Okay. I know. Chances are — if you regularly visit JimHillMedia.com — you’re already a hardcore Disney dweeb. You think that you already know everything that there is to know about Disneyland. All of the great anecdotes about the park. Where all its hidden treasures are … well … hidden.
Well, that’s how I thought BEFORE I picked up a copy of Kendra Trahan’s “Disneyland Detective: An Independent Guide to Discovering Disney’s Legend, Lore, and Magic” (Permagrin Publishing, April 2004). But — after reading through just 10 pages of this entertaining and informative paperback — I realized that there was a hell of a lot that I DIDN’T know about “The Happiest Place on Earth.” But I was about to find out …
Ms. Trahan … I don’t know exactly how she did it (though — judging by “Disneyland Detective”‘s bibliography [which runs 9 pages] — Kendra appears to have read every book, article, story and pamphlet that was ever written about the park). But she’s assembled all of these great yarns about the Anaheim theme park, then distilled them down into “Reader’s Digest” form.
So the end result is this concise but still very entertaining volume. Which features wonderful portraits of Disneyland pioneers draw by Brian McKim as well as great photographs of the theme park taken by Dave Hawkins.
But the stories!
If you’re a Disney info junkie like me, you’re going to love “Disneyland Detective.” There are just page after page filled with these great, seldom heard stories about the park. Little gems like:
Why Tinker Bell is the character that’s so strongly associated with Disneyland. (And the answer is … Because Disney executives wouldn’t allow Walt to have access to Mickey Mouse. Their fear was what might happen to the Mouse if he were too closely associated with the Anaheim theme park and Disneyland was a failure. So — playing it safe — Walt decided to go with a secondary character instead. Choosing the shapely sprite from Walt Disney Productions’ 1953 release, “Peter Pan.”)
Many of you already know that Disneyland’s “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad” attraction was actually the inspiration for the runaway mine car sequence in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” But how many of you know that Steven Spielberg was such a stickler for getting things right on this 1984 Paramount Pictures release that he insisted that the sound guys from Skywalker Ranch fly down to Anaheim and record the sound that this Frontierland roller coaster makes as it roars along the track … and then dub that sound in as the noise that the mine cars in “Temple of Doom” make as they zoom Indy and friends toward freedom.
How tall is Disneyland’s Matterhorn? So tall that — on a clear day — you can see all the way to Catalina. And — if you look in the other direction — sometimes you can see the Hollywood sign.
All this … plus there’s a special section in the book that’s dedicated to the windows along Main Street U.S.A. Which identifies who each of the people who are being honored are, and what exactly their contribution to Disney Company history was. That section alone makes “Disneyland Detective” a handy reference guide for any serious Disneyphile.
Not done yet, because there’s even fun bits of trivia like:
Which knight of the Round Table the shields that decorate the canopy of King Arthur’s Carousel belong to.
It’s this sort of stuff that made Kendra Trahan’s “Disneyland Detective” a fun and informative read for me. Which is why I suggest — if you want to keep your Disney reference library current — you pick up a copy of this entertaining paperback today.
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If you’re planning on picking up a copy of Kendra Trahan’s “Disneyland Detective: An Independent Guide to Discovering Disney’s Legend, Lore and Magic” you can help support JimHillMedia.com by ordering your copy from Amazon.com by clicking the link to the right. Your cost will (unfortunately) remain the same (though Amazon.com is currently offering it for 30% off!) But if you go to that site through JHM, you help support JimHillMedia.com because we get a tiny cut of whatever it is you spend. So — if you’d like to help keep Jim Hill behind a computer where he belongs — order your copy of “Disneyland Detective” through the link on the right. |
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