Monday, May 05, 2014

Main Street Station & Sleeping Beauty Castle

Both of today's photos are from July, 1963!

Oh man. Posters. Fabulous posters! As many times as I have seen these reproduced on pins, t-shirts, note cards, stickers, and probably other stuff as well, I never get tired of  those beautifully-designed, hand-printed silkscreened attraction posters. I tried designing one myself just for fun, and sticking to six or seven colors is harder than you might think. The various designers for Disneyland were masters of the art! In this pic, you can see (from left to right) a partial Skyway, Rainbow Caverns, Submarine Voyage, Swiss Family Treehouse, Golden Horseshoe Revue, Jungle River Cruise, and The Enchanted Tiki Room.


I confess that I do get tired of finding photos of Sleeping Beauty Castle (how many have I posted on this blog, fer cryin' out loud?), but this one is especially nice. Great composition and color, lovely flowers, and a kid on crutches. 


7 comments:

  1. What a coincidence! I too am from July 1963! But I don't look nearly as good as these photos. The crispness! The clarity! The posters! Wow and wow. The shot of Sleeping Beauty Castle is nothing short of amazing - it's so vibrant!

    Awesome pics today!

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  2. The Tiki Room poster is my favorite. It’s a great example of what I think of as asymmetrical symmetry: the tiki pole on the right is balanced by the column made up of the text and the circular perch on the right, and the one left-facing bird balances out the three right facing birds. The arrangement of thick on the right and thin on the left is done in both large and small scale.

    The park was designed so carefully for perfect views that it’s such a treat to find a picture of an iconic structure like the castle from an angle you don’t see every day. It really shows you how much thought was put into making everything look show quality no matter where you saw it from. And I love how that lady’s blue sun hat picks up the shape of the light fixtures in the flower beds, like she’s become a part of her surroundings.

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  3. July 1963 is around the time of my very first visit to Disneyland. In Summer of that year it was. Beautiful Sleeping Beauty Castle image. The original castle style and coloring was so cool. Thanks, Major.

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  4. Tom, I am very glad that you enjoyed today's pix!

    Melissa, I love that one too; I wish I had one of the old versions. Instead I have a '67 version, which is rare, but to be honest I don't like it as much. Boo-hoo, poor me! As for the castle, it cracked me up to see an old show about Disneyland mentioning how the castle towers at "over 70 feet high"!

    K. Martinez, do you actually remember your first visit? I'm not sure I do, except for a few brief images. And getting lost!

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  5. Yes, I do remember key items and experiences from that first visit. It left an incredible impression on me as a child. Even my parents remarked later that I reacted to it like no other experience I had as a child.

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  6. tviano3:47 PM

    I see "TIMEX" on the train station clock. I don't think I've ever noticed that until now.

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  7. Iviano, there was a Timex shop on Main Street from 1955 to 1972, I wonder if the "Timex" name was removed from the Town Square clock when the shop left the park?

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