Disneyland decorating: ATTRACTION POSTER WALLPAPER!!!

This past Wednesday, the Disneyland Hotel completed the new FRONTIER (land) Tower. In it's lobby is a nice 1/4"= 1' scale model of Big Thunder Mountain RR. Continuing the Frontierland theme right into the restrooms is ATTRACTION POSTER WALLPAPER!!!

This isn't the first time I've seen attraction poster wallpaper however. Wally Boag's daughter's boyfriend showed me some pictures of a spare bathroom Wally Boag and he wallpapered  with REAL 1950's/60's attraction posters! (yes--I cringed too!) They trimmed posters up and  collaged them together creating what I though would be the only use of Disneyland attraction poster wallpaper --until a few days ago.

If you started to cry at the thought of real attraction posters being cut up for a 1970's home-improvement project, then you probably don't want to hear this: The Disneyland staff shop used to take attraction posters for rides that were no longer existing and tear sections from them so that sawdust and scraps could be swept into  the torn sections like a dust pan!!! Thank GOD Disneyland was thinking green and recycling back then!! What else do you do with stacks and stacks of unusable poster for Flying Saucers, Space Station X-1, Casa De Fritos, Carousel of Progress, Rocket to the Moon, Nature's Wonderland,Tahitian Terrace, Rainbow Caverns etc...........Well, you can do what the Disneyland paint shop did: use old attraction posters as paint drip cloths or masking off things. Yup. Is everyone cringing again?

Well, one more attraction poster cringe: The Disney Attraction Poster Book by Disney Editions.........has had it's delivery date pushed to Spring of 2012!

DISNEYLAND'S NEW GENERATION III STAR TOURS POSTER DEBUTS!!!!

This past week yet another NEW attraction poster for Disneyland went on display. There hasn't been this much attraction poster "action" at Disneyland since the early 1980's!! STAR TOURS 2011 became the 3rd version of a Disneyland Star Tours attraction poster.

Another interesting note is that this is Disneyland's SECOND PRE-OPENING attraction poster!........I'll let readers of this blog guess what was the only other attraction to feature a pre-opening version........any guesses????? (Sorry Jason S. you can't play since we already discussed this!!)

This is Disneyland's second version of the Star Tours attraction poster. It uses artwork developed for Disneyland Paris & Tokyo Disneyland. It's amazing to know that this is a screened poster!------the layers ink and the craftsmanship used to create this poster is stunning, and I think Walt would have been proud. This was produced under the direction of WED/WDI graphic master, RUDY LORD. For you collectors.....there are a few variants of this --some without Disneyland screened on........and some  with  M&M  (MARS CANDY) Sponsor --but no one has a version with Disneyland and Tomorrowland on it because none were produced!!

Above is the raw art for Disneyland's first Star Tours poster of 1987.  Tim Delaney of WDI painted the original and the final poster was lithographed (not screened) for use at the park. Delaney created this out of shear love of his work: You see there was NO money left in the budget for a attraction poster and Tim Delaney said he wasn't going to let Star Tours opening without it's own poster, so he painted it himself!!!! I bet Disneyland was grateful that he did since it appears on some of the earliest Star Tours merchandise.