Sunday, April 12, 2020

Storybook Land, June 1974

Happy Easter, everybody! I'm sorry today's photos are not more fun, but you know... it's Sunday!

At first glance I would classify this first scan as a dud, and would almost certainly have rejected it. But looking more closely (in spite of feeling like I am in a paddy wagon on the way to the Big House), I think it's kind of a neat angle with the Pirate Ship in the distance, and even a bit of the Carrousel tent and Sleeping Beauty Castle. Down below is the village where Alice lived when she wasn't in Wonderland.


I'm not proud, and will freely admit that this is an ugly photo of Cinderella's Castle. It looks like a badly hand-tinted black and white picture from the 1900's.


12 comments:

  1. Major-
    You gotta love the first image for its unusual angle. Is it not the 'backside of Skull Rock-? As for the second image - good call on the "badly hand-tinted black and white picture". All that's missing is the ID from around the image frame. (And, oh yeah - Cinderella's coach. I can't find it there on the superhighway to the castle).

    Happy Easter to all GDB-ers and The Major, too.

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  2. Nanook, I too looked for the coach and could not find it. I like Photo 1 though, it is chock full of good stuff. It looks like the Jolly Roger is about to fire on the train. "Give 'em a broadside ye scurvy lot!" "Avast Major, or ye be next."

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  3. I think the second photo is the winner here! I love the weirdly unsaturated colors and the tracks winding in front of the castle! It all looks very "fsntasy" to me! The first pic just teases us with the ship, and we all know that that's not nice.

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  4. The first image reminds me of how intimate Storybookland felt, before the ship and skull rock were removed. Only once did I ride both the boats and Casey Jr before the FL remodel of '83, but I remember that parts of the attraction actually felt isolated from the rest of Fantasyland. Yes, there's that big wall of arborvitae between Dumbo and SBL now, but it's just not the same. So much awesomeness in this one image, even if it's from behind bars!

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  5. The first is my favorite. It kind of symbolically shows how I feel - I want to be out there, in the photo, but I'm trapped here, in the future.

    Note the little cemetery outside Alice's parish church. Long Forgotten just published a post that discusses that cemetery.

    Happy Easter, everyone!

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  6. Ah, Easter behind bars, what memoires. But I digress.

    As I've said before, I've always liked that area of FL. Thanks for the link, Chuck. I never noticed that graveyard before.

    Thanks Major for the nice start to Sunday.

    Dz

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  7. Nanook, I guess it IS the backside of Skull Rock. Funny, even after seeing 1000 photos of Skull Rock, I still expect it to be bigger somehow. I think those plants might be blocking the pumpkin coach, though it’s hard to say.

    Jonathan, you just need to believe that the pumpkin coach is there. Or if you REALLY need it, I will Photoshop it in for you!

    stu29573, wow, I am shocked that you like the second photo better. IT AIN’T RIGHT! I think I would be more OK with that one if it wasn’t so strangely grayish.

    steve2wdw, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned many times, I always rode the canal boats, and finally decided I should see Storybook Land from the Casey Jr. train. The line moved SO slowly, I still don’t know why. It was fun, but I will have to find a better place to sit, since the diesel exhaust hit us right in the face for the whole ride.

    Chuck, how did you get the future? Tell us your secret! I am thrilled that Long Forgotten is still producing wonderful articles, a week or so ago I started rereading his blog from the very beginning.

    dzacher, ha ha, it sounds like you have some stories! Share them here, I’m sure no government entities are paying attention. And besides, there’s that Statute of Limitations I keep hearing about.

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  8. I do love the unusual angle of the first shot. Any pic with the Captain Hook's pirate ship is a good pic, even if it is playing hide and seek with us.

    steve2wdw, unfortunately, that big wall of greenery (Eugenia Mrytifolia) between Dumbo and Storybook Land, was recently ripped out. And they replaced it with a very cheap-looking wooden plank fence, so now when you are in almost any part of Storybook Land and looking towards Fantasyland, you see a great big ugly wall. But hey, that's Disney for you!

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  9. P.S. Happy Easter, everyone!

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  10. I love the first picture’s uniqueness! It took me a moment to realize where the photographer was when he/she snapped this one.

    Happy Easter, everyone! Right now there’s a rabbit in my backyard eating a carrot that we put there for him. I wonder if he’ll leave a chocolate egg or jelly beans . . .

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  11. A happy Easter to all the gorillas;
    May your chocolate eggs be full of vanillas.

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  12. Anonymous8:57 AM

    Happy Easter everyone.

    Love these pictures, Major. No bad shots of Storybook Land.

    JG

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