Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Up In The AIr, July 1967

The attraction poster for the Skyway says, "See Disneyland From the Air!". Sounds like a good idea to me.

Having just passed through the Matterhorn, our photographer turned and looked south toward Main Street Station (which you can just see in the distance). Way beyond the berm we can see the flying saucer-shaped Anaheim Convention Center.


Zooming in a bit, the red Monorail passes below us; the Monsanto House of the Future is obscured by trees; that yellow and white tent became a souvenir stand - but for a while it was actually a part of the Monsanto exhibits. I assume that it still was when this photo was snapped.


Here is the ten zillionth photo of the lagoon - this one is made more enjoyable due to the presence of merms. As you can see, they are actually manatees… we are so addled by years at sea that they look like beautiful women!


13 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

The foreshortening of the first image(s) cause the Anaheim Convention Center to appear to have landed inside the parking lot. Wouldn't that have been a hoot and an annoyance-?

Thanks, Major.

Chuck said...

I think there's a typo in your post. Those mermaids are more properly referred to as "man, a tease!"

K. Martinez said...

July 1967. That's definitely a brand spankin' new Tomorrowland '67 with the old monorail station, Mark II monorail, rail-less PeopleMover track and House of the Future stil around. Cool to see the Monsanto HOF sign at the bottom of the zoom-in. Thanks, Major.

Unknown said...

And there in the third photo are the world-famous Stephens-Adamson Speedramps leading up and down from the Monorail station. I was always surprised that these were listed as an "attraction" on the Sam McKim fun maps. After all they did have the official attraction icon next to them.

And where are the mermaids supposed to change? Where's their little tent? Oh the shame of it all!

Anonymous said...

Building on PD's mermaid comment, where DID the mermaids get in and out of the lagoon?

Anonymous said...

...and it's a busy day. All eight subs are running.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 01, there was first a tent, then a little structure at the end of the outboard submarine quay for the mermaid robing.

The merms-to-be walked out wearing long robes and put on their fins in the structure, then hitched a ride on the submarine out to their reef.

Daveland's site has a number of pics of the tent and the later structure. Eventually, this was removed when the mermaid feature was discontinued. See the tent in this pic >> http://davelandweb.com/sub/popup.htm?images/60s/8_1960_Subs1.jpg

I think there are pics of the merm's up into the early '70's, but can't remember for sure.

The young ladies were very popular cast members as you might imagine.

JG

K. Martinez said...

World-famous Stephens-Adamson Speedramps? I learn something new every day. Were those the ones that "massaged" the feet or was it the speedramp at the Goodyear PeopleMover that did that? I remember placing my feet on the side edge of the speedramps and they would roll over an uneven surface or maybe it was rollers. It provided some wavy action on my feet.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I suppose if the Convention Center landed on you or your car, that would definitely count as an annoyance. But what a sight it would have been!!

Chuck, typos, the bane of my existence.

K. Martinez, thanks for pointing out all of those details that I missed!

Patrick Devlin, my great grandpa worked for the Stephens-Adamson company, we always heard that they had something to do with Disneyland, including (I think) the ramps that take Haunted Mansion guests back up to the land of the living.

Anon, JG already posted his helpful comment regarding the mermaids. Being July, I'm not surprised that the subs were busy.

JG, thanks for all of the mermaid info! I wish I could find a photo of the women walking out onto the quay/dock in their robes.

K. Martinez, I believe that they were all manufactured by Stephens-Adamson. My memory of the Space Mountain speedramps includes that foot massage feature, though I might be mixing them up. I still have an aluminum tumbler (gold in color) from my grandma that has the "SA" logo on the side.

Nanook said...

Major-

I believe Stephens-Adamson was responsible for ALL the 'Speed Ramps' throughout Disneyland: Peoplemover; Carousel of Progress; Monorail and the Haunted Mansion. And later: Space Mountain.

Dean Finder said...

I'm surprised that the later rides like Space Mountain have S-A speedramps. I've noticed Goodyear manufacturer plates on the ones on the Orlando Space Mountain and Peoplemover. I assumed that Goodyear would have also made the ones for the 1970s additions to Disneyland.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, yep, I think you are correct.

Dean Finder, it you go to this link on Wikipedia, it appears that Stephens-Adamson and Goodyear worked together on Speedwalks, speed ramps, and "Carveyors".

Nancy said...

It always amazes me how large Disneyland looks from the air, but when I have been there I have never felt I was walking THAT far compared to what it looks like here. Maybe its just because I am so happy to be there!! :-) Nice pictures make me smile