More Devlin Family Photos - Part 07
Today I am presenting more photos from the Devlin family... this is the second installment from September, 1961.
MAN, do I love those caterpillar vehicles from the Alice in Wonderland attraction! There is nothing like them. I feel like they tried to do something similarly whimsical with "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh", but... come on.
Anyway, this is a neat angle looking up at a pink and very snooty caterpillar as he winds his way down the outer ramp (one of my favorite parts of the ride). From left to right are some genuine Devlins: Judy, Mike, and Mary. Just a bit of the mushroom ticket booth sneaks in from the right.
They survived! Now we can just see mother Mary Jo in the vehicle as well as the aforementioned kids. Nobody is smiling (well, Mary might be), maybe they didn't enjoy the attraction? It probably blew their minds, and now they want to listen to Jefferson Airplane albums (even though they won't exist for several years) and wear paisley.
16 comments:
Major-
I think if I come back in another life, I'd like to be a snooty, pink caterpillar-!
And in the second shot, we can see the 'first door' (on the left) where the caterpillar vehicles could enter their little service area, to which we saw the exit door in Sunday's post.
Thanks, Devlins & The Major.
Hey, How'd you know I'd own a paisley shirt in a few years? Weird... Though I think the look is more, "What! We have to get off without an offer of a re-ride?"
It's funny, Major, seeing these pics of the whole family together. I only have memories of me and Mary being cut loose by ourselves until lunch time. These shots are from a time before I have any solid memories, though. How do the other Gorilla-ites remember being young and on ones own in the Park?
And we can also see the spur track leading up to that first door that Nanook mentioned above (and that we were discussing on Sunday).
Those caterpillar vehicles were awfully haughty!
When you think about the wide range of designs that went into all the different ride vehicles at the Disney parks, you have to assume it was really fun to be part of an attraction development team.
What I love about pics of the original Fantasyland's Alice in Wonderland attraction is the lack of foliage. Just concrete and small flowerbeds. Instead of natural vegetation, we get an oversized whimsical garden which stands out brilliantly because of it.
There are so many ways to look at Disneyland, whether it's the ride vehicles, track layouts, signage or props. Loved today's vintage visit. Thanks again to the Devon Family and to Major for today's wonderful photos.
Patrick, oddly, our family NEVER split up when we went to either Disneyland or WDW. I don't think we wanted to. Sure, we waited for my parents when they rode the terrifying HM, POTC, and ATIS when we were really small, and my dad sat out on the Canal Boats once to take pictures of us going through Monstro, but we were all back together when the rides ended. Were we weird?
The Devlins always have the best photos. Thank you Devlin Family!
Hey (on a side note) does anybody remember that post I made where I’m babbling on about my idea of rerouting the Disneyland Rail Road and having it skirt the Rivers of America and whatnot? I’m glad Star Wars Land came up today. I just looked at some YouTube updates, and it turns out they are following the idea I had in my head almost exactly. So does anybody remember how long ago that post was and what was the date? I want to read it again.
Monkey Cage Kurt, it was on December 15th: http://gorillasdontblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/rediscovered-treasures-january-1962.html
Enjoy!
Oh Chuck, thanks! I actually found it about three minutes after I posted that comment. It was a good dialog that day. There were several Star Wars Land ideas that we predicted in that discussion that are seemingly going to come to pass. The topic of “projection attractions” came up as well, and how we are not looking forward to any more of those.
Nanook, don’t forget, caterpillars turn into snooty butterflies! That first door is the entry to the abbatoir.
Patrick Devlin, I think I had a paisley shirt too! The 70’s. You were only, what, five years old in these photos? That’s pretty young, I’m sure most of us have forgotten 95% of stuff from that part of our lives. I only recall random images, like waiting in the line for “Inner Space”, or looking through a submarine porthole and watching the bubbles (glowing red because of an undersea volcano), stuff like that.
TokyoMagic!, the say they’ve got their noses in the air, those caterpillars think they’re better than everybody!
Anonymous, somebody was especially inspired when they designed those vehicles. I’m trying to imagine what other concepts might have been considered - teacups were already being used on that *other* ride. Cheshire Cat vehicles?
K. Martinez, I’m sure more foliage would have made for a prettier Fantasyland, but I loved the way it was. And the whole “oversized plants” part of the Alice ride is really fun. As you point out in your comment, the attention to detail is part of what makes Disneyland so endlessly fascinating.
Chuck, I don’t really remember splitting up either; seems we stuck together, unless someone was too scared to ride the Haunted Mansion, or Matterhorn, etc. On the other hand, when we went to Knott’s, my parents would let us run wherever the heck we wanted. We’d meet up with them later.
Monkey Cage Kurt, after doing a search and finding your prescient comment, I went back to GDB and found that Chuck had already answered your question. Doh.
Chuck, Doh.
Monkey Cage Kurt, Doh.
@Patrick, one of my earliest on-my-own memories, from probably about age 10.
Mom and Dad let me tear off straight to the Matterhorn on entry, since they didn't like that ride. I got to go all alone when the line started in the covered structure, almost no wait time.
Mom and Dad stayed behind on Main Street at the Hills Brother Coffee Garden. After the bobsleds, I was to come back and join them. When I did, they were sitting together holding hands. Big flash of insight that Mom and Dad's relationship extended back before my life began and continued when I wasn't around.
Otherwise, we were like @Chuck's family. I had no siblings, so there were only three of us, and the Matterhorn was really the only thing that no one could agree on, until Space Mountain. I don't remember ever being afraid of any Disney ride, even as a little kid, but Mom didn't like anything like a roller coaster. Dad even rode Casey Jr, but occasionally sat out the Canal Boats.
Thanks so much for sharing these pictures. Great times and memories. Definitely the best memories I have of my family and childhood are from Disneyland trips.
JG
Architects often do their most creative work when faced with budget constraints. Though Walt wanted things done right, they still built Disneyland with a fairly tight budget. It pushed them to do things that are now the most iconic images of Disneyland, like the sparse concrete and flowers of Wonderland.
@Dean, That's definitely true. I remember another ah-ha moment when I realized the old wonderland flowers were made of concrete reinforcing bars. The distinctive deformed pattern of the steel registered even on 10 yo me.
Now the exotic foliage is "perfect" custom fabricated stuff without even tenuous connection to reality.
JG
Thank you Patrick and the rest of the Devlin Family for sharing.
In response to your question, I'm happy to report that this was my Disneyland routine for 3 days (typically) once each summer (July mostly) in the 70's:
Family all goes in together via Monorail (we always stayed at the Hotel). We would ride all of the big rides...POTC & Haunted Mansion especially since my parents enjoyed NOS the most. Dinner at the French Market or Hungry Bear. Railroad for at least one ride, maybe two.
My dear old Pop would get tired of the increasing crowds, and so Mom and he would check out via Monorail around 1:00. After that it was up to me and my big brother to entertain ourselves in the Park for the rest of the afternoon/night as we pleased.
We'd stay all night sometimes, but most of the time we got smart and went back to the Hotel around 5:00 for a good dinner (the Hotel made an awesome Club Sandwich) before heading back to the Park. Those were the days for sure!
We have a number of pictures from this time in the family albums that my Mom put together. I need to check them out again, it's been awhile...
Thank you Patrick again for sharing.
JG, maybe we would have split up if our dad had been with us more… he was serving in Vietnam for a few key years when we lived closest to the park. So my mom took us, or our grandparents, and we stuck to them like glue!
Dean Finder, it is amazing when you consider that Walt probably spent more adding attractions to the park in 1958 and 1959 than the whole place cost to begin with! But you’re right, there were still budgetary constraints.
JG, I can’t really complain too much about the “perfect” foliage, though I totally get what you mean! The rough edges of the old stuff showed the hand made quality.
walterworld, that sounds like a great routine! Now I wish that I had been able to roam free as a kid! As I said to Chuck, we did that all the time at Knott’s, so there’s really no reason why we couldn’t have done it at Disneyland; we just didn’t. Which is probably why there are so many classic attractions that I never did - if mom and dad didn’t want to do it, end of story! I didn’t see the Tiki Room until WAY into adulthood.
@Major, definitely agree if parents didn't like it didn't get done., there were things I didn't get to see until I visited on high school trips without the parents, Golden Horseshoe Saloon, for instance.
Parents would not be caught dead in any place remotely like a saloon, so I never saw it as a kid. One of the high school trips, I went in with some friends because it was air conditioned and got to see the classic Wally Boag show, first and only time.
When I came back again 10 years later, the show was gone. I wonder if it's on Youtube, some much stuff is now.
JG
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