Fun Photos, 1957
For a short while (possibly only one season), the Disney folks placed plywood flats around the Plaza, allowing guests to create their own "Fun Photos", for their scrapbooks, or to send to their frozen relatives back east. Sometimes you just want to stick your head through a hole in a piece of plywood and have your picture taken. Is that so wrong?
This first example is the most spectacular version, in my opinion. You don't just pose with Captain Nemo, you actually get to be Captain Nemo! Did you know that Nemo was the son of an Indian Raja? He was a genius who harnessed a mysterious energy source to power his submarine, which enabled him to conquer the seas and seek vengeance on cruel Imperialists. Some fun!
This flat was placed next to the Red Wagon Inn, which looks like an ordinary tract house from this angle. There was another elaborate flat allowing kids to be Davy Crockett. I don't have a photo of that one, but Daveland has several.
If ol' Nemo was a bit too intense for your tastes, you could always pose with Donald Duck. Why, he'll even let you wear his hat! Mighty neighborly of you, Donald.
14 comments:
Those photo ops are pretty cool! You would think that something like that would still be popular today. Knott's had similar photo ops during their Boysenberry Festival last year. There was even one that was a nod to Knott's Bear-y Tales. (They might have also had them this year, but I didn't make it over there for this year's Festival.) In that second pic, it looks like there is a big pile of dirt over in Frontierland. That is just how Frontierland looks today, six decades later. Who knew?
I was wondering the same thing re that dirt. I had a little trouble orienting myself in that second shot.
I'm STILL having trouble orienting myself. What am I looking at? Also, the Nemo cutout is really nice, but the Nautilus in the background looks kinda unfinished.
Yeah, I was just going to say...that Nautilus looks nothing like the movie version!
Looks like someone has actually read "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" and "Mysterious Island," eh, Major? I've read "Leagues," but haven't gotten to "Mysterious Island."
In my home movies from Disneyland August 1955, my brother is filmed behind the cutout of Dopey.
Yes, there were cut outs again this year for the Boysenberry Festival at Knotts.
TokyoMagic!, I agree, this is such a simple idea, and certainly low-cost. It would be neat if they did something like this today, perhaps changing the scenes regularly. On the other hand, it wouldn’t put money in the coffers, so… I’m not holding my breath.
Patrick Devlin, this IS a weird one, without much in the way of familiar landmarks to orient one’s self.
Anonymous (Patrick again?), it’s as if the painter had no good photo reference for the Nautilus, and just winged it. As for the dirt… I’m baffled too.
Steve DeGaetano, at this point they even had the large, beautiful model of the Nautilus hanging inside the walk-thru in Tomorrowland… somebody could have just walked over and brought their sketchbook. Or they figured that it wasn’t worth the effort… nobody’s going to be looking at this in 50 years!
Irene, we need to see your home movies!
Why is the kid so unhappy? Captain Nemo is stern and, as mentioned, intense, so at first I thought he was just in character. But he's even bummed to be wearing that famous sailor hat.
What got me oriented (there's that word again) was the location of the Street Car tracks. The White Wings pooper scooper over on the left hand side of the pic is on top of the track as it has gone most of the counter-clockwise way around the Plaza. The red popcorn wagon in the shot is on the wlkway leading up to where the Partners statue would be. So this was shot around where the corn dog wagon is these days.
As for the dirt? Still no idea. I did a quick GoogleMaps line-up and it's about where the hill that formed Rainbow Ridge and ran to the North was. But it looks impossibly tall.
There are two possibilities for the pile of dirt. Either it's (1) Snow Hill (pre-Matterhorn) and the photographer was standing on Main Street with the Red wagon Inn to his right, or (2) it's the dirt berm shielding the Frontierland Rainbow Caverns area from the Plaza and the photographer is standing on the walkway to the first aid station/nurses station area in between the future NRA Corner and Red Wagon Inn. I'm leaning towards the latter because of the street car tracks.
They did have some free photo opportunities for the Diamond Celebration which were slightly more elaborate setups, but I think they are temporary which is too bad. Thanks, Major.
Patrick, looks like we posted about the same time. I still think it's the berm shielding the Frontierland Rainbow Caverns area as you mentioned. It's the street cars tracks that make me inclined to thing that's the POV.
I also vote for it being the road leading to First Aid. You can even see the Frontierland entrance bridge on the far left-hand side of the pic.
Ken, I forgot all about those diamond celebration photo ops. I believe there were three in DL, but the one that was located along the Big Thunder Trail is gone now that there is almost nothing but dirt behind and alongside Big Thunder. The other two photo ops were still there as of last week. I'm not sure how I could have forgotten about those.
Irene, thanks for the info about the photo ops at the Berry Festival. I loved the Crafty Coyote one, but found it odd that they are using characters from an attraction that has been gone for almost 30 years and one that they seem to have no interest in bringing back. I also forgot that when Pink's was at Knott's there was a painted flat of hot dogs that you could pose behind....for those people that always wished they were an Oscar Meyer wiener.
Mark H. Besotted, that kid needs to go to military school! They’ll whip him in to shape, show him what’s what.
Patrick Devlin, when I first looked (without thinking very hard), I thought that the pile of dirt was Holiday Hill, but I do believe that we are looking in a westerly direction. As for the dirt I am still not sure… Rainbow Ridge was already there (in its early form) by 1957.
K. Martinez, the Rainbow Caverns building got my vote, although it does look way too big to me. Hard to tell though. “NRA Corner”? I have seen photos of those Diamond Celebration setups, and they are nice, but not as fun as the Captain Nemo version.
TokyoMagic!, I thought First Aid was off to the right (or East)? Or was that “Lost Children”? Or am I wrong on both counts? Very strange that Knott’s had a cutout so that you could pose as a hot dog. Why not a boysenberry?! Or a piece of fried chicken!
Major, yes I believe First Aid would be off to the right/East. I guess when I said "on the road leading to First Aid", I meant that First Aid was out of the picture and that we weren't necessarily even looking in the direction of it, but that if we turned (to the right) that road that the photographer was standing in, would take us there. Yeah....that's it. That's what I meant.
The hot dog photo-op was just outside of Pink's at Knott's, so that kinda sorta made sense. It disappeared when Pink's pulled out of Knott's. Knott's actually did have a photo-op that was a cutout of a "Family of Boysenberries" during the Boysenberry Festival. They should have a chicken one! Fried, pre-cooked or living!
NRA Corner? Ha ha! I meant INA Corner!
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