Two Interesting Views
I have to slides that are a bit odd - most slides are held in cardboard mounts, but these two are sandwiched between two very thin pieces of paper. They are 2" X 2", just like standard slides, but they are very flexible and floppy. I'm not sure I like it! But it is what it is. I've noticed a "softness" to both of these scans, and I am wondering if it is due to the fact that I had to place both of these face-down directly on the scanner glass instead of in the plastic slide holder? Or they are just not sharp, hard to tell without a loupe (and I didn't have one handy at the time).
ANYWAY, this first one is an unusual view taken inside the Book and Candle Shop on Main Street (as part of the Crystal Arcade). I see no books, but a whole lotta candles! My handy list of Main Street Lessees says that the Candle Shop was there from April 1, 1958 through to sometime in 1971, at which point it was separated from the Book Shop from 1972 to January 27, 1986. I suggested pairing the Candle Shop with a Dynamite Shop, but Walt said it was a bad idea. Sometimes I just didn't understand him.
My next floppy slide is this nice look at the Plantation House, overlooking the Rivers of America. While the slides have a warm, "antique" vibe to them, the rather large bushes along the shore make me think that perhaps this photo was from the later days of the restaurant's existence - it was torn down in 1962 in preparation for New Orleans Square construction.
15 comments:
Major-
"...taken inside the Book and Candle Shop on Main Street (as part of the Crystal Arcade). I see no books, but a whole lotta candles!"
Just be happy someone put the kibosh on calling it the Bell, Book and Candle Shop-!
I keep hoping one of these days a [never before seen] interior shot of the Plantation House will finally surface. One of these days...
Thanks, Major.
I think next to the Goodyear animated pods the Plantation House Western “Harvey House” facade is probably the least photographed parts of Disneyland.
NANOOK the odds of a guest photo of the plantation house interior is probably pretty slim … there was no indoor seating … only under umbrell tables and along the lower galleries and upper verandas. Most of the building was kitchen and office spaces .. with two small guest restrooms … I’ve mentioned before the story of the plantation house manager complaining about guests crowding up the order lobby of the restaurant to use the bathrooms … causing the creation of the DL RR freight house restrooms to be built as the Frontierland central restrooms …. Larger restrooms were also built at the Indian Village at the same time.
Slides held in flexible paper... weird. I've never heard of that before. I wonder what on Earth the reason for that was? Floppy slides... Maybe they were meant to be inserted into a floppy slide drive?
Good grief! And good gravy! (We had some good gravy tonight; made from the pan drippings of a ribeye steak.) So many candles! And gawd help me, I think I would enjoy wandering through this shop, looking at all the varieties of candles. Well, for a minute or two anyway. Then I would hear the siren call of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, and the Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean, and I'd be outa there! This shop is sorta like the Flower Market.
Like you've said, Major, these slides have such an odd sort of lighting. Soft, yes, but something more than that. It's like the transparencies were made of paper instead of plastic film. The oddness is really apparent in the Plantation House photo. Everything looks like it's made of pastel mints... or taffy. It's a little out of focus, or maybe this is as in-focus as it can get. Could it be from a weird (cheap) type of camera? Maybe a pinhole camera made from a Quaker Oatmeal box.
Weird, but nice photos, Major. Thanks.
Nanook beat me to the Bell, Book, and Candle reference. I think they should release Pyewacket, and let him run through the Book and Candle Shop. I'm sure that he wouldn't knock over any of the candles. Cats are very careful, like that.
Are we sure those are actually candles and not decorative sticks of dynamite?
Yup, that’s the Candle Shop as I remember it. This was part of the approved exit sequence as a kid. We would enter the west Main Street buildings at Coke Corner and weave through the shops, the Penny Arcade, Flower Mart, and the Book Store, where I often got to buy a book, some of which I have shared. Then out through the Emporium.
You’re all chuckling, but Disneyland did have a Bell Shop, over in Tomorrowland, the Bell System CirCARama. Some imagineers wanted to put this on Main Street but they were dismissed as dingalings.
I’m too young to remember the outdoor Plantation House, but I think it’s fun how the indoor one in POTC is the same design. I wonder if there was a real building being mimicked?
Thanks Major, I learn so much from GDB, never knew about paper framed slides, for instance.
JG
Nanook, as long as the bells are from the Franklin Mint, I’m in! I’m still mad at myself for passing on the set of Star Trek commemorative bells, made of fine porcelain. Magnificent!
Mike Cozart, like Nanook, I’d love to see an interior of the Plantation House, but I know that it is unlikely. I did not know that there was no indoor seating at all. Not even upstairs? Still, every now and then an amazing rarity pops up, so “never say never”!
JB, I can’t figure out if the thin paper mounts were made by hand or what. They aren’t great though, for one thing they kind of stick together. I remember walking through a shop at Magic Mountain that was full of candles, many that had been dipped in multicolored layers and then carved. As a kid I thought they were so cool! I wonder if that shop was in Spilliken Corners? I would have preferred that these photos were sharp and crisp, but sometimes you just have to take what you’re given. Which is annoying!
TokyoMagic!, I haven’t seen Bell, Book, and Candle since I was a child, I vaguely remember Jack Lemon doing a funny dance. And pretty Kim Novak.
Chuck, you make a good point, as always.
JG, I’m envious of your memory of these mostly-forgotten shops, I know we would go into the Emporium, and unless my grandparents were with us, my parents said “NO” to everything we wanted. You had me going for a second re: the Bell Shop. “….they were dismissed as dingalings”… d’oh! I have also wondered if the Plantation House (and the house seen in the Blue Bayou) are based on any real buildings. No idea though.
Major-
I was thinking about those odd "slide mounts" and was wondering if possibly those 'two, very thin pieces of paper' were the beginnings of some weird glass slide mount - only these examples were missing both pieces of glass and the requisite black Photographic Tape-? Seems a bit of a stretch, but I've handled a lot of glass slides in my time, and so many glass mounts seemed to be made "on-the-fly". Just an odd thought.
Major, this comment may cost you some money, since I know you get charged for the links (humor), but if you care to read them, D*vel*and blog has made some of my memories of this area into part of his segment on Main Street shops. I can't find a link to his big photo library on his regular site and I don't have a bookmark on this computer, so you will have to look it up.
Glad you enjoyed my little joke, it was a very little joke.
JG
googel never forgets...
https://www.davelandweb.com/mainstreet/west.html#jgremembers
JG
JG...your mention of the 'attraction' of the Main Street shops is spot-on. They were attractions on their own merit. I always looked forward to doing Christmas shopping using the employee discount. And each year, Disney would mail out a couple passes which I'd give to my folks for entry. They too were eligible for the discount for that day of entry. KS
Nanook, that’s as good a theory as any! Because those thin paper “mounts” offer no rigidity or protection at all. And you’re right, I think a lot of people mounted their own glass slides at home (unfortunately).
JG, Daveland loves me because I am keeping him in caviar and Cuban cigars. Just a spoonful of caviar on one cigar makes for a delicious snack!
JG, I’ll have to look at the link later this evening, but thank you for finding the link.
KS, for my family, shopping was typically done at the end of the day, as we headed toward the exit. Maybe that’s when we’d get a balloon, or something like that. As I said to JG, if my grandparents were with us, we were almost guaranteed a good toy, I remember we had a Nautilus toy (made by Sutcliffe of England, though I might be misremembering). Of course we played with it until it was in pieces, and we did put it in the neighbor’s pool. I can’t remember if it did anything but sink.
Regarding the Chicken Plantation building : The majority of the “second floor” is really a facade covering /hiding cooking vents and other mechanical support for the kitchens below.
The plantation house inside The Blue Bayou was very much inspired by the look of the Chicken Plantation . Architectural elements from the demolished plantation house was used inside parts of the Adventureland Bazzar … shutters etc that once lined the dressing rooms.
Glad the early shift of Junior Gorillas took care of the Bell, Book and Candle jokes right away.
A few decades ago, it seemed like everyone's grandparents had a bunch of those 2-3 foot tall metallic candles that look like a stack of spheres. I guess they were fashionable decorating items in the 60s, but even as a kid I figured that the metallic paint would release something toxic as they burned.
"The plantation house inside The Blue Bayou was very much inspired by the look of the Chicken Plantation."
Mike, I can't believe I didn't know this, as the Blue Bayou is my favorite restaurant. Thanks for sharing that info.
Love the candle shop image. Quite a rare one.
Thanks, Major.
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