Friday, January 11, 2008

Disneyland circa 1970, part 2

Three more from the 70's...and what better way to start off than with this wonderful photo featuring the Matterhorn, bathed in late-afternoon light. It won't be long before the guests will be completely in shadow. I'm so used to seeing the old "bucket" type Skyway that it is a novelty to see the later boxy version. It still looks great though!


This photo of the Haunted Mansion is shocking in that there is not mad crowd waiting to get in, no long lines, in fact only a few people visible near the entrance, and it had only been open about a year. How can that be? In any case, I have always been particularly fond of Anaheim mansion's exterior...I know that the Florida version has more than a few fans (and it's nice, don't get me wrong), but I think I associate this version with the cover of the classic Haunted Mansion story record (the one with Ron Howard), and other early concepts. And that hint at "southern gothic" spookiness just makes me smile!


And finally, a canoe made from a boiled sweet glides on a chocolate river. Are those Oompa Loompas on shore? It looks like our Indian guides have been replaced by frontier explorers by this time.


(Hey "Vintage Disneyland Tickets", I looked at the slide from yesterday, and unfortunately the signs on the ticket booths are just too blurry to be legible. Sorry about that).

4 comments:

spajadigit said...

ooooh... Got any more of the mansion? I want to know if the graveyard was ever down in the queue or if that was only ever done for publicity...

Those are great! (as usual...)

Matterhorn1959 said...

I love that shot of the Matterhorn (yeah I know, go figure!) The Haunted Mansion shot is interesting as there are lots of chains and poles for the line out in front of the Mansion outside of the walls and gates. So it must have been very crowded at times.

Tony said...

Great shots - always enjoy visiting your site.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Hey Major, Thanks for trying with scanning those ticket prices! I guess not many folks took close-ups of the ticket booth prices.

This is a great series, it's the Disneyland I remember as a child, thanks so much!