Monday, June 22, 2020

More Snapshots From the 1970's

Here's another selection of old snapshots... not the greatest, as a rule, but always fun. Pretend you're going through a photo album at a friend's house!

This first one is my favorite, with three cute kids posing in front of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln - so we're in the "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln" pre-show area, it's safe to assume. The bench is kind of weird, but weird isn't necessarily bad.


This one is just unfortunate; 60% of this image is the underside of a Jungle Cruise boat canopy, while another 20% is silhouetted heads. Maybe it's artistic!


Oh yeah, it's the pontoon bridge. What kid could resist! There are our three kiddos from the first photo, with their dad (?) following close behind. That Keelboat is headed right for them, and they only have eight minutes to get out of the way.


How does Snow White keep her hair so full and shiny? Faberge Organics shampoo! She told two friends, and they told two friends. And that was it, nobody else told any other friends. Dopey is just glad to be out of the house.


Zoiks, what can I say about this one? You know as much as I do, or more probably. That's right, it's a great view of the Haunted Mansion.


The Swiss Family Treehouse is such a simple concept:."Explore the Swiss Family's treehouse!". No fancy Atomobiles or Doombuggies here, you walked up a bunch of stairs with your own two feet. And yet... it was amazing.


Over near "It's a Small world", two of the Three Little Pigs happen to be marching by. Some people don't even notice, but a few are delighted. The little boy hoped to shake hands with the Practical Pig, though the PP might not have been able to see him through that cumbersome costume.


That's the end of this batch of snapshots, but I have others to share!

22 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
,,, and so on, and so on, and so on... Boy, that's a blast from the past-! That second shot just happens to be the 'backside of the canopy'; and as such, it's a wonderful shot.

Here's to more pointing & shooting. Thanks, Major.

K. Martinez said...

The first image is my favorite. The two sisters look happy while the brother seems more reserved. Great sibling pic. I also like that I've never seen this area in the Lincoln exhibit lobby or at least don't remember it. Very simple and not overdone.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

I have also never seen a pic of that particular corner of the Lincoln pre-show area. It looks like the bench was built to fit the shape of the niche. I wonder if that niche was removed or altered, when The Walt Disney Story went into the Opera House?

Also, there appears to be a ticket or a ticket book underneath the bench. I wonder if it fell out of the back pocket of someone who was sitting on that bench?

I also remember that Faberge Organic Shampoo commercial, very well! I'm pretty sure that it (and alternate versions) ran for years.

MIKE COZART said...

I was perplexed by the Lincoln image at first. I believe it to be NOT the Lincoln pre-show , but the “exit-spill-out” lobby which would have been the former exhibit area for Lincoln Savings & Loan - the sponsor prior to Gulf. This whole area would become part of the 5th Freedom Mural Exit display added as part of the Walt Disney Story in 1973. In today’s image I think you are seeing a the space with all the Lincoln Savings displays that would have flanked that Lincoln portrait and others.

That angled wall would be given a gentle curve for the 5th Freedom mural , and that bench removed in 1973. The four sided bench that was also in this room surrounded a support column and matches that style bench , and remained up until the 2000’s.

Again what we are seeing is a very very rare shot of a space that is between two different era Lincoln shows . After Lincoln Savings but before Gulf Oil.

MIKE COZART said...

I meant to say the Lincoln image is showing the original Lincoln Savings & Loan exit lobby with that sponsor’s displays having already been removed and before the remodeling for the Walt Disney Story 5th Freedom mural by Gulf Oil was added. I think that’s why the room seems so bland - the paint above was probably temporarily done to cover up holes that once’s supported other display items around the Lincoln portraits.

stu29573 said...

I see the front side of water!!! I love looking at that so much, I sit and stare for hours at my running kitchen tap! Wow! I think I'll go do that now...

Chuck said...

Are we sure the Lincoln display area wasn't designed around that historic bench? Just want to make sure we're looking at all reasonable possibilities.

That photo of the Haunted Mansion just managed to catch the upper 3/5 of Big Sis' head. Note the "ticket booth" shaped section of the facade behind her, flanked by what appear to be shrubs in the openings on either side. Details like this, coupled with the trees on the roof, contributed to the illusion that the facade was nothing more than a facade and added to the magical feeling of the ride.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I almost rejected the canopy shot, but it kind of reminded me of THESE PHOTOS.

K. Martinez, I definitely don’t remember that Lincoln area at all, and at this point, anything different is interesting!

TokyoMagic! Oh man, I hope that ticket book was empty. Just imagine the guest getting to the next attraction, reaching into his/her pocket, and… uh oh. Of course they could go to a booth and buy another ticket book, but we were going to spend that five dollars on souvenirs! I thought the shampoo was Wella Balsam, but am sure you are correct. In my memory the women always had “Farrah” hairdos.

Mike Cozart, well I sure wouldn’t have ever guessed the “exit spill-out lobby”. I wonder if they had any genuine Lincoln artifacts on display? “Here is Abe’s ping pong paddle”. “Here is his favorite turtleneck sweater”. Interesting that they turned that wall into a curved surface for a mural - I wonder if there are any photos of the mural online, because I sure don’t remember it at all. Cool that this seems to be a rare photo, thanks as always for all the info!

Mike Cozart, that makes sense.

stu29573, most folks only get excited about the back side of water, but I appreciate that you get so excited seeing the front side. Maybe we could all learn a little lesson from you.

Chuck, yes, somebody found that bench at a church jumble sale. Walt saw it, and at first he was annoyed that they’d spent money on a bench. But then he remembered that Abraham Lincoln loved to sit on benches, and thus the whole idea for “Great Moments With Mister Lincoln” was hatched. “What if we do a whole display of benches that famous people sat on?”. Of course the idea morphed and changed, but I will always dream of an exhibit of upholstered horsehair benches. Also… photo of the Haunted Mansion??

"Lou and Sue" said...

Major, that older post, that you added to your comments today, I have ear-marked as one of my favorites. Priceless!

Mike, I sure do hope that you have started to write a book. Interesting info!

Thanks, Major, for arranging a fun-filled day at Disneyland for all of us!

Chuck said...

Major, your commentary (composed weeks ago, I know) jokingly refers to the photo of iasw as "a great view of the Haunted Mansion."

That "Famous Benchmarks in History" sounds like it would have been an awesome attraction. They could have displayed one of the benches from the Griffith Park merry-go-round, the Baltimore bench they found Edgar Allan Poe blind drunk and dying of acute alcoholism on, the White Sox' dugout bench from the 1919 World Series - I'd have dropped an E ticket for that. One more promising Imagineering tour-de-force that never got off the drawing boards.

And bonus points for the phrase "church jumble sale," a term I picked up while living in England. I've never heard another American other than my wife use it - maybe it's a regional thing?

Nanook said...

Major-
Yes - definitely bonus points for working 'church jumble sale' into a sentence. And as long as you're proposing a "Benchmarks in History" exhibit, let's not stop with horsehair - but go all the way back to straw-! That way you can add a 'spinning straw into gold' display.

Melissa said...

Great Benchmarks in History, narrated by Robert Benchley and Groucho Marx. Sofa, the details are couched in mystery.

Sunday Night said...

Melissa - Robert Benchley is my favorite humorist author from the 20th century. And Groucho, well just the best.

Melissa said...

Yeah - I said it as a joke, but now that I said it I want it to be real!

Omnispace said...

Thanks Major. These photos put the "snap" into "snapshot"! Right up there with their 35mm cousins.

Chuck - you touched on something about the Haunted Mansion (it's a small world) that's probably not apparent to the average guest. The elaborate facade is really just that - a facade. The only substantial element is the Clock, and the flume basically enters one side of it and exits the direct opposite side, thus creating the illusion that the entire ride is squeezed inside the Clock. I never bought it as a kid, but it's one of those quirks that makes it a unique experience.

Chuck said...

Wait - you're saying the ride isn't squeezed inside the clock???!!! Next you'll be telling me that the Atomobiles didn't really shrink going through the Mighty Microscope!

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, thanks for providing the link to that older post of yours. You have a long list of "brilliant" posts, but that one is near the top of that list. I didn't discover your blog until about four months later, but as I have mentioned before, I went back and caught up on your previous two years of posts. That is one that stands out in my mind, and I was glad to be able to revisit it!

Major Pepperidge said...

Lou and Sue, I’d love it if Mike wrote a book. Or even resurrected his blogs!

Chuck, oh, ha ha, you know I don’t read these things! Now you have me all excited for a “Famous Benches” museum. There must be other “great benches” that we, the general public, don’t even know about yet. I’ll bet Enzo Ferrari sat on a bench a few times in his life! Or Marilyn Monroe. Maybe even some bad people. “Stalin’s bench”. In Pennsylvania, our church had jumble sales, I have no idea if that was unusual for the time/area. I think I saw a lady on Antiques Roadshow with an incredible painting she picked up at a jumble sale for $25 that turned out to be worth $60,000 (or something).

Nanook, I’ve actually experienced horsehair-stuffed furniture - woe to you if one happens to be sticking out at the wrong angle and winds up poking you. I guess there are places that used corn husks, or even moss. Or kapok. KAPOK!

Melissa, “narrated by Robert Benchley and his little mustache”. As a kid I always heard that Peter Benchley (author of “Jaws”) was related to Robert Benchley. “WHO?” was my reaction.

Sunday Night, you like Robert Benchley more than Gallagher?? That giant mallet smashing a watermelon gets me every time.

Melissa, we never joke on this blog!

Omnispace, yes, if you see what the actual IASW building looks like without the fanciful façade, it’s just a big crooked industrial shed. Presumably relatively cheap to build, I’m not sure if that’s how they did it at the New York World’s Fair as well. Probably. I never thought about the ride being squeezed into the clock, but I like the idea!

Chuck, ha ha, maybe I’ve been wrong all these years.

TokyoMagic!, thank you, I feel like I was extra-inspired by that one. Plus I was trying to turn a bunch of terrible photos into something worth looking at. I guess it went pretty well! I’m glad you found this blog, and glad that you went back and read all the old articles.

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, the linked post from 2008 is hilarious. I am not sure I remember it, although I thought I read them all. Are those pictures all from the same photographer? Those are like shots I would have taken in 6th grade.

These are pretty ordinary pictures today, but the commentary makes them live again, especially the back side of the canopy. Brilliant.

Nice to see the whole family (except Mom) on the barrel bridge. My Mom would not go on the barrel bridge either.

I never thought of the Haunted Mansion being squeezed into the Small World Clock, but if they can stretch the lobby, they can probably shrink it too.

It's surprising how big the IASW show building is in the aerial view. As you point out, this attraction must have been inexpensive to build. The interior fit and finish is pretty crude when you look past the doll puppets and the innovative lighting. The boat channels are free-standing walls, not integrated with the scenery, the floor is visible exposed concrete, and the ceiling is 2x4 suspended grid with plain tiles, like a cheap office building, even the HVAC registers are visible. The only thing that cost money was the animation, and yet it is an effective and memorable show. Low Tech, High Concept.

Tokyo, we started reading GDB about the same time! The CM playing Dopey, does he look out of the costume eyes, or through a patch in the front of his hat?

Now I'm envisioning the Swiss Treehouse with an Omnimover mechanism riding straight up the trunk.

JG

Dean Finder said...

The Major is correct - iasw was just a metal shed, quickly designed and built for the NYWF when they were already neck deep in other WF projects. http://nywf64.com/pepsi07.shtml

TokyoMagic! said...

JG, the person inside the Dopey costume looked out through an opening in the hat. The opening was covered with that purple material, but they can see right through that. Disney redesigned the Dwarf costumes in 1981, so that the cast members now look out through the "eyes."

Anonymous said...

@Tokyo, thank you! I remember seeing hats with the viewports, they were slightly visible at close range. I couldn't tell if the Dopey in the photo had one or not.

What a challenge that role must have been.

@Dean Finder, thanks for that link. Very informative, especially enjoying the boat flume design.

JG