Gate Handouts, 1960 to 1964
I hope you find vintage Disneyland paper ephemera as interesting as I do! Today I'm going to share scans of five "WELCOME" gate handouts, all sharing a similar design that began in 1960. These are among the first paper items I collected, and I still love them. Below is a look at the covers of all five:
Here's the 1960 version. The simple graphics on the cover show five characters who fit into the five themed areas of Disneyland. You know them as well as I do! As you can see, the brochure offers handy information about special shows and exhibits (including the Upjohn Pharmacy and the Monsanto House of the Future), as well as tips on where to get first aid, where to board your beloved pets, lockers, rest rooms, and more.
The other side unfolds to reveal a charming little cartoon map of the park, with callouts for each land listing the attractions found within. Interestingly, the Monorail is listed, but was not represented in the drawing.
The 1961 example looks much like the one from the previous year; in fact I used to just think that there was only one "blue one", until a friend set me straight. One of the main differences is the omission of the Crane exhibit in Tomorrowland.
Now the map shows the Monorail with its track extending to the Disneyland Hotel, and it also lists the Flying Saucers as one of the Tomorrowland attractions.
Next is the 1962 version, somebody finally came up with the genius idea to switch out the color. And it's orange, voted "Best Color Ever" in LIFE magazine. For some reason, this '62 handout is considerably harder to find than all of the others, and I've never had a good theory as to WHY.
Notice that the Enchanted Tiki Room is listed under the header "Complete Meals and Specialty Foods" - as most of you know, the Tiki Room was originally planned as a restaurant.
As far as I can tell, the map hasn't changed much (except for the color of course).
Next, the pink one - from 1963. Another example that I should upgrade, but... you know. Lazy. Or cheap. Why not both?
And finally, the green 1964 example, the last of this style; in 1965, they came up with a whole new design for the "Tencennial".
The map changed drastically, and I can't say I love it. Green and grays, and combinations of both. Like a moldy avocado. And it has been reduced to minimal graphics for some reason. Why not just keep using the fun drawing from the previous four years? Meanwhile, there were changes to some older rides ("Astrojet" became "Tomorrowland Jets" - not that you would know it from this map), but nothing major was added.
Well, that's it for this batch! Maybe it was too much, but it felt wrong to split these up into more than one post. I'm just happy to know that the time you spent reading this blog article kept you out of the speakeasies and opium dens.
14 comments:
Major-
I see the drawing is included for the "Monorail Trains" in the 1960 brochure. (The 1961 brochure is the only one I have in my collection).
The map for the 1964 brochure looks as if most of the 'attractions and adventures' had been removed from the Park. It does seem an odd decision to choose this sort of graphic.
Thanks, Major.
I find it oddly humorous that the only difference between the first two (blue) handout covers is... [drumroll]... the hyphen at the bottom! I guess somebody (Walt?) simply could not stand that hyphen. Notice that it has been stricken from all the other designs. Of course there must be some differences on the inside?
Ah. So there are differences on the inside. I guess the Bathroom of Tomorrow / Fun With Water exhibit didn't last long. I DO vaguely remember the Fun With Water part. On our 1957 trip I recall turning the faucets and watching the little colored cones rise into the air on a stream of water. (I was only four.)
The Tiki Room would've been nice as a restaurant. Like the Blue Bayou, only tropical. Every few minutes, the Tikis on the walls would chant (and click and clack) and there'd be a thunderstorm. Not sure if the birds would sing though.
Ha. Before I read you commentary on the green map, I thought, "Hmm, this looks rather unexciting and blah. Like you, I'm wondering why they went so minimalist with it.
Thanks, Major. Now, if I hurry, I can still get to those speakeasies and opium dens.
The Monorail appears in the first blue map drawing. It's contained within Tomorrowland and not extended to the Disneyland Hotel yet like in the second blue map drawing.
The Swiss family Treehouse was added to the orange map drawing.
The small illustrations next to each land's 'attraction' list would appear later in the INA Carefree Corner Disneyland Guide booklets.
Nice post today. Thanks, Major.
Well, I certainly feel welcomed...
As a child, Disneyland was the closest thing to heaven that I could have ever imagined - it was literally the stuff of dreams. A place where there was nothing that was not beautiful and no one was unkind.
My first visit was as a 5-year-old, during the first year the park was open. I remember that we did not enter the park from the main gate, but from the west side, through a tunnel under the berm, after a stage show in a large circus tent that was placed there.
I remember little else from that first trip, other than we seemed to drive forever getting there; [I remember asking if we were in Arizona yet]; our first sight of the park was the tip of the TWA rocket, sticking up from the tops of the orange groves. I have a vague memory of the 20,000 Leagues exhibit with it's giant squid, and of the Indian Village, where we watched real Indians dancing. Mainly I remember that it was one of the times when I saw my mother truly happy, and I never think of the park without remembering her and that happiness.
We returned several times over the years; mom always kept left-over ticket books in the top drawer of her dresser.
On our 1961 trip, we bought one of the big maps of the park - it had a blue border - which became one of my prized possessions. I would pore over it time after time, remembering every attraction I had seen, and dreaming of the changes that were coming - the map showed future attractions, like the Haunted Mansion and "Liberty Square".
In my mind and heart, the park and my family are intertwined, and I have nothing but memories of love and happiness there.
Thank you for the post, and for this entire blog - I come back every week for a visit, and it's always a good time.
Hogarth, thank you for sharing your memories, what a great story!
Major, these are fun items to trace the minutiae from year to year, and to marvel at the efficiency of a two-color print. One thing I observe is that the bobsleds are clearly listed with Fantasyland and not Tomorrowland, as was done with guidebooks from the 70’s.
And that wonderful little line-art map rejected for the frankly ugly and nearly information-free 1964 version. The only reason I can see for this change would be to boost sales of the wall maps, but I’d like to think Disney was above those shenanigans then.
Thank you for this exhaustive post. I will just have time to get to my local opium den, although I have found that nibbling paint chips helps take the edge off.
JG
@ hogarth-
Thanks for those memories; but if you remember the circus tent and entering the Park thru a tunnel under the berm, that meant you were in Holidayland, which didn't open until June, 1957. Suspect you're conflating that 1955 visit with a later one - an activity I find myself doing far too often.
Nanook, I mis-wrote and meant to say that the drawing does not show monotremes. You know, egg-laying mammals such as the aechidna and the platypus. Look closely, there is not a single echidna on that map!
JB, hyphens were known to be popular with Commies back in the 1950s and early 1960s! Walt could not abide a single example. “Fun With Water” was much more popular than “Fun With Oatmeal”. While it is intriguing to think of the Tiki Room as a restaurant, I figure that it would take a room full of guests an hour or so to order and eat, and for cleanup,whereas now they can do perhaps four performances in an hour. I wonder if that green map was considered more “modern”? It sure is ugly.
K. Martinez, see my comment to Nanook re: monotremes. Good eye on the Swiss Family Treehouse, I knew I must be missing something! You often see small spot illustrations reused on other flyers and brochures, though I did not recognized these as being in the INA booklets (and as far as I know, I have all of those, though my buddy Mr. X claims that there is a very rare one that even he does not have).
Stu29573, then these brochures are a success!
hogarth, gosh what a beautiful comment! I’m not sure I really remember my first visit, those early ones all kind of blend into a memory mush of images. I have a photo or two showing my brother and me at home wearing our mouse ears, I look to be about three years old, maybe four. That had to be the first time! Sounds like you entered the park from Holidayland, very cool that you had that experience. Most people don’t even remember that Holidayland existed. Interesting that you saw the Rocket first, but pre-Matterhorn, it had to be one of the tallest things in the park. I think technically, Tom’s Treehouse was the tallest, but from a distance it would just look like a tree. My brother claims that we saw the giant squid in the 20K walk-through, but I don’t remember it at all. I feel like it would have scared me! Awesome that you have memories of your mother being so happy while at the park. My mom kept all of our left-over ticket books too. And the first map I bought was a version from the 1960s, not one of the Sam McKim maps, but the later version. It finally fell to pieces because the folds were giving way. I kept the pieces though! I’m glad you still visit GDB and that it brings you some happiness. I think I’ll be going to the park in exactly a week, and things will sure be different from those early days.
JG, as a kid I always lumped the Matterhorn in with those classic 1959 additions like the Submarine Voyage and the Monorail. In fact, Disneyland seemed to do that too. But it does make more sense that the Swiss mountain was located in Fantasyland. Disney did some other minimal-information maps, but even those tended to be a bit more colorful and fun than that green abomination. Opium dens are fun, but I miss the days when you had to go to the bad part of town for the experience.
Nanook, I was too lazy to look up when Holidayland opened, but as my comment to hogarth said, all of my early visits have turned into one big mush, I am always amazed at the people on this blog who seem to have clear vivid memories of every trip no matter how young they were!
Want some fun? Spell "echidna" differently each time you write it!
These items I would be completely mesmerized by as a kid, and now as an adult. This is how I would "go to the park" without actually putting my feet onto Anaheim soil. Between this and my few ViewMaster reels, it was still a (somewhat) satisfying "Day at Disneyland". I will come back later to actually study these in greater detail, and I plan on printing them out and using them on my next visit to the Park....looking at them in lines and such, while the guests around me remain mystified as I'm not referring to an automated device...but that's for another time. I think like Hogarth, we all have similar feelings around Disneyland, which is why we tend to be a bit more "passionate" about changes that don't particularly make sense: business or otherwise. This is the first time I have heard that you would enter the park via the tunnel in Frontierland and not the Main Gate. I would love to see photos of that area, and if it looked anything like a "gated attraction" (turnstiles, etc.) or if it was merely a hole in a mound of dirt. I think that either way it would be fascinating to see. My mom put the unused tickets in a Tupperware container on the top shelf of a kitchen cabinet, and I would often sneak looks at them climbing on top of the countertop. I remember that they were quite large and unlike later ticket books that were a more streamlined scale. They were mostly A's...but I coveted them nonetheless...and eventually they were used. I wasn't lucky enough to have the "big map" so I had to rely on my memories looking at illustrations and models in the "preview center". I would also write down "stories" of my imaginary days at the park, and what rides I would be going on, in what order and with who. I suppose I was foreshadowing the work you have to do these days to plan a visit, but for me it was a "virtual day" and the escape from the "real world" as Walt intended. Thanks Major!
Hogarth, thanks for sharing your memories. Those early encounters with Disneyland resonate with most of us here, which keeps us coming back again and again.
Bu, your idea of printing off the brochure and taking it to the Park is brilliant A Dial Guide would be fun, too. You can download the files to make your own copy of the 1974 version here.
Thanks, Major!
That is the saddest looking Matterhorn I've ever seen! (In the moldy avocado brochure.) And without bobsleds, it resembles a pile of oatmeal. "Fun With Oatmeal."
"Fun With Water" - Disney was always ahead of the curve. The first time I ever experienced a restroom sink with an automatic faucet was in WDW. I thought it was rather amazing, at the time. Now, good luck finding ones that work.
Hogart, I love your comments. This blog has brought back wonderful childhood memories at Disneyland with my parents, thanks to you, the Major and all the other Jr. Gorillas. Like stepping back in a Time Machine.
Major, please report back about your DL day.
aechidna, echidna, echinda, echidnae, ecehidnae....
you're right, Major, this IS fun.
Thanks, Major.
^ He kiddin' ya. :-p
Nanook, I see that my statement that it was "the first year" the park was open was misleading - I meant 1956.
I've been remembering the year we first visited as 1956 all my life, but you're right - memory can be full of holes.
It was probably 1957.
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