April 27, 2007: Other Lands

[Werner Weiss]

In 1974, I took my VW and my camera to towns around Disneyland to see what other "lands" I could find.

On April 27, 1997, I published those pictures as "Other Lands" on Yesterland. The pictures were the size of postage stamps (after all, just about everyone was using dial modems). Now, it's exactly ten years later. I've republished "Other Lands" with big new pictures and some more information about these "lands":

Link to Other Lands.

Any observations?

Do you have more information about what's happened to these "lands" over the past 33 years?

Please discuss it here.

[jcruise86]

I remember a few businesses near WDW that worked the word "world" into their names.

[almandot]

omg the disneyland hotel gift shop! that was my favorite gift shop ever. i'd always run through there and visit. i bought some cool stuff from there.

[NemoVir]

Here in Phoenix we have a "Biddoffland" or sometime like that. I remember the billboard has the name in the same style of letter as Disneyland's. Damn thing was a car dealership!!

[DisneyIPresume]

I lived in Huntington Beach from 1972 - 1977 and my best friend -- my next door neighbor -- his father owned a lumber yard on Beach Blvd. in Huntington Beach which is no longer there called Lumber Land.

[rstar]

Hi Werner!

Thank you for an interesting (yet again) blast to the past! I remember many of those places! I'm amazed that you did this kind of research way back then, and it's proof that this is the kind of work you were meant to do.

~Bob

[Mouseearsusa]

What about Holidayland in Disneyland?

[Werner Weiss]

Originally Posted by Mouseearsusa

What about Holidayland in Disneyland?

Holidayland, Disney's gated group event facility adjacent to Disneyland, had been gone over a decade when I took the "land" pictures in 1974.

Holidayland deserves a full Yesterland write-up with pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have good pictures. (If anyone reading this has pictures of Holidayland for Yesterland, I'd be very interested.)

[EvilQueen]

"DizzyLand" was 'new' to me (did you enter or exit "dizzy'?), but each and every one of the other Picture Memories took me back to my childhood in Anaheim; thank you so much for the great Photo-journalism - wonderful as always... when my grandparents took us to lunch at the Disneyland Hotel, we always got to visit the MagicLand toystore - which was truly magic...
It seems that Walt inspired others to open "-Lands" of their dreams as well...

[Asterix]

That was so much fun! I remember several of these places.

[Neverlandtink]

Werner, where's your picture of the Satellite Shopland?

From www.Spaceagecity.com (gallery, disneyland resort )

Satellite Shopland
Katella Way, Anaheim, CA
(Near I-5 Freeway and Haster St.)
The sputnik-like orb was removed in 1998 and was purchased by Daniel Sullivan of Pasadena, who builds and restores signs. He has restored it to its original look, with silver spikes.
The two-dimensional starburst is from the side of the Satellite Market.


We always passed that stripmall on the way to to I5.

Excellent article as usual! I laughed at the Walt Dizzy comment.

[TheManator]

Walt Dizzy. heh.
Good one.

[sir clinksalot]

Love it!!! Makes me want to go on a tour of other "lands"!!!

[Katella Gate]

Thanks againg Werner for coming through with another excellent Yesterland installment.

The Wonderland Wonderbowl building has particular significance for me.

I was born in 1960 and lived in the Torrance area almost all of my life. We went to Disneyland on a regular basis (once a month) but in those days before the freeway system was finished <G> the quickest way to get there for us was a drive straight down Katella Avenue and enter through the Katella gate (hence the screen name). In fact it was years before I realized that the main enterance was on Harbor Blvd.

Being young and antsy from excitement, my Mom would play a game of who could spot the Matterhorn first to quiet us down those last few miles... Anaheim was still all orange groves except for a few outpost buildings... one of which was the "Wonder Bowl" bowling alley, just a block west of the old West street, on the north side of the road.

Eventually I figured out that when I saw the "Wonder Bowl" sign, the Matterhorn would always appear a second later... and that gave me the edge to always win the game and spot the mountain first.

[Alice's Wonderland]

I remember going into the Magicland gift shop and my mom telling me I could have one thing, but it could be anything I wanted. And I picked a little mermaid keychain that I still have! I loved that store!