Views From a Monorail, September 17, 1970
I almost always enjoy looking at photos taken from a speeding Monorail. Sometimes you might gat a view of Tomorrowland, or maybe even the motels and restaurants along Harbor Boulevard. But you mostly see the big parking lot, and sometimes Main Street Station. Which is great!
This first view is surprisingly clear when you consider that the Monorail was moving at near light-speeds. The parking lot is vast, almost to the horizon, though the Disneyland Hotel looms through the smog. My main impression when looking at this image is the sheer number of Volkswagen Beetles in the lot. You can really only ID the cars until about halfway up the picture, but there are a BUNCH of bugs. I even see a few Karmann Ghias. You can only own one of the automobiles in the photo, so which will it be?
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that the Monorail is just about to pull into the Disneyland Hotel station, and our photographer snapped a quick pic. Now we're seeing the parking lot from what I believe is West Street. A charming dumpster is full of chunks of concrete, take a piece as a souvenir! Somebody cut down a little tree, probably teenagers who need haircuts.
14 comments:
Major-
"... but there are a BUNCH of bugs. I even see a few Karmann Ghias".
Yes, there certainly are - especially as this appears to be the CM parking lot, where I would expect to see a sea of Rolls Royce's and Cadillac limousines-!
Thanks, Major.
"surprisingly clear when you consider that the Monorail was moving at near light-speeds." Musta been a reeeeal fast shutter and film speed! Most photographers don't take light-speed into account when snapping their pictures.
I want the car that looks like it has it's headlights on, way back there on the left near the Monorail beam. From this distance I have no idea what kind of car it is or what it looks like, but that's the one I want. (You're paying for shipping, right?) In order to see this much of the parking lot, the Monorail must have just come out of the trees near Tomorrowland when this pic was taken.
Ha! There seems to be a LOT of shaggy-haired teenagers who need haircuts being mentioned in GDB lately. I bet it was the Monorail whoooosing by at near light-speed that caused that poor little tree to snap off like that. So the teens are probably not the culprits... this time. But I'm sure they still need haircuts. Make them stand near the Beamway when the Monorail comes whooshing by at near light-speed; that'll give 'em a haircut they won't soon forget!
You were making a funny, about taking a piece of cement as a souvenir, but I'm sure you could buy that third mansion that you covet so dearly, with the profits from the sale of that chunk of cement, today.
Thanks for the 'from the Monorail' pics, Major.
Oohh! I want that Oldsmobile Delta 88!!
( 1966 or 1967??) Oldsmobile Delta 88 Holiday Coupe to be specific .
The Delta '88...that thing was a TANK...at the GM Exhibit we had a specimen: yellow. All of the other vehicles we had out there were more modernized: like the "new body" Cadillacs et al...and that Delta 88 looked like a relic from the time these pictures were taken. It still got looks however: but the star of the show was the new body Corvette: which I did drive around and about: even backstage and IN the park! The park was closed people: don't freak out. Position had it's perks and I had really great relationships with the GM people. Guest Relations staffed that exhibit during it's tenure. That IS the employee lot in the first photo: and I am seeing "MY SPOT": which is basically where that yellow bug is against the little fence in the distance. I lost my car regularly, so made it a habit to park against the fence all the time: unless it was a busy day, and you arrived at a bad time and you parked out in Mickey: which was over there by the Disneyland Marquee. Both were a distance from the employee entrance "Harbor House": spoken about on here previously. Don't know about all that dumpster refuse at the Hotel...in 1970: what were they digging up? Looks like big chunks of something. Poor tree. If it wasn't the teens that needed haircuts...they STILL need haircuts! HIPPIES! Thinking about Hippies...is it really that horrible to be "hip". Hip is an old word: look it up. It's also hip to be square according to Huey Lewis: who grew up in one of my old stomping grounds: Strawberry in Northern California: which was also unofficial home to the first location of the UN. I never saw a Strawberry patch IN Strawberry...but the fact that California is probably harvesting strawberries right now makes me extremely envious. Thanks Major for the parking lot! Worthy of photos!
Great views of the power lines! We get them coming and going!
And the Parking Lot! The first attraction and the last, Alpha and Omega, as it were.
Thufer always loved pics of the Parking Lot.
Thanks Major.
JG
That first pic probably gave Nanook heart palpitations!
@ Steve-
'Heart palpitations'... not exactly. The only thing that really caught my eye is parked way over on the far right - that 1961 Chrysler Imperial Crown 4-Door Hardtop Sedan [with those tailfins] in Alaskan White-! It looks like Chrysler only produced about 9,924 vehicles in that configuration.
Nanook, everyone knows that Disneyland employees are paid five times the national average!
JB, if a photographer is really good, he (or she) can press the shutter extra fast, thus making such pictures a reality. Science! I think that person with the headlights on was behind me last night, those LED high beams are blinding. Don’t get me started on teenagers and their long hair! Disgraceful. Why, I got a crew cut until I was 30, and even then I was ashamed of my long hair. Nothing says “degenerate” more than that!
Mike Cozart, I don’t know which car is the Delta 88.
Mike Cozart, I don’t know which car is the Delta 88 Holiday Coupe!
Bu, my grandparents gave my family their old Buick Electric 225, and I was the one who usually drove it. That thing was enormous! Terrible gas mileage too. But man, it drove like a dream. I kind of miss it. Sadly, it was beige, which was pretty dull, but what can you do. Had I worked at the park, I probably would have had a regular parking spot too - one that I could easily find. Did employees get to use trams, or did you have to hoof it back to your vehicle? I suppose there were plenty of CMs who did not start in the morning, which is a weird thought, since all of my jobs have involved me being at work by 7:30. I don’t really have against hippies, I just think it’s funny to be “the guy who is always angry at hippies”. My weird sense of humor, I guess. There is a town in California called “Strawberry”?? But there isn’t one called “Boysenberry”??? They used to have a strawberry festival in Oxnard, I went once. You never saw so many of those darn berries.
JG, last night I randomly discovered that there is a Facebook group dedicated to the Disneyland parking lot. I guess it figures! Thufer, one of many we have lost over the years.
Steve DeGaetano, frankly I’m surprised that he hasn’t proved a list of cars, along with their official colors (“Aegean Blue” or whatever!).
Nanook, hey, I got "Alaskan White", I am satisfied!!
Bu, please share more details....
Where exactly did you drive the Corvette?
I would especially love to hear more about where and why, IN the park. (Thanks!)
Major, these are fun images from the past...it's great to know there are others who feel the same way - I'll have to checkout that Facebook group.
Bu the oldsmobile Delta 88 would have been a very different kind of looking car when Disneyland had that GM exhibit in the mid 80’s … nothing like its 1966-1968 styles . The Delta 88 body of 1966 was the equivalent of the Buick Rivera - it was first going to be branded as the new “La Salle” …. So was the Oldsmobile Toronado ( it’s body was going to be released as a Cadillac La Salle) the 1966 and 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado is one of my top dream cars … Jay Leno and Bob Gurr both agree the Toronado was one of the most beautiful and innovative American automobiles . Sadly by 1968 it was being redesigned to be more main stream and generic and like most GM products by the 80’s … very boxy and dowdy.
I drove the 'Vette all over one night. We had "business" to attend to inside the berm...and we had the keys...and we "want to keep the battery going"....et al....lot's of excuses..but there was literally no one around, the Park had been closed for hours...to get into the berm (at that point), you just needed to have an excuse, which we did...we just chose the really super long way to get behind Main St. (Where Walt's parking spot was behind the apartment.) Lot's of people (3rd shift guys) were pointing and stopping us: it was very distracting to them: and I'm sure it was a pleasant distraction for any motor head. This was a major design change for GM...so the car looked super sleek and cool...so we got stopped a lot along the way. The suit at the time didn't seem to mind that were were all over the place: we opened up the hood, and like a bunch of guys we were all staring at the engine. It was pretty impressive as far as those things go. For a week we had private parties for Hughes...then newly "Hughes GM"...and we had cars all over the park: all of which we had to drive in when the park closed, and drive out after the parties...it was over a few nights....so we drove MANY cars all over the place: It was kind of cool driving a giant Suburban along the Rivers of America on the way to Bear Country. When the GM execs made their rounds to "Truck Country" (we had about 5 models in Bear Country from GMC) their voices got noticeably lower with a male swagger to go along with it. We all had a giggle. Certainly car execs are not show biz execs like we were used to dealing with- but after a few cocktails their serious demeanors were softened a bit. At a pre-planning meeting at the Hotel we had a lunch and when we ordered, a GM exec next to me "strongly suggested" that I have a "man's drink" like the rest of the guys there....they were all swilling down brown booze like Evian water...so I complied: not sure what we all decided at that meeting...other than GM giving Disneyland a couple of million dollars for all the fun. We did had a lot of fun at those parties that week, and it was a turning point for those suits who saw that I could actually execute something at a high level: as a farmed-out TG on a special project. I went on to other projects after that as a result, and my days of giving tours to regular guests was slowly coming to an end.
I had trouble posting a comment yesterday so I will try now. Definitely the employee lot. Look at all those VWs. The Ford in the left foreground shows a couple employee lot bumper stickers. I can recognize both the 1970 'oval' and 1969 triangular stickers on it. Some of us proudly would add them to the bumper rather than removing the old ones as a note of seniority. That lasted for another year before we were issued annual stickers to attach to the front of our rear view mirrors and that was the end of the tradition. KS
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