Chapter 8 Everything Old is New Again Page 1 Kingdom Continentals

Really even before the first Continental size postcards for Epcot Center were printed the days of the standard size postcard were numbered. In fact you could even possibly argue that with all the attention being paid to and preparation made for the opening of Epcot, possibly the move to Continentals was made later than it would have been otherwise. Just as a conjecture of a "for instance" , one of the preparations that might needed to have been made before the size of post cards could be changed was the replacement of the existing racks for the display of post cards. With the central shops being so busy fabricating things for Epcot this might have needed to go far down on a long list of things that needed to be done. But the fact remained that most of the post cards being printed in the USA had already moved over to continental size before WDW changed over their cards. For anyone who is wondering what the heck I am talking about here a Continental sized post card is 4 inches by 6 inches, other than Epcot's postcards, and a few 5 X 7 cartoon cards all the WDW postcards issued up until 1985 were what is called "standard" size which is 3½ x 5½ which can be a bit confusing to new collectors of postcards today as the "standard" size of postcards today seems to be 4 x 6 (continental).

With the issuing of a whole new line of postcards with the vast majority of the photos being new views (a list of the repeated views is further down this page) you can see more clearly how the focus of postcards had changed over the years at WDW. When WDW first opened the first series of postcards focused on the facilities and attractions with relatively few character views, which were added as time went on. In this series, however, there were many character views from the time the series was first issued.
MAGIC KINGDOM ENTRANCE AND MAIN STREET
0100-11009 GATEWAY TO THE MAGIC KINGDOM

Now, on looking at his card you may be saying to yourself, "just wait one minute, I thought you said this series was almost all new views". If you are saying that, take a closer look at the card this card reminds you of. I suggest right clicking on the link and using the "open in new window option". You will see an image that looks very similar to this one but pick a few details... which monorail is in the picture, for instance, or weather or not the ship has a wake, then compare it to the card pictured above, yes they are different after all.

0100-11008 WALT DISNEY WORLD STEAM RAILROAD

The train pictured at the station above is number 3 the Roger E Brogie

0100-11005 MAIN STREET, U.S.A.

From the costume the cast member is wearing, I'd say that is one of the Dapper Dans on the right side of the trolley.

0100-11007 FANTASY IN THE SKY

Much like the image of the Magic Kingdom's entrance this card has a very similar card in a previous series.

Cards with images repeated from previous series

0100-11004 MAIN STREET ELECTRICAL PARADEsame as standard size 0111-0222
0100-11006 THE CRYSTAL PALACEsame as standard size 0111-0257
0100-11202 SPACE MOUNTAINsame as standard size 0111-0369
0100-11301 JUNGLE CRUISEsame as standard size 0100-11300
0100-11303 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEANsame as standard size 0100-10355
0100-11502 THE HAUNTED MANSION (nighttime view)same as standard size 0100-11224
0100-11700 FAIRY-TALE CASTLEsame as standard size 01110203

Let's See That Again

In addition to these six cards listed above, several views in this series seem to be attempts to make new images that look very similar to previous ones, for instance, the "Gateway to the Magic Kingdom", and "Fantasy in the Sky" cards featured on this page. Other cards took this even further, at least three cards in this series seem to be images taken at the same photo session but printed many years apart. Every item in these two photos is in the exact same location, these two images could even be from the same negative just cropped, and processed differently (to account for the difference in brightness of certain colors).

Left: standard size 0100-10226 THE HAUNTED MANSION Right cont.: 0100-11504 HAUNTING REFRAIN

Another card pair that seems, at first glance, to have done this same thing is the image of Pinocchio, Gideon, and Foulfellow seen below. Although there had been a newer pose of these characters in the last standard cards, this series reprinted the earlier image (re cropped) all the way back from the mid 70's. For a long time I thought maybe these were from the same negative, the thing that finally showed me that these two images are from the same session but not the same frame is J. Worthington Foulfellow's (the fox) cane. Put yourself in the position of the fellow holding that cane in that pose during that photo session, wouldn't your arm get tired after a while? Look at the square white section of Tudor style wall behind his cane in one image it is bisected nearly in half by his cane in the other there is one corner that is a fair bit smaller and the other side of the square is much larger Still, with ten years between the releases of these cards, these guys did a very good job of holding their pose!
01110246

0100-11611

One other new card in this series seems to have been taken at the same photo session as a card from a previous series. These two cards are so similar it took me a while to realize their differences. It was not until I realized that in the older card spire on the top of the Tiki room was higher on the card than the lamp next to it, and that on the later card the top of the lamp was higher than the spire, that I was sure that these were not the same image. Then I thought that maybe they had just tried to repose the previous post card when they came out with the continental sized cards until I noticed their similarities, look at King Louies foot, his right foot (which is on our left...unless you are looking at your monitor upside down ). Protruding from the under side of that foot the inside of his right foot is a small stick or leaf pointing towards his other foot... on both cards, this is enough confirmation for me that these two images were taken at the same photo session, just from slightly different angles!

left standard: 0100-10245 Right cont.: 0100-11619

E-mail Me martsolf@mindspring.com

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Last modified by Brian K Martsolf at 3:15 PM on 7/8/2004