Little Pigs, January 1960
Disneyland has associated itself with the concept of "DREAMS" for quite a while - probably a lot more in the last few decades than during the "Walt years". It's a great marketing hook! But sometimes those dreams are nightmares. There are bipedal pigs walking around, silently grinning. Look out, one is heading our direction!
I have to admit that those two nice ladies are taking the whole situation a lot more poise than I would have. They don't appear to be disturbed at all! In fact, the one on the right looks like she's playfully flirting with the Fifer Pig (?). She and her friend are in their Sunday best, bundled up for a chilly day (notice that the Monsanto House of the Future is be-ribboned for Christmas), while the man in the background wants to share his latest mathematical calculations with his son.
Whoa, there's all three of them! Suddenly, traffic to cross the bridge into Fantasyland has dwindled, and guests are funneling into Tomorrowland and Frontierland. The girl in the red sweater is looking to somebody off-camera, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?". If I'd designed those pig costumes, I would have been sure to make the eyes light up with little red bulbs.
11 comments:
Major-
Is the footwear on the pigs supposed to resemble cloven hooves-? (And I thought the Three Little Pigs kept Kosher... I must've been misinformed-!) That, or perhaps merely open-toed bedroom slippers. Classy.
The 'distinguished' lady doing all the flirting is holding [upside down] the 1959 edition of Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland.
I still say there's something a bit frightening-looking about those grinning pigs...
Thanks, Major.
Nanook, it looks like the little piggies' gloves also have a black design on them, to make give the look of a hoof.
That girl in the second photo is holding TWO boxes of popcorn!
Major-
As the pig in the 1st image appears to be wearing a sailor's suit, then he should be Fiddler Pig.
These "Little Pigs" are kinda tall and skinny! Need to fatten up these porkers! And their eyes look like they were gouged out by Hitchcock's Birds. Nightmare, indeed! As Nanook noted, strange shoes on these Pigs. I guess the black 'spats' are supposed to make it look like they have cloven hooves. Satan! (More nightmares!) The mathematically inclined dad in the background looks like Dennis the Menace's dad. But the kid doesn't look like Dennis.
Well of course the guests are funneling into Tomorrowland and Frontierland; the Three Satanic Pigs are blocking the path into Fantasyland, "None shall pass!". Red sweater girl has both her hands full with boxes of... what? Popcorn? Pig repellent? We can see one of those flocked Christmas trees next to the Castle. And I won't even mention The Dent, because I'm not even sure I can see it. The pyramidal roof next to it has a bunch of irregularities that look like there used to be a clock face there at one time.
Tokyo!, ah, so those boxes are popcorn. Coulda sworn it was Pig repellent.
Thanks for the creepy Pig pictures, Major.
The pyramidal roof next to it has a bunch of irregularities that look like there used to be a clock face there at one time.
JB, those irregularities are just openings which are meant to be there, because they are "flying buttresses"!
Well, those are certainly "The Pigs from Heck" aren't they? (Family blog). Seriously, they look like a cross between Porky and Jodie the Pig from Amityville. Not very Disneyesque in my book! The horror! THE HORROR!!!
These hams-on-the-hoof are terrifying to todays eyes, but I can’t imagine Disney would have purposely put characters out to scare guests, so the audience at the time must not have seen them that way.
Maybe we are too indoctrinated by Stephen King style horror-slop to just enjoy them for what they were meant to be? That said, the pigs aren’t well-proportioned to match their cartoon personas, or even costumed recognizably. Each in the cartoon has a distinct hat style, while these rascals look more like hatless Elmer Fudd. The next iteration must have been the ones with non-functional floppy arms and the viewport in the hat. Not sure that was an improvement.
The doctor of mathematics is really a Man In Black, come to erase everyone’s memory of these hideous swine.
Thanks Major, love the Christmas trees in the moat too!
JG
Nanook, yes, I assume those weird foot and hand appliances are supposed to invoke pig’s hooves. It doesn’t look that great! The 1959 guidebook makes sense, since this photo was either (or likely) taken in late ’59, or early 1960 - I’m pretty sure they continued to sell the old books until they were sold out.
TokyoMagic!, who among us has not bought two boxes of popcorn?
Nanook, I’m sure you’re right (I did no research), somehow I think of a “sailor” as being more likely to play a fife. But what do I know?
JB, yeah, the later costumes were much more “on model”, though the performers did not have the use of their arms, which I’m sure caused all sorts of problems. I wonder if Disney designed these costumes themselves? I know the very earliest (opening day) costumes were borrowed from the Ice Capades, but these are not that great either. There is something off-putting about those three pigs blocking the entrance to Fantasyland, especially on an uncrowded day when there would be no slipping past them unnoticed. I see the “clock face” on that castle roof, though I know a clock was never there. What’s the deal?
TokyoMagic!, please don’t use bad words like “buttresses” on this family blog.
Stu29573, hey, somebody gets that this blog is rated “G”! I wonder what happened to the costumes after Disney was done with them? They were probably destroyed. Shotgun practice.
JG, I’m sure you’re right, the pigs were not supposed to be scary; you just never know with kids though, I remember as a very young child I was a bit scared of some of the costumed characters because they seemed so darn BIG. “I’ll just stand over here and weep”. If they’d somehow done plumper bodies it would have helped the pigs look cuter, but that might have exceeded the budget back then. I think the later pigs were cuter, but the useless arms were a problem. Man in Black, please find me and erase my brain, at least for the next three years. All of the finest moats have Christmas trees, year-round!
Big Louie and the boys having second thoughts about the witness protection program.
Those pigs look like they might have been the prototypes for the creepy pixies from SpectroMagic.
Pigheaded phobia is very real. Just like America-on-Parade [big-head] anxiety.
Oh, Chuck, I do remember that sometimes those pixies would swing by and [sort of] lean towards your face. Very creepy.
Thanks, Major. I can't wait to put my head on my pillow, tonight, and have nightmares, all night. :o/
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