In round 11 of our weekly trivia game, we asked you to name the formerly celeb-studded ski resort that was the subject of a feature cartoon. You done good, Curbediverse, and a few of you guessed correctly.
The answer is Lake Tahoe's Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, which opened in 1939 (and had the first chairlift in the Sierras). Founder and former pro skier/ski instructor/amateur yodeler Hannes Schroll, who was originally from Austria, designed the resort with Bavarian flair in honor of his homeland.
Sugar Bowl's lodge attracted Hollywood elite from Marilyn Monroe to Walt Disney (Trivia: "Psycho" star Janet Leigh was discovered at Sugar Bowl). Schroll even asked Disney to invest in his resort, but the filmmaker was out of town at the time. The two later collaborated in the 1941 Disney cartoon, "The Art of Skiing," which features Goofy learning to ski at the resort; Schroll's distinctive yodel was used in the film and became known as the "Goofy holler."
Prior to its incarnation as a glitzy ski resort on Donner Pass, the region was better known for being the site of the ill-fated (if ultimately well-fed) Donner Party.
Tune in for next week's Skispotter, and don't forget to send us your photos or ideas.
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