Collectible Decoder Cards
The simple translation guide for the weary tourist
This is the first publicly distributed, or 'Tan' decoder card.
It was distributed to guests at the Adventureland Marquee of the attraction entrance just under the sign where castmembers check for the original height restriction of 48 inches against the crate mounted with a stone cobra to which a child should come up to the pair of sharp fangs (why the snake was later de-fanged was a predictable no brainer.)The next ones were white, and about the size of passports and used at the castmember and press preview events. A large stamp in the shape of the amulet of Mara was used inside the front cover to insure that each passport holder could ride only once during these exclusive and popular events.
If the guest had an unstamped passport they were allowed in the queue and the passport was stamped immediately after disembarking.
Opening day saw a special event pass/decoder that hung 'round the neck and had a spinning wheel to expose the plaintext letter within the eye under the disk.
Merf! and Yert! According to Maurice and Pinky.
That special decoder was followed by the 'Tan' one you see above and at the beginning of these pages which has 'Know the Code dial 10-ATT' on the back.
The next was the 'Red' one. On the front is the troop transport crossing the rope bridge over the molten lava filled pit of bubbling death with rats cowering and leaping from the rope on the right. On the back was 1 800 CALL ATT for collect calls'.
It occurs to me, and this is unverified, that the decoder card would have remained the same if it weren't for the need to update the backs. When the attraction opened the sponsor's main push in advertising was a response to changes in long distance access. They wanted to recapture lost long distance revenues that were being eaten away by new "10 access" competitors.
But then federal regulations changed and telephone users needed to dial "10-10-" to select an alternate long distance carrier. Then, the focus of the market changed with competition from "1-800-COLLECT" so the sponsor of the Indiana Jones Adventure, AT&T, decided to update the backs once again to "1-800-CALL-ATT". When their attraction sponsorship contract ran out. AT&T provided the cards to each guest any longer. Disneyland suddenly became easier to clean.
Future Adventurer
Stickers were also placed on the youths who were too short to ride and parents were handed a
Child Switch
pass
allowing one parent to walk the queue while the other waited and watched the children until the first came out. Then one or two would use the pass by walking into the exit. This allows the parents to enjoy the adventure while the children remained safe. The stickers were only a consolation for having to wait without riding.
Exit
Passes
were handed to those guests who had been in line or riding the attraction and decided not to wait for another ride when, on increasingly rarer occasions, the attraction would E-stop and guests would be walked off and the wait to "clean up" and restart the attraction was more than a half hour or so.
Badge or Button.
Although this is technically a pin-backed badge, I still refer to them colloquially as buttons. This is the only thing on this page that was for sale, $1.50 in 1995 in the Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost. Everything else on this page was selectively distributed at no charge.
<8=o)--BACK-- to Journal.
The Wizard of Indiana Jones
