Here are two more scans of slides that may or may not be from 1955. They are early, at any rate.
This first one is kind of an amazing shot of the old Pack Mules, from the days before there was a Rainbow Ridge - the Rainbow Mountain Pack Mules and Rainbow Caverns Mine Train debuted on October 10, 1956, so I realize that there's a good chance that these are from that year.
Anyway, it's almost startling to see the guests aboard the mules, with NO hotels, saloons, or hardware stores nearby... just dirt paths and brush-covered hills.
Some riders take one last look back, in case they encounter quicksand or bobcats, or even just really grouchy house cats. We can just see the back of what is either a Stagecoach or a Yellowstone Coach to the left of the man with the pink shirt.
Did somebody say "Stagecoach"? I don't know, I hear things all the time. Mostly the sound of an electric pencil sharpener, grinding and grinding. But I digress. There goes a Stagecoach, with horses that are about the size of large dogs. They're so cute, I just want to eat them. Chomp. Love the little Indian village in the distance.
On a gray day, there are no takers for riding on top, I heard tell of folks being swept off by prairie winds, never to be seen again!
Major-
ReplyDeleteLove these early images. And who knew that the mother lode country of the old west was both enchanted and historical. Hysterical, perhaps, but.
Thanks, Major.
First one: Wow, with the hillside bare like that, it really looks small. Amazing what a little forced perspective can do!
ReplyDeleteCowboy Bob, on the right, looks to be wearing a 10 gallon hat... or 8 3/4 gallons for sure.
Second one: (close-up) I'm guessing that's a CM on the left in the cowboy hat and blue shirt. The guy in the pink shirt looks normal but the other guests are dressed rather strangely. Suspenders on the little tyke and... well... I have no idea what those other two are wearing.
Third one: Major, not only are the horses tiny, but the Coach itself looks puny as well. Without the Driver in the scene, everything would look full sized.
Do two teepees and a drying buffalo hide make a village? Maybe these are the first families to move to the suburbs; away from the hustle and bustle of the big village. I bet they don't even get cable TV this far out.
Fourth one: (close-up) The horses look like a matched set, except one has a more pronounced blaze on its forehead.
Judging from the amount of vegetation growth on that hillside, I'd put these photos at 1956. Just a hunch though.
Todays pics are dripping with equine goodness. Thanks, Major.
Major, these are some great early Frontierland pics!
ReplyDeleteJB, that stretched buffalo hide wasn't drying. It was being used as a baseball rebounder net. Things could get boring out in the Mother Load Country Of The Old West.
Wow! These are really early : enough as to look almost un-Disneyland like. I love that “Mother Lode” sign. It reminds me of the one from one of my most favorite Disney movies SNOWBALL EXPRESS - 1972 … when the New York family drives it’s station wagon to the old ramshackle mining town of Silver Hill Colorado :
ReplyDelete“Welcome To SILVER HILL Colorado
Discovery Site of the largest Gold Nugget
In the Mother Lode of the GUNNISON Range”
A total Norman Tokar bit of humor : if the the town was founded because of the largest gold strike - why did the founders name the town SILVER Hill!?? Lol!!!!
Incidentally if you see SNOWBALL EXPRESS watch for the 1880’s Hotel sleighs in the carriage house and used to rescue the avalanche trapped train: two of the studio made prop sleighs were sent to Disneyland’s BIG THUNDER RANCH ( repainted of course) and used as Christmas decoration props for about 25 years.
In modern times it’s difficult for full-size 21st Century Guests to squeeze into the full-size Wells Fargo & Butterfield Stage Line coaches of KNOTTS BERRY FARM : I suspect few modern Disneyland guests would fit well into the scaled down Disneyland concord , mud wagon & Yellowstone stagecoaches of Frontierland .
I've got a mule, and her name is Gail,
ReplyDeleteFifteen miles on the Disneyland Trail.
She can pass the Stagecoach when it's full of mail,
Fifteen miles on the Disneyland Trail.
We've hauled some tourists in our day,
From Utah, Maine, and Ioway,
And we know every inch of the way
From Cascade Peak to Rainbow Ridge.
Rainbow Ridge, everybody down,
Rainbow Ridge, yes, we're comin' into town.
And you'll always know your Chip and never mix him up with Dale,
If you've ever naigated on the Disneyland Trail.
I can tell that the stagecoach's wheels are yellow, the upholstery seems brown,
And the dashboard could be genuine leather.
But I see no evidence of isinglass curtains you can roll right down
In the unlkely case there's a change in the SoCal weather.
I love the suspenders on the little feller in the mule train. His big sister with the matching scarf and trousers is trying to edge up close enough to snap them.
JB, when Cowboy Bob's 10-gallon hat is feelin' 8 3/4 gallons flat, he hankers for half a hunk of cheese! If you can make a prairie with a clover and one bee, you can make a village with two teepees and a drying buffalo hide.
ReplyDeleteMike, it sounds like those full-size guests need the Wells Fargo & Butterball Stage Line.
Note the double-parked mules in the first image. Did Sheriff Luckey ever issue parking citations?
ReplyDeleteThe dirt pile next to the tipi looks like something a bulldozer made while grading the site, then just left there to become overgrown. It makes me lonesome for the construction site playgrounds of my youth in the growing suburbs.
Nanook, most historical places are enchanted, or haunted, or at least infested with rabid weasels. Although I think the sign actually says “enchanting,” which would make the visitors enchanted, which then just spreads the ghost-and-weasel infestation far beyond the Mother Lode country. Insidious, if you ask me. Which you didn’t. Wise…very wise…
Mike, the playful nonsense of Silver Hill makes me think of Back to the Future’s Hill Valley, which also makes no sense if you think it through. The rest of the movie is totally believable, though.
Melissa, you remain amazing. Thank you! Thinking of making a snack for later, and am suddenly inspired to have a fun time making sunshine on a stick.
Some enchanted evening
ReplyDeleteYou may meet a weasel
You may seize a weasel
Beyond the Mother Lode...
Melissa, LOL!
ReplyDelete(Your best one, yet!)
Great images, Major - thank you!
Sue
These are great!
ReplyDeleteThat guy driving the stage is HUGE! It's probably due to his diet of only eating enchanted weasels. Now we know the real reason why they had to introduce the Animotronic Exploding Ducks. EWs are suckers for 'em!
....and now Melissa got that tune stuck in my head...
"Aminatronic"
ReplyDeleteStu
Major, I would never have recognized these photos as Disneyland.
ReplyDeleteWho would have thought? I can hear that pencil sharpener too.
Melissa, that’s some pretty wonderful poetry, blue ribbon stuff. Thank you!
All this fuss over Mother Lode, and never a word about Father.
Chuck, I have some similar memories, one of my town friends lived up against a slough that was kind of a dump. It was a TSI wonderland of lizards, downed trees, rusted cars, willow bushes etc, with a pond full of frogs. We could spend all day plinking cans with BB guns. When the land was developed into a subdivision the cleaned-up slough area became a park, where I would later take my kids to play, but nothing there was ever as fun as the old “eyesore” that it used to be.
Happy Friday Everyone!
JG
Nanook, I would have used the adjective “crunchy” in there, but I guess it takes a special kind of creativity to make that work.
ReplyDeleteJB, hills have no scale! Oh wait, that was trees. Or was it dogs? I’m very confused. I’d bet money that the fellow with the blue shirt is the “trailmaster”. And “grillmaster”. His burgers were never overcooked! I can’t tell for sure, but the boy next to Mr. Pink appears to have a single stripe on the side of his pants, kind of like some military pants. I honestly don’t know if the Conestoga Wagons were full-size or not, I doubt the originals were very large. People were tiny back in those day. I think there actually were more teepees than the ones we can see in that photo, but I’m not entirely positive. I’ll bet that chestnut horse with the larger blaze got made fun of by the other horses.
TokyoMagic!, those baseball rebounder net thingies are fun. I wonder if they made a Water Wiggle out of bison parts too?
Mike Cozart, I would bet that you could show these slides to folks who are unfamiliar with “early Disneyland” and they would have no clue that they were taken in their favorite park. Which is kind of what makes them fun. I’m afraid I’ve never seen “Snowball Express”… that was an era where I missed a lot of Disney films. “Superdad” for instance. Though I did see “Gus”, the one about the mule that played football. Greatest movie ever?? Interesting about those 1880s sleighs, I assume that sitting out in Big Thunder Ranch was not great for them, and that they rotted away. But maybe I’m wrong? Your comment answered my question about the Disneyland coaches, which were indeed scaled down!
Melissa, I tried to sing those lyrics to the tune of “Stayin’ Alive”, but it just didn’t work. I guess it must be some other tune? (For the record, we sang “Low Bridge” in school when I was a kid!). Great job on the lyrics, which must have taken you some time (Or not? Maybe you are a child prodigy). I wish more things were made of isinglass, like fidget spinners, or pogs.
Melissa, wow, you wrote the words “hankers for a half a hunk of cheese”, and that song from the old commercial came back to me in a flash!!
Chuck, you can tell that those mules belonged to police. Those guys double park all the time! I’m sure that dirt pile was made precisely the way you described. Nothing romantic about it. Rabid weasels get a bad rap, they make great pets - as long as you don’t mind getting bitten in the face over and over. Which I do not.
Melissa is on fire today!
Sue, I don’t know how she does it.
Stu29573, more “hard facts”, regarding rabid weasels and exploding ducks. This is what Walt was talking about.
Stu, same to you, fella!
JB, after a while the pencil sharpener sound is kind of comforting. That’s why I stopped taking my pills. “Father Lode”, I’m just not going to say anything. Your description of playing in the “dump” reminds me of hearing Paul McCartney describe how he and his friends liked to play in the rubble where bombs had destroyed buildings in WWII. For children it was a magical place!
Major, my English mother-in-law (for the record, also my only mother-in-law) had a similar experience to Sir Paul's when she was growing up. All except for the part about being in the most influential rock band in history. You know - Wings.
ReplyDeleteJG, sorry for accidentally typing "JB" when I replied to you! Who is this "JB" person anyway??
ReplyDeleteChuck, so your mother-in-law was NOT in the most influential band in history?
By the way, Mike, Snowball Express is one of my favorites too (along with Blackbeard's Ghost). I had no idea when I visited Crested Butte as a teen that I was THERE! Lol! I would have been way over impressed!
ReplyDeleteThat was Stu29573
DeleteMajor-
ReplyDelete"TokyoMagic!, those baseball rebounder net thingies are fun. I wonder if they made a Water Wiggle out of bison parts too?" No on the Water Wiggle; but yes on the Slip'n Slide-! (WHAM-O used to raise bison).
@ Melissa-
Take me back to the Erie Canal. Brilliant-!
Major, sadly, no. She grew up in Yorkshire, several hundred miles northeast of Sir Paul & his mates. But I did date another girl in high school (long before I met Mrs Chuck and tricked-, er, talked her into marrying me) whose mother was from Liverpool, and she did see the Beatles play in local clubs before they were big. She thought they were okay but was really more of a Gerry and the Pacemakers girl.
ReplyDeleteStu, I visited Crested Butte as a teen, too (church youth group ski trips three years in a row). I had no idea that Blackbeard’s Ghost had been shot there.
Yeah, the ocean shots were pretty hard to do. They probably should have shot something with mountains there... ;-)
DeleteI've read that the London bomb sites were also popular with young couples looking for a place to pitch some woo. East or West, folks is folks.
ReplyDelete"Who is this 'JB' person anyway??"
ReplyDeleteI'm able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... provided the building is no more than 2 inches high.
Faster than a rolling O...
ReplyDeleteLooks like we are headed off into the old west flanked by a couple of orange trees…sans oranges. I know that look as I am obsessed about Anaheim based orange trees. I don’t think they call them Anaheim oranges like Anaheim peppers…which apparently, according to my seed provider are indeed named after the illustrious city of Anaheim. Fun fact: because of the name Anaheim, it did attract a good number of German immigrants before the mouse moved in. The Heidi Motel in Katella was originally owned by one of these immigrants who wanted to attract German tourists to stay while visiting Walt’s Magic Kingdom. This is prior to Walt Disney Productions purchasing the Heidi motel for its obvious land value and future use. That’s the story from the ex Security guy Chuck who ran (and lived) at the Heidi until it said goodnight. Norman Tokar had a Gold Pass and I would frequently get calls from Mrs. Tokar. He was famous for making kids cry for the sake of the scene. There is a story: look it up. I don’t specifically remember any other directors getting Gold Passes- but that one was probably a grandfathered Walt thing like John Wayne, Jack Wrather…and various other old school Hollywood types. The Gold Pass list was short and was amended regularly. They were absolutely not given out cavalierly. (In my time anyway.). I do enjoy a good Snowball Express/Blackbeards Ghost/Apple Dumpling Gang triple feature now and again. I wasn’t a huge fan of Gus…but I did power through it. A lot of these movies they played at the Lincoln Theatre during the “Family Film Festival” season- which when I started was on Mondays or Tuesdays or any day we closed at 6- which was frequently. It was kind of fun watching films like Love Bug, and then exiting out of the Main Gate of Disneyland when the movie was done. I suppose those days are way gone. I am enjoying the photos and the ruralness that we will never again see…unless you want a lifetime ban and go snooping around Big Thunder where there just might be a tiny scrap of open land. Thanks Major.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I am ashamed to admit that when I was a small child, the beginning of Blackbeard’s Ghost was too scary for me. I’m sure it’s like watching paint dry now.
ReplyDeleteStu29573, I don’t believe you!
Nanook, a Slip’n Slide made out of wet animal hides, there’s no down side!
Chuck, wow, imagine seeing The Beatles in those early days! Funny that she preferred Gerry and the Pacemakers, though The Beatles started out a bit rough around the edges, who knew they would become the geniuses that they were? An aside: a former landlady who was very nice once said that she saw Elvis in concert. I said, “Oh, cool!”. And then she said, “Or maybe it was Ricky Nelson”. ?!?!?!
Stu29573, heh heh, “butte”.
Melissa, I suppose that amorous teens will “find a way”.
JB, that is impressive, considering that you are only .25” tall (after a trip through “Adventure Through Inner Space”).
Melissa, a rolling O?
Bu, I do love seeing some of those original orange trees when they needed anything to keep the park from looking like a muddy hole in the ground. I never really thought about how “Anaheim” was German in origin. I’m sure that the oranges found in Anaheim were pretty much your standard Valencias or Navels (much like the ones in my grandparent’s Encino orchard, from the late 1940’s). There was nothing like making fresh juice in the morning, a tall glass of the most delicious orange juice you ever tasted. I got spoiled. Is Norman Tokar the director who made Jackie Cooper cry? I could do research, but these potato chips won’t eat themselves. I wonder how many Gold Pass recipients actually used them very much? Big movie stars probably didn’t have time, or would rather go to the French Riviera, or go fishing in Baja, or something like that. Gus is not a good movie, don’t bother (I wonder if it’s on Disney+?). I love the idea of watching a new Disney release in the Opera House, though I would want to exit on to Main Street, especially if the park was closed by then. So cool!
The "rolling O" bit is from The Electric Company. They had a cartoon superhero called Letterman, and his introduction was a parody of the old Superman show. "Faster than a rolling O. Stronger than silent E. Able to leap capital T in a single bound. It's a word! It's a plan! It's Letterman!"
ReplyDeleteMajor, Nanook is right....it's a "no" on the Water Wiggle, but in addition to the "Bison Hide Slip'n Slide," WHAM-O used to make jump ropes out of bison intestines.
ReplyDelete