Saturday, May 15, 2010

Adventureland 1956

Here are two slides from a small lot of 1956 images; they were all taken late in the day, with a sky full of rainy-looking clouds, so they tend to be somewhat dark. Still worth a look though!

Grandpa is annoyed, he wants to go on the rides and his wife keeps wanting to take his picture. She loves you, gramps! You can tell this is an early photo because of that cheesy little wire fencing around the plantings. Isn't there a body of water on either side of that walkway? What's to keep people from falling in? I guarantee it happened.


Here's another very dark slide, but that only makes the jungle feel that much more dangerous and mysterious.

8 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

Interesting that you can see the upper level of the Jungle Cruise boat house in that first pic. I've never noticed that before in an entrance-way shot.

Chiana_Chat said...

Nor I, TokyoMagic!

What is the sign on the left for? Plaza Inn? Dig the hat on Bob Dylan, in the back heading to the men's room (assuming it was there back then) to draw a line.

Hey you're right about the darkness giving that Jungle Cruise pic mood! It's moody black. That's more serious than moody blue.

And a suitable hrumph to gramps! :)

Connie Moreno said...

Looking at that little girl in the red outfit reminded me of how much I hated wearing a dress to Disneyland back in 1959. Yes, I can still remember!

Thufer said...

Connie said it before I could. The 'dress up' period of going to Disneyland was a wonderful time indeed. It was one I continued with my kids when we went to the park. If it was a multi-day visit, one day was dress up day and we all wore special Disneyland clothing to just make a sharper look and feel to our visit. It was fun and my children still remember their special Disneyland clothing.

Katella Gate said...

"Dress up" was the one thing I dreaded about Disneyland. We had to put on our Sunday Best, which was all the more awful because we never went to church and the clothes and shoes were perfectly new. Only after the kids got ready would my Mom and Dad dress themselves.

To be fair, it was a single bath house, but we still had to sit still FOR EVER on the hot, plastic-covered Betsy Ross couch. Ugh!

Major: In the 50's there was a lot of architecture featuring broad, flat walks over water without handrails. The big idea was people smart enough to beat the Nazis were smart enough to watch where they were going. The big idea was wrong, and the handrails followed after.

You see the same evolution going on at the foot of House of the Future.

Anonymous said...

I admit the idea of getting dressed up for a theme park doesn't really appeal to me, nor do I remember a time when people did it (and I'm pushin' fifty). We always dressed for practical purposes: well-broken-in tennis shoes for all the walking/standing, along with comfortable clothing conducive to mobility and accepting of slopped and dripped ketchup, ice cream, soft drinks, sweat, and God knows what else a bunch of kids could do to their clothes (even in the relatively clean, well-ordered and ultra-controlled environment of Disneyland). If we had run into a Sunday-best crowd (we never did that I remember), I imagine they would have been horrified by us in our sneakers, t-shirts, and shorts! The very sight of us probably would have probably ruined their trip! My belated apologies on behalf of myself and my family to anyone whom we may have offended with our all-American casual attire!

Nancy said...

it always makes me laugh to see these photos from the 50s and early 60s of ppl dressed looking like they just came from church! going to an amusement park in a dress is just wrong!

give me shorts and tennies every time!!

:-)

dradica

WmTodd said...

How funny, the discussion of dressing up for Disneyland, it now comes back to me. Our first visit in '68 was with our Grandparents and Grandma's visiting sisters and some family. We weren't church-going folk either, but I remember how the grown-ups fussed about what we should wear, and how we had to wear something presentable for the pics that they were inevitably going to take of us shaking hands with park characters. 8^p

I remember we also left before sundown, too....something kids just don't want to do. (the Sad Kid vibe amongst the exodus leaving the park is always SO palpable!)

That was our first trip to Disnelyland. The next year it was with just our immediate family; much more relaxed, no big fuss on what to wear, and we stayed late into the evening (how exciting that was), saw the fireworks and went on all the rides we didn't get to go on in the first visit.