Random Pix For Friday
Today I have two orphan photos - images that were not from a big lot of slides, but were all by themselves.
First up is this so-so shot of the yellow Monorail, circa 1962. There's some motion blur that spoils the picture a bit, but then again, how is anyone supposed to capture a crisp photo of something that is moving at a million glorps an hour? For some reason I like the tiny silhouetted heads seen through the monorail windows, resembling a dozen black and white TVs.
Need to sit down? There are plenty of benches just waiting for you!
This next one is a really great shot (from a slide dated March, 1958) showing the Coffee Shop over at the Disneyland Hotel. I sure love those pierced steel "erector set" beams, as well as the mid-century look of the coffee shop, with its simple cubes and rectangles in charcoal gray, light gray, white, and accents of vermillion. Let's go in and get a crispy BLT, and perhaps a nice cold lemonade.
13 comments:
It's Monorail Gold passing over the top of the Motor Boat Cruise load area while heading towards the Matterhorn. Nice shot! I guess that's the pathway leading to the Fantasyland Station of the SF & DLRR before "it's a small world" was built.
Love the "Erector Set" style girders of the old Disneyland Hotel. Thanks, Major.
@ Ken-
The location you suggest for the Monorail was exactly what I was thinking.
@ Major-
"... and accents of vermillion". Vermilion is one of my favorite color words - and you can spell it with one or two "l's"-!
Thanks, Major.
I miss that old version of the Disneyland Hotel. I don't think I'll ever get used to that "downtown" shopping area...
That first one reminds me of the passenger cars on a Lionel train set.
That, in turn, reminds me of my dad's much-younger cousin Jimmy, who had a Lionel set with cars just like this one. When I was two and a half, I remember putting my head in front of the tunnel portal on his layout's styrofoam mountain so I could see the headlight glow in the daytime. My dad's uncle Marion pulled me back just in time to avoid a literal head-on collision with the Santa Fe F3 locomotive.
Then we got in the car and went to Disneyland. Everything eventually comes back to that, doesn't it?
Scott Lane, I miss the old Disneyland Hotel too. I actually stayed there in the seventies when the Wrather Corporation owned it, but not after Disney took it over. Now, I have no interest in staying there.
Chuck, At first when talking about your dad's cousin Jimmy and his layout, I thought you were referring to Lionel's pre-war "City of Portland" Union Pacific passenger train because of the color, but the Santa Fe F3 diesel locomotives with its war bonnet paint scheme is very cool. And yes, it all does eventually come back to Disneyland.
Same here. Had many fun breakfasts in that shop. I think the earliest I stayed at the hotel was '73. Started staying there again in the early 90s. I gotta say, we did have a really good stay there in '95. Did the early morning entrance into the park. Good memories. Last time was in 2011, and it wasn't that much fun anymore. Not crazy about Downtown Disney either.
Ken, it was the silhouettes rather than the color that made me think of the Lionel trains.
My dad had a co-worker back in the late '70s who was a Lionel collector, and he had a City of Portland set in near-mint condition. Almost every room in the house had chair rail-to-ceiling display shelves, and I remember this being displayed fairly prominently.
Every year at Christmas, he'd have an open house. Each room on the ground floor was decorated for a different year, complete with a large layout featuring original operating equipment and accessories from the Lionel catalog of the year represented. It was simply amazing. We were even allowed to play with the operating equipment like the missile car under the supervision of his teen-aged son (who also happened to be one of our babysitters).
K. Martinez, your comment reminds me of a question that I’ve had for a long time. I’d always thought that “Monorail Gold” was more of a WDW thing - though if that’s true, I’m not sure what they would have used at Disneyland. I admit that “the yellow Monorail” sounds pretty lame.
Nanook, I agree, vermillion is a good word. When I used to paint more, I always liked “crimson lake” gouache (Winsor & Newton, specifically); I liked the name, I liked the color, and I liked the fact that it smelled like cloves!
Scott Lane, I don’t remember that version of the Disneyland Hotel, but it sure looks great in photos.
Chuck, yes, that Lionel car has the same “window effect” that I enjoy in the Monorail photo! You are lucky to be alive after your near-collision with a locomotive. You should have put teeny tiny pennies on the train tracks for the locomotive to squish flat. Where did you live when you were able to head right to Disneyland after your traumatic event?
K. Martinez, you guys and your model train knowledge! Or even real train knowledge. I don’t know much about them, though I do know the Santa Fe war bonnet paint scheme, which I still think is so brilliant.
DrGoat, while I probably would have enjoyed eating breakfast at the coffee shop, I also can imagine myself champing at the bit to get into the park! “Why are you chewing so slow?! What, ANOTHER sip of coffee?! Let’s go!”.
Chuck, your description reminds me of photos of Ward Kimball’s train collection. As a kid I always secretly hoped that there would be some way for me to visit Ward. Maybe he’d just know about my love for Disney and call me out of the blue! “Say, I’ve heard that you keep checking out ‘The Art of Walt Disney’ from your school library!”. Much to my surprised, it never happened. ;-) Very cool that you were allowed to actually play with some of those trains. Missile car! Those were the days.
Really liking the coffee shop shot. Back then, those words were a completely different thing than today. Like you, Major, I would have been too impatient to enjoy it. Today would be a different story, I think.
Thank you.
JG
Major, we lived north of San Francisco at the time of my close shave, but were on vacation in the LA area with my dad's parents (who, in a strange, cosmic twist of fate also happened to be my grandparents). That was the same 1971 trip I've shared pictures of in the past.
When I was in college, a friend of mine was talking about going to visit her brother in Detroit for the weekend. Off-handedly, she mentioned she'd wanted to go the previous weekend, but he'd been out of town in California buying trains from Ward Kimball.
I think my eyes actually bulged out of their sockets.
I asked, "Ward Kimball, the animator?"
She looked surprised. "You've heard of him?"
I said, "Um, yeah. I'm a big fan."
Pause.
"I can't believe you know who Ward Kimball is!"
"I can't believe your brother knows Ward Kimball!"
I'm still not sure which one of us was more surprised.
JG, like most old coffee shops, the Disneyland version had loads of charm, at least to these 2017 eyes. If I had an annual pass I might sit down for a meal today, but if I have to pay over $100 to get in… I might still be in a hurry!
Chuck, that’s a great story. So funny that your friend seemed unaware of Ward Kimball’s considerable fame (even in 1971) - I guess he was just a “toy train nut” to her. He was the ULTIMATE toy train nut! I still have the two auction catalogs from after Ward died, they are incredible.
I was having trouble figuring out where that first pic was taken, but now I can see the roof over the Motorboat dock and I think Ken is right about that path being the one that led to the old Fantasyland train station. I'm guessing then, that the shadow we see on the ground to the far right would be from the fencing that would have been around the Midget Autopia?
@Tokyo, I agree, the fence shadow on the right must be Midget Autopia, I think we are too far around the bend for it to be Storybook Boats.
This pic was a real puzzler.
JG
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