A NEW SHOW AT DISNEYLAND

6/23/1963 - On this day in 1963, over 50 years ago, Disneyland got a new attraction located in the Adventureland/Jungleland region of the park ... and another song to be burned into the minds of helpless generations to come ... at the "Happiest Place On Earth," the Enchanted Tiki Room makes its debut!  

Bare Facts:

*First attraction to feature Audio-Animatronics, originally sponsored by United Airlines as commercial for flights to the new state of Hawaii, taken over by the Dole Food Company in 1976.

*The magic fountain in center of room was once going to be a coffee station when plan was for the place to be a restaurant featuring a bird show.

*The attraction was the first in the park to feature full air-conditioning (due to the excessive heat generated by all primitive computers powering the show's animatronics.

*Originally not part of the Disneyland ticket system (A to E), admission at first was and extra charge of 75 cents.

*Four robotic Macaws were in charge of the festivities (red, white, and green Jose, white and green Michael, blue, white, and red Pierre, and white, black, and red Fritz), with the chests of the four main characters all covered in custom-woven cashmere that allowed the creatures to appear to breathe.

*The cast for the show consisted of over 150 characters (among them were 54 singing orchids, 4 totem poles, 12 tiki drummers, 24 singing masks, 7 bird of paradise plants, 8 macaws, 12 toucans, 9 fork-tail birds, 6 cockatoos, and 20 assorted tropical birds). 

*The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room was written by the Sherman Brothers (the same aces that gave the world the soundtrack to Mary Poppins), Robert and Richard, and was recorded for posterity by The Mellomen ... Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee, Bill Cole, and Max Smith (when not working on Disney productions, the group worked as backup singers for Elvis Presley, Rosemary Clooney, Big Crosby, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Garland, Frankie Laine, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, and Doris Day). 

*Lyrics for The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room ...   

"Ole! Ole! It's Showtime! 

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,  All the birds sing words and the flowers croon, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you! If we weren't in the show starting right away, We'd be in the audience too. 

All together! 

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,  All the birds sing words and the flowers croon, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!

The boys in the back are called macaws, Because of their claws? No, because they're macaws, And our fine feathered friend is a jolly toucan, And two can sound better than one toucan can, The bird of paradise is an elegant bird, It likes to be seen and it loves to be heard, Most little birdies will fly away, But the Tiki Room birds are here every day, Our show is delightful we hope you'll agree, We hope that it fills you with pleasure and glee, Because if we don't make you feel like that, We're gonna wind up on the lady's hat

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,  All the birds sing words and the flowers croon, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!

Our magnificent production is yet to come, So strum the guitar and beat the drum, We've been hit and we know you adore us,  So come on and join us in another chorus

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,  All the birds sing words and the flowers croon, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,  All the birds sing words and the flowers croon, In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!"

*The show originally lasted a big 17 minutes and 23 seconds (later trimmed, the revamped show times out at 12 minutes and 33 seconds). 

Not my favorite attraction growing up, but nonetheless, a site that brings back many happy outings to the park,  Dad, being Coach Jack, would of course have all our funs planned out, and the Tiki Room was always visited in the late afternoon when the family would be hot and tired ... we recharged our batteries (though not much was really needed, Disneyland meant we were there when the place opened, and didn't leave until it closed at Midnight, with last ride always being on the train that circled the park and took you past dinosaurs and over the Grand Canyon ... "Last Stop ... Main Street Station!") in the shade of the waiting area, drinking or eating fruity cold stuff (I think I might have had my first Hawaiian Punch there), and then in the air conditioned darkness.  The Enchanted Tiki Room for the family was the stop that got everybody ready for the evening and merriments like finding out that hippos don't charge unless they wiggle their ears first ... HA!

Happy Anniversary Enchanted Tiki Room ... the child in my heart still remembers you well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OLD 666

6/16/1943 - Oh my, if you ever watched the History Channel show "DOGFIGHTS," specifically the episode "LONG ODDS," you know about "Old 666" and the most decorated crew for one mission in U.S. air force history ... if you don't, here is their tale on the anniversary of their moment. 

Only Known Photo Of "Old 666" 

In the Pacific Theater, Tail number 41-2666 is a shot up B-17 bomber with a reputation for being cursed named "Hard Luck Hattie," but in need of a ride, Captain Jay Zeamer, Jr. (born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1918, the pilot is a graduate of the Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, winning marksmanship awards each year he is there, and before the war begins, graduates from M.I.T. with a B.S. in civil engineering, it is also at M.IT. that he gets his aviation license, learning how to fly in the school's flying club) takes on the project of resurrecting the plane from the scrapheap for photographic reconnaissance missions ... engines are replaced, the plane is lightened of all unnecessary gear, and its defensive capabilities are augmented by the addition of dual .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns in the radio compartment and at both waist positions, and a fixed .50 caliber machine gun is installed in the nose for the pilot to fire ... in all, the bomber will go from having ten guns, to having nineteen, and it becomes the most heavily armed plane in the entire Pacific ...  ... on 6/16/1943, it will need every one of them (by the time of his famous mission, 24-year-old Zeamer is his squadron's executive officer and has been awarded a Silver Star for a 1942 photo reconnaissance flight over Simpson Harbor on the island of Rabaul, as well as receiving an Oak Leaf Cluster for a 1943 flight over the same dangerous Japanese held island). 

Young Zeamer

Zeamer

Named "Old 666" by the crew to mock the plane being cursed, Zeamer and his crew volunteer for a mission over the island of Bougainville, photographing the Japanese defenses around Empress Augusta Bay (where the Marines will land later in the year) ... a flight of 600 miles over open water before reaching their destination, a volunteer mission because it includes a straight and level run for mapping purposes of twenty-two minutes over extremely hostile territory.

Flight Group Logo

K17 Aerial Camera

Empress Augusta Bay - 1943  

Leaving at 4:00 in the morning to use the cover of darkness for their approach through hostile air space, the bomber arrives too early over Bouganville for photography, and after a crew vote, decide to photograph the Japanese airfield on the small island of Buka (off the northern tip of Bouganville, a site the command is desperate for information about) and are quickly pounced upon at roughly 7:40 by either seventeen Zero fighters (the crew's count) or eight Zeroes (the Japanese count) ... whichever the number, the plane is attacked over and over again, while fighting back with its improved arsenal ... and all the while taking the pictures that are its mission.

Buka Airfield

Mitsubishi Zero Fighter

In the aerial battle that takes place, cockpit hit by a 20mm cannon shell, pilot Zeamer Jr. is wounded (his holed left leg is broken both above and below the knee, and he takes shrapnel wounds to both arms, his right leg, and his right wrist ... he uses his own belt to provide a tourniquet for his ruined left leg ... later it will be determined he loses almost half the blood in his body ... a body its takes surgeons over 72 hours to remove almost 150 pieces of shrapnel from and patch up, along with an additional fifteen months for him to recover use of his leg), as is 28-year-old bombardier, Second Lieutenant Joseph Sarnoski (with a neck wound and a hole in his side the size of a bowling ball) from Simpson, Pennsylvania (the second oldest of seventeen offspring of a Polish coal miner).  

Sarnoski

Blown out of his station (fifteen feet to a position almost directly under the flight deck), Sarnoski is in the process of seeking medical treatment (sulfa powder poured on his wounds by Ruby Johnston) when the bomber is attacked again, and so he crab crawls forward, mans his nose gun again, and is credited with shooting down two Japanese fighters before collapsing and dying at the weapon (his last act is to kiss his rosary).  Oxygen system destroyed (along with the hydraulic system and the pilot's flight instruments ... miraculously, none of the plane's engines are hit), Zeamer is forced to take the bomber down, descending from 25,000 feet to 8,000 feet above the Pacific, and continues to maneuver the plane so as to bring the most guns to bear on whatever Zero is attacking.  Finally, at 8:45 in the morning, short on fuel and ammunition, after forty minutes of attacks, the Zeroes break off and return to base (while the crew is credited with five fighters being shot down during the encounter, Japanese records show one plane ditching in the sea due to engine troubles and three other Zeroes being damaged, but making it back to Buka), while the "Old 666" limps back to an alternate base at Dobodura, New Guinea (the plane is unable to climb high enough to get over the Owen Stanley Mountains blocking their home base at Port Moresby) and its 7,000 yards long grass field.  Navigational equipment destroyed, dead reckoning is used keeping the sun over the pilot's left shoulder, along with moments of help identifying islands by Zeamer, a naval radio that can send and receive Morse code that is used to map a course home, and a lot of luck), with co-pilot 1st Lt. John.T. Britton (who only has a contusion to his head) flying the bomber after Zeamer finally loses consciousness from his wounds, assisted by top turret gunner Able in the second seat, the shot-to-pieces bomber makes it back to base ... barely

Original "Eager Beavers" - Front Of Sgt. William Vaughn, Sgt. George Kendrick, Sgt. Johnnie Able, Sgt. Herbert Pugh - Rear Of Sgt. Bud Thues, Captain Zeamer, Sgt. Hank Dyminski, 2nd Lt. Joe Sarnoski.- Just Prior To 6/16, Tech Sgt. Forrest Dillman Is Added To The Crew And Lt. John T. Britton And Lt. Ruby Joihnston Replace Dyminski And Thues

Mission complete when the bomber is successfully crash landed in a cloud of dust at 12:15 in the afternoon (the pictures taken will be deemed a major factor in the successful Marine invasion of the island that takes place later in 1943), both Zeamer (one of only nine Eagle Scouts to be so honored, the former Boy Scout is recommended for the medal by Colonel Merian C. Cooper, the former WWI pilot responsible for writing and producing King Kong) and Sarnoski are awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the mission (only the third time in American military history two men are awarded the medal for the same mission), and the rest of the crew (known as the "Eager Beavers" for volunteering for missions), navigator Charles Stone (wounded in the arm), co-pilot Britton, William Vaughan (radio operator ... wounded in the neck, he helps plot the course home), George Kendrick (responsible for the photo taking, after storing the exposed film, he mans a waist gun), Johnnie Able (top turret gunner ... wounded in both knees, he puts out a fire at his position with his bare hands and later flies the co-pilot position for the first time), Herbert Pugh (tail gunner), Forrest Dillman (waist gunner) and Ruby Johnston (waist gunner ... wounded in the head) all receive Distinguished Flying Crosses.

Cooper

A Recovering Zeamer

Zeamer, Parents, And Hap Arnold At Medal Of Honor Ceremony

Survived by his wife Marie, Sarnoski will be buried in Hawaii, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Section A, Grave 582).  After recovering as best he can from his wounds and receiving the accolades he so richly deserves, Zeamer takes a disability retirement from the United States Army Air Force as a Lt. Colonel in January of 1945 (his service awards consist of the Medal of Honor, two Silver Stars, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Purple Heart, and two Air Medals).  After the war, the gallant pilot goes back to M.I.T., for a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, and then works at Pratt & Whitney, Hughes Aircraft, and Raytheon in various capacities, while also marrying his wife Barbara and raising five daughters, Marcia, Jacque, Jayne, Susan, and Sandra.  He dies in a Boothbay Harbor, Maine nusing home on May 22, 2007 at the age of 88 ... buried at Arlington National Cemetery, on the day of his funeral, the governor of Maine, John Baldacci orders the state's flags be flown at half-mast in the aviator's honor.  .   

Sarnoski's Final Resting Place

 

Zeamer's Final Resting Place

And what of "Old 666"?  Deemed a danger to fly more combat missions, the B-17 returns to the United States in 1944, landing first in Spokane, Washington, then moving to Walla Walla, Washington, then moving on to Florida, before finally flying into its last destination, at Oxnard Field in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where it is sold as scrap material to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.  Able to withstand the repeated attacks of Japanese fighters, the honored aircraft is melted down for its aluminum, scrap iron, and copper wires before 1946 comes to a close .... gone, but in no way forgotten.    

Final Resting Place Before Melt - Oxnard Field, Albuquerque, New Mexico 

6/16/1943 - "Old 666" In Action

Kudos and thanks to the "Old 666,' and the men that crewed her ... may they all rest in peace.

CAR CRASH IN WELLINGTON

6/10/1933 - Having their extended family over for dinner and a visit (the family is thinking of pulling up stakes and moving to Arkansas), Wellington, Texas farmer Sam Pritchard, and his wife Sallie host a gathering in their home near the Salt Fork of the Red River that includes the couple, their son Jack, their daughter-in-law Irene (dirt poor, without a car, the couple rides to the event on horses), their daughter Gladys, son-in-law Alonzo Cartwright, and the Cartwright's new born baby   Home made ice cream churned and distributed, at around 10:00 in the evening, Sam and Jack take their dessert outside to sit on the porch and enjoy the quiet of the evening.  Quiet that is soon disturbed by the sound of a car racing down the road at a high speed (70 mph).  What a darn fool, Jack exclaims to his father, pegging the driver moments before the sounds of a huge crash carry to the men ... the vehicle, a stolen Ford V-8, in the lampless darkness has missed the detour sign telling motorist to switch from the new road to the old dirt packed road while a new bridge over the river is being built.

Wellington High - 1929

Salt Fork Area

The Pritchard Home

Rushing to the scene of the accident about one hundred yards away, Sam, Jack, and Alonzo discover a mangled Ford that has blown through a wooden barricade, flown into the air and spun around on the way down to a crash in the dry riverbed that rolls it over several times and puts the car facing south in the direction it had already come.  Doors jammed and windows blown out, they are surprised to find that three people have survived the vehicle's rag doll journey to rest.  The rescuers pull a man through where the windshield use to be, then another man, and finally a young woman ... the men are dazed and banged up, but the unconscious woman is in the worst shape, the car's smashed battery has coated her right leg in acid that has burnt the appendage from hip to ankle, in some places, exposing bone to the night air.  Carrying the woman to the Pritchard home, she is gently laid on a bed where Sallie and Gladys do the best they can to tend to her wounds by swabbing them with baking soda and yellow Cloverrine Salve.  Done, Sallie tells the women's companions its time to get a doctor and things get strange ... the driver of the vehicle says no, and heads back to the car for the group's luggage, while the other man stays with the family and his damaged friend, who soon wakes in extreme pain.  Ignoring the orders of the driver though, Alonzo sneaks away and takes his father-in-law's old Dodge into town, where he contacts Collingsworth County Sheriff George Corry and Wellington Chief of Police Paul Hardy of trouble at the Pritchard farm.  The lawmen request an ambulance be dispatched, then head off for the farm in a Chevrolet, with Alonzo lagging behind when he can't get the Dodge started again.

The Now Built Bridge

Ouch!


Illuminated only by a single kerosene lamp, when the lawmen enter the house, a figure steps out of the shadows holding a deadly BAR and requests the pair's weapons, which the wounded women they came to help staggers off the bed and collects, while the third man shows up now armed with a shotgun, stating, "You boys are just in time.  We want to borrow your car."  A moment later, showing the three strangers are not to be trifled with, thinking Gladys is about to escape when she goes to latch the back kitchen door to prevent her baby from crawling out of the area, the man unleashes a round from the shotgun that nicks one of Gladys's fingers and scratches the baby's scalp from bits of destroyed window screen.  Unbeknownst to the family and the lawmen, the strangers they have been attempting to help are the notorious Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Park, and their sometimes partner, W. D. Jones, on their way to meet Buck and Blanche Barrow in Oklahoma after having a visit with family in Dallas (Buck and Blanche have been visiting her side of the family).

Clyde

Bonnie

Jones

Time to leave, deciding he can't leave the lawmen behind, the Barrow Gang get into the lawmen's car ... Clyde behind the wheel, Bonnie next to him, and Jones on the passenger side of the front seat, with the lawmen in the back seat.  But only for a short time, Bonnie suffering terribly is soon transferred to the back seat where she lays on the laps of the lawmen.  Driving much slower through the night (during which Clyde foolishly tells the lawmen he is one of the infamous Barrow brothers), it is well after midnight by the time they cross the state border into Oklahoma and meet Buck and Blanche at a deserted bridge between the towns of Erick and Sayre (asleep in their car, the pair will have to be roused from their slumber by Clyde's honking of the Chevrolet's horn).  Gang reunited, Bonnie is placed in Buck's car on a pile of clothing, while Clyde rewards the lawmen for being tender with Bonnie by not killing them, and instead, having Buck and Jones handcuff them and tie them to a nearby tree (he is angered later when he discovers that lacking rope, the pair has used strands of nearby barbed wire to bind the men to the tree).  Then the gang is off into the night. Soon freeing themselves, Corry and Hardy waste no time in notifying law enforcement in the region of the presence of the Barrow Gang, and that Bonnie has grave burn wounds that require hospitalization and a doctor (the next morning, a host of Wellington's citizens invade the crash site, gawking at the wreck which will eventually be rebuilt and sold, while taking souvenirs that one day will end up in the town's small museum ... two ammo clips for Clyde's BAR and a pair of Bonnie's gloves)..

Buck & Blanche

Bonnie's Gloves

Righted Vehicle

On the road, moving through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, Bonnie's injuries are tended to as best the gang can with the authorities on high alert, but it is the beginning of the end for the group (not knowing who he is dealing with, a easily duped Dr. Walter Eberle sees Bonnie twice at the Twin Cities Tourist Camp where the gang is staying, both times telling Clyde she needs to be treated at a hospital ... instead, the gang treats her wounds with Unguentine and Amytal, a pain killing drug that Bonnie becomes temporarily addicted to).  Separating for the time being, Clyde drives to Dallas alone to pick up Bonnie's sister, Billie Jean Parker (who is soon nursing her sister as the gang aimlessly rambles through the southwest ... support that will eventually get her one year and a day behind bars for harboring her sister).  While Clyde is gone, with her pains a trigger, Bonnie and Blanche clash again and again (one fight causes Bonnie to jump out of bed and break open her scabs) to the point where they stop talking to each other, and Jones and Buck, following Clyde's instructions, go after spending money by robbing Brown's Grocery in Fayetteville ... a robbery that nets the outlaws a measly $20, a Model A delivery truck (which Jones steals and then abandons), and the attentions of the authorities.  Driving recklessly, Buck crashes the pair's escape car, and when Alma Marshal Henry Humphrey (seeking redemption by capturing the bandits who robbed the Alma bank the day before and tied up Humphrey during the robbery) and Crawford County Deputy Sheriff Red Salyers (an electrician making ends meet with a second job in law enforcement) come upon the scene, Barrow guns down Humphrey with a shot gun blast to the man's chest (passing the mortally wounded lawman, Buck pauses just long enough to steal the marshal's .38 revolver ... on the job only two months, the 51-year-old Humphrey leaves behind a wife and three children), Jones chases Salyers into a nearby house with fire from his BAR and shoots at a passing motorist, for which he is rewarded by having two of his finger tips shot off by Salyers.  The pair escape in the for-door maroon Ford of Salyers.

Unguentine

Billie Jean

Humphrey

Unremitting heat now on the members of the Barrow Gang, Bonnie will be a cripple for the rest of her short life (whenever possible, Clyde will carry her), limping on the badly damaged leg, and in hiding and treating her, the gang will make the mistakes which lead to a shootout with authorities on July 18, in Platte City, Missouri, and that gun battle in turn will lead to another clash with the law at Dexfield Park in Iowa on July 24, that will mortally wound Buck and get Blanche captured (she will serve six years behind bars).  Holes in the gang's membership (Jones will be arrested in Houston, and to escape murder charges, will begin fabricating stories of Clyde being a homosexual and that he was an unwilling member of the gang that had to be tied up every night ... the tall tales save him from death row, but he does spend six years behind bars ... freed, he dies in gunfire during a domestic dispute in 1974 at the age of 58), the new gang assembled from convicts Bonnie and Clyde free from Eastham State Prison will result in more botched robberies, kidnappings, murders, and eventually, betrayal at the hands of escapee, Henry Methvin, that makes the outlaw lovers Swiss cheese Louisiana roadkill for an ambush party led by legendary Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer.

Moments After The Shooting Ends - Dexfield Park -
Captured Blanche And Wounded Buck In Undershirt

Methvin

Hamer

The Blasted Pair

The final downward spiral of Bonnie & Clyde starts on a hot Saturday evening outside the town of Wellington, Texas ... 6/10/1933.

Outlaw Lovers

Memorial