These two photos are presented here exactly as found in the original material.
For the past few years, Disney has published hardbound books of Disneyland. These haven't changed much for the past 10 years, other than the name. One of the most recent is Disneyland, Memories of a Lifetime, and Disneyland, Memories, Dreams and Transitions. But these are far from perfect. Is no one paying attention at Disneyland? Here's two images from those books. What's wrong here? What's wrong with this picture? Anyone who's ever been to the Magic Kingdom more than once should immediately recognize that this photo of the castle is BACKWARDS!!! Okay, so the perspective is unusual, but so what? Since these books are published by Disney, shouldn't they know when their own icon is absolutely reversed? What is with this? Are there no proof readers on staff at Disney publishing? Doesn't anyone who works for the publishing arm ever go to the theme parks? This is inexcusable. But it doesn't end there...
This is even more glaringly obvious. Here's a picture of the castle at night from the same book, published in 2000. Hasn't anyone on staff ever watched the Wonder World of Color? Wouldn't they recognize that this is also a BACKWARDS picture of the castle? I'm sorry, but this is the kind of thing that drives me nuts when someone (something) who has such a reputation for attention to detail as Disney and the theme parks screws it up so horribly. There are other examples but these seem to be the
best examples that nobody is paying attention.
These books also feature two pictures of Walt Disney that have also been reversed. You'll know when you see them, because they show his jacket breast pocket on the right, not the left.
For the 50th Anniversary, a new book came out written by
Bruce Gordon and Tim O'Day. This book, Disneyland Then, Now, and Forever has
never before seen photos of old Disneyland Attractions, construction photos,
opening day, hidden secrets and lots more. Now I love Bruce and his previous books, including
The Nickle Tour
and Walt's Time. He even did the layout for the book that comes with the
official Disneyland 50th Anniversary 6-CD set, which is gorgeous and truly
belongs on my Essential Disneyland library. It's not there, mainly due to
the price ($125) and the first edition is limited and will soon be sold out, if
not already. But Bruce! Right
there in your beautiful book on page 50 (okay, page 50 of the 50th anniversary
book; maybe the error is intentional? Nah...) is a picture of the sailing
ship Columbia with the castle in the background, and the picture is BACKWARDS!!!
Here's the photo. When I first saw it, I thought, is this just an old
photo when perhaps the Columbia ran in the counterclockwise direction around Tom
Sawyer Island? But then I saw the castle in the background, noticed it was
backwards and I was at first aghast, then dumbfounded, then nearly furious that
such a glaring error could have slipped past someone so knowledgeable about
Disneyland and all things Disney. C'mon, nobody knows this park better than
Bruce Gordon, and apparently he outsourced the proof-reading to someone who
doesn't even know how the park is configured, or from which side of the planet
the sun rises.. This is just plain dumb. But Hey, I also figured for
the 50th anniversary they might get the top portion of the Astro-orbiter to work
properly again, and I was wrong about that. But Sheeeesssshhh guys, c'mon!
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