Category Archives: Main Street

20th Century Music Company

5 Comments Posted by on May 20, 2011

Let’s get a little music going, shall we? *tap tap tap*

The 20th Century Music Company is one of the charming shops along Main Street.

The peaked roof kind of makes it look like it's squeezed in there

You might be asking, “Why did Shelby take a picture of half of a cigar store Indian?” and that is indeed a good question.

A better question, though, would be “Why is there a cigar store Indian in front of the music shop?”

And if you know your former Disneyland, the best question would be,  “Didn’t there used to be a tobacco store on Main Street?”

Yep, mouse fans, Disneyland replaced their original Tobacco Shop with the 20th Century Music Company. Which explains the cigar store Indian. Interesting, no? The 20th Century Music Shop arrived just in time for the 21st century–it opened in 1999.

Although what actually fascinates me the most is the fact that up until 1999, you could buy cigarettes at Disneyland.

The 20th Century Music Company has a very charming sign above the door.

It's a little Victrola. I think.

This sign is a big improvement over the Tobacco store sign.

Like many Main Street stores, the Music Company is adjacent to a false store front, which also claims to be part of the music store.

Given its opening in 1999, the "new music for a new century" works on both the level of the fact that Main Street is supposed to be in the 1800's and that this store indeed was new music for a new century on the latter end

Geez, that was a long caption.

Anyway, I’m going to ask this question seriously in the hope that someone has an answer. So Main Street, U.S.A. is supposed to be just like a main street of a town in the 19th century, right? With lots of little store fronts? Well, the 20th Century Music Company store building almost looks like a church with its peaked roof, and the one next to it is a completely different architectural design. So back in the 19th century, would there really have been such a thing as a single store with two completely different fronts? I mean, I think in reality they might have tried to do one store per building design and maybe Walt just crammed them in there because they’re miniature and cute and back in 1955 nobody was blogging and asking these kinds of questions, but I really would like to know.

Back to the store.

The false front side actually has some cool details.

Very neat door painting

I think this was supposed to be like a couple of brothers who repaired musical instruments or tuned pianos or something–I can’t read it now and I took the picture a while ago.

Also, don’t forget to look up!

More friends of Walt, or maybe employees, I dunno

Back at Disneyland’s 50th anniversary, the music store sold a compilation of different music from the park–parade songs, attraction songs, etc.–on a set that was like 56 CDs big. So when I walked into the music store for the first time since we purchased said compilation in 2005, I expected to find lots of nice music.

Here is the first thing you see walking into the door.

It's music! And by music, I mean cell phone cases!

Humph.

In fact, there is rather depressingly little music to be found in the music store. They do have one revolving stand of Disney sheet music, in case you want to reenact Disney Broadway shows in your living room.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my production of Tarzan Lion King Mary Poppins! Prepare for a delightful evening of old favorites and---wait, they made a musical out of Tarzan? Seriously?

The sum total of your pre-recorded music options is this wall.

Because nothing says "Disneyland" like Hannah Frickin' Montana

Looking up also applies to inside the stores.

Extras, in case the marching band loses theirs

Yes, that is a learn to draw Pixar characters book in the lower right-hand corner. The music store is the very first place I’d look for an item like that.

However, the music store does redeem itself with a genuine antique.

Gen-you-wine antique!

You can’t actually play said music box, or you couldn’t when I was visiting there, but it’s still extremely cool.

New music for a new century!

And incidentally, I’m not going to run a contest on it, but there is one other cigar store Indian in the park. Anyone know where it is? Hint: I already blogged about it :).

Main Street , ,

Looking Up

13 Comments Posted by on April 22, 2011

I started this blog with an idea of things I’d never done before, like riding the Main Street vehicles, or being at the rope-drop–stuff like that. But now that I’m into this, I realized there was one more really major thing I’ve never done:

Look up.

Particularly on Main Street, but elsewhere as well. Disneyland has all kinds of cool details that I really never paid attention to since I was trying to get on a ride or go see something in particular. So, here’s a post about looking up.

Main Street, U.S.A. is supposed to be a typical main street in 1908, except it would have been a very crowded main street because there’s all kinds of stuff on there. And also, Main Street is not very tall. I knew that it had been scaled down, but I couldn’t quite figure it all out because the upper windows seemed to be somehow even more scaled down than the rest of the street.

I mean, I get the idea of forced perspective and all. Like, that’s how you can take an averaged-height Elijah Wood and turn him into a hobbit by making him stand way in front of Gandalf, or maybe way in back or whatever. But then again, how tall is Elijah Wood anyway? I used my SRM (Standard Research Methodology = 3 minutes on Google), expecting to find a quick answer as to how tall Elijah Wood is. Alas, that does not appear to be definitive public information. BUT, Google did have this crazy statement at the top that said:

Best guess for Elijah Wood Height is 5′ 6″

– FeedbackIs this accurate? Yes NoThank you for your feedback.Mentioned on at least 4 websites including celebheights.com, trueknowledge.com and yahoo.com–

Which, REALLY??? I mean, when even GOOGLE has to guess, you know that’s some top secret information. And also, there’s an entire website devoted to celebrity’s heights?

Okay, I’m getting way off topic here, so let me just throw you a picture real quick.

This is a fake building with a door that doesn't open named after Walt's hometown of Marceline, MO. That's also our stroller.

So anyway, back to Disneyland and forced perspective and all, after applying my SRM to the question of Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. height, Wikipedia told me this:

Buildings along Main Street are built at 3/4 scale on the first level, then 5/8 on the second story, and 1/2 scale on the third—reducing the scale by 1/8 each level up.

And even though I know that Wikipedia is totally the best source for reliable information of any kind, it pretty much makes sense to me.

Although neither Wikipedia nor Google has any information about Main Street’s height in relation to Elijah Wood. Somebody should write a blog entry about that. Or make a whole website. Or just take a picture of Elijah Wood standing on Main Street in Disneyland. Next to Gandalf. Because that would be awesome.

Anyway, there’s a particularly large number of looking-up things in the alley behind the fruit cart by the lockers.

Canned Fruits, Beekeeper Supplies, and Guns. Now that's what I call "one-stop shopping."

Apparently Walt used the upper windows to commemorate his friends or Disney employees or Disney employees who were also his friends, or some other people he would probably be Facebook friends with if he were still alive today, and using the internet at 110 years old. I mean, I think that might even be more awesome than a picture of Elijah Wood and Gandalf on Main Street.

Tangent: I remember a couple of years ago the news did an interview with the oldest woman in the world and when they asked her the secret to her longevity, she said, “Bacon.” Dudes, I’m totally not kidding. And thank God for that, because given the amount of bacon I eat, I’m going to live forever.

But anyway…

More friends of Walt's, I assume. I wonder if the "Stone Mason" carved Walt's head stone, or just the ones in the Haunted Mansion queue.

I think my favorite is the Painless Dentist.

Laughing gas in 1908 from dentists in training? Sign me up!

I like the “S. E. Bitz” name. Is that really someone’s name, or a play on “Yes, he bites”? Seriously, if you know the answer, leave me a comment.

You can also buy a bicycle.

This window is one of the few with an actual colored picture.

At first I thought “Wow, renting a bicycle at Disneyland would be kind of cool,” and then I immediately thought, “Wow, renting a bicycle at Disneyland would be a freakin’ nightmare!”

Still cute, though

And here’s another interesting one. That’s all I can think of to say about this.

This is a private investigator and a "I really should take notes because I can't read it from my picture and I don't remember what it says a week later"

I think I’ll make looking up one of my new hobbies. When I’m not riding my bicycle down Main Street.

*Edited to add–a reader let me know that according to imdb.com, Elijah Wood is indeed 5’6″. But I still want to see him standing on Main Street with Gandalf.

Everything Else, Main Street , ,

Fruit Cart, Lockers, and a Surprise!

11 Comments Posted by on April 20, 2011

Main Street, U.S.A. is supposed to be a replica of a typical Midwestern main street in 1908.

About halfway down Main Street you get to the lockers, which are set back from the regular street by an entrance that is more or less blocked by a fruit cart.

The lockers are cleverly hidden by this 1908-reproduction fruit cart

I’ve always found the fruit cart to be quite interesting. I mean, obviously Disneyland put them in in response to guests asking for more healthy options, but wow

I'm pretty sure you could have purchased an entire pear tree for $1.79 back in 1908. Partridge not included.

Like okay, I know that food and stuff in the park is excessive, and I’m okay with excessive, but this just seems excessively excessive to me. I mean, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere, and for me, that line is $1.79 for a banana. Particularly since there’s a Vons grocery store 2 miles away where you can get this:

69 cents a pound

And not like I’m the person who’s all “save a ton of money by buying all of your lunches beforehand” when it’s terribly inconvenient to do so (even though you can), but if you don’t want to pay $1.79 for a banana, here you go:

Alternately, Vons delivers

There are also other foods on the fruit cart.

Shockingly, Vons has these for cheaper too

Moving past the fruit cart into what I can only assume is supposed to be an alley, you reach the lockers.

Main streets in 1908 were not known for their lockers, but one does what one can, I suppose

Also that’s a key in the lock above the doorway. How cute!

You can actually pay for your locker by credit card. Gone are the days when you just shoved your quarters into the locker’s door and then pulled out your key attached to a safety pin and hoped to God you didn’t lose it. Now it’s all high tech.

It's not an ATM, it's a locker machine

And in a very un-Disney-like fashion, the lockers actually look like a prison.

It's a mini-San Quentin for all of your stuff-holding needs

You can also find these quaint, old-fashioned things:

Yes, kiddies--these are called "pay phones." Go ask Grandma how they work.

I really never realized that there is a complete dearth of pay phones these days until a friend of mine was visiting from another country and did not have a cell phone and had to call me from pay phones to arrange a get-together.

I’m sure one day these will be replaced, like with some kind of electric visor you put over your head and then you just think about the person you’d like to call and it dials them directly. Until then, bring your quarters.

And here’s where we get to the surprise. Right next to the lockers is an ice cream window!

Well hello, delicious frozen treat vendor! Fancy meeting you here!

File that one under “things I never knew existed.”

I'll come and see you when you're open

Basically all of the buildings back here are fake with false fronts, so it never occurred to me that there might be a real, functioning thing here. Particularly since I have no need to put my stuff in jail a locker.

Surprise!

Main Street, Stuff To Eat, Things I've Never Seen Before , ,

The Straw Hatters

3 Comments Posted by on April 12, 2011

Honestly, it wasn’t until I started doing this blog that I realized how much entertainment Disneyland has. I’ve really just gone from attraction to attraction and maybe done a little people-watching, but I’ve never stopped to listed to any of the roving performers.

What a mistake!

I’m so happy to rectify it now.

Theo and I were walking out of the park one day when I saw this small band of musicians over by Mr. Lincoln, so of course we pulled over to watch. Because when I say “walking” I really mean that I was walking and Theo was in the stroller. If he were walking it would take approximately 423,345,753 hours to get out of the park. He’s easily distracted.

Anyway, here was this band of merry musicians.

Nice pants!

They played some toe-tappin’ fun music and I was about to turn away when this happened:

OMG, Pluto's going to eat the trombone player!!!

The band then played a song they identified as being about a dog, and Pluto did a dance with his leash.

If our dog got ahold of his leash like this, the last thing he would do is dance with it

It was really fun, and actually quite nice to see Pluto get some alone time. He gets upstaged by that pushy Goofy all the time.

And just when I thought the fun was over, guess who showed up?

It's Donald!

Donald came out to challenge the drummer to a drum-off. It’s like a dance-off except there’s no dancing or burning trash cans.

I'm taking YOU down, buddy

Apparently the event was BYOD (bring your own drum). Donald won.

At this point, Theo was starting to get extremely antsy, so we went to head out, except…

Well hi there!

Mickey and Minnie showed up. THEY did, indeed have a dance-off.

Minus the burning trash cans, of course

Minnie won. Don’t be taken in by those oversized tacky heels–this girl can DANCE.

Immediately following that, the characters snuck off to the side to line up for autographs and pictures.

I had no idea what this group was called, so I asked around on the internet and found that they are the Straw Hatters, in reference to their…wait for it, wait for it…straw hats.

All in all, it was a very fun little performance. Keep your eyes open at Disneyland–you never know what you’ll see!

Main Street, Things I've Never Seen Before , , , ,

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