. He was so proud of it that he rode inside the head as it cycled through its motions — sometimes with eight coworkers. Sometimes while the show was open. #ThemeParkHistory

A massive animatronic King Kong figure roars with mouth wide open, revealing large teeth and tongue, with a cityscape backdrop visible behind him. The figure is positioned near bridge cable anchor po…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's Star Trek's 60th Birthday! Celebrate with us, Lowdown-style! We discuss the rise and fall of Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas, Universal's interactive Trek experiences, and the Elvis-impersonator who built the entire Enterprise in upstate New York. Link below. #StarTrek

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Harry Nilsson was terrified of looking unprepared in front of conductor Gordon Jenkins. So he quietly spent hours rehearsing standards with a pianist named Charlie LaVere. (LaVere had co-written the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland.) Nobody knew about it for years.

A vintage-style illustrated poster for 'The Golden Horseshoe' advertises 'the grandest most spectacular shows in the West,' featuring a central illustration of a glamorous saloon dancer in a red gown…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Disneyland brought in a team of consultants to design a new Autopia car. They all disagreed with each other. The result reflected everything everybody wanted — and was, per Bob Gurr, worse than the car it replaced. Also it broke the curbs.

A line of colorful ride vehicles in orange, red, yellow, and blue sit queued on a track at a theme park, with a monorail beam, lush trees, and a large artificial rocky mountain peak visible in the ba…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Here's what the road sign doesn't tell you: Katella Avenue — one of the main roads leading to the Disneyland Hotel — is named after two little girls. Kate and Ella. Their farmhouse literally sat by the train tracks that eventually became the road. The street outlasted the farm. #DisneyHistory

A vintage promotional booklet cover for 'Gourmet Restaurants at Disneyland Hotel,' featuring a mid-century illustrated scene of a tall hotel tower, low-rise buildings surrounded by palm trees, and a …

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Pete and Kelly are back doing something they rarely do: discuss current news! But with this year's D23, everything new is old again, so we jumped in the pool! boardwalktimes.net/d...

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

When Walt Disney walked through the empty interior of Sleeping Beauty Castle to plan its walkthrough, the first sign something was wrong was Emil Kuri's white pants turning black. From fleas. There were nearly 100 cats living in there. Walt had them neutered and adopted.

A black-and-white photo of a man in a hat sitting on a grass lawn beside a toddler, with an ornate fairy-tale castle featuring tall spires visible in the background. The scene appears to be from the …

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Hey everyone, If you've listened to our show, you know we love small, independent, attractions like the Oregon Vortex. The Vortex is struggling to re-open after a flood a few years ago. If you can help them with anything, it would be appreciated. GoFundMe link below.

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The Disneyland Hotel was one of the first hotels in California to use solar water heating. Early satellite teleconferencing. Computerized check-in. The hotel built on looking forward. Its towers are now named after Disneyland lands. Tomorrowland is not among them. #DisneyHistory

A pink shopping bag from Taylor & Hume's Magicland, a toys and souvenirs shop located in the Disneyland Hotel, featuring a retro illustration of the hotel's towers with a monorail passing in front. T…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Wally Boag performed nearly 40,000 shows at the Golden Horseshoe. He was also Walt's choice for the voice of Tigger. After Walt died, they recast the role. Just — recast it. And moved on.

A vintage-style promotional poster for the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland's Frontierland, featuring can-can dancers framed within an illuminated horseshoe, with ornate Western scroll decoration…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The animatronic Lincoln at Disneyland stands six foot seven. Lincoln himself was six foot four. The extra three inches were there to fit all the hydraulics and electronics inside him. The technology had to live somewhere. #DisneyHistory

A black-and-white photograph of an animatronic figure dressed in a dark suit and bow tie, seated in a chair beside a small table holding an open book and an oil lamp, with an American flag and heavy …

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

The Dancing Waters at the Disneyland Hotel traces its lineage back to a 6'9" circus strongman who built a hydraulic water organ in the 1820s. Giovanni Belzoni later turned it into a phantasmagoria spook show. World of Color is his great-great-great-grandchild. #Disneyland

A colorful illustrated map of the Disneyland Hotel complex showing an aerial perspective of the resort grounds, including the main hotel tower, convention center, swimming pools, and surrounding amen…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Wally Boag's boat broke down on the Jungle Cruise. He had a Golden Horseshoe show to make. So he removed his hairpiece, held it above his head, leaped out of the boat, swam to shore, kissed a hippopotamus on the head, and ran. The show went on. #DisneyHistory

A man in a cowboy hat, vest, and chaps stands beside a woman in an elaborate red off-the-shoulder gown with black feathered headpiece and long black gloves, posed together on a stage with a golden cu…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

The Main Street Opera House was the first building constructed at Disneyland. Not as a showpiece — as a lumber mill. That's why it's so big. #DisneyHistory #Disneyland

A person in a Minnie Mouse costume operates what appears to be a vintage telephone switchboard, standing at a large panel filled with cables, jacks, and switches. The black-and-white photo captures t…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Autopia opened at Disneyland in 1955 as a vision of America's multilane highway future. Eisenhower hadn't signed the Interstate Highway legislation yet. The future had arrived before the future existed. #ThemeParkHistory #Disneyland

A vintage-style attraction poster for Autopia in Disneyland's Tomorrowland, featuring colorful futuristic cars speeding along a winding elevated roadway with a sleek midcentury building in the backgr…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Upstairs at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon sits a Coinola C2 player piano that most guests have no idea exists. It still works perfectly. It has been there a very long time. #Disneyland #ThemeParkHistory

A woman in a red ruffled strapless gown with black beaded trim and long black gloves poses with a man wearing a white cowboy hat, dark vest, and Western-style clothing, both smiling against a gold cu…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Ray Bradbury came back from Paris, stood at Sleeping Beauty Castle, and recognized a Viollet-le-Duc spire — the same design he'd just seen on Notre Dame. He called John Hench that night. It had been there from the beginning. #ThemeParkHistory

A fairy tale castle with pink and purple illuminated spires is reflected in a still moat at night, with a stone bridge in the foreground and flowering plants along the water's edge. Blue decorative b…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Before Frontier Village, Laurie Hollings did stop-motion photography for King Kong and helped animate Fantasia's pink elephants. The man who built a Wild West town for Bay Area kids had a genuinely strange path getting there. #ThemeParkHistory

A colorful illustrated map of Frontier Village theme park, showing the park's layout with various attractions, a central lake, a main street area, rides, and decorative Western-themed figures includi…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

In 1963, Walt Disney drove up to a Santa Cruz beach boardwalk to study how their car ride steered. Then he took the idea home and used it on Autopia. The king going to a regional boardwalk to fix his own park is a specific kind of humbling. #ThemeParks #Disneyland

A dramatically lit tunnel interior glows in deep reds and purples under black light, with a circular gold-rimmed archway framing a cavern scene ahead. A set of tracks runs along the center of the flo…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Adventure Thru Inner Space got downgraded not because anything broke, but because the slow, dark Omnimover pods turned out to be extremely popular with teenagers for reasons that had nothing to do with snowflakes.

Two men lean over a detailed architectural scale model of a theme park attraction featuring miniature figures of guests, winding queue railings, and colorful illuminated panels, with a large backlit …

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The Lowdown on the Plus-Up is back with a new episode! For the first time ever, Pete and Kelly can't think of a Plus-Up for an attraction. That makes it the greatest attraction of all time, right? Join us on... The Cave Train to the Lost World! #SantaCruz #SantaCruzBeachBoardwalk #AmusementParks

Black and white image of the Goofus Bird emerging from a shell in the Cave Train ride.

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

In 1949, Walt Disney visited a tiny English village called Norton Disney and found a 14th-century tomb bearing his family's crest — three Norman lions. He had it put on Sleeping Beauty Castle. It's been on every Disney film since 2006. #ThemeParkHistory

A fairy-tale castle illuminated in pink and blue lights at night, its towers and turrets reflected in the still moat water below, with flowering bushes in the foreground and trees silhouetted against…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

The Disneyland shooting galleries were not run by Disney. A separate company operated them — one whose founder had to be personally talked into the whole thing by Walt. #ThemeParkHistory

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Jean-Jacques Perrey found out his composition was being used at Disneyland by visiting Disneyland and hearing it. The Disney Company had, by that point, already bought the rights outright. #ThemeParks #Disneyland

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Walt walked into the room, pointed at Claude Coats and Ken Anderson, said they knew the film better than anyone, and left. And then they were theme park guys. That's how Mr. Toad got made. #Disneyland #ThemeParkHistory

A vintage Disneyland attraction poster for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in Fantasyland, featuring a grinning cartoon toad with large red-and-yellow swirling eyes and a blue bow tie, with the tagline 'Take a …

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

At Frontier Village in San Jose, the groundskeepers doubled as undertakers. After the staged gunfight, they'd change into undertaker costumes, wheel the body out in a wheelbarrow, then change back. Same guys. Different hat. #themeparkhistory

A vintage illustrated map of Frontier Village theme park, showing the park's layout with attractions, rides, waterways, and Main Street shops listed in a legend on the right side.

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

On June 17, 1972, the Main Street Electrical Parade was announced over Disneyland's PA system while electricians were still climbing the floats. Half had never been turned on. The batteries ran out somewhere around the Matterhorn. It premiered anyway.

A massive illuminated dragon float covered in thousands of green, yellow, and pink lights glows against a dark night sky during a parade, with smoke billowing from its mouth and a performer in a whit…

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

We're back with the Eighth Wonder of the World: King Kong! He changed theme parks fundamentally, give us a listen to find out how... and to learn the secret origin of the 1933 film. Link in thread.

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Pete and Kelly don their fedoras and head into the Temple of the Forbidden Eye to find Indiana Jones! And get an earful from Tony Baxter along the way. It's a brand new Lowdown on the Plus-Up: Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure and the Giant Ice-Maker of Doom Link in thread. #Disneyland

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

We've been fans of Sean Holland's EPCOT recreations for a long time. And this time, he's outdone himself. This is jaw dropping. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to Horizons. Link in thread #EPCOT

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Pete and Kelly get a little melancholy in this short episode of The Lowdown on the Plus-Up. We hunt for signs of Walt in his own park. Link in thread #disneyland

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Pete and I will be at the ILM Campus in San Francisco today to see Tony Baxter talk about the creation of the Indiana Jones ride! We're the tallest people in the room. Come say hi, if you're there! #Disneyland

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

In our latest Lowdown on the Plus-Up podcast episode, we talked about Frederick Jackson Turner quite a bit. For more on the origins of the mythology of the west and how it ties to Disney's Frontierland, check out my article on Boardwalk Times. Link in thread. #Disneyland

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Reposted by Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast

Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I mentioned the mighty Meco during our breakdown of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - Hoot Gibson's disco number, in particular. If you are not from that foreign kingdom known as "The 70s", you may be unfamiliar with this extreme weirdness. But it's worth a listen! Link below. #Disney

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

We've got a new episode! We're really proud of this one! Going all the way back to the 1930s, we show how American history culminates in one thing: The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness! It's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad pulling into the station at The Lowdown on the Plus-Up! Link in thread.

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

I saw Harper Goff's concept art for Main Street U.S.A. a few weeks ago at the the Walt Disney Family Museum. Is it just me or is it a little... Bradbury-ish? #Disneyland #RayBradbury

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Reposted by Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast

Kelly McCubbin @kellymccubbin.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Donald Ballard has made a true work of art with his beautiful new book about the history of the Disneyland Hotel. I can't get enough of it! I think the Hotel history is the missing piece of the puzzle for most Disney park fans, and Don continues to be its master historian. #disneyland

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Lowdown on the Plus-Up - A Theme Park Podcast @lowdown-plus-up.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Lowdown on the Plus-Up S2E10 The Loof Hippodrome in Santa Monica: Charles I.D. Loof's final hand-carved carousel. It was dismantled years ago, but the replacement Merry-Go-Round has an interesting genealogy: it was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, creators of Laffing Sal! #AmusementParks

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