Sunday Snoozle's™
I scanned some oversized slides recently, and many of them had issues of one kind or another. Most weren't that bad, but some were just going to be "meh" no matter what. I thought that they were from 1956 (as hand-written notes on some would indicate), but obviously this first example is from a bit later, since we have the "Alice in Wonderland" attraction. It's a little blurry! Two ladies watch from the fence as the snooty caterpillars move along the outdoor portion of the track. Giant mushrooms? Dandelion-puff lamps (minus the puffs)?? Groovy!
I'm pretty sure this next one is from the 1956 batch, but it is marred by the blurry safety bar going through the lower third of the image. I was tempted to crop it so that it was more of a horizontal layout (like a typical 35mm slide), but... I didn't. Still, we get an OK look at Holiday Hill and the surprisingly large undeveloped area beyond the Autopia.
14 comments:
It really is too bad that the first pic is so blurry (although it looks OK in the thumbnail), because it has a very whimsical/fantasy look to it. The bright colors, the Skyway buckets overhead, plus the general lack of shadows gives it a unique feel.
Nice to see the Matterhorn's baby pictures. This was before it grew high enough to have a timberline or a snowcap... or Fudgie.
I can't tell what those things are in the bottom right corner of the pic. The white thing might be a lighting tree. But what is that thing behind it?
Each of these photos has a pretty big flaw, so I guess that does make them Snoozles. Otherwise, they would've been really nice! Thanks, Major.
Major-
The second image shows a fully-vegetated Holiday Hill and the eating area for Fan 2.
@ JB-
The "white thing" is a lighting tower, and the 'hexagon-shaped' structure is a location for a Fantasyland Ticket Booth - just in front of the corner to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. (Don't know when that location disappeared, but it can be seen in many early Fantasyland views).
Thanks, Major.
Mid format is generally associated with big sharp negatives, but that requires the user to adjust that little knob on the (usually) side of the camera a bit. Someone seems to have forgotten that step!
Still, these are fun, in a "misty memory" kind of way.
Thanks Major...you tried.
How clever to feature the same Skyway tower in both photos!! I know it intimately since the Mr Toad queue wrapped around the base of it.
I love the low camera angle on the Alice photo making that leaf track look super high. My mom made our ride across that portion extra fun, feigning fear. Little did I know she was actually terrified.
Below the safety bar of the Skyway gondola, one can see an empty circular eating area with a lone tree at the center of it. Enough said.
Thanks for sharing, Major!
Alice is such an innovative dark ride, between the two-level layout, halfway over Toad, and the indoor-outdoor track layout, it’s one of my top 5 favorites. Along with about 30 others.
I love that flimsy caterpillar track and the leaves made of steel reinforcing bars, but it’s much better now with the huge tree overhead. “Memories… misty Caterpillar memories…”
I heard the Caterpillar made it big after the movie, he signed on as mascot with a tractor company, but had to wear an all-yellow wardrobe afterward.
The second shot has its flaws, but who doesn’t? I’m enjoying the attic vents on the roof, since I’m weird like that. This skyway view of the castle roof was a highlight for me, a glimpse backstage at the mundane behind the Magic, looking for scorch marks from fireworks launches.
Thanks Major!
JG
Neither a Snoozle (tm) or a Buzle (c) or a lender be....I just made that up. Not sure what it means but Snoozles(tm) tend to always be favorites. Perhaps it's like the Charlie Brown tree...all they need is some love. Now, let's return from the Island of Misfit Toys, and see where these photos end up: "Ladies with Alice". Doesn't matter that it's a wee blurry, we still get the joke of "Penelope and her friend Ginnigard" of Westlake, LA, taking time out from their busy schedules to see what all the other "girls in the club" are talking about with this "Disneyland Place". "Oh Penelope, how charming and delightful these sets and properties are...." "dare we take a journey on the caterpillar?" Well...that's how I see it anyway. I will say, that since nothing like this existed in this time to this extent, it should have been quite the marvel to look at, as well as everything else in Disneyland. Disneyland seemed to have opened in the perfect time in history: this "Instagrammable Moment" photo (a thing that PR people have asked me to create lately...) was only meant to be shown to a smaller audience, projected on someones blank wall in a house. And now, we all get to see it. I wonder, if Holiday Hill was a visual inspiration for the Matterhorn ("yep...a mountain would work there...") or validation....kind of like the Chicken or the Egg...yes..both words capitalized, because I wanted to. It's nice to see the farmland beyond the berm. I do enjoy big trees, but would rather have not had them lining Harbor Blvd in present day. The very small and uninspired "Disneyland" 'Resort" sign: lost in the trees....seems like it doesn't give the place any "weight". I've said it before..."Resort" sounds stupid. Websters: "A place to provide entertainment to vacationers". Disneyland does not need a byline to communicate this fact. Disneyland "the original"...makes sense...if that was on a sign I wouldn't be bellyaching so terribly much...but I also feel that DISNEYLAND should always be just DISNEYLAND. Just saying. "See": Snoozles(tm) are never Snoozles(tm).
Oh, man, if the lady in the floral dress had turned around those two giant purple leaves would have looked like a pair of wings, and what an awesome picture that would have been! She probably did turn around right after the picture was snapped but the photographer couldn't catch it in time.
JB, I agree, that first photo would be very nice if it wasn’t for the blurbles. In fact I couldn’t really tell that it was blurry until I scanned it, at which point I cried. Loudly. I still get a kick out of seeing Holiday Hill, even though I have seen many photos of it by now. Like you said, it’s like the Matterhorn’s baby picture. I’m not sure what is in the lower right corner! It might be a 1938 Bugatti, or a pile of garbage.
Nanook, oh yeah, Fan 2! One of my 3 favorite “Fans”. Gosh, I would have never guessed that the “hexagon-shaped” thing was a ticket booth. Are you SURE that it isn’t a 1938 Bugatti?
Stu(numbers), I did not know that cameras had “ensharpen” knobs for different films. I always thought that this kind of negative required a special camera?
Omnispace, I thought that the photographer was facing the opposite direction in the first photo (as compared to the second), but heaven knows I am mistaken about that stuff all the time. Ha ha, your poor mom, I hope her terror was the fun kind and not the actual “terrified” kind. Good eye on the lonely tree with the circular seating!
JG, now that Mike Cozart revealed that the Roger Rabbit ride was originally supposed to be on two levels, I am angry all the time - angry that we were denied this feature. So angry!!! Well, maybe mostly a bit miffed, to be honest. Caterpillars are tough to hire because they are flighty. (See what I did there?). Only JG would enjoy the attic vents!
Bu, yes I was going to ask what a Buzle is, but I guess it can be whatever I want it to be. Perhaps a small pastry-covered treat. Or a piece of jewelry. I’m not sure if you saw that blog post of mine from a few years back, with a detailed letter from a woman, all about her bus trip to Disneyland with her group of lady friends, but it is worth seeking out. I’d link to it but I have to be out the door as soon as I finish responding to comments. Anyway it’s fun to read their impressions of the park and her descriptions of some of the features (such as the taxidermied animals in the Grand Canyon Diorama). I’m kind of surprised that the Alice in Wonderland ride has never been built at any other park, and yet it is nice that Disneyland has the only one. Holiday Hill, I used to think that it must have been handy to have a hill already there when they wanted to build the Matterhorn, but since then I’ve seen that they completely flattened it before putting up any structural steel. Not a huge surprise I guess. I’m not crazy about “Disneyland Resort” but I guess I’m used to it by now.
Melissa, if I had seen that woman with two giant wings I would have assumed that she was a demon, and would have pointed at her and shrieked like Donald Sutherland in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.
Major, I think Stu is referring to the “fine focusing knob” that many mid-century medium-format cameras featured. You’d get a general focus using the knob on the lens, and then sharpen it with the other knob. But that could be hard to do looking through a twin-lens reflex, which often had a relatively dim viewfinder and focusing screen that could also get slightly out of alignment by being knocked about in general use and often featured a folding design, which could result in dented or warped elements. Add to that that slide film speeds of this era were notoriously slow (Kodachrome had an ASA of 10 in the late ‘50s) and the fact that people Who might need glasses might not be wearing them and you get a photo like today’s Alice shot. But I still love it.
Interesting…that’s exactly how I react when I see Donald Sutherland.
Chuck, yeah, I think I would be in trouble if I had to focus stuff by hand all the time. I had a nice Nikon when I was in college and took many "not quite sharp" photos, even though I thought I had everything in focus. Thanks for the camera info!
When I was a kid, we had an old Polaroid Swinger camera. You had to turn a knob, and when the setting was right the word "YES" would appear in the viewfinder. Eventually the one shop that still sold film that would work with it stopped carrying it.
Yep, Chuck! Thanks!
@ Melissa-
♫ "Swing it up... It says YES.
Take the shot...
Count it down...
Zip it off-!" ♬
♫"Meet the Swingerrrr; the Polaroid Swingerrrrr!"♫
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