A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I went on the Waltland Bus Tour. I heard about the tour from tour guide Bob Gurr, whose panel discussion I attended at LA Comic Con last year. Bob Gurr is a Disney Legend and Imagineer whom designed the vehicles at Disneyland for Haunted Mansion, Autopia, and Monorail. Having worked alongside Walt Disney, he has plenty of stories about his time with the company and willingly shares them.
The meeting area for the bus tour is in the parking lot in Griffith Park adjacent to the LA Zoo. We checked in and bought souvenir pins, and Bob was there already, signing whatever we bought. He happily agreed to take a picture with us and asked a guy to use my phone instead of us doing it selfie style. Thanks, guy!
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| Posing with Mr. Gurr |
Our bus arrived, and we ended up standing in line in back of the guy who took our picture, as we had arrived right after his group, and we boarded the bus by time of arrival. Some folks had reserved seats, for which they paid extra and received VIP status. We also sat in back of that guy's group. No, we were not stalking them.
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| Selfie Time! |
Our first stop was to see Walt's and Roy's first homes in California, built out of kits in the Los Feliz area. They lived next door to each other.
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| Walt's house is on the right, Roy's on the left |
Bob didn't want to pass up the chance on showing us the nearby John Marshall High School, as it has been used as backdrops in various productions, most notably to me: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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| They were recording Bob for this tour |
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They are continually refurbishing the school.
Seen in the left bottom corner is a sheltered entrance
covered in a scenic wrap. |
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| Another view as we drove by |
We then stopped at the site of the original Hyperion studios, where "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" was produced. It is now a Gelson's.
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Bob telling us about the area, and the
animator who quit while drunk in a saloon
that used to be across the street.
Walt wouldn't let him leave the company. |
We then traveled back to Griffith Park after making a quick drive-by to the original Hyperion Studios bungalows. What a cute little community!
At Griffith Park, we stopped at the Merry-Go-Round. Yup, the very one where Walt used to take his daughters, and first had the concept of Disneyland, where people could bring their kids and the parents could have fun, too.
Bob said that he gets to ride as much as he wants for free. We rode for a nominal fee, and it goes pretty fast! The proprietor ask riders over a certain weight not to ride the horses and either sit on a bench or stand. It is still being refurbished, and there is an area paying tribute to Walt. The ride also takes a while, and I think we went through three songs from "Mary Poppins" on our one ride. That made me happy, especially when they played "Jolly Holiday". Practically perfect in every way!
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A marching band was practicing in the parking lot.
You know I'm not going to resist taking a picture of them. |
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| The Merry-Go-Round |
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| Bob riding the Merry-Go-Round |
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For the littler ones.
I like the old ticket booth.
Tickets are available at concessions. |
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| See? Nominal. |
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| Very cool (and very loud) organ |
There were three new benches by the merry-go-round which had been recently dedicated. One is dedicated to Bob! This one is my favorite. I think it is directly opposite of where the original bench was located.
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Linda and I stood on the very spot where the bench
was located when Walt first dreamed up Disneyland.
Cue me almost crying at the thought of this. |
After a good amount of time there, it was time for lunch. The VIPs were offered champagne and soda. Those that wanted to purchase drinks could do so as well. We had lunch at the plaza of the Gene Autry museum, and had pre-ordered sandwiches and water. The sandwiches were big, so I mostly ate the filling.
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| We sat next to the Apache! |
We then went to Walt's Barn. Bob suggested we get in line for the barn before walking around in case it took a long time. This was a wise suggestion because there were also folks there to talk to Americana enthusiast Charles Phoenix and get his new book signed. We got in line, and the gentleman who got in line after us wondered aloud if it was always this crowded at the barn. I told him that the last time I was here, it was crowded, probably because it's only open once a month. He told us that he was the architect that brought the barn here from its original location in Holmby Hills, CA. Wow! What are the odds of that?! He was there to show Charles Phoenix that his hometown grocery store was pictured in Phoenix's other book, and to tell him that one of his clients now owns the property. Neato.
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| Miguel Fernandez and Walt's Barn |
The wait in line takes a lot of time, which was good for us this time around, because Miguel kindly indulged us and told us a LOT of background about the barn. The barn was in Walt's backyard, and when they brought it over from the house, some refurbishing needed to be done. The roof is new, but the parapet at the top is original. The toilet and other random things from the original barn are now owned by various people whom worked on the project. The outside of the barn was made to look weathered by set designers.
When we got to the inside of the barn, Miguel continued to tell us stuff and I asked if his name was on the certificate inside. He pointed it out to us. So cool! He thanked us for listening to him, and we were amazed that HE thanked US. It was well worth our trip that day to have him there and I'm still in awe of our serendipitous moment of the day. Thank you, Miguel!!!
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| Not the original celing |
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Ward Kimball's Firehouse 5 Plus 2 hat that
he wore in the Rose Parade |
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Originally the bathroom, this part of
the structure now has the control board. |
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| Control board |
We spent a little bit of time looking at the rest of the area, including the Retlaw1, one of the original cars of the Disneyland Railroad.
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| Interior of Retlaw1 |
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| Exterior |
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| Bob Gurr has his own tile at Ollie's station |
We were among the last people to return to the bus because we didn't realize that everyone had already left. We were too busy looking at the cute ghost town.
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| Ghost Town |
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| There are zombies in the cemetery |
Our bus driver then took us to Burbank, and we stood outside the Walt Disney Imagineering building. Bob told us that they tested a bunch of ride vehicles there, including the monorail.
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Even the buildings have name tags!
Bob's office was about two windows to
the right of this one. |
The complex was across the street from an old airport terminal. Bob said this was the place of the original LAX as it was the site where the commercial airlines landed before the LAX Terminal was built up in Westchester. The street used to be the airport runway, and the sidewalk has big letters spelling "TERMINAL". Bob said that he grew up in the area and still remembers riding his bike around the airport, and then he ends up working across the street.
Bob actually lived just a couple of blocks away from Walt in Los Feliz, but never met him until he started working for the company. On the day he met him, Walt came up to him while he was working on one of the vehicles (Autopia?) and Walt talked to him for a bit. After the conversation ended, he walked away, and someone said, "Bye, Walt", and that's when Bob Gurr realized that he had been talking to Walt Disney that entire time. He said that Walt did that a lot.
We then drove by more of the Imagineering complex, before stopping at Disney Studios. We didn't go onto the campus, though. On the way there, we saw a couple of other studios.
