Parade Snapshots, April 26, 1965
I hope you all remembered to "fall back" one hour last night! It's not too late to do it right now.
Every once in a while, I will still buy a batch of vintage Disneyland snapshots, sight unseen. Sometimes it works out, and other times, not so much. Today's examples fall solidly into the "meh" category, being a series of parade photos (all helpfully dated "April 26, 1965"). I don't really know which parade this was, but I'll bet one of you does!
It's a bit odd that the parade ran through the gate of Frontierland... this must have run past the Haunted Mansion eventually; I wonder where the participants wound up. Backstage at the north end of the park? Anyway, here is Pinocchio, Honest John, and Gideon - characters from my favorite Disney feature.
There goes Alice, along with the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit. Notice the cast member to the right... a Jungle Cruise skipper? Following the White Rabbit is a pack of marching playing cards.
Yeah, those guys! That deck needs to be shuffled, they are too precise and orderly.
A bunch of medieval knights on "horseback" trot through Frontierland's portals. Hopefully none of them leave any horse apples behind.
Disneyland used oversized figures for many parades over the years, but I can't help noticing how much these figures resemble the dolls in "It's a Small World" (or even the giant dolls of "America on Parade"). Of course that attraction had been going strong at the New York World's Fair by April of '65, though it wouldn't come to Disneyland until May of '66.
And finally, a rickety jalopy carries Goofy (in his 1910-style duster) and Minnie Mouse. Hands at 10 and 2, Goofy!
15 comments:
Major-
It seems so odd (to me, at least), to see parade figures in Frontierland, but have to admit that deck of cards makes quite the impression and would certainly give Davy Crockett a run for his money. That "1910 duster" appears to be Disneyland's homage to The Beverly Hillbillies.
Thanks, Major.
I think that same jalopy Goofy's driving made an appearance in TM's Nov 3rd "Meet the World" blog post a couple of days ago.
Thanks for your continuous work posting daily on GDB, Major. It's greatly appreciated.
I'm never going to get used to seeing those costumes with the over-sized heads like the Mad Hatter. It's just so...uncanny!
Re the jungle cruise skipper in photo 2: It was standard operating procedure for every location to send at least one cast member to the parade route, where the parade lead would assign positions along the route and at crossovers.
I LOVE a parade! I sang that just now in my head, the same way that Jane Lynch sings "I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I love a charade!!!" when she hosts Family Game Night.
Yes, Ken....I did just post a pic of Goofy and his jalopy in the 1981 Christmas parade a few days ago. I also posted some pics of him with that car in my 1970 "Disney On Parade" post from September of 2016. Disney used the "Goofy and his jalopy" act quite often in parades and shows.
Nanook, I hate to bring up "I Love Lucy" here, but isn't that car similar to the one that Fred initially buys for them to make their trip to California?
@ TM!-
Hmmmm..... Now. it's just any excuse to reference I L L, is it-? Oh, I don't know - I'm fairly certain the car used in the I L L episode was a 1923 Cadillac. Goofy's car seems more at-home in "less-rarified" air.
But, extra points for driving The Major crazy-!!
Nanook, that is not my intention! To drive the Major crazy, I mean! I'm just a huge fan of that show and quite often, there are things in life that remind me of an episode or a line from the show! Maybe I should have tried to connect that car to The Happiest Millionaire instead! ;-)
Nanook, I agree, it looks very odd to see the parade passing through Frontierland. I wonder why they didn’t go up Main Street and out somewhere north (or east?) of Tomorrowland.
K. Martinez, yes, I believe you are right, unless they had several different jalopys. Which seems unlikely! I wonder if Bob Gurr had something to do with putting this thing together. Thanks for the nice compliment!
The Disney Dudebro, I was wondering if the Magic Kingdom had always had the “face characters” for things like the Mad Hatter, but I think I have one of those 1970 scans in which you can see the Hatter’s giant green hat near the train station, so perhaps early on they had one that looked just like the Disneyland version! I wonder when they switched over to the face character version?
Anon, thanks for that info!
TokyoMagic!, I know that I have a photo of Goofy in his jalopy from a nighttime Christmas parade from about 1969, I believe. So they used him a lot. And you don’t hate to bring up “I Love Lucy”, it’s your most favorite thing (besides Disney)!
Nanook, wow, a 1923 Cadillac, how the heck would you even know that.
TokyoMagic!, ha ha, I was going to say, at least TM didn’t mention “The Happiest Millionaire”, but… then you did it!
@ TM!- No, no... please - as little as possible with references to The Happiest Millionaire-! You already know of my affection for I Love Lucy and my personal connection with the Oppenheimer clan - so please continue with as many I Love Lucy references as you can muster.
All you Happiest Millionaire lovers out there will just have to be content to know that my "good fortune" at having seen the film [twice] at Radio City Music Hall - in all its glorious original 164 minutes-! - was 'kinda' wasted on me back then. (However, there was the consolation prize of seeing the Christmas show, with the glorious Rockettes). Which, as my memory of those moments has faded, evidently was something along these lines, as quoted from Bosley Crowther's, NYTimes review: The traditional Nativity pageant introduces the Music Hall's stage show, which features a winter-wonderland number done by the ballet, a myriad Christmas-tree routine danced by the Rockettes, a tumbling act by the Fredianis and a skating act by Nancy Lea Parker and Nicky Powers. Undoubtedly, the Fredianis tumbling act saved the day for me-!
@ Major- Pretty good, huh-? In truth, the Cadillac was referenced in the script, and I'm trusting IMDB for the 1923 model year. (I'm not THAT good-!)
Holy mice, is the “III Love a Paraaade” song from The Happiest Millionaire? my mother used to sing that whenever there was anything resembling a parade. (Us or any group of people walking single-file, several cars of the same color following each other down the road, actual parades, etc.) It was part of the soundtrack of my childhood. I'm going to have to re-watch T. H. Millionaire ASAP.
The ranks of cards and horses are truly impressive. The weird part is seeing any parade not attended bye a teeming mob of gas being held back by crowd control!
I think Goofy's candy truck is the ultimate evolution of his jalopy.
Melissa, "I Love A Parade" is not from The Happiest Millionaire, unfortunately. But it does have a Disney connection. The Kids of the Kingdom sang it on their 1967 album (yes, they had an album....two, actually!) I'm sure it was a cover like all the songs on their albums, but I'm not sure when or where the song originated.
Melissa, okay...I just had to look it up. "I Love A Parade" is from 1931. Here's some info I found on it: "Harry Richman, known for introducing the popular Irvin Berlin tune "Puttin' On the Ritz" a couple years earlier, gushes about the thrills of a passing parade in this upbeat marching song from songwriting duo Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. Arlen, who went on to compose classics like the Wizard of Oz number "Over The Rainbow," spent most of the '30s writing songs for musical revues at the Cotton Club, a famous hotspot in Harlem that welcomed some of the biggest black entertainers of the era. "I Love A Parade" debuted in Rhythmania, the first show with Duke Ellington taking over the house band."
I just find it interesting that the parade route entered Frontierland. I wonder if that was due to construction happening in Fantasyland for It's a Small World? That would make the most sense to me. Anyone know for sure?
Always your pal,
Amazon Belle
Wow, thanks for the research, TM!
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