Friday, October 16, 2015

Wonderful Main Street U.S.A., 1957

Today I have two really nice photos of Main Street, plus a few details - I think you're going to like them!

We'll start with this great picture of the Horse Drawn Streetcar, clippety-clopping toward us as it passes the Kodak Camera Center, the Timex Clock Shop, and the China Closet. Which is very handy, because it just so happens that I need a roll of film, a Mickey Mouse watch, and 2 porcelain thingamabobs.


It's 2:32 in the afternoon, and Main Street looks awesomely uncrowded on this beautiful sunny day. I love those streetcars, and hope that someday they will be Star Wars-themed.Tauntaun-Drawn Streetcars, perhaps. 


I love to look at the people. Parson Magurk is thinking about going into the Silhouette Studio, while lots of folks relax on the front porch of the China Closet.


Here's another neat photo - a very unusual angle taken near the Red Wagon Inn looking past the INA Carefree Corner (to our left) and toward the Coca Cola Refreshment Corner. That Coke building is so awesome!


The sandwich board points guests in the direction of the First Aid and "Lost Children" locations, and to the Main Street Art Colony. Artists at work! Please do not feed them. Please tell them all about your aunt, the painter. In the background you can just see part of the "Cole of California" storefront. Go buy a bathing suit, why don'tcha?


10 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

You want thingamabobs? I've got twenty!

But besides that - these are mighty swell images. Especially the shot from the Red Wagon Inn. So unusual.

Thanks, indeed.

TokyoMagic! said...

The doorway on the front porch of the China Closet is open. Too bad they sealed up that entrance. Is that the same Parson we saw the other day in front of Adventureland with an extremely contorted arm?

Chuck said...

Major, that first detail shot of the horse-drawn landspeeder is definitely postcard-worthy.

Coke Corner and the Candy Palace were usually our last stops when my wife and I would "close" the Park. We'd split a big Coke and a Mickey Mouse candy bar that would keep us awake on the hour-long drive back to San Bernardino. Still marveling that I had the energy to work all day and then play in the park until midnight.

TokyoMagic!, I had the same thought about the parson, but the years are different. He definitely looks like somebody sent directly from Central Casting, though.

K. Martinez said...

The Coke Corner building looks great and a little strange without the wrought iron gates and dining area that's to come. So much detail to look at in today's post.

Major/Chuck, Tauntan-Drawn Street Cars and Horse-Drawn Landspeeders? I'm excited already. You two should apply for jobs at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, they must be made of china, don’t forget. I’m always happy to find any image that is even a tiny bit different than the usual suspects.

TokyoMagic! I noticed the open door, and figured that it probably opened most of the time back then. Maybe not? That is a different parson, and thank goodness he isn’t afflicted with Parson’s Arm.

Chuck, you’re right, it IS postcard worthy! Who do I call? I have never set foot in the Candy Palace, if you can believe it. I have spent plenty of time looking through its plate glass windows, watching the candy being made and enjoying the smells, but that’s as far as it has gone. I assume that you went to the park on days when you didn’t have to go to work the next day? If you DID go on a work night, you had way more energy than I would have had.

K. Martinez, yes, I figure my awful movie tie-in ideas are no worse than the ones that are being implemented now! Imagineering, give me a call.

Chuck said...

Ken, wait'll you see my ideas for Mos Eisley USA, the Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Naboo, a Gungan overlay of the Submarine Voyage, and Alderannland (although we shouldn't spend too much money on that area since we're just going to blow it up anyway). There is so much untapped synergy just waiting to be exploited...

Chuck said...

Make that "Alderaanland."

Major, yes, those late nights always preceded non-work days. Even in my 20s I didn't function well on 4 hours' sleep.

We would go every other Friday. My commander would call a "fire drill" at 3 pm, we'd meet in the parking lot, account for everyone, then he'd say "see you Monday" (the normal duty day ran from 7:15-4:15). It became so routine that some folks would carry their computer bags or backpacks to the fire drills and go straight to their cars, and a few young airmen started showing up in civilian clothes, ready to head to the beach, until somebody pulled them aside and told them to knock it off.

Melissa said...

That horse is just dying to take a sharp right into the China Closet to visit his friend the bull.

Dean Finder said...

Nah, not "Alderannland," it will be "Alder-Anna-and-Elsa-land"
That way we can get double synergy. Hoth is basically Frozen anyway, right?

Anonymous said...

Major, these pics practically jump off the screen. Your scanning skills and tools are brilliant. Much appreciated.

JG