More Greatest Hits - Main Street Station
It's time for some more images from GDB's past - in this case, featuring Main Street Station!
Let's start with this one from 1956 (originally posted in 2008). It's a dazzling mid-afternoon shot (2:30, sez the clock) with the original yellow passenger train cars in front of the station. The colors really "pop" in this Kodachrome slide.
And who am I kidding, the detail that gets to me the most is those posters. Ay caramba! An "Art Corner", the rarest of the rare! I've only ever seen one with my own eyebones (thanks, Mr. X!). And there's the "20,000 Leagues" poster, one of my all-time favorites, with that incredible giant squid. I like it so much that I managed to acquire two! Between the "20K" poster and the Peter Pan poster is the extremely scarce poster featuring Main Street Station - the pinkish lilac color of the background is so unusual, and yet (like all of these posters) it works wonderfully.
This one is from 1960 (posted on GDB in 2011), with the Fred Gurley waiting at the platform. It looks like it was a beautiful day, with bright clear sunshine and a vivid blue sky. Notice the Kalamazoo handcar sitting out front. I should be allowed to take that thing for a spin around the "Grand Circle Tour"... though it would probably kill me. Still, what a way to go!
Back in 2007 I posted this one, from August, 1960. Or July, probably, based on the bunting. The "cattle cars" are full of livestock - but at least they don't have to stand like they did in the early days. A mom and her kid are posted way at the end so that they don't ruin the rest of the picture!
I'd like to think that the photographer included the posters on purpose. You con't see that "Art of Animation" too often. I used to see the Submarine Voyage poster referred to as "the Cadillac of attraction posters", which seems very apt.
10 comments:
Major-
It's hard to get too much of a good thing. In this case I'm referring to the DL Trains and the incredible DL Attraction posters.
And I'm going to assume our little friend in the last image, who has attached himself to the lovely wrought iron fencing surrounding the floral Mickey, is fascinated with the former. (Or perhaps he's going to be a future horticulturist. Or maybe a future flag decorator...) Well - you never know-!
Thanks, Major.
*poof* Hi! Back from never-never land... I tink. Comments wise, 'cause I'm still hooked on regular GDB visits.
Oo well my fav of the attraction posters seen here is the Frontierland, the rudder-dash-ships' bow, following the thirsty canoe paddlers in catching some of the orange crush river the atypically agitated Mark Twain is whipping up. Oh? Well whatever's happening, it looks like fun adventure.
But of course, they're all superb graphic art. So much so they make it hard to decide what to see first. They have that boy in the bottom pic on the fence. That or he's eyeing the handcar. Taking it for a spin could get him killed too, but like you said, what a way to go! :)
Sorry - seeing the words "Cadillac" and "submarine" in the same sentence made me think of this 1958 Fleetwood: http://www.fastamphibians.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Cuban-amphibian.jpeg
Love any picture of the posters out front, but to get THREE in one day - well, my eyes are misting over. Thanks, Major!
Of course, personally I can never get enough vintage photographs of my favorite railroad! What a way to brighten my Monday morning!
Today, all three images are absolute beauties. You've got the original passenger train, the Fred Gurley and the "cattle cars". It doesn't get any better than that.
Chiana_Chat, I miss you around here! It's always great to hear from you.
HELP US
Wow-
This IS a Red Letter day-! To wit: Chiana_Chat is here; Chuck's newfangled "vehicle"- which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt just what happens if a Submarine and an Autopia decide to have a baby; and Melissa'a keen eye, spying the rarest-of-the-rare Attraction posters: The Mom purse, shorts with black socks. Help, indeed.
Thanks to all.
In the first photo, on the last car (The "Grand Canyon," now the Lilly Belle) you can just barely make out one of the beautiful murals of the chasm that adorned the car--a different one on each side. Amazingly, I have never seen a really good image of either mural.
Nanook, that kid is practicing for his upcoming years in Folsom prison; he wants to know how it feels to see the world through iron bars. Won’t he be surprised when he finds out that cigarettes are not currency inside Disneyland?
Chiana, I thought you were gone forever (it happens). I do love the Frontierland poster with the river craft, but MAN, it is hard to pick a favorite when you’ve got the Nature’s Wonderland, Submarine Voyage, and 20,000 Leagues posters nearby.
Chuck, what the heck is that thing? I see from the web address that it is (apparently) in Cuba, of all places.
Steve DeGaetano, even though I went on and on about the posters, it is true, those trains are fantastic!
K. Martinez, you and Steve are on the same wavelength. Isn’t it amazing that those little locomotives are still going strong in the park’s 60th year?
Melissa, I love it! Very “Twilight Zone”. “Submitted for your approval…”
Nanook, sometimes when I go back and look at old blog posts, I see many folks who used to comment all the time, and now they’re gone. I always wonder where they went!
Steve DeGaetano, I seem to recall Daveland having a decent shot of the Grand Canyon mural, I’ll see if I can find it and provide a link.
Major, the "submarine" is actually a piece by Cuban artist Esterio Segura as part of a series of works he calls "Submarinos hechos en casa" ("Homemade Submarines"). The artwork takes shape as physical objects, digital art, and more traditional drawn media and is intended to reference the 1990's boat migrations to the US, which included at least one raft made from a car.
More information about this piece on exhibit at the following websites:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18058087 (incorrectly identifies the vehilce as a "vintage Chrysler")
http://artpulsemagazine.com/behind-the-wall
y en Español - http://detrasdelmurobehindthewall.blogspot.com/2012/05/artistasyobras2012.html
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