But when he got too close to the end of the stage, he fell off the end.
The star of the long-running NBC comedy wasn't joking when he went down. In fact, he uttered a word that the censors would have bleeped. But after brushing himself off, Grammer apologized for his language and finished the end of his routine.
"I'll finish this," he said. "Then I'll take a look at what I've done to my body."
Grammer wasn't seriously hurt in the fall.
The 50th anniversary of Disneyland brings back a lot of memories. My family has had annual passes to the park since shortly after Mrs. HolyCoast became Mrs. HolyCoast, and it is a frequent haunt of the four of us.
You probably don't know this, but I'm a Disneyland alumni. I celebrated a previous anniversary as a part of the park staff. The scary thing is it was the 20th anniversary in 1975. I was one of those white-clad sweepers who spent the shift picking up after the tourists.
My territory was the Haunted Mansion, which meant I patrolled the area from the New Orleans Square train station to the edge of what was then called Bear Country. Five days a week from 1:30pm to 10:30 pm. Back then once the sun went down that side of the park got very peaceful. There was no Splash Mountain or Fantasmic to crowd up the place.
Things have changed in 30 years. Here's just a partial list of things that have changed at Disneyland since I worked there:
- California Adventure was just part of the parking lot
- The Mine Train is now Thunder Mountain
- Space Mountain was a big hole in the ground. Construction started right after I did.
- Country Bear Jamboree was the most exciting thing in Bear Country (now Critter Country). The singing bears have been replaced by Winnie-the-Pooh.
- Toontown was just part of the backlot.
- Tomorrowland included such attractions as the People Mover, Journey Through Inner Space, Mission to Mars, America Sings, the Skyway, the 360 degree Circlevision Theater, the Submarines, and the Tomorrowland Theater, all of which are now gone. The People Mover was removed to make way for Rocket Rods, a ride which proved too complicated even for the Imagineers. Now the track stands as a monument to the old days. Star Tours occupies the old Journey Through Inner Space spot. Space Mountain replaced the theater and Mission to Mars, and Innovention is now housed in the America Sings building. The former characters from America Sings are now in Splash Mountain. The Circlevision Theater, and later Rocket Rods, how now been replaced by a new Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The Rocket Jets were moved from atop the People Mover tower to a position at the entrance to Tomorrowland. The Submarines were shut down, though there is talk of a new Finding Nemo-themed ride over there. The Autopia has been greatly expanded and now takes up quite a chunk of the area.
- The Fantasyland rides are basically the same as they were, with the exception of the Fantasyland boats which were shut down years ago. The whole area underwent a major update in 1983. The Skyway to Tomorrowland was closed after some idiot managed to fall out of it. The walkway that now runs from Fantasyland to Frontierland (back behind Thunder Mountain) wasn't there, and has now become a favorite hand-out for Goths and smokers.
- Pirates of the Caribbean was not politically correct, and the Swiss Family Robinson still had their treehouse. It now belongs to Tarzan.
- You could shoot the hippos on the Jungle Cruise. A few years ago they stopped that, but recently started doing it again. I guess they realized the ride didn't work without it.
- Indiana Jones was just an overgrown area along the Jungle Cruise, and there was a Hawaiian show where Aladdin now hangs out.
- Both Mr. Lincoln and the Tiki Room have been updated. Mr. Lincoln no longer jerks uncontrollably at times, and the birds don't clank anymore.
- Many parades have come and gone. The Main Street Electrical Parade was retired, only to be resurrected at California Adventure in an effort to boost attendance. It's just not the same.
I'm sure I'll think of other things right after I post this. I do remember one thing we did when I was working there. There was an afternoon parade and part of my assignment was the post-parade cleanup. The last couple of units in the parade were mountains that blew confetti all over the place, and our job was to precede the big vacuums with brooms and sweep all the confetti into the streets so the vacuums could pick it up. I always thought it was kind of silly, but that's the way Disney does stuff.
It was a fun way to make very little money that summer, and with all the walking in hot weather, I've probably never been in better shape. If you think of other things that have changed since 1975, send them to me and I'll post them in an update later.
UPDATE: I knew I'd think of something else. One of the biggest changes since 1975 was the elimination of the A, B, C, D & coveted E tickets. Back then folks could buy entry into the park for a few dollars, but it didn't include any of the rides. I know some folks who would do that just to go in and have dinner.If you wanted to go on rides, you could either buy tickets individually, or buy books of tickets with certain numbers of each one. The E tickets would get you on the biggest and best rides, like the Matterhorn, Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Carribean, while the lesser valued tickets would get you the other stuff. Everytime we came home from Disneyland we would have a bunch of leftover A, B & C tickets, but none of the D's and E's.
They also had the gold Magic Key tickets which would get you on any ride. You only got those if you bought tickets through some type of employee group. If you had those, you were rich indeed.
Disney's addition of annual passes, along with the elimination of the ticket books, have opened the park up to many thousands of local folks like us who often show up just to walk around or have dinner.
If I think of other things, I'll update this post again.
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