Entrance to Frontierland and Adventureland
The year: 1956. Elvis probably did something that year, as did a young John F. Kennedy. Don't you love history? I'd classify today's images as just "good old Disneyland"; nothing to knock your socks off, but better than average.
Let's begin with this nice look at the entrance to Frontierland (do pessamists call it the exit from Frontierland?). Good color, sharp focus, nice implied energy from the people... I give this one a solid A, with a blue foil star stuck on.
Don't be concerned about those rifle barrels pointing down at us from the stockade's tower, it's just how they do things on the frontier.
I know you all remember the mom in the bold red and white dress, and the hairdo that seems to harken back to the 1940's Andrews Sisters. She and her bambinos stand near the entrance to Adventureland; this is another photo that isn't mind-blowing, but I just love the "early Disneyland" ambiance it evokes.
25 comments:
Major-
We can probably go one better than just "good old Disneyland". If nothing else, that woman with the red blouse, just behind the young lad, is wearing pants that are awfully-close to: "...chic hostess pants - the kind you wear 'when you give smart dinner parties'." (Well - someone had to say it). And yes, you're welcome, Tokyo Magic!
As for the second image... I'm a little concerned about the 'shirt' being worn by the boy. Just what's up with that odd 'fringe', edging the yoke on his shirt; not to mention the odd fleur-de-lis embroidery on his collar-? This has all the makings of a "Mom shirt"-!
Thanks, Major, for sharing these 1950's fashion tips with us.
Nanook, I saw those checkerboard britches just last month, in Harper's Bazaar!
A bumper crop of lovely summer dresses in that first picture. I'd wear every one!
Red Hot Mama puts me in mind of Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. All she needs is a jingly ankle bracelet.
Nanook, I also don't know what to make of Sonny Boy's shirt. It's like it set out to be a cowboy shirt but just sort of sighed and gave up halfway. I wonder what Li'l Sis is keeping in her cute red purse. Ticket book? Clean hankies? Half-eaten ice cream cone?
These photos reminded me of this picture and this one of Patrick Devlin and his sister, Mary Pat, taken during a 1960 trip to Disneyland. They were taken at a spot just out of view in today's second picture, about 50-75 feet behind the bush Li'l Sis is standing in front of.
Hard to believe it's been nearly two years since we lost him from our online family. I miss him.
Sue, if that girl were my aunt, she'd have empty milk bottles to hit big brother (my dad) over the head with (true story, although I think they were considerably younger than these kids when that happened).
Even through all of these years, I really feel sorry for that kid. He even looks miserable, while Mom and Sis are yucking it up. At least he has his own camera. A Kodak Pony 828? It's hard to tell... Great "you are there" pics today!
In the last picture Betty Davis has just posed with a picture with her niece and nephew. After, she’s gonna send the two to pick up some cigarettes for Auntie Bette while she’s heads off to the Adventureland Cantina for a gin.
“What do you mean you have no gin? !!!? Alright bartender... why don’t you tell me what YOU do have!”
“And DON’T disappoint ME!”
I love today’s Disneyland fashion show! I do see a couple Don Loper originals!
Chuck, why did your aunt beat up your dad??
Agreed, those clothes scream the 50s. Lady in red looks like my older sister in some old photos we have from the period.
Back to yesterday hand stamps, we were leaving and of course got our stamps (not sure if I sniffed it). Some boys wanted my daughter to roll her stamp on their hands. It was the 80s so maybe they didn't need the ticket to get in? Just the stamp with the correct color?
Thanks Major for the fashion show with the Disney backdrop.
Zach
Major-
Oh, for shame-! I was so busy focusing on Junior's unfortunate shirt, I failed to notice the cuffs on his jeans. I believe he wins the award for 'tallest cuffs' we've seen on these pages. (Good way to distract others from that pitiful shirt-!)
Chuck, my mother hit her cousin over the head with a Mason jar. They were catching lightning bugs, and a nice, big one landed on him.
(I miss Patrick, too.)
Nanook, the lad's shirt does look like the ones you used to get at those roadside souvenir places here in the southwest. Very funky, not to mention the cuffs. Loving that whole pic.
Melissa, are you sure about that yellow dress? Looks a bit puffy and stiff to be running around in. Polka dots are excellent though.
And you never know, Patrick may be at that entrance right now. In that time. Let's hope so.
Entertaining pics this morning Major. Very better than average. Thanks!
That poor boy's shirt is definitely an Aunt Clara. You know, the one who sends you hideous clothes for holiday's and birthdays. He is thinking, if he keeps on growing he will grow out of this cowboy nightmare and in to his jeans. Try as I might, I can't find a babushka, but the harlequin pedal pushers make up for it. Thanks Major.
People-watching never gets old, especially at Disneyland.
Barbara Stanwyck is very nicely turned out in a tropical print, well before the advent of the Tiki Room.
I'm with Dr. Goat, Patrick is in that picture, right behind the bush.
Thanks Major, for the look back, and to everyone for reminding me of Patrick.
JG
Just a year since the park's opening and it's looking pretty nifty. Those pines in Frontierland have really grown! The sun is out - it's a beautiful day to people watch. The woman just under the Adventureland arch, just over the young man's right shoulder, has a classic 50's pleated dress and looks like she could balance on the head of a pin - very classy.
It's interesting to note in pic #2 that the space now occupied by the Tiki Room was a walkway to the Pavilion. KS
Nanook, I don’t know if somebody HAD to say it, but then again, it is GDB, so maybe you are right. No use fighting the inevitable. I agree, the boy’s shirt is very odd - I would think it was a girl’s shirt if I just saw it on a hanger. I wonder if his mom did make it?
TokyoMagic!, sigh.
Melissa, yes, that mom definitely has “a look”, I feel like by 1956 there were not a lot of those hairdos with the bangs like that. I can’t tell if she is behind the times or ahead of them! The sister is keeping cigarettes, a switchblade, and gum in her purse.
Chuck, aw, our old friend Patrick… it might sound phony, but I really do miss him, even though I never “met” him, if you know what I mean. His brother Joe has sent me some of Pat’s old books, which is very very generous of him, I hope all the Devlin siblings are OK. I love those linked photos. You had an aunt who hit people with empty milk bottles?! That sounds pretty extreme!
stu29573, maybe the boy was in possession of these slides, and he sold them (as a grown man) because he always hated that shirt. It’s a theory. A Kodak Pony? That’s a new one on me!
Mike Cozart, she does have a sort of “Margo Channing” vibe, though she looks a lot nicer! It’s hard to picture Bette Davis without a cigarette in her hand, those were the days when nearly everybody smoked like chimneys. I was surprised to see a photo of Marilyn Monroe with a cigarette, I never knew that she was a smoker!
Lou and Sue, who is Don Loper?
zach, as I said in today’s post, I really love it when photos evoke the era, and of course the clothing is a big factor. The older men with their hats, the ladies with their nice dresses, the kid with the pseudo-cowboy shirt (or whatever that is!)… so different from today. So funny that you remember some boys wanting to get some of the ink from your sister’s hand-stamp on their hands… kids are devious! I thought they always used the blacklight ink for stamps, did they use different colors depending on the day? I suppose some enterprising person could have just faked the hand stamp!
Nanook, we established that big cuffs were a measure of how cool a person was, so that boy must be REALLY cool!
Melissa, and I thought I was being abused when my mom hit me with a loaf of bread (because I refused to get a haircut)! A mason jar, ouch.
DrGoat, I wouldn’t expect a boy’s shirt, especially a cowboy shirt, to have those little ruffles, but what do I know. Maybe that was sort of “Hollywood western”? I can’t imagine Gene Autry wearing a shirt like that, however! The yellow dress might be stiff and puffy, but I often think that women suffer for fashion. At least she’s wearing “flats”. Glad you enjoyed these!
Jonathan, ha ha, now I’m thinking of “A Christmas Story” and the bunny outfit. “Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl.” And yeah, where are the babushkas? Maybe there was a shortage.
JG, it’s funny, I grew up watching “The Big Valley” in reruns on TV (I think they ran it right after “Bonanza”), so I was mostly familiar with Barbara Stanwyck as an older woman. Then I saw her in some of her earlier pictures, like “The Lady Eve” or “Double Indemnity”, and wow, she was so pretty! Wouldn’t it be mind-blowing to see someone we know in the background of another photo?? I’d love it.
Omnispace, yeah, I wonder if they just watered the heck out of everything so that the trees and shrubs would grow extra fast? And if you look at Frontierland in particular, some of those “forest” areas got so lush and the trees got so big, from certain angles it really was a pretty convincing “frontier” in the middle of Anaheim. Pretty amazing. I noticed the lady under the arch too, it looks like she is going to a nice cocktail party.
KS, Oh yeah! Thank you for pointing that out! Very cool.
Major-
Although Don Loper did a lot of things, his biggest claim to fame as far as these pages go is, both being referenced to, and seen in, "The Fashion Show" episode of I Love Lucy. Well - you just had to figure it-! To wit: "Don Loper was an American costume and necktie designer, as well as a screenwriter, choreographer, associate producer, actor, and assistant to MGM musicals producer Arthur Freed".
Major, it was a tradition in our house to gently slap your neighbor in the face with a slice of bread if they asked you to pass it to them at the table. Same with pancakes. But a whole loaf? That's weird! ;)
@KS, thanks for pointing that out. I was wondering about the white Main Street themed sign, which looked out of place to me. It must be directing to the Plaza Pavilion.
The Plaza Pavilion has one of the coolest roofs in Disneyland. The north end gable is Victorian shingles on the east side, with a little wood tracery on the ridge, and made of jungle thatch on the west side. From the west, the wood tracery is a little out of place, but hardly noticeable. The ridgeline of the gable roof is the boundary between the lands where the Tiki Room colonized a piece of Main Street.
I can't say I remember Disneyland before the Tiki Room, but I remember noticing that it was there, and that it was different from the last visit, and the incredible wait to get in. Didn't see a line like that again until Indiana Jones opened, the queue for both Tiki and Indiana stretched well out the entry and around the corner into Main Street, 30+ years apart. As a kid, we often skipped the Tiki Room, but it's a must-do for me now, with a Dole Whip.
JG
I think that "sign" for the Plaza Pavilion may be actually a menu board, to entice guests inside.
I also remember the Enchanted Tiki Room having quite a crowd of people wanting to get in. I never saw it until they went to Passports since it required one of our coveted "E" tickets.
The contents of the red purse are: a small coin purse with a clasp, petite hairbrush, rabbit's foot, pack of Juicy Fruit gum, Zippo lighter, and brass knuckles. Oh, and she's taken her brother's bag of salt water taffy which is why he's looking longingly over that way.
Awwww, Patrick! I was just thinking of him a couple days ago!
Nanook, did Don Loper design original couture for women, or was that part just made up?
Zach, when I worked at Knott's, I found out that some local kids did do something like spray the hand stamp with hairspray and then "lift" it off of the skin with a piece of cellophane and then transfer it onto their friend's wrists. The cellophane was used, so that whatever the word was on the hand stamp, it wouldn't be backwards on the friend's wrist.
I remember around that same time, being at DL with a friend and riding on Snow White's Scary Adventures. Earlier we had been on the Monorail and had gotten off at the Hotel and had our hands stamped. Well, while inside the dark ride, the fluorescent lighting was showing that she had the hand stamp on her forehead! We realized then, that the DL hand stamps must transfer very easily. We experimented with it after that, and we never even had to use a piece of cellophane. We just used our other wrist to roll over the hand stamp and then pressed it onto another area of skin, to have it come out the right way. I think over the years, Disney either changed the ink so that it wasn't that easy to do. And then eventually, a hand stamp alone was not enough to get you back in the park. They started requiring you to show your ticket AND the hand stamp.
Sue, the reasons for the milk bottle assaults are lost to the mists of time. All involved remember it happening, but not why. My dad has faint scars in his scalp as a souvenir.
Melissa, a mason jar on a firefly sounds a bit like overkill. Must be something about little girls, glass bottles, and boys' heads. Glad we had cardboard and plastic milk bottles by the time my sister and I came around.
Chuck, that gal could have a small glass bottle in that bag!!
Hahahaha, TM! I can picture you and your friend - lighting up the ride with lots of glowing splotches! :)
@KS and Omnispace, the Daveland Blog has a recent (June 14) post of pictures of the Plaza Pavilion and some signs and menu boards (which are unreadable, darn). The first picture might be similar to the sign we see in today's GDB post.
It isn't the same sign, since the pavement is differently colored in each photo, but both signs have the little "pendant" decorations on the bottom.
https://davelandblog.blogspot.com/2020/06/you-say-pavillion-i-say-pavilion.html
I don't know about brass knuckles, but I bet she has a shiv, or mace at least, in the little red bag.
JG
Nanook, I figured Don Loper must have some connection to I Love Lucy; he must have been of some reknown, since Sue knew who he was.
Melissa, I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not!
JG, yes, Daveland just had some really great photos of the Pavillion - I think I first learned about the different facades (Main Street on one side, Adventureland on the other) in “Disneyland: The First Quarter Century”. And that was a long time ago! I definitely don’t remember the park pre-Tiki Room, and in fact never even visited the attraction until not that long ago. I guess my family was just not into musical shows? But I made a point to see it, and it was wonderful. Packed with people too.
Omnispace, I don’t know if the sign had a menu on one side of it, but the other definitely just said “The Pavillion” on one side. Check out the Daveland post from June 14th! I’m just glad that the girl hasn’t got a small revolver in her purse - that wouldn’t happen until two years later.
TokyoMagic!, wow, I had no idea that people had figured out such elaborate methods of “sharing” hand stamps! Where there’s a will, there’s a way, I guess. I love the idea of using cellophane so that the transferred stamp wasn’t backwards. Ingenious. So funny that your friend had rubbed her glowing hand stamp onto her forehead! I wonder how many dozens (or hundreds) of people got into the park that way.
Chuck, maybe hitting somebody with a milk bottle was a way of showing that you cared about them. I thought Melissa meant that her mother was trying to catch a firefly that’d landed on her cousin’s head, clapping it down over the scalp. But I’m sure it hurt!
Lou and Sue, you mean one of those little airport liquor bottles?
JG, taking a second look, I think that the sign in my photo is different from the one featured in Daveland’s post - but I admit that it is hard to say for sure. Oh wait, I see that you are saying that it IS a different sign! Maybe the girl made a shiv from a toothbrush, that’s what I would do if I was in juvie.
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