Monday, November 06, 2006

Going Through the Matterhorn, July 1962


Thanks to the wonders of Photoshop, I was able to bring a group of badly damaged slides "back to life" so that I can share them with you. I love this great view of the Skyway buckets as they head into the Matterhorn...I have other slides that are like this, but none of them give the "you are there" feeling as much as this one does. The massive structure with its wonderful rock work, waterfalls and foliage all add up to an amazing attraction, the very first peak in Disneyland's "mountain range". I wonder why we head into the mountain on the "left side of the road"? Is it because the Skyway was imported from Germany?

Like most things at the park, the Matterhorn doesn't feel quite as enormous as it did when I was a kid. Crows sitting on the snowy upper reaches help to destroy some of the forced perspective (either that, or those are big crows!). And it seems like the waterfalls are often not all working. But this was the first roller coaster I ever went on, and it is still a great ride 47 years after it opened.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Howdy Major and thanks for saving this beautiful slide from the scrap heap. I can't think of any reason why the buckets advance on the left. German roads and trains have been right drive for at least 100 years, and I can't think how left-advance bucket movement would help loading/unloading in the stations. The traction wheels will turn clockwise when seen from above, but that doesn't seem vital either.

Regarding the non-functional waterfalls, during the darkest days of Pressler, I used to wonder how long it would take before some bright boy in accounting went public with the "fact" that Disney could save millions of dollars in the electric costs if they just shut off the electricity-hungry waterfalls. After all, what's magic about oversized garden hoses anyway?

Matterhorn1959 said...

Great slide. I love the early Matterhorn slides (of course) showing the bare mountain before they moved the snow line down.

thepicklebarrel said...

INCREDIBLE shot!!!

i just added to your matterhorn goodness on my blog...

patrick...that snow line drop has been one of my big complaints for YEARS!

it ruins the whole effect of forced perspective...and they just don't get it!

Adam Hazlett said...

Maybe those are BIG condors! ;)

Merlinsguy said...

How about a before photoshop and after photoshop comparison?