The Shopping’s Fine in 1989!

Ahhhh… 1989. It was a good year. I was stoked to be in the “upper grades”, wearing fluorescent colors, and hitting my friends with slap bracelets. Music was all about Michael Jackson, Tiffany, and Debbie Gibson. We were swooning over George Michael and never for one second did we think Milli Vanilli wasn’t actually singing. Politically, the Berlin wall came down and there was protesting in Tiananmen Square. Disney revived animation with the release of The Little Mermaid, Disney’s MGM Studio opened, the third generation of The Mickey Mouse Club debuted, and the best advice anyone could give you was “Don’t worry… be happy”. 1989… Heck yeah!

1989 also had some beautiful Disney art you could collect! Just feast your eyes on this catalog from The Disney Gallery Collection, courtesy of reader Steve “sb-illustrations”. (The copyright is from 1988 but it seems to have been used in 1989.) Inside you could purchase a Blaine Gibson maquette of Cinderella, posters by John Hench and Herb Ryman, and a Ken Anderson and Sam McKim concept painting for Haunted Mansion. Do note that you were ordering directly from The Disney Gallery inside of Disneyland. Pretty cool!

The prices were still… well… “Disney” back in 1989, but if we take our flux capacitor-equipped DeLoreans back with a full wallet of cash, I think we’d be feeling like we scored, more or less! Have a look!

Classroom Safety Posters–Part 2

Here is part 2! I’m surprised there isn’t a poster for not playing ball in the house. The Brady boys could have used that one! “Mom always says, ‘Don’t play ball in the house’!” That vase would still be in one piece, if so.

I’d like to pass this poster out to a lot of people in my area.

Jiminy is proud!

She’s way too mature for you.

Stick to the ball, kid.

Everyone is stunned at Billy’s ability to rotate his head 360 degrees.

We end with my favorite! Perhaps for obvious reasons. Why ride when you can fly, right? :)

I hope you’ve all enjoyed these! Be safe out there! 

Classroom Safety Posters–Part 1

A few years ago, I was watching an old game show from the 50s, in which the panelists were supposed to guess something significant about a contestant. A man walked out and the object of the game was to guess his unique name. The man’s last name was First. Any guesses to what his first name was?? Anyone? Anyone? 10 points to whomever said “Safety”. Yes… his real, legal, given name was Safety First, and he seemed to take it to heart because he was rather old at the time and looked to be in good shape.

For those of us who did not have parents quite so eager to teach us a life-long lesson, we had school posters to remind us every day. I didn’t have ones that are this great, which is probably a good thing because I would have paid more attention to their great graphics than to my teachers. Most definitely.

They’re colorful and fun, each featuring a Disney character, some relative to the lesson and some not. They’re great fun to look at!

(Note: The few I found in old auction photos have some of the areas cut off. I have restored them as best as possible.)

I love the multi-cultural people depicted in these.

Don’t make Donald mad!

Love this one!

And put Pluto on a leash!

Don’t worry about the old green lights.

I love the styling on this one!

The White Rabbit is watching!

This bus driver looks too cool for school… which is why he became a bus driver!

The truck driver needs a set of these posters.

Steal hats outside, instead.

I don’t remember animals at my school… though there was evidence of cats. They thought the sandbox was one giant litter box…

Evidently the kid in the red does not like the kid in the stripes.

Where you could find me for the bulk of my early childhood!

Remember fire/earthquake drills at school? Any time out of class was a good time!

Some more bus safety.

I hope her mother is taking her shopping after school for some longer skirts!

Mom does not look remotely concerned about her house being on fire. I think she has some explaining to do.

More to come! Check back for part 2! :)

Bags, Take 2

Here’s a new addition to my bag collection that I had not seen before:

It looks to me to be from the early 1960s. It has the effect of being woven, so I’m wondering if it was from the Adventureland area, or if it was a bag used park-wide. Either way it’s pretty darn cute. I could imagine any purchase made at the Adventureland Bazaar or Tropical Imports to feel that much more special because of such a cute bag! It’s all in the details, you know!

Reader “sb-illustrations” has sent me some photos of his bag collection from the 1980s and 1990s. I share them here for you now!

This lovely one came forth in the late 1980s to replace the bag that featured pastel-colored versions of Disneyland attractions.

After which arrived this bag in the early 1990s. It came after the bag commemorating Disneyland’s 35th anniversary. It is very bright and colorful, reminding me of the graphics on the MMC which was airing at the same time. That Starspeeder looks like it’s going to crash into the Mark Twain! Watch out!!

And here is the bag I spent so much time with back as a cast member in the late 1990s. If I had a nickel for each time I was asked for 50 of these small bags… oohh boy!

And finally, to commemorate the opening of Disney’s California Adventure in 2001, there’s this bag, which is meant to look like it’s covered with old travel stickers as one would adhere to an old steamer trunk. I think a more authentic look would have actually made this concept quite cute, instead of being so… well… early DCA.

Thanks, Steve, for all the great scans!