On the Way In, February 1965
Sometimes I will buy boxes of random slides, anywhere from a few hundred to well over 1000 slides per box. And weirdly, when there are pictures from Disneyland, there will occasionally be only one or two out of all of those vacation images. Maybe the others were picked out and sold before I got my hands on the box! Anyway, today's pair were all by themselves, but I think they are quite nice.
This kid is way better-dressed than I ever am when I go to Disneyland. The ticket taker is ex-KGB, and his instincts have kicked in - should he kill the photographer, or merely maim? I love everything about this picture, the posters, the yellow passenger cars for the Disneyland RR, the Mickey flower portrait, the turnstiles, the rose bushes, even the chain link fence!
Here's another wonderful shot of a couple posing with four friendly tour guides. I would love to interview a guide from this era - any one of them should have tons of great stories, don't you think?
It's hard to tell, but they are holding stacks of gate handouts… but what kind?
Why, this kind! In honor of the park's 10th anniversary, the handouts had this great "Disneyland '65" artwork in blues and golds.
15 comments:
Thanks for these wonderful pictures. I have some magical memories of turn stiles from when I was a kid. The excitement of what lay beyond, with the colorful posters, train, and Mickey shrubs is so infectious. That ticket taker has a really nice, warm looking coat on. Could it be standard issue KGB Corduroy? "Vee haf veys of taking yer tickets..."
The photo of the couple with the tour guides is excellent! The four tour guides, with their handouts, adds so much to evoke the time of the photo.
Just a question about the handout... it states "people from all fifty states and more than one hundred nations have come to be transported...we are glad that you are among them..." Does this mean that if you aren't from one of the fifty states or the more than one hundred nations, Disney would be less glad? Hmmm.... Perhaps we could ask that spaceman on the brochure.
Love the utilitarian look of the turnstile entrance. I used to dress just like that kid with the turtleneck when going to school, but not at Disneyland. Those shoes must've proved painful if he spent all day walking around the Park in them. Very nice set today. Thanks, Major.
Wow, Major – two more real buried treasures! The KGB ticket-taker is a dead ringer for my Grandpa. He’s probably there to find out what Grandma is doing in so many of your other pictures.
And I’ve NEVER a good picture of the tour guides’ cute little capes before – that will be another invaluable reference if I ever get around to finishing those doll outfits I started.
I wonder why the bowlegged girl on the end doesn’t have a logo on her cape – trainee, maybe? Anyway, nice third position on the feet of the tall girl with no handouts.
How cool is that brochure, with the little personifications of the five lands within the park at the time?!? (The guy in the middle looks like a cartoon Bob Crane.)
Just for kicks, I tried to match them up with the five foreign-language greetings listed below them.
Main St., USA: Italian, because of its association with ice cream, which was invented in Italy
Adventureland: Japanese, because of all the South Seas influences
Frontierland: Spanish, because of its prevalence in the Old American Southwest
Fantasyland: German, because of the Germanic origins of so many familiar fairy tales
Tomorrowland: French, because of Jules Verne’s status as one of the fathers of science fiction.
Nice job matching, Melissa!
I wonder what the different logos on the tour guides' capes say? The tour guide on the right seems to be 'set apart' with her vest, different logo/badge, and the dangling pass at her waist.
Do you think the third girl with the third position was a combination tour guide/ballerina?
The ticket taker isn't KGB! He's Darrin from Dad's Dish Retro Blog! Evidently he got stuck in a temporal loop and ended up working the front gates for a while.
Love the handout artwork. It's pure 1965.
K. Martinez pointed out the "then fashionable" shoes on our over-dressed friend about to "...leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy". Hopefully one of those 'worlds' has a cobbler.
Can't wait to share the image of the tour guides with a co-worker, who was once a tour guide at Disneyland - but many years after 1965.
Thanks, Major.
Do you think the third girl with the third position was a combination tour guide/ballerina?
"And now, I'm going to explain the history of this attraction using the language of interpretive dance..."
Wow, I haven't seen that many girls in plaid since the last day of Catholic grade school in 77'.
I think the ticket guy looks a little like Maj. Wolfgang Hochstetter the SS guy from Hogan's Heroes.
Nice post. Danka
I love that second shot. Such a nice photo of a bevy of "well-built, hand-picked honeys."
Thanks again, Major.
Lest your readers misunderstand my motives, see the bottom of column one in this 1961 Parade Magazine article:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/GORILLA3/Parade1961-B.jpg
Clyde Hughes, I don't have any specific memories of the turnstiles, but then again, my folks probably dealt with the tickets while I was gaping at everything around me! And yes, if you weren't from a country that was "on the list", the tour guides would attack! Nunchucks and samurai swords.
K. Martinez, it wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. And as any Italian shoe-maker will tell you, proper shoes will be comfortable all day long!
Melissa, they can't ALL be your grandparents! If you ever finish your doll outfits, you'll have to send me a photo and I'll share it on GDB. I wonder if the guides had some for of rank, even if it was unofficial? "You only speak three languages? I speak six, including Esperanto!"
Melissa again, I never think of Japan when it comes to Adventureland. Maybe Cambodia (never get out of the boat), or the Congo. And even though I get your reasoning for Tomorrowland = France, I refuse to sleep beneath a French moon! ;-)
Clyde again, I never thought about "tour guide culture" before, but I suppose it only makes sense that some would be more advanced than others. I think the girl with the nice stance was a go-go dancer!
Tom, I hope Darrin managed to buy lots of cool retro swag while he was stuck in 1965!
Nanook, in the future, all cobblers will be robots, adept at working with silver lamé. Hey, you should interview your friend who is a former tour guide!!
Melissa, as long as there is plenty of leaping around and arm waving, I am totally OK with interpretive dance.
Alonzo, what is it about Catholic girls and those plaid skirts? As for Hogan's Heroes, I only remember Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz.
Chuck, I know what you meant, but you can't be too careful these days, I suppose!
I love reading the comments left by others and I almost spit out my iced tea when I read what Tom wrote, LOL!!! I love these photos. Right away my eyes went to the blue signs on the tickets booths - prices??
You could flip the Japanese and French: Japan was already a leader in technology, manufacturing, and aerospace engineering; and France and Belgium had a strong colonial and post-colonial presence in many of the areas represented in Adventureland.
Tom: Ha! That does kinda look like my fall/winter style.
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