Tuesday, October 02, 2018

In Fantasyland, May 1966

Today I have two fun photos of Fantasyland for you!

We'll start with Polly Holliday's sister Molly, looking stylish and elegant even while eating an ice cream bar. Meanwhile her husband is yukking it up as usual. You could do better, Molly! I tried to figure out what was in her handbag, but it might just be a Kodak box of some kind, and not a rare Disneyland brochure as I'd hoped.

This angle gives us a nice look at the entrance to the castle walk-thru (still so glad to have that feature back!); the baby in the stroller doesn't look so good... I hope it wasn't hit by a curare-tipped arrow while on the Jungle Cruise.


Oh yeah, Fantasyland when it was at its Fantasylandiest. The colors, man, dig the colors! The little ticket booth for the Casey Jr. attraction has shingles in Mary Blair pinks and blues. The Pirate Ship looks impressive as always; and with practically no line for Dumbo's Flying Elephants, I definitely want to go for a spin.


*NOTE! I will be out of town this week, but there will be new posts for you every day. I'm going to be hella busy, but I will be sure to read all the comments when I get home!

13 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Our lady friend with the ice cream bar is giving the perfect "I can't be bothered" look, while she not only sports those cool-looking shades and purse, but also a babushka. And that great-looking awning/signage for the SB Castle Walk-thru - it's so 'royal'. And the second image sums-up just perfectly how in spite of the original Fantasyland [perhaps] not being up to the level Walt would'a preferred, it works just perfectly, nonetheless-!

Thanks, Major.

MIKE COZART said...

Yeah that baby!! I hope somebody directed her to first aid !! If not I hope it wasn’t left in the sun to bloat!

I really love the New Fantasyland of 1983, but there was something so great about the original I miss.

Chuck said...

In the first image, a custodial guy in his white uniform. I seem to be noticing a lot of those lately in GDB pictures. I wonder if they were always there and I didn't notice, or if the pictures are slowly changing like in M.R. James' The Mezzotint?

And in Picture Two - the Chicken-of-the-Sea Mermaid on the stern in all her glory. Yeah, baby!

K. Martinez said...

I love the simplicity of the early Dumbo ride. Fantasyland '83 is technically superior, but my heart still belongs to the original Fantasyland. Thanks, Major.

Melissa said...

Molly is absolutely glorious. We all want to be Molly when we grow up.

One of my pet peeves is parents who spend twrlve-hour days ramming at an adult's pace in the parks without adequate rest breaks for their children because "they'll nap in the stroller." The rest that a kid gets while being pushed around in the hot sun and noise isn't good, replenishing rest and it shows on the kids red, miserable faces. "Collapsing from sheer exhaustion" is no substitute for actual rest.

JC Shannon said...

I love the little details Walt and the Imagineers added to make Fantasyland more magical. The tiled roof on the ticket hut and the yellow trim on the Dumbo ride. The little shutters, arrow slits, and sconce on the castle, all very detailed and cool. The original FL had a renaissance fair atmosphere that has been lost to time and renovation. Great stuff today, thanks Major.

Clyde Hughes said...

Thanks for the great shots, Major!
Yes, the expression on Molly's face (possibly taken by her other sister, Holly) seems to be asking... 'where are we? where do we go?' Her husband seems to be engaged in a shoot-out...wait, could that result in an infinity, mirror-tunnel effect? Maybe he isn't even related to her...maybe Polly, behind her, is trying to get her husband to focus the camera in her direction, but he's having difficulty...

It seems like there may be a gravitational pull on that tyke's stroller, pulling her towards Frontierland! Perhaps only children were susceptible to its black-hole-like draw!

In the second photo, the colors just reach out and grab me!
The colored hats (caps?) on the Dumbos are almost edible, while the sheer palate of color on the bench just in front of the ship is incredible! I see a long line of ladies (mostly). Blue, yellow, white, darker blue, red. The one of the left side seems to have a big blue feather in her hat...or is that her arm? Or is that a man? It reminds me of Jesslyn Fax in "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken," saying "All of the Simmons have the Simmons eyes."

Being late on the scene, I had to comment on the cool car scene from yesterday! I couldn't locate the air hose, though! I did see a sort of towing device on the top, just almost in the attendant's outstretched hand. In fact, it looks like he very cleverly posed that way to pretend like he was holding a pipe, a la Pa Kettle.

Wonder what that object's called? The "Official Towing Device"?

I think that the 'sullen' look is indeed well-rehearsed with Big Sis in the lower photo! Thanks.

Nanook said...

@ Cyde Hughes-

A Jesslyn Fax reference - all must be right with the world today-!

Chuck said...

Clyde, great observations. I like the concept of edible color.

Regarding yesterday's first picture, I think the air hose is the reddish-colored thing on top of the metal hatch just behind and to the right of the black toolbox, at about the one o'clock position from our perspective.

Warren Nielsen said...

Chuck, I now see the air hose too. Red, flexible, and retracts onto a reel below ground so the hose won't be a trip hazard for the CMs. Used to see those all the time at the gas stations. That was when air was free and there weren't any of those funky (or phony) air stations that take quarters to make them pump air. Ahh. The good old days.

W

Dean Finder said...

Melissa, I'm with you on the kids passed out on strollers. That seems to be a thing at WDW, even with kids way too old for stroller with their knees crammed up to their chins.

Melissa said...

I love the tournament-tent trash cans. Then again I love Disney trash cans in general.
Magical Trash
is one of my favorite Disney photo blogs.

MIKE COZART said...

Melissa:
On a sad follow-up to your Disney trash cans - the company that has been supplying all the Disney themesparks with the famous MODEL C TRASH CAN - Mills Engineering recently went out of business . .... I’m sure Disney has the capabilities of replicating their own - in fact I think they already have - many of the new cans are missing the rivits on the trim a typical detail on the originals.