Saturday, January 24, 2009

Random Saturday

Christmas is only 11 months away, so it's not too early to start celebrating. That's why I'm posting this great picture from 1956, with Vesey Walker leading the Disneyland Band down Main Street. I've seen photos of real towns from the 1950's, and they used decorations just like these at Christmas time. All of these buildings stayed pretty much the same over the years, but somehow Disneyland looks smaller in the early years. Maybe it's the trees!


This one is from August 1955, and shows the building that would hold Circarama. The door is open, and it looks like anyone could just walk in... but it doesn't appear to be ready yet. There's no sign from American Motors (sponsor of the first film, "A Tour of the West"), and "America the Beautiful" wouldn't debut until June of 1960. Compare today's photo to this one from about a year later.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didja miss a pic? Last line is "Compare today's photo to this one from about a year later." ?

ah well no matter I'm enjoying these. The Tomorrowland building sure looks forelorn, and has a bit of the 50s/early 60s hotel to it.

And the guy in the slacks reminds me of me late grandpa. He came from the midwest of the turn of the century, came to LA just like Walt... main street must've seemed similar to him. 50s were a big time in his life he never entirely left. Up to the end he still had some 50s style around including aluminum Venetian blinds and a pole lamp with lights that looked like those in the old Tomorrowland around the flight circle. I miss that, and I miss him. Gosh. Thanks as always for the pics Maj.

The Viewliner Limited said...

For some reasons I always enjoyed these buildings without the big signs on them.

I guess it is Tomorrowland and in the future you really dont need advertising on buildings.

Because you would have some kind of fancy decoder with ads on them.

Huh! A hand held device that gives you info. I'll have to work on that.

Major Pepperidge said...

Chiana, oops I forgot to put in a link to a photo that I posted in the past. Thanks for pointing it out!

Learning Spanish at 41 said...

Only 11 months? I'm already planning a trip to Disneyland for December!