Saturday, January 08, 2011

Two From 1958

Here's a familiar view of vintage Tomorrowland; taken from the Skyway, I have quite a few photos that resemble this example. But I'm not complaining, which for me is unusual, because I looove to complain. How can I be unhappy with the fabulosity of the Rocket to the Moon and its show building? Well I can't, that's how.


Moving on to Frontierland, and back in time 120 years or so, here's a great shot of the Mark Twain, with one of the rafts to Tom Sawyer Island about to dock. It's amazing that these two photos were taken within 1500 feet of each other (and probably a lot less than that).

5 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

Good shot to glimpse the not-too-pretty area behind the scenes of Tomorrowland there. Guest area of course looks fun :)

Meanwhile at the Rivers of America, Blond Boy says, "I TOLD you it didn't stop here Gramps. Now we missed the boat!"

Where does the path down on the left go? Down to a raft launch or something?

Connie Moreno said...

Both of these are REALLY nice!

Orange Co Native said...

i enjoy looking at these photographs from Disneyland of 45+ years ago. An era long gone now. The vividness of some of the photos seems like they were taken last week. A time from my childhood. Hopefully all these photos can all be forever preserved for people 50 years from now to enjoy. Sad to think that people are willing to give up family photos, but good in many ways so the rest of the world can enjoy them.

Chuck said...

Chiana - that path is actually a boat ramp. There was a brief period of time when you could bring your own boat to Disneyland and operate it on the Rivers of America. The only stipulation was that it had to fit in with the mid-19th Century theming to avoid ruining the illusion for other guests.

Most people who participated in the program brought rowboats, canoes or home-built rafts. What spolied the whole thing for everyone was the Sunday morning Walt came to breakfast at Aunt Jemima's Pancake House to find someone waterskiing behind a steam-powered, paddle-wheeled ski boat. The program was quietly discontinued and then erased from all corporate archival material. The only reason I have any information on it was from reading about it on an Internet blog.

JG said...

@Chuck, If you read it on the internet, it must be true. They wouldn't let them print it otherwise.

JG