Sunday, August 16, 2009

Disneyland in Black and White, 1959

A few months ago I posted some nice photos of a family having a good time at Knott's Berry Farm (take a look here if you want to). Today I am sharing some of their snapshots from Disneyland.

Here mom and the kids posing in front of a teepee in the old Indian village. Junior is squinting in the sunlight the way I did in 90 percent of my childhood photos. Mom and junior still have their Guided Tour stickers, sis seems to have removed hers.


Sis is getting safely strapped onto her Pack Mule... mom is there as well, but apparently junior opted out of this ride. Behind them you can see a Conestoga Wagon; this would be the last few months of that attraction's existence. They were discontinued when Nature's Wonderland was added!


Poor dad, didn't he go on ANY rides? Here is the terrible trio in their spinning teacup; the crazy designs on the sides of the cups remind me of Rolly Crump's style, although I have no idea if he had anything to do with them.

5 comments:

Matterhorn1959 said...

Dad was too busy playing with the F stop on his camera. The little boy is very cute when he is squinting at the camera. I always wonder what the family thought of the photos when they got them back from developing?

Katella Gate said...

Iv'e often wondered about where the teacup decorations came from too. That "bent spiral" patter is pretty common for Disney in the 1950's. The Casey Jr. Depot has exactly the same styling on the roof crest rails. (although I think it shows up better in the concept sketches for the building that the actual structure).

Chiana said...

I always thought that spiral patter stuff was drawn by the Cheshire Cat. ;)

Jim said...

I can see Ward Kimball's TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM (1953) styling.

Katella Gate said...

I agree Jim. The bent spiral design reminded me of the Casey Jr. Depot roof crest (credited to Ward), which in turn was based on the depot in "Pigs is Pigs" (1953). That short has Ward's fingerprints all over it, but he's not listed in the credits. I suspect he developed a "modern" house style to answer UPA and they went with that.