Friday, April 20, 2018

Beautiful Main Street, U.S.A.

Let's celebrate Main Street U.S.A. today! Why the heck not? As I have mentioned too many times before, Main Street is a land that I didn't appreciate that much in my foolish youth. It was only later that I came to realize what a beautiful creation it is. 

First up is this lovely photo (circa 1959) showing the Disneyland Band marching the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor, the "Jams and Jellies" store, the Penny Arcade, and up toward the Candy Palace and Coke Corner, with (of course) the castle in the distance. Crowds are very light on this day in May, and nobody is walking in the street. Don't wanna get run down by a marching band! It's one of the worst ways to go.


Next we have this wonderful October 1961 image looking northward. Main Street looks so appealing! It is colorful without being crass. The trees are just the right size, too. I love the Surrey with its bright yellow wheels, and even the green trash cans spaced regularly along the curb. There was probably a bag of C&H sugar in that planter right in front of us!


Jessie the Cowgirl's mom enters from Stage Left, holding a camera. Take lots of pictures, lady! In the distance, men wear fedoras, ladies wear dresses, and there is a distinct lack of children.


21 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

In that first image, let's not overlook the Puffin Bake Shop, sandwiched in-between Sunny View Farms Jams & Jellies and the Penny Arcade. And based on the current shops, I'm thinking the image is more-likely from late 1957 - just to throw some controversy into the mix... I love the dress of the guests' in these shots - they seem almost hand-picked for the setting.

Thanks, Major.

Melissa said...

Just don't get in the way of the trumpet or clarinet section, or you're likely to *be flat.*

Love the flowerbed border in the second pic.

Chuck said...

The Disneyland Band marching past the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor...shades of my own first concrete memory of Disneyland. I just need a paper carton of milk with a straw poked through the side.

Anyone care to lament the now-lost original asphalt pavement? ;-)

Anonymous said...

As for the lack of children, this was probably after one of the Child Catcher" sweeps...or maybe I'm thinking of something else...

Anonymous said...

In the evolution of street paving in America, brick preceded asphalt. I like it.

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Since @Melissa got the puns rolling here goes.

The star of the movie theatre Buste Keato is in need of a nurse. Or at least and R N.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, the slide is date-stamped “5-1959”, but of course that only means that the actual photo could have taken any time before that. It seems crazy to think that someone would wait two years to develop their film, but - - stranger things have happened. The Columbia shows up in one of the other photos from this batch, and that didn’t debut until June of 1958…

Melissa, I always worry about the glockenspiel. And I do mean always.

Chuck, the straw has to be the old paper variety that would eventually get soggy and not keep its shape. That is of VITAL importance. I will lament the old asphalt!

Stuart Powley, maybe all the children were hippies and were not let in by security!

Anonymous, you can still see brick (cobblestone) paving in some old parts of Manhattan, which is very cool. I’m not sure how many small midwestern towns had the wherewithal to pave their main streets with bricks/stones. I think the thing I don’t like about it is that it looks so modern, much like a suburban driveway with pavers.

Alonzo, how can I place the “sad trombone” sound right here??

Steve DeGaetano said...

I'm not against the brick, because, like Anonymous, I know it's prototypical, but they do look far busier than the smooth gray-blackness of just asphalt.

Patrick Devlin said...

Something I hadn't wondered about, really: Did the Main Street shops always (like from 1955) connect on their interiors, as they do today, or were they originally just entered from the street-side doors? I have no idea...

Patrick Devlin said...

And Melissa, if you See Sharp then you won't Be Flat.

Melissa said...

There were still a couple of sections of brick-paved street with unused streetcar tracks left in my hometown in upstate NY when I was a preschooler in the late 1970s/early 1980s. They're paved over now, but the brick sometimes gets exposed during roadwork. The line down the middle of the road was made of lighter-colored bricks instead of being painted on.

(Alonzo, that RN joke was the best thing I've heard in a month of Pundays!)

Nanook said...

Major-

I figured I was probably wrong about the dating of the first image as the Jellies and Jams shop was gone by 1959. But with a bit more checking (thank you - again - Daveland), I was able to find other images [well past late 1957] where the sign is still there. I just couldn’t remember how long that sign remained past it’s original identification.

@ Melissa-

“A month of ‘Pundays’ “. Oh, my - we are too funny for our own good. “A month of Sunday’s” is such a Southern expression - like “white on rice”.

JC Shannon said...

I live in Montana and Butte used to have a great street rail system. It was set in brick. One day I was poking around uptown and some of the asphalt had come up and exposed the old track and brick. I like the brick and cobblestone, it was built to last, and it's still there under the asphalt 100 years later. You have to wonder where the asphalt will be in a century. Great shots of Main Street, USA. All the kids are in Tomorrowland having fun. I never appreciated Main Street till I was a teenager. Thanks Major.

Alonzo P Hawk said...

@Melissa

Coming from the jedi master of pun's that compliment will put a flubber bounce in my step the rest of the day.

JC Shannon said...

Major and all who love this blog. I signed up for the blogospherical ID and lo and behold the darned thing changed my name to my computer sign on. JC Shannon is me Jonathan. Please forgive me, I am computer illiterate and a technophobe.

Chuck said...

...and you were in Flight Safety???

Oh, wait - that was probably in the days when pilots actually flew airplanes and airmanship was still a thing. ;-)

Major Pepperidge said...

Steve DeGaetano, I am willing to accept that I am in the minority in not loving the pavers!

Patrick Devlin, I believe that many of the shops are more open, and connected than they originally were, but I will have to defer to somebody smarter (shouldn’t be hard to find!) for a real answer.

Patrick Devlin, like Homer Simpson, you should always B Sharp.

Melissa, I am basing my limited experience on a lot of small towns in Minnesota, which I admit might be atypical. Blooming Prairie, Owatonna, Albert Lea, Austin… so many towns (with Main Streets that reminded me so much of run-down Disneyland Main Streets, hardly changed since the 1930’s) that I think went right from dirt roads to asphalt. BUT… maybe more cities used bricks or cobbles than I ever realized.

Nanook, I did see that the Main Street Lessees list that you sent me mentioned the 1957 closure of the Jams and Jellies. I suppose that the list might have a typo, or else the info is just in error. Still, I appreciate your sticking to historical fact!

JC Shannon, I guess I stand corrected on bricks and stone used in streets. Who knew. Clearly not me! And really, in the scheme of things that have changed at Disneyland, I can’t get too bothered by pavers. There are so many other things to be bothered by! ;-)

Alonzo, just as long as you don’t keep bouncing until you wind up in orbit. It could happen.

Jonathan, now we all know your innermost secrets!

Chuck, who among us hasn't been betrayed by our computer overlords?

JC Shannon said...

@Chuck, I have been a pilot for more than 30 years, but if I had to pilot one of those glass cockpit, auto-land, auto-go around, auto-take off aircraft they fly now, I would probably have to turn it all off...or freak out! Give me a whiskey compass, altimeter, and airspeed indicator, none of which even require electricity, and I'll fly anywhere you want to go.

Nanook said...

Major-

From what I can tell, the [Sunny View Farms] Jellies & Jams signage was probably changed-out in July, 1960 to make way for the Sunkist Citrus House.

Chuck said...

Jonathan - preach it, brother!

Anonymous said...

After reading the C&H Sugar comment, I feel fulfilled.

Thanks Major and everyone.

JG