Skyway Views, September 1968
Here we are, in late 1968, aboard a Skyway gondola. I'm sure I could find data on how high up guests could be (presumably that would be at about when they passed through the Matterhorn). Still, it looks plenty high here. What do you think, around 27,000 feet? I'm sure I'm in the ballpark. I'm glad I looked at this post before it published, because I clearly moved it from when it was originally going to publish - I wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving at the end.
Meanwhile, in the distance...
... it's the magical mega-city, featuring stylized elements from architectural monuments all around the world. Even the Great Crystal Tower of Oxnard, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. When you look at the people close to IASW, it becomes apparent just how massive that façade is!
Speaking of passing through the Matterhorn...! This photo leaves something to be desired, but it does show gondola #49. It passed through the Matterhorn, and never emerged from the other side. Did it cross into another dimension? Was it snatched by a passing UFO? Some say you can still hear the echoing cries (and occasional burps) of help from the ghostly passengers!
19 comments:
Major-
I'm happy to accept your Thanksgiving wishes at this time of year. (Now I have plenty of time to come up with just the right gift for you come November). Something 'thoughtful'-!
If 'ol #49 is heading for the Matterhorn and "...never emerged from the other side..." there are bigger problems - as it would be traveling the wrong direction.
Thanks, Major.
Ah yes, the Great Crystal Tower of Oxnard. I'm sure everyone here read about it in 7th grade social studies class. The only other architectural wonder that even comes close is the Golden Gardens of Cucamonga.
I kept that first picture. Very clear. Very crisp. Very Disney.
Ah yes. Gondola #49. I'm sure everyone here read about... oh wait... I already did that schtick... Oh wait again... didn't gondola #49 already pass through the Matterhorn in this pic, and is moving toward us? (EDIT: As Nanook also pointed out.) It didn't disappear after all! Although, after it goes through the station and continues along the cable, it'll go through the Matterhorn again. So it could still vanish into that other dimension... sometime.
Thanks for these very Disney photos, Major.
Who knows what happened to Gondola #49? The Shadow knows! You've just purchased a D-ticket to... the Twilight Zone. That doomed child is staring at us with a gloomy expression, as if she knows what's about to happen. She may ride forever o'er the streets of Fantasyland; she's the kid who never returned. At least Mom's dress is bright enough to light up the whole interior of the mountain.
Late sixties fashion really was a wonderful world of color. That gaggle of guests in their bright summer clothes is a cheerful sight on a snowy April day.
The Great Crystal Tower of Oxnard, the Golden Gardens of Cucamonga. Blah, blah, blah. As usual, everything great and wonderful in your world is in Southern California. I’ll bet you think your Disneyland is older and better than any of the others, too. Honestly - you’re as bad as New Yorkers and Texans! ;-)
A couple of details that are oddly standing out to me this morning. In the first picture, on the left-hand side, there is a shaded and fenced seating area that I feel like I am seeing for the first time (although I’m sure that’s not really true). Was that for Fan 2?
The second detail is stands out best in the closeup of the first image. At the extreme left, just a little below the picture’s horizontal axis, there is a flagpole with two flags on it, or maybe they are flying from the light pole. It’s just to the left of the ticket booth that is hiding in the foliage. The top flag appears to be a red diamond on a white background. Any idea what those flags are for?
The Crystal Tower and Hanging Gardens got nothing on the Grand Ziggurat of Sacramento!
https://goo.gl/maps/aocQy4ybnvNnLEDF9
At least 7 trash cans in this pic, and the shady fenced dining for Fan 2 which we may have seen but only now is apparent. Like Gondola #49, it comes and goes according to the sunspots.
This post is beginning to sound like an episode of The Lost Room. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830361/
Chuck I think those flags are just decorations. Fantasyland had several light poles with flags and banners. This one is more nautical themed and I don’t know why.
Thank you, Major, these are beautiful.
JG
1968 was a good year. I graduated from Catalina...er Oxnard High that year. That first pic certainly is very crispy Disney. All that beautiful surface, with the gleaming city of Oxnard at the end.
And yes Melissa, late sixties garb was eclectic to say the least, but there were different category's of fashion. When in Disneyland, you always wore the correct category. Bright (to reflect the sun) and cheery. Topped off by a hat you just bought there.
Thanks Major, nice wide open pics.
Love looking at the backside of Global Van Lines...if that is what that building is behind Small World? It's quite the facade...or as I say Fuh-Kade. Tomato Tahmato. I never really realized how precarious the Skyway bucket is dangling on that little wire. A wee unsettling. Love the gas station signs: Shell, American, and Motor Boat Cruise. Those motor boats did put out quite a bit of exhaust- not sure if I want that brand of gasoline. Just call them Autopia in water. The sweet scalloped fencing is still there..very fanciful. Oxnard! Great strawberries! Probably condo's now. It was a nice stop before going on to Santa Barbara, or Solvang, or beyond to San Simeon. I have nothing left after my Easter candy sugar hangover- besides...I don't remember if Skyway went clockwise (makes sense) or with American traffic (drive on the right)...or if both those things are the same? ...back to gummy bears.
JG, I guess nautical theming is as good as any. It’s not far from the Canal Boats, directly opposite the Motor Boat Cruise, and along the way to the Happiest Cruise That Ever Sailed.
That ziggurat is impressive. And let’s not forget the Great Pyramid of Redlands. Hmmm…maybe the Seven Wonders of the World really are located in California?
Nanook, I’d like a deep-fried turducken, if you are taking requests!
JB, I drove by the Golden Gardens of Cucamonga once, good thing I was wearing dark glasses. So dazzling! Yes, yes, I am heading to Disney jail as I speak, the Skyway goes the other way. Hot tears of shame…
Melissa, I’d like to think that it wound up back at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, just like Flight 33 in the Twilight Zone! Maybe that girl is the owner of Talking Tina. “My name is Talking Tina, and I’m going to kill you!”. Not the thing you want to hear from a doll.
Chuck, when Liberace designed the Great Crystal Tower, it was a gift to the world, not just to Californians. As for that shaded area (dining area?), now I’m not sure if I have ever noticed it before either! But I am notorious for forgetting things, as you know. I see the pole with the flags, and if I didn’t already know that the Motor Boat Cruise was to our right, that would be my guess. But the flags seem to be near the Storybook Land Canal Boats waterway, so… hmmmm.
JG, I always like a good ziggurat. What is that one in Sacramento? Offices? Luxury condos? Blacklight paintball? Gosh, is that really dining for Fan 2? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I just thought Fan 2 was kind of far away. I’m sure I’m mistaken. Jeez, never heard of The Lost Room, was it good?
DrGoat, some people spend their whole lives dreaming of going to Oxnard, but I get to go there all the time. Just lucky, I guess. You should see the Auto Mall! It would bring tears to your eyes. I think that young folks see the variety of fashions from the late ‘60s and into the ’70s and they think that it looks so fun. Maybe I just didn’t realize how fun it was at the time!!
Bu, thank you for confirming that the backside of that building is Global Van Lines, a friend emailed me and asked, and that was my only guess. I’m unaware of any Sky Ride accidents that involved a snapped cable or a plummeting gondola, though I do have a terrifying photo of some sky ride’s bucket on fire as people are trying to not get cooked. I wish I could find it now, I have NO idea how one of those could catch fire. Yes, Oxnard is a good place to get strawberries, not sure if they still do the Strawberry Festival. I had a See’s Candy buttercream egg, probably 10,000 calories. It was delicious.
Chuck, we know that Tomorrowland (and adjacent areas of Fantasyland) used nautical flags going all the way back to 1955. I guess the thinking was that there’s a big variety of shapes and color combinations, and they were probably cheap… it was a good way to add some vibrance and movement to an area that would otherwise appear kind of dead. IS that Great Pyramid a former Fry’s Electronics? Let’s not forget the giant Bass Pro Shops pyramid in (appropriately) Memphis!
@ Chuck-
Now that you mention it, that "mystery" area might very-well have been used for Fan 2 diners; although not exactly attached to it. LOOK HERE for another view, which appears to be that 'eating area' - on the left.
Thank you, Daveland.
Major, I have heard about the justly famed Oxnard Auto Mall, but is it really better than the ones on Auto Mall Parkway in Fremont, who have not just a street, but a PARKWAY named after them?
Now that I can use the desktop PC to zoom in on the first photo, I am upping my trash can estimate to 9 (!!)
The Sacramento Ziggurat is an office building for the CA Dept of General Services. The main purpose of this agency is servicing generals.
We walked around it last year on a visit. I did some consulting on the new Kimpton hotel nearby... and the ziggurat is just too weird to not look at more closely.
https://www.sawyerhotel.com/
JG
Melissa, that's an interesting concept: Did bright colors in clothing, etc. coincide with color television becoming the norm? Everything on TV went from blah-k & white to glorious, saturated color, and people echoed that phenomenon in their clothing styles. Maybe.
Chuck, I'm still laughing at your SoCal-centric tirade. (not so much, your Les Nessman hat joke from yesterday. ;-) I just read your latest comment there, and responded.)
I'm up here in Oregon, about 950 miles to the north of Major. So I had to think for a minute to come up with another community near L.A. with a suitably humorous name.
Looking at Chuck's shaded area on the left of pic #1, I started noticing how many trashcans there are in this view; I count at least 9.
JG, no fair! That's a real place. How are we gonna compete with that?! ;-) Quite a stunning building.
(I count nine(9) trashcans... I think.)
JG again, told ya! (9 trashcans)
Nanook, that’s a great view of that dining area!
JG, I doubt that the Oxnard Auto Mall is anything extraordinary, though my brother did buy a used Camry there that is very nice. Wow, is 9 trash cans a record? I can’t remember. The ziggurat is an office building, well that’s no fun. I am sure that the setbacks for each level allow for nice sunlight for all of those outer offices. So that’s something. Hopefully the A/C can deal with the solar heat.
JB, yes, I wonder if color TV did have anything to do with the more colorful fashions? However, there were glorious Technicolor movies for decades before that; not sure if they would have had any effect, since going to the movies was probably more of a special occasion. It was for my family, at any rate.
Major, no, it's the entrance to Pharaoh's Lost Kingdom, a now-defunct amusement park in Redlands, CA, just north of the 10 Freeway. It opened in 1996, the year after we left SoCal, but I had a chance to visit when I was back in the area for a month in 1997. It was kind of like Castle Park in concept - mini golf, a big arcade building, and a bunch of flat rides. I had fun with our old church's youth group and our pastor (who is six months older than me and we were both south of 30 at the time), but they apparently had management issues and multiple code violations over the years. In 2006, it rebranded as the water park Splash Kingdom and continued to go downhill. It closed for COVID in 2020 and never reopened after major fires later that year. It was torn down in 2021.
Nanook, I love that photo for its unusual angle that shows so much of the lay of the land, almost a reverse view of this one posted a few weeks ago. Thanks for sharing that!
Chuck and Nanook, that little area looks like it is (part of) the former Junior Autopia area. Maybe all they had to do was add some paving to turn it into a picnic area after the cars and roadways came out. The fencing looks almost exactly the same. This is a weird little blind spot, hard to find pictures that show it, almost all the big amazing things are aimed away from it.
Regarding the light poles with nautical flags as a feature in Fantasyland, here is a Daveland pic from 1963-65 showing a similar pole with nautical flags
https://davelandweb.com/fantasyland/images/60s/CTCT_6_63_N28R.jpg
I think the flags spell out "help, i'm held prisoner in the Castle dungeon, signed Kurt Russell".
JG
Major, I think the record is 10 trash cans in one pic, a shot of Old Tomorrowland seen from the monorail platform that you posted a few weeks back.
The Lost Room was a fairly good story, just enough surreal, and no movie monster cliches. Something that would have made a good "off-the-arc" x-files episode. The writers wisely did not try to explain too much, or resolve all the possible discrepancies, and so the mystery makes all the difference. It is currently on Amazon Prime streaming, but I saw it years ago on the Sci-fi channel in a hotel. Only 3 1.5 hr episodes so not a huge commitment.
JG
Only 3 1.5 hr episodes? That’s like 9 episodes of Adam-12 - more than a third of a season! Who has time for that?
What’s that, Honey? We’re watching the iLord of the Rings trilogy tonight? The original theatrical versions or the extended editions? The extended ones? OK, be right there!
Gotta run, guys! G’night!
I never really realized how precarious the Skyway bucket is dangling on that little wire. A wee unsettling.
Bu, I thought the same thing when I looked at today's photo. It's just barely balancing on the wire.
JG, yeah, that photo with the trash-cans-a-plenty was posted 3/11/22. Even though I don't always comment about the number of cans in photos each time, I AM still watching and counting, looking for the 'record count.'
Thanks, Major, for more fun photos.
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