The Bell Telephone Hour Presents "The Sounds of America" (Disneyland 1961)

[S. Towler]

Stumbled onto this interesting musical film... lots of neat shots of the Marsh in action... also pulling only two cars!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzlDIOXEQxc

[Locoboy5150]

There is some fantastic early 1960s footage of the DRR and of Disneyland in there - thanks for the link! It was neat seeing footage of the then Frontierland station in actual use by passengers.

Also, I remember in the pre-internet days when TV specials like that were the only way that I could ever see video footage of Disneyland at my home far away from Anaheim. The 1961 release date of this particular special predates me by quite a few years but I used to watch similar shows in the 1970s - 1990s time frame just to see a short peek at the park. Often the shows were quite boring to me with footage of singers like Billy Ray Cyrus lip synching in front of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Julian Lennon performing on a Tom Sawyer's Island raft floating on the Rivers Of America, or some lame plot of Jonathan Taylor Thomas getting lost in the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. I sat through all of that "fluff" just to get a five second glimpse of a train pulling into Main Street Station or a shot of a log plunging down Chickapin Falls. (Of course, probably all of the TV viewers watched just to see the C-list celebrities and could care less about seeing Disneyland.) You young folks out there do not know how nice it is to have people like Justin Scarred, Fresh Baked, or Hey Brickey show countless footage of Disneyland every day of the year!

[Steve DeGaetano]

Very cool Sam!

In the opening, it looks like the engine is making a pretty sweeping left-hand turn--not sure where that was, but it does give lie to the DL publicity department assertion that the recent track realignment for SWGE created the first left-hand turn in Park history!

Also--great video of the bell air ringer in action!

[Steve DeGaetano]

Anyone catch that weird Mark Twain boiler at 31:10? Is that what it originally looked like? It doesn't look like they used any stock footage from outside the Park.

[S. Towler]

Very cool Sam!

In the opening, it looks like the engine is making a pretty sweeping left-hand turn--not sure where that was, but it does give lie to the DL publicity department assertion that the recent track realignment for SWGE created the first left-hand turn in Park history!

Also--great video of the bell air ringer in action!

Haha you were the first person I thought of when I saw the air ringer!

That little left curve is when the right-of-way was just north of Nature's Wonderland; If the camera panned to the left a little you would have seen the track for the mine trains paralleling the SF&DLRR after the turn by the geyser.

That "left turn" had been there a number of years even before Nature's Wonderland--definitely not the "first left hand turn!". But I guess what qualifies as a turn? More than 90º?

[Steve DeGaetano]

But I guess what qualifies as a turn? More than 90º?

Well, if the track continued on that radius, it would eventually become 90 degrees. Then 180. Then…