Clock of the World and Fowler's Harbor
There's the giant cocktail measurer (from August 28, 1965), also known as the Clock of the World. What time is it? Time to drink, of course! One interesting detail is the addition of the Telstar satellite above the "America the Beautiful" building. Telstar 1 and Telstar 2 - vitually identical - were built by AT&T, Bell Laboratories, NASA, and the British and French postal services, and transmitted some of the earliest trans-Atlantic television images. Neither satellite is functional any more, but both are still in orbit!
I like this unusual angle over at Fowler's Harbor. It has a "movie set" or even "Universal Studios" quality, don't you think?
Here's my attempt at making a "wiggle vision" animated gif that alternates between the two different images of a stereo slide. The process turned out to be trickier than I expected. At what depth do you want the two images to "pivot"? I tried to pick something in the mid-range to avoid having either the distant or near objects jumping around too much. There were other problems too, but... no need to go into all the gory details. Anyway, it turned out "just OK", and sort of gives you the general idea. In a way it works better for me in the small thumbnail than it does as a larger version.
SO.... are you folks interested in seeing more of these "wiggle vision" gifs? Or do they induce nausea, nosebleeds, and headaches? Let me know... if the consensus seems to indicate a desire for more, I'll dig out the stereo slides and see how it goes.
23 comments:
I am digging the wiggle-vision! Cool! Then again, my eyes are totally used to the Nintendo 3DS effect, and I used to stare into my Viewmaster for hours!
I'd definitely like to see more!
Now that you pointed it out the Clock of the World did resemble a cocktail jigger! Yes, the wiggle vision animation is cool! Show us more!
I was too young to notice, but does anyone know if the Telstar sculpture was static or if it actually changed positions?
Whoa! The "wiggle vision" is nausea inducing.
Count me in on the wiggle vision.
And if your favorite wardrobe model happened to have been shot in stereo, count me in even more.
Yes, keep wiggling - although please include a "static" shot of same for us landlubbers-!
Major, I've never doubted any date references to your pics, but according to my sources the image of the Circarama Theatre can't be from Aug, 1965, as the theatre was finally rechristen with its new name (Circle-Vision) to match the technology change, on Nov. 8, 1964.
The only reason it stuck out to me was Disneyland dumped their original "theatre-in-the-round projection of 11, 16mm projectors, to be replaced with nine, 35mm projectors with the introduction of the film America the Beautiful, way back in March, 1960. It replaced the original film: Circarama USA
For some reason they didn't feel a technology change warranted a timely change of the process' name.
The wiggle is sort of headache-inducing, but in a "nice" way, if that makes any sense. That's all I can say about it... except that I'm not sure that I want so see much more of it.
An earthquake at Disneyland and YOU ARE THERE! I like Wiggle Vision. I still remember the one you did of the prospector and his burro at Knott's.
Count me in for "Wiggle Vision"!
I'm with Gaffer, Swoopie shakin' it with wiggle vision would be a treat. But I was thinking more along the lines of some Tahitian Terrace hula dancers. It would be more in sync with the movements.
Thank you for the WiggleVision™! My eyes don't line up properly, so it's the only kind of 3D I can see, and I love it!
The second picture makes me hear banjo music.
Am I the only person who sees the word "Circarama" and imagines some kind of gala circuscision festival?
Rich T, I find the wiggle-vision thing to be a bit "earthquakey", but I do like the slight 3-D effect it gives. In other words, you get some "bad", but some "good" too!
Knott'sAfterDark, somebody in my comments originally compared the Clock of the World to the old cocktail measurers, so I can't take credit.
K. Martinez, I don't believe that the Telstar model moved, but I can't say for sure. And I get what you mean about the wiggle-vision. That's why I'm trying to get a general consensus.
Graffer, unfortunately, I don't have any 3-D wardrobe photos. Maybe I can try to make a fake stereo version though!
Nanook, all of the slides from this batch of stereo images are carefully dated by the photographer, and none of the photos is earlier than 1965, so make of that what you will! If you look at Daveland's website, his Circarama page shows a photo of the front of the theater from 1962 with NO Circarama signage, and then a photo from May 1964 where it looks just like it does in my photo. So they actually added that wording to the building sometime between those two dates.
Pilsner Panther, I think maybe I should recommend that folks avoid the larger versions of the wiggle-vision photos if they find them unsettling in any way. They are a lot easier to take when only 2 inches high.
TokyoMagic!, it's just like the Irwin Allen "classic"! I didn't make that Knott's version, Chris Jepsen volunteered to give it a try, and sent me his results.
Davleand, that's another vote "fer"!
Alonzo, oh I only WISH I had stereo images of the Tahitian Terrace dancers. Oh wait, I do have one, holy crap, I need to scan both parts immediately! It's from somebody's "personal Viewmaster" reel, and trust me, the dancer will steam up your glasses. Even if you don't wear glasses.
Melissa, these even kind of work if you look with one eye! Banjo music in your head? Hmmmm! And now I will never be able to see the word "Circarama" without thinking of circumcision. Thanks! ;-)
I like the Wiggle Vision pictures. Keep them coming! It's the next best thing to being there.
Major - Okay, it was late and my eyelids were heavy. (Well, it sounds good, anyway). This should be a lesson for us all to "Trust in The Major". I know it was for me.
To much confusion between Circle-Vision & Circle-Vision 360. Yes, yes, the process changed from 16mm to 35mm in 1967, not in 1960, when America the Beautiful (in Circarama) replaced the film Circarama USA.
The format change corresponds with the 1967 remodel of the show building, providing a much larger theatre for guests and a new pre-show area. (Remember the flags of the states, and the "State of Confusion"-?? Yes, I knew you would. Oh - that Disney humor...
More wiggle vision indeed, Major! Please and thank you :)
In addition, do you perchance have any slides of the Mystery Shack at Knott's? Could well be you posted such before, granted, and my eyeballs just missed seeing them. I miss that old shack...
Major, thanks for the reply on my question about the Telstar model.
For some reason the "Wiggle Vision" has an unsettling effect on me, but I say go for it for those who enjoy it.
As I recall, the Telstar arm rotated, and the satellite rotated on the arm, through a gearing system. However; this did not last very long because of maintenance problems, so they just left it static. Also; the rotation motor created a "hum" inside the theater. I would love to see the animation include rotation of the arm.
CoxPilot
I say wiggle or don't wiggle, whatever you're into! I can see how it could induce some kind of weird hypnosis if you stare for too long...Danger, Will Robinson!!
The Clock is looking so nice on this sunny day, and the Telstar is very cool indeed.
Fowler's Inn is looking equally beautiful, the nicest image I can ever recall seeing of it. I have to pass on the lobster dinner, tho....allergic!
I like the "wiggle vision".
For quite a while, I've thought it would be really awesome to be able to find enough pictures of a place (maybe The Clock would work) to be able to render a 3d model of the area. I think it was microsoft (or perhaps a company they had acquired) that was doing a research project that would stitch together enough pictures of an area to make an immersive environment automatically. They were pulling them off flickr using tags. It was smart enough it could even seem to figure out the 3d features of buildings and stuff - not just mapping the textures onto blocky buildings like they do in games. Would be so fun to do this with Disneyland circa 50s or 60s. These are a fun step in that direction.
I haven't played with these, but I assume that making the wiggle much faster (like TV frequency) doesn't make the movement go away and just look 3d, right? That would be fun if it worked.
(this comment system is weird that way it inserts spaces in between my 3 and d)
Tom, I will try some more wiggle-visions! Man, it is surprising how tricky they are to make though. I'm still waiting for one to really turn out nice.
Nanook, believe me, I will NEVER claim to be an authority on Disneyland. I can barely remember any details… thank goodness the internet is around!
Lillian K., I have a few interior photos from the Haunted Shack, but not exteriors unfortunately! You'll see the interiors someday, for sure.
K. Martinez, maybe I'll put up a warning when I do my wiggle-vision posts so that sensitive readers can skip the pictures that day. It's not like they're so amazing that you don't want to miss them!
CoxPilot, this is the first I've heard of those items moving! Interesting! I'd love to create that animation, but it's beyond my meager abilities.
Nancy, I know what you mean, there is something very odd about a flickering image.
Anon, I would think that it would be a good exercise to model something like the Clock of the World… there must be enough photos of it from various angles to be able to do a pretty accurate job! The Microsoft stitching thing sounds amazing, I can't even imagine how they could do it and have it look OK. It would be amazing (and incredibly hard) to fully model Disneyland (maybe pre-1959). As for the wiggle-vision, I tried them faster and think that the 3-D actually doesn't work as well. If you saw one, I think you would agree that they are too fast! Maybe somebody has put an "instructional" online as to how to convert stereo slides to animated gifs and achieve the best results.
Well, I'd prefer you post both images next to each other, so we could view them in stereo with cross-vision, but this is better than nothing! Plus I think I might be able to save both images for my own methods... Thanks, in any case!
And it definitely doesn't get any better than this. Great !!!
P.S. Stop with the shaking. I'm old!!! :-)
I'm a little late but have to tell you that I love photo of the clock. And I love the Wiggle-vision. Too darn cool if you ask me. (But you didn't!)
P.S. I just posted a link to this on The Disneyland Gazette's Facebook page so other could see it!
Post a Comment