Friday, December 09, 2011

More Freedomland, September 1961

Here's the last of a small batch of Freedomland photos from 1961...


Folks stop and make way for the marching band heading up the street of "Little Old New York". This land is authentic to the last detail, according to the souvenir guidebook! It continues... the shops, the streets, the horse-drawn vehicles - everything down to the policemen's uniforms has been painstakingly recreated to give you Old New York as it really was. Well OK!


A later guidebook says that we can ...ride gaily around the city's quaint old streets. Darnit, I'll try anything once! In the distance you can see the building that afforded you entrance to the Harbor Tug Boat ride ... for a cruise around the world's greatest harbor and on into the Great Lakes.


This is part of what was officially the "San Francisco" part of Freedomland, although we have veered further up into the Pacific Northwest. The giant logger isn't Paul Bunyan; it is his cousin Mitch. A sign points us in the direction of the Fur Trapper attraction, in which you could ...ride a bullboat up the Columbia River, through a land infested by dangerous animals and warlike natives. Infested, huh? Meanwhile I'll bet a few collectors wouldn't mind owning that stroller with the Freedomland placard on it. I want that fake albino deer!


I have a few more Freedomland photos to share. Stay tuned!

6 comments:

Matterhorn1959 said...

Always enjoy Freedomland images. Thanks for the look at Old New York!

Major Pepperidge said...

I'm glad somebody like these! Seems that Freedomland doesn't inspire much love as a rule. Oh well, I'm going to keep posting what I have anyway!

TokyoMagic! said...

I like seeing pics of Freedomland!!! It's sort of like looking at an alternate-universe Disneyland. As with the World's Fairs, I wish I could have seen it in person!

Anonymous said...

I agree with all of those above! As a native New Yorker I find it so hard to believe that the Bronx was once home to a Disneyland-style park!

Thank you as always for sharing these Major!

KING OF JAZZ said...

I was there as a five year old; a weird experience years before my first Disneyland visit. Being such a small kid I half believed what I saw as real for what it was, not some historical re-enactment! Still have some ancient 8mm film of the place.

Major Pepperidge said...

TM!, if I had to choose, I'd pick the '64 World's Fair, to be honest. I'd love to see them BOTH, but I'm just saying...

Anon, I am glad you enjoyed these. I have a few more Freedomland images left to share.

KING OF JAZZ, I'll bet that things like the Chicago Fire and the Civil War boat ride were very vivid to a young boy!