Friday, March 04, 2016

Rediscovered Treasures, January 1962

I am sharing a few more misty, moody photos, from a lot that we've visited before.  These took some heavy Photoshop work (they were extremely dark and very pink), but I think that the results were worth it.

I believe these are in the order in which they were taken, though I could be wrong. It's not important! We're aboard the Mark Twain as the sun sets; the slight mist (or light fog) lends a moody atmosphere to Frontierland's riverfront. 

There's the Plantation House, with a striped awning... did they need that in January? Maybe it helped keep winter rains off of diners. I love seeing the globe lights turned on. To our left, we can see the Straw Hatters (or is it the Delta Ramblers?) performing in the little bandstand. The raft to Tom Sawyer's Island has just launched with a full load.


The raft has nearly reached its destination. The sun is trying to cut through the gloom, but it just can't do it! Notice the old location of the water tower that serviced the Disneyland and Santa Fe Railroad (to the left). My brother thought that there was a graveyard on the embankment near the middle of the picture (which would have been cool!), but alas, it is merely the cement (or stone?) supports for the chain that served as a barrier between guests and the river.


A few heads partially block our view, but I can forgive them because one of them sports a souvenir hat with a colorful ostrich plume. There are a few of those on the raft, too! Notice that the Disneyland RR is now passing in the distance.


I hope you've enjoyed these moody "Rediscovered Treasures"!

10 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Some great images from a not-very-photographed area (at least in 1962). Even the bandstand is here.

Thanks, Major.

Chuck said...

I second Nanook's comment above - these are a really neat set. I don't recall ever seeing a picture of that awning before.

I also love the angle we get on the DLRR's passenger cars. We usually end up seeing angled views from a much closer distance, but this one almost looks like a two-dimensional rendering you'd see in a book. There's also no forced perspective at play here, so you can see just how small the passenger cars actually are.

K. Martinez said...

I've never seen a pic of a Jungle Cruise striped canopy stretched over the Plantation House outdoor dining area. Nice capture of a misty/foggy day at Disneyland with the sun trying to shine through. Thanks, Major.

Graffer said...

I'm surprised the raft is still taking guests to the island in that gloom since the attraction closed at dusk. Great moody pics.

Anonymous said...

Any pictures of this short-lived area are welcome and these are especially nice.

Thanks, Major.

JG

Chuck said...

Graffer, I think that these guests are actually being evacuated from the island before the monsters come out at dusk.

If you look at the position of the sun in relation to the chimney on the mill and the relative position of the wooden posts raising their heads ominously from the surface of the deep, I think that these were accidentally posted in reverse order. But as the good Major said, it's not important in our enjoyment of these awesome rediscovered treasures.

Scott Lane said...

I love these "moody" shots! (even more than the nighttime WDW pics!) Thanks again for feeding our Vintage Disney addiction.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I was very pleased that I was able to bring these back from magenta madness!

Chuck, I’m not sure I’ve seen that awning at the Plantation House either. And I see that I’ve done my dyslexic “left is right and right is left” thing again. I’ll go fix it. Meanwhile, arg, my brain!

K. Martinez, the misty fog is so unusual, I really love the gloomy mood that it imparts to these.

Graffer, I thought the same thing; perhaps, being winter, it was only about 3 o’clock, since it gets dark by 4:30-ish. The sun still has a way to go before it is beneath the horizon.

JG, I never thought of it, but the Plantation House was pretty short lived. 10 years, more of less? I don’t think I ever saw it, or if I did I was too young to know what it was.

Chuck, these look like Charon ferrying souls across the river Styx to the underworld! I couldn’t tell how much of the sun’s relation to the chimney had to do with the changing position of the Mark Twain, so it wouldn’t surprise me if I got it backwards.

Kenneth Lane, I’m glad you liked these!

Chuck said...

Major, Charon & Styx - that's a perfect description!

What I was really trying to say (and probably obfuscated in my overly verbose prose) was that I thought that if these photos were in reverse order, then this was a crowd heading back from the island as it got ready to close rather than a crowd headed to the island late in the day. Note that there's a passel of people at Tom's landing on the island, waiting for the ferryman (I hope they don't pay him until he gets them to the other side) but there doesn't seem to be a line at all on the opposite shore.



Snow White Archive said...

These pics really are a very cool "moody".

They may not be gravestones, but it sure looks like a locale that Dracula would feel at home in.