The Return of Mr. Lincoln and a Mini Trip Report

I’m going to try and contain myself, but I really can’t go on enough about what an amazing return Mr. Lincoln has made to the Opera House at Disneyland, USA.

This “refurbishment” of Mr. Lincoln is remarkable in many ways. First, it’s the most true to the original show I’ve seen since 1968. From Paul Frees’ stunning narration to Mr. Lincoln standing up from his chair and giving me goose-bumps, it’s all there. The classy treatment of the pre show area was unexpected and more than welcome by this Disneyland and Mr. Lincoln fan. The technical updates to the Audio Anamatinic Abe would make Walt proud indeed; I bet he’s say, “Fix up the rest of the old ones too would ya”.

This is how the Opera House looked on Thursday, lets not get into how upset I was that it was not open. I spoke to two WED guys and they said it would be closed all day but open for certain on Friday. I also saw Tony Baxter rushing into the Opera House at about 8:30am, moments later I heard the sound track playing inside!







All better on Friday. There was a decent crowd inside; the theater was ½ to ¾ full during each of the three shows I watched.






The preshow area looks so nice, hopefully someone with a better camera can get some interior shots, my camera can’t handle the lighting (which is stellar). This model of the capital is made from marble; at least I think that’s what it said.








This looks much nicer in person.






“To the Bat-Poles Robin”!






A few landscape painting are on the south wall, nice touch.








There is a “Spirits of America” theme throughout the preshow area and the exit area, both well done and tasteful.






Again, my $39 digital camera is very confused with the multi thousand dollar lighting in the preshow area, but you get the idea – this Spirits Case is magnificent.






Here’s a few of the “Spirit” sculptures; Disney either spent some serious $$$ or these are great plaster props.










Tony Baxter’s ticket case had a few updated tickets but was oddly missing a Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln ticket? I fixed that problem for my photo, but Tony, I’ve got several versions of Mr. Lincoln tickets, I’d be glad to donate them all to the case, seriously.






Look who’s hanging out just outside the preshow area. I wonder how much they would sell for on eBay?






No photos of Abe himself, camera's are not allowed in the theater. I will be honest with my readers; I brought my video camera with me with the intent of taping the show, it never occurred to me you couldn’t film it. I think its better that way, first, it kept everyone’s attention on the show and second, you need to just go see this show for yourself.


The exit area has been redone in the “Spirit” theme, I like it.






I over heard at least half a dozen guests laugh out loud about Miley Cyrus being grouped with Elvis and Michael Jackson (Did you hear Captain EO is coming back in February 2010!!!)














Let’s take a quick look around the park. Nice sky, this is actually Thursday, not Friday.






Also Thursday, I wanted to get this show with mimium people (not possible Friday) to compare it to the 1977 photo from a recent post on Stuff From the Park - it looks pretty much the same.






The rest of the photos are from Friday. In a recent Magazine Monday post we saw Uncle Sam in the Penny Arcade in 1966, looks like he is still there.






Is 300 good?






This vintage scale and I have become good friends, he gets a dime on each trip and keeps me honest.






This is the reason we are taking a quick look around the park. The more I see the park on the slow days the less I can tolerate days like this.






Tiana’s Showboat show was excellent, well, the last 2 minutes anyway.






The Main Street Cinema is about to close for a refurbishment.






There are at least three different colors of paint under the many layers. Why does this fascinate me?






More paint layers of History. I bet you could find old photos and “date the paint”.






As I was leaving I noticed a sudden “presence” of security as I neared town square, they were casual, yet many more of them than usual. Then I see these folks standing right in front of the Emporium passing out papers? At first I just walked by and noticed they only handled papers to guests who showed an interest, so I went back and said “I’ll take one”. It’s a flyer that looks like it’s from Disney about H1N1, but its not, its some union stuff and has a web link to a non-friendly Disney site? I was pretty amazed Disney lets this happen or were they about to stop it? There were at least three people in the area doing this; you can see one more in my photo. I’ll listen to any grievance you have, but doing it from the steps of the Emporium on Main Street at Disneyland USA is not cool. I'm not going to post the flyer, if you want a copy contact me.

Someone asked recently if the canons in Town Square are from France, I’d say “Yes”.






Wow, what a beautiful horse.






Nice original attraction posters surround the Opera House.






Some amazing winter day we had here in Anaheim, it must have been a frigid 80 degrees. You could tell the folks from out of town, they're the ones in jackets.






You know it’s getting packed when they put up this sign, last time I saw that was on July 17th.






In the area between the security tents and the trams you now have the Venice Beach Boardwalk, I guess that’s some California Adventure for you!







How about a few quick videos? Here's some close ups of the turn styles at the Main Street Cinema.

The Disneyland Band not getting the respect they should!

Very catchy tune and what an amazing sound system the river has!