Kings Island Souvenir Booklet 1979

Here's a little more Kings Island stuff to celebrate the parks 40th anniversary.  It's a full-color souvenir booklet from 1979...

The page above should have won some sort of special proofreading award. Check out the animals pictured at the bottom of the page and the corresponding labels.

Since the "Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera" is no longer a part of Kings Island I thought it might be good to post extra big photos from this page.

This spining ride is called the "Witches Cauldron" and features a figure of Winsome Witch rotating on top of a spooky tree. I wish there was a shot of her face, or the other creatures on the big fake tree.

Enchanted Voyage was a fairly elaberate dark ride into the world of Hanna-Barbera cartoons.  Although mostly the more obscure ones - no Flintstones, Jetsons, Yogi and Boo-Boo or Scooby-Doo here. 

Let's grab a snack at Gulliver's Galley.  The Adventures of Gulliver was a cartoon created in 1968 for ABC-TV.  Only 17 episodes were produced, yet Gulliver was featured prominently in the Enchanted Voyage ride, had a small boat ride named Gulliver's Rub-A-Dub, and this snack bar.

Kings Island 1975

Kings Island celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.   I wish I had a Kings Island brochure from 1972 to share (the year it opened), but the oldest brochure I've got is from 1975...

I thought I'd point out that the International Restaurant mentioned above with its "splendid cuisine" is no longer operating and is basically closed to the public. The space is now used for employee training and other boring stuff.

This is a shame.  My first memory from our first visit to Kings Island is when my family took refuge from the rain by having lunch at the restaurant when we arrived at the park. Those large picture windows offed a great view.  Well I guess they have their reasons for closing the restaurant.  Maybe middle-aged business men aren't having swanky suit-and-tie dinners at amusement parks like they use too. 

Lastly here's some old timey home movies of Kings Island taken around 1975 that I found on ye olde YouTube...

Hometown Newspaper Ads from 1973

Here's a quick post of a few newspaper ads from 1973.  They're ads from the Redford Township edition of The Suburban News for the week of May 30, 1973 to be exact... 

Kresge's was the discount store that spawned Kmart.  The Kresge's stores lasted well into the late 70's, and I'm pretty sure even into the 80's.  The sale prices in the above ad are very good.  I'm particularly impressed by the price for Puffs which inflation adjusted for 2012 is $1.19.  I challenge you to find a box of Puffs for $1.19 anywhere.

Above is a very long ad for Sentry Drug.  You can see there's two sizes of Selsun Blue on sale, but it doesn't seem like much of a sale to me.  Adjusted for inflation that $2.69 on the 8oz size is $13.90 in 2012 dollars.  Selsun Blue goes for about $7 today, and that's an 11oz size.

Get ready for Memorial Day with stylish fashions for men and boys at SIMS.  I'm in awe of those "Bold Cuffed Bells."  I kinda wish I was bold enough to wear them today.  In case you're wondering about the price on those pants - $10 in 1973, is $51.66 in 2012

Northland Playhouse Sketchbook

Here's a program from July 24, 1956 for the Northland Playhouse.  It features headliner Cesar Romero on the cover...

... and here's the little write-up on Mr. Romero...

Click to enlarge

Cesar was the biggest star in this production of  Strictly Dishonorable by Preston Sturges, but there was also a future big star in the cast by the name of James Coburn...

Over on IMDb the TV and Movie credits of James Coburn start in 1957, but here in this 1956 program it says James has worked in television on Paul Coats' Confidential, and in a movie called Beverly Hills Woman - which is a movie that isn't listed anywhere on the net.

Here's the full cast and crew for this production...

I don't know much about the Northland Playhouse, but from what I can gather it was once located on the Northland Center property in Southfiel Michigan.  There's a few historical newspaper shots of the Playhouse I found that were up for auction on Ebay...

As you can see the Northland Playhouse was fabric-like dome that looks fairly temporary.  I think the Northland Playhouse lasted less than 10 years.

Less than 10 years is a safe bet since the above photo is what the Playhouse supposedly looked like in 1960.

Lastly just for fun I found this movie ad in the Northland Playhouse Sketchbook for the classic French thriller Diabolique (1955)

Orange Bird Ad 1973

The Orange Bird returned to Walt Disney World last week.  The news of this has a number of the Disney fan blogs buzzing.  It's nice this little bit of WDW history has returned, but personally it's not something I can get too excited about.  The Orange Bird was a Disney designed mascot for the Florida Citrus Growers, and was used in ads for Florida orange juice - like this magazine ad from 1973 that entices you to save 50¢ on your next juice purchase...

... but saving that 50¢ wasn't so straight forward.  First here's the 10¢ coupon to use in the store...  

... and then to collect the other 40¢ you needed to fill out the 40¢ cash refund form and send in various proofs of purchase.  Mail-in refunds aren't done much anymore, and especially not for 40¢.

Although to be fair this is 1973, and according to an Internet inflation calculator 40¢ in 1973 is worth $2.07 in 2012.  However collecting the refund is going to cost at least one first class stamp.  So using 2012 numbers again, a first class stamp is 45¢, and therefor your net refund is actually $1.62.  I don't know if  that's really worth the trouble.

Aggh, writing about that Orange Bird has me doing financial calculations. Who would have thunk it.

Let's forget about that Orange Bird because there's another Disney designed advertising mascot (who also happens to be a bird) who I'd truly like to see make a return - it's 7-Up's Fresh Up Freddie...



The ending of that commercial looks like it could have influenced the Pixar movie Up (2009).