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Not AM....Tokyo Disneyland

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Topic: Not AM....Tokyo Disneyland
Posted By: Dances with AutoMags
Subject: Not AM....Tokyo Disneyland
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2014 at 3:37pm

 

The magistrate’s wife had her arm torn off at the shoulder when we first saw her.  She was crying, “No no no Carlos, don’t tell him nothing.”  Her arm was swinging from one of the two shutters she opens.  Tim and I had to shut down Pirates of the Caribbean so we could fix her and a pirate with a broken wrist who was shooting himself in the foot.  We were asked to review the shows and shut them down if need be.  This was the first week of the soft opening of Tokyo Disneyland and the park was open, but not a maintenance person was to be found.  I contacted show control on the intercom system and asked them to stop running Pirates for the day.  The show stopped but the audio continued on a loop.

After we repaired the two figures we walked out into the park to find it was dark and abandoned.   Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho was still playing in my head.  We had lost track of time and needed to get back to the offices to catch the last bus back into Tokyo.  Tim reminded me that the bus schedule had been changed during the soft opening and the last bus would be leaving the offices at 7:30 p.m.   We had over an hour to kill. 

We walked around the empty Tokyo Disneyland and commented that this park was ours.  Not a soul was to be seen including the TDLPD.   Except for Space Mountain we could go into and run any show we wanted to.  Our small bunch of MAPO employees got over 90% of the show items in the park working and were responsible for all of them.  Bruce, Bob, Tim, Glen, Eric, Werner, Tom and I were done and everything was working.  We were supposedly not responsible for the shows anymore but even during the soft opening we were still doing some maintenance.  

The installation work was done and the shows were running.   Now for some reason Disney started sending a large number of people to TDL.  A lot of people from the recently opened EPCOT arrived.   Except for the operations people, the rest had nothing to do.  I sometimes thought that maybe they got a trip to Tokyo as a kind of a company bonus.  A full size bus was now needed to shuttle the growing number of Disney people staying in the Imperial Hotel.  We would be taking the smaller 20 seat bus back into Tokyo tonight. 

We climbed up onto some rockwork along the Rivers of America.  We sat there in the twilight overseeing the empty and dark Tokyo Disneyland as I smoked a Cuban cigar.  This was our park for now, but not for long. 



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An armed society is a polite society.



Replies:
Posted By: tgt40
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2014 at 2:52pm
Cool!  Sounds like you had a good time but I did laugh at having to "whoa whoa whoa" and get the story straight on  the magistrate's wife.......

Sounds like a great adventure.


Posted By: Dances with AutoMags
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2014 at 4:39pm

I just released this new book and am now looking for a distributor.  I feel that the efforts of the people who actually built and installed the shows at Disney needed some recognition.  The engineers and artists have annual back slapping dinners where they congratulate each other and won't allow the "installers" to attend.  We were said to be "violent union thugs."  Toho Studios in Japan and MAPO in Glendale and Florida built Tokyo Disneyland and this is the story.  This is not an Auto Mag book, but if you know someone who is a Disney fan or you just like a good story.......
 
Black Sheep in Tokyo-New Book on installing Tokyo Disneyland

A new book, Black Sheep in Tokyo, The Confessions of a Robotics Installer is about the building and installing of the robotics and animated shows at Tokyo Disneyland.  The stories are told from the standpoint of an actual hands-on installer in 1982 and 1983 about his efforts in getting the shows up and running.  Many Disney attractions are discussed including Pirates, Bear Bands, Mansion, Tiki, Mickey Mouse Review and more.  The author goes on to describe his work in installing the Horizons Pavilion at EPCOT, E.T.’s Adventure at both Universal Studios and a T. Rex at Knott’s Berry Farm.  The author goes back to Japan to install some attractions at Puroland and then off to the World’s Fair in Seville, Spain to design and install the shows in three pavilions.  Next the wiring and operation of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and The Lost World for a special effects house, Stan Winston Studio.  The book ends with the shooting of the film Lake Placid with a 33 foot long animated crocodile. 

166 pages with 18 photographs.   8.5” x 5.5” soft-cover.  Book is $14.40.  Shipping is $5.60 by USPS Priority Mail envelope to anywhere in the U.S.A. including APO’s and FPO’s.  $20 Total to Pay-Pal  account #  mailto:bestark@ix.netcom.com" rel="nofollow - bestark@ix.netcom.com
 
Thank you Ian.......I'll get your copy right out to you.......Bruce
 
PS  I'll post one of the stories from the book here in a couple of days.
 
The book "Auto Mag the Pasadena Days" is still available on eBay and GunBroker, Thanx


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An armed society is a polite society.


Posted By: Ian
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2014 at 9:38pm
I am looking forward to the book, as every one knows Bruce's books and articles are all very good and I expect this one will be no different. 

Ian 




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http://www.amtguns.net" rel="nofollow - Ian's AMT Information Page
http://www.glossover.co.uk" rel="nofollow - A little more about me - My corner of the internet


Posted By: Dances with AutoMags
Date Posted: 23 May 2014 at 3:04pm

Black sheep in Tokyo

There was a man who had just come from the States who was Disney’s castle expert.  His name was Bud and he had worked with Walt in building the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.  Bud had also worked on the Cinderella Castle at Disney World and had even made another castle for a movie.  In the movie Bud said that his castle was destroyed.  Our castle was another Cinderella Castle like the one at Disney World. 

Bud recently arrived from the States and had not yet explored Tokyo.  The Ginza was popular for shopping but most of the Disney people wanted to go to Akihabara for the electronics.  I volunteered to take Bud to see the latest in Japanese electronics.  I arrived at his apartment and we left for Akihabara.  As we walked out onto the street, Bud said something that I will never forget.  He said, “The last time I was here, I was firebombing the place.”  I had a million questions but Bud simply told me that he had been a member of Pappy Boyington’s Black Sheep Squadron.  Towards the end of the war there was a campaign of firebombing Tokyo and he had volunteered to pilot a bomber on several missions.  He said he had maps of Tokyo showing the places to avoid bombing like the Imperial Palace and religious structures like temples and statues.  

As we walked along to Akihabara, a woman came out of nowhere and rubbed Bud’s stomach.  He didn’t flinch but it wasn’t long before another woman did the same thing.  Now Bud had a rather large protruding stomach and was not a tall man.  After the second rubbing incident he insisted that we use a taxi to get where we were going.  During the rest of our outing Bud was rubbed several more times, even by some men.  He thanked me for the tour but said he would never walk the streets of Tokyo again.  

In Japan, the rubbing of a fat mans stomach is thought to bring good luck. 



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An armed society is a polite society.


Posted By: Ian
Date Posted: 08 Jun 2014 at 10:08pm
I have just finished this book and is is very interesting, Bruce has lead a life and a half, I still love the idea of a stunt cow :)

Ian  


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http://www.amtguns.net" rel="nofollow - Ian's AMT Information Page
http://www.glossover.co.uk" rel="nofollow - A little more about me - My corner of the internet


Posted By: Dances with AutoMags
Date Posted: 09 Jun 2014 at 3:18pm
Thank you Ian.
 
Thanks to all who have encouraged me to finish up the next AM book. 
It should be out around October.
Ther should be a Max Gera update and an interview with a couple of guys who worked at Super Vel.  Also included will be a chapter on "Custom Guns."  AM's made after the fact. 
 
Bruce Stark


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An armed society is a polite society.



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