A treasure trove of family snapshots from our visits to the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in 1973 and the mid-1970s. The place has changed so much it’ll blow your mind.
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Erasing Lefcourt: Historic Art Deco ceiling ripped out of 1928 building

The loss of the glorious Art Deco ceiling of Manhattan’s Lefcourt Clothing Center is just another loss in the rags-to-riches-to-oblivion tale of Lefcourt himself.
The polite omissions of James Buchanan’s Wheatland tour

James Buchanan was a lousy president and probably loved another man. What does the museum at his home in Lancaster, PA, have to say?
A Walt Disney World guidebook for the rest of us

Most of the other Disney guides seemed to be crypto-valentines. The market was missing a guide to Walt Disney World written for the way most of us react to the resort.
Mystery solved! The grave smiley Samaritan steps forward

It seems the mystery of “Who’s leaving smiley faces beside celebrity graves” has been solved, and the answer is rather beautiful in its guilelessness:
Lovely luncheon by General Worth’s tomb

Near the northwest corner of Madison Square Park, in an concrete traffic triangle bordered by Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 25th Street, a squat obelisk is encircled by an iron fence. You’ll never believe what lies inside.
Hatch Show Print in Nashville: iconic style, letter by letter [WATCH]

You may not know the name Hatch Show Print, but you know the style. Its block letters are visually synonymous with Nashville and country music history. I was lucky enough to be invited behind the scenes, and my video shows just how damn cool it is.
How James Dean crashed: his death site [WATCH]

Despite the fact this road is in the middle of a mule’s ass, miles from any town, it positively pounds with speeding, heedless traffic criss-crossing the junction. I have rarely felt less secure on a rural highway. When you pull over, the passing cars are going so blazingly fast your whole vehicle shudders. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Disney Legend Bob Gurr on creating his Disneyland rides

“Since Walt wanted the Matterhorn Bobsleds to open in just over a year later, along with a Submarine Voyage, a larger Autopia, and a Monorail, he asked if it could be built faster. He asked me to design a bobsled and two track layouts. He asked Arrow Development, Walt’s favorite outside manufacturer, to find a way. Arrow said bent up pipe would be the quickest way, thus it turned out to be the world’s first steel pipe coaster. See, Walt would know all about the various manufacturing possibilities and wound up inventing something new, just to get the attraction he wanted.”
‘Scottsboro Boys’ protest: It Ain’t No Minstrel Show

Today was the only time I have ever had to cross a protest line to see a musical. As I approached the Lyceum Theatre on 45th Street for today’s matinée of The Scottsboro Boys, I could see the shapes of banners, and I could hear a chant emerge from the noise around Times Square: Scottsboro… Read more »