Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Main Street Transportation, August 1958

I love the various Main Street vehicles that add color and motion (and the occasional startling *HONK*). Some of them are either gone or merely static displays, but at least they are there as a snack for the eyes.

First up is this Surrey, with a pair of snow-white horses pulling the thing. For some reason I always think that it looks like a miniature hearse. It's that glossy raven-black that does it. Hey, what's that vehicle behind it?


It's the fabulous firetruck with the itty-bitty horses. I don't know how efficient this contraption would be at actually putting out a blaze, but at least it would look good doing it. And isn't that all that matters?


Why walk around Main Street when you can just stand in one spot? I ask that question about 30 times a day and have never gotten a satisfactory answer. Looky here, we kept facing in the same direction with our camera glued to our faces, and captured yet another vehicle, this one powered by alfalfa and sugar cubes.

7 comments:

Hollywood Maxwell said...

I like all the horse drawn vehicles in these slides. This kind of obsessive photography is more common now in the digital age of course.

I like the Alice sign on the lamp post in slide 1. Alice opened that Summer. Am I correct to assume the Kodak sign in the centre was Mr Linkletter's concession?

Connie Moreno said...

In the second picture, I noticed that it was 3:50 p.m. and the Park appeared to be empty of people. I also noticed that the shop window seemed empty. I know they weren't but don't they look odd compared to today? Very nice photos - you can tell the photographer stood in place waiting for the various vehicles to pass! In the third photo there were quite a few more people but I can't see the clock. I don't know why I always want to know what time it is, LOL!

Matterhorn1959 said...

Maybe the photographer wanted to make the slides look like it was a parade down Main Street.

Major Pepperidge said...

H. Maxwell, Art Linkletter did have a piece of the Kodak photo concession for a while (I forget, maybe it was the first 10 years?), and he supposedly made millions.

Connie, the main windows that you see in photos 2 & 3 are the INA Carefree Corner windows; perhaps the windows look empty because it wasn't really a store.

Matterhorn, you might be right!

Anonymous said...

I remember years ago, before all the late night shows in the park, at the end of a long day, we used to catch one of the vehicles and ride back to the gate.

Can't do that now for all the evening crowds.

Sigh. I miss that Disneyland.

Thank you Major.

Connie Moreno said...

Thanks, Major. Now I want to know more about the Carefree Corner!

Anonymous said...

@Connie:

Carefree Corner was a odd name (I think) for an insurance concession run by INA Insurance. I'm not really sure what they had in the storefront, insurance sales would be weird in Disneyland, maybe it was just a place to find out about the company.

They were a big advertiser in Disneyland at that time, they were on the little guidebook covers too.

I remember wondering why the carefree name. Now that I'm old, it makes sense.

JG