Extinct Attractions at Disney Theme Parks

by Chris Ware, Bob McLain (Editor)

A Disney theme park is always changing. Sometimes, those changes lead to the extinction of favorite shows and attractions. In "dig sites" around the world, Disney archaeologist Chris Ware has unearthed all of the lost magic. This is a Disney you will never see again! On the heels of his best-selling Disney Unbuilt , in which he chronicled the many shows and attractions Disney intended to build but never did, Ware now turns to the equally numerous shows and attractions that Disney did build...but which didn't last. From former favorites like the Mike Fink Keel Boats and River Country, to forgotten obscurities like Lucky the Dinosaur and the Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow, you'll go where the E-tickets don't work in this unique field guide of past Disney splendor.

186 pages, Paperback

Published September 7, 2017

About the author

Chris Ware is an American cartoonist acclaimed for redefining the visual and narrative possibilities of the graphic novel, known especially for his long-running Acme Novelty Library series and major works including Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, Building Stories, and Rusty Brown. His work is distinguished by its emotional depth, frequently exploring loneliness, memory, regret, and the quieter forms of pain that shape ordinary lives, rendered with extreme visual precision, intricate page designs, and a style that evokes early twentieth-century American illustration, advertising, and architecture. Raised in Omaha and later based in the Chicago area, Ware first attracted attention through his strips for The Daily Texan, where an invitation from Art Spiegelman to contribute to Raw helped encourage him toward an ambitious, self-publishing approach that would define his career. Acme Novelty Library disrupted conventions of comic book production in both format and tone, presenting characters such as Quimby the Mouse and later Rusty Brown in narratives that blend autobiography, satire, and psychological portraiture. Building Stories further expanded his formal experimentation, released as a boxed set of interconnected printed pieces that require the reader to assemble meaning from varied physical formats. Ware’s artistic influences range from early newspaper cartoonists like Winsor McCay and Frank King to the collage and narrative play of Joseph Cornell, and he has spoken about using typography-like logic in his drawing to mirror the fragmented, associative way memory works. His practice remains largely analog, relying on hand drawing and careful layout, though he uses computers for color preparation. Ware has also been active as an editor, designer, and curator, contributing to volumes reprinting historic comic strips, serving as editor of The Best American Comics 2007, and organizing exhibitions such as UnInked at the Phoenix Art Museum. His work has extended into multimedia collaborations, including illustrated documentary materials for This American Life and visual designs for film posters, book covers, and music projects. His later projects include The Last Saturday, serialized online for The Guardian, and Monograph, a retrospective volume combining autobiography with archival material. Widely recognized for his influence, Ware’s books have received numerous honors, including multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards, and Jimmy Corrigan became the first graphic novel to win the Guardian First Book Award. He has exhibited at major institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and his contributions to the medium have led many peers and critics to regard him as one of the most significant cartoonists of his generation.

Reviews

[Shari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had potential but there were so many spelling, grammatical, and incorrect facts that I ended up mostly getting annoyed. I'm actually shocked it had an editor at all, it read a little bit like a first draft without even spell check. 3.5 rounded down to 3. Big Thunder Disneyland was inspired by Bryce Canyon, not Zion. It opened in 1979, not 1973.

[Lisa Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah. The writing was not good. Lots of grammar and usage mistakes that were distracting. The same wording of descriptions were used over and over and over and.....you get it.

Disappointed.

[Michael Hartnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Discoveries in Loss
Extinct Attractions at Disney Theme Parks by Chris Ware chronicles all the ideas and visions – some great and some rotten – that Disney has abandoned. Yes, as Ware points out, many of those concepts evolved into a form more suitable for contemporary sensibilities, rather than land completely on the scrap heap (a fate consigned most pointedly to canoes, keel boats, and other quaint watercraft). However, the larger overarching understanding the reader can glean from this smart and thorough examination is that Extinct Attractions at Disney Theme Parks serves as a compendium for the changing tastes of Disney and, by extension, America.
Especially at Disneyland with its six decades of history, the sheer volume of changes is head spinning. If we just follow the projects at Disney sponsored by the chemical giant Monsanto – a Hall of Chemistry, Fashions and Fabrics through the Ages, House of the Future, Adventure through Inner Space – Ware offers a narrative of how we perceived our bodies, how we clothed them, how we sheltered them, and how we might transform the entire environment within and around them.
Ware has fun looking back at some of the failed attractions over the years. He describes the Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow: “It featured gold-plated fixtures, bidet, telephone, air conditioning, dumbbells, ceramic poodle, and a hot-water boiler. While you may be able to blame the terrible taste on the time period, even guests felt the future didn’t look so good in this bathroom.” Hollywood-Maxwell’s Intimate Apparel Shop, which opened in 1955 and closed the following year, was a particularly surprising addition to the wholesome and conservative Disney universe, offering such features as the mechanical Wizard of Bras who recounts undergarment history and the displays of fully dressed women stripped down to their underwear in the blink of an eye. In retrospect, such choices read like parodies of Disney attractions. Yet even ideas that seem ill-fated could have a long run, like the Pack Mule rides that lasted from the park’s opening in 1955 to 1973. As Ware explains, “The one thing that you hear from former cast members who worked at the attraction is how terrible the experience could be. A single pack mule could hold up everyone else if it just didn’t feel like moving any further.”
Many of the closed rides follow an evolutionary arc, like the Rainbow Caverns Mine Train which changed its name in 1960 to the Mine Train through Nature Wonderland (and featured more than 200 simple animal animatronics) and would close down in 1977 to make way to its natural successor, the Big Thunder Railroad. Other iconic rides at Disney World have been lost in time, like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White’s Adventures, and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. While the elimination of these rides may speak to changing tastes, the shifts in attractions at Epcot serve more as barometers to emerging technologies and the greater desire for blockbuster rides, leading to the shuttering of pavilions like the Wonders of Life and Horizons. As Ware explained about the loss of one Epcot ride, “World of Motion was humorous and popular, but Epcot needed thrill rides so in 1996, it was replaced with Test Track.”
Near the opening of Extinct Attractions at Disney Theme Parks, Ware writes “Welcome to the land of the lost.” Yeah, but he also takes us to a land of discovery. In this well researched, thoughtful book, Ware shows the reader that we can learn as much about both Disney and America from what has been taken away as from what has been added.

[Chrissi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m finally freeeeee

SLOOOOW as molasses. Like reading a textbook. No pictures which I could overlook, but also no sources cited for ANYTHING, which I cannot. Entries are inconsistent, not in any order and with incomplete information (for example, a closing date but no opening date). Incorrect information that could’ve been verified with a simple google search. Very weird comments and personal opinions. Claiming the hula is Tahitian and that “canoes may be a novelty to Chinese people” is not only bad writing and research it’s also borderline racist. Poorly organized and extremely poorly edited. It was a pain to finish.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read if you like Disney history.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and getting a sense of the rides that came and went before my Disney time. I thought the book was really well organized and easy to get through.