Flying Elephants! 1957
Here are two fun photos from 1957, taken over at the "Dumbo's Flying Elephants" attraction!
Fantasyland was certainly a colorful place - all of the splashes of red, yellow, blue and green look like an ad for Kodak film. In the distance you can just see some Skyway buckets, as well as the Mr. Toad façade. The ol' Pirate Ship is to our left. A trio of kids are squeezed into one flying elephant... the boy in the middle is wearing one of those lenticular pins with Goofy's smiling face! I like the older couple in the other elephant... gramps is not sure what to do with his souvenir guidebook.
I guess the kids took at least two rides in a row, since we see one of the boys from the previous photo with yet another kid in this picture. Notice the boy's "Magic Pencil". This angle affords a good look at Dumbo's hinged ears, though they no longer flapped at this point.
7 comments:
How come the kid with the horizontal striped shirt is the one with all the souvenirs? I wonder if the rubber head on his magic pencil was Goofy? The kid just might have been "Goofy About Disneyland!"
You beat me to the Goofy button.
TokyoMagic!, that kid probably did his homework, his chores, and listened to his parents. Unlike those other kids! They get nothing.
Matterhorn1959, I love seeing kids wearing those buttons in vintage photos.
This colorful palette of vintage storybook colors just doesn't exist in Disneyland anymore. There's a certain comforting psychological effect about the colors used in Fantasyland back then, like a visit to childhood dreams. Thanks, Major.
Magic pencils again. It's a running joke with my brother and me about finding these at the Park when we visit. So far no soap.
Excellent pics, Major.
I love the confirmation of the flapping ears. I remembered this as a kid, yet, the ears were fixed, how could they have ever flapped?
Trust memories.
JG
I think the idea for the flapping ears (like this early picture) was that they were balanced in weight but the air flow as they went up and down would deflect them opposite to their up and down motion. Since all of the pictures I have seen (OK, I the ones I can remember) show the ears in asymmetric or at least indifferent angles I'm guessing the bearing friction was too much for the aerodynamic forces to overcome on a regular basis.
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