BACKSTORY (July 17, 1955—Present): Select from the choices below to see photographs from your favorite Disneyland parades and fireworks shows, including Main Street Electrical Parade, Soundsational, Christmas Fantasy Parade, America on Parade, and Circus on Parade.
Cox Pilot worked at the Flight Circle in Tomorrowland and has many great memories about his time at Disneyland. Look for his other columns, sprinkled throughout the Disneyland pages on my site. Cox Pilot makes another great contribution with this information about Zorro (Guy Williams) and his stallion.
Another "animal" I came in close contact with was Zorro's black stallion, Diablo. I come from a horse background and we owned a horse ranch in Texas for quite awhile. Zorro’s stallion was a real monster and a true stallion (no gelding there) and very difficult to control. They had it in a parade (maybe around '61 or '62?) and four guys had to control the horse with lead lines from all four corners with a special bit, while Guy Williams road down Main street. I was sure he was going to end up on the cobble stones. He was a good rider.
BACKSTORY (July 1975—Sept. 1976): This tribute to America’s 200th Birthday featured more than 150 performers and a number of favorite patriotic songs, such as “Yankee Doodle,” “Oh Susannah,” “In the Good Old Summertime,” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” An original 1890 automatic band organ named “Sadie Mae” provided the base melodies for the parade.
BACKSTORY (Jan. 11, 1990—Nov. 18, 1990):As part of the park's 35 Anniversary, The Party Gras parade graced Main Street U.S.A. with an elaborate mix of over 150 singers, dancers, and stiltwalkers. Souvenir beads and coins were tossed to guests on the sidelines.
The following photos were submitted to Daveland by Ted Topping, who had the fortune of being at Disneyland on March 18, 2007 for the 40th Anniversary of POTC. He and his partner had a prime spot for the afternoon performance of Parade of Dreams. The Grand Marshalls were Alice Davis, X. Atencio (note the mis-spelling on the car sign), Harriet Burns, Blaine Gibson, and Bob Gurr. This particular photo is special to Ted; X. Atencio saw that he was attempting to photograph the group, and he started to wave. Ted rushed his first shot, so X. Atencio held the pose until Ted could properly get set up. Definitely a legendary man in more ways than one. Thanks Ted for sharing these fantastic images!