It's a Snoozle Extravaganza today. Buy one, get three free! The first two scans are from July, 1962, and went way too dark. So dark that I am scared. This wouldn't be a bad photo of the Monorail, if the aperture had been open a lot more.
I always love a good photo with the old Skyway buckets and the classic Fantasyland. But not this one!
These next two are from a Christmas parade in December, 1976. They were so "meh" that I almost just dragged the scans to the trash. BUT WAIT! Sometimes trash can be fun! Shakespeare said it, so it must be true. Here's Grumpy sitting at his pipe organ (well, OK, he's standing); was there another character pumping the bellows? Grumpy seems to be bathed in a pink spotlight.
And here is another from the same parade; the wonderful toy soldiers are marching past; judging from the low angle, I wonder if this was taken by a child? Those lights in the background look like they could be someplace in Tomorrowland, possibly.
Major-
ReplyDeleteI believe the 1st image is taken near the entrance to the Matterhorn, looking towards the Fantasyland Autopia. We can see the series of Autopia flags placed along the fiberglass 'catch guard', adjacent to the monorail beamway. Those fringed umbrellas placed within round tables once sat in that same area near the Matterhorn entrance.
(I wonder if the two images from 1976 were also taken in the same general area-?)
Thanks, Major.
‘Christmas Snoozles’…..you think of everything, Major. Thank you for making the holidays festive and fun!
ReplyDeleteI dunno. The Monorail pic has a certain surrealistic look to it. Like it's being lit by a red dwarf star. But yeah, it would be nice if we could see the people better... so we can make fun of them. :-p
ReplyDeleteAgain, more surrealism. Only this time there seems to be some sort of message concealed in the composition: TWO golden Skyway buckets! Right next to each other! And the finial atop the Carousel roof is perfectly aligned with that tiny tower on the Castle! AND, the flags at the back of the Teacups are pointing left, while the flags at the front are pointing right! It's like the da Vinci code!
I've always been fascinated by the Dwarfs' pipe organ (in this version, the pipes seem to be arranged backward; the taller pipes should be on the left). I've wondered if such a pipe organ could actually exist, with multiple notes per pipe. I think the answer is yes. But I also think that ones playing technique would have to be different than normal.
Do these Toy Soldiers have rifles with bayonets attached? I think they did in the movie, at least some of them. Perhaps when the Soldiers first appeared in the Park they did carry guns. But in later years they were probably disarmed. Now, they most likely carry bubble wands.
Snoozles, but quite nice. Thank you, Major.
Too bad they didn't use Extreme LED or Flourecsent, that would have been more energy proficient. But I prefer these DARK snoozles much more I do...ARRR!
ReplyDeleteThanks Major as always...
Off in the distance of the third pic (with Grumpy), we can see either the trees from the Haunted Forrest from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, or the Forrest of No Return from Babes In Toyland. We can also see a Skyway gondola about to enter the Matterhorn (or maybe it just exited). So this would have been taken in the "Small World Mall" area, and the exit to the Storybook Land Canal Boats would just out of frame to the right.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, this would have been the last year for Fantasy On Parade, before the parade was reworked and renamed as, "The Very Merry Christmas Parade" for a few years. I have a friend who took a picture of this same float in 1973. He took pics of many of the parade units and over the years, I have thought about posting them. It's just that many of them are blurry. Major, I should give them to you for a "Christmas Blurzzles" post, but I'm sure one thing that you don't need are more blurry photos! Here is the one pic of this "Snow White" float, which wasn't too bad.....not great, but not too horrible. It was taken in the daytime and from further back, so we can see more of the float. It looks like Grumpy was swapped out with Happy, in front of the organ's keyboard. Also, that pink package in your photo was removed, and replaced with one of the dwarfs:
Fantasy On Parade '73 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Float
Thanks for the Snoozles, Major!
I love 'em. Any view of the Monorail is a good view. They're dark but so am I sometimes. I like that the view of the buckets excludes the outside world. I'm sure he's Grumpy because he can't play the organ backwards like Jerry Lee Lewis. It is a little unnerving to see your dark side, Major.
ReplyDeleteThanks, though.
Zach
As always, I have a low bar for enjoyment of Disneyland pics, and these look pretty good to me. You should see the 110 color scans I made from my old high school trip. The color went “ugh” after years in the garage. But these are cheerfully colored, if a bit dark.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never seen Babes in Toyland (or Titanic), and I’m not starting now.
Thanks Major!
JG
Fantasy on Parade was the best Christmas Parade. I'm not sure if "normie" guests really understand the difference between a "Very Merry Christmas Parade" or "Fantasy on Parade"....but for us "types" we DO! Very Merry was good...but the soundtracks..hmmm....Fantasy on Parade had more "majesty" and classic Disneyland Parade vibe...with lots of horses, and trumpets, and dancers, etc. I wouldn't say it was "over the top" like the Electrical Parade, it was just "perfect". I saw the last Christmas Parade as I was in the Small World queue. It was good...but I guess I am a purist. The best scene was Chip and Dale making cookies with real flour and getting into a total mess...or Goofy with the real dogs, or the "Step in Time" number....So many good things about Fantasy on Parade...ending with "Funny Reindeer" "Glock Girls", and Santa. A REAL Santa....which is an interesting memory: I was not having the best "pre-shift" one day in "that week". Which was basically Christmas Day through Jan 1. The crowds were July 4 every day and unrelenting. Christmas Week can be taxing (and still is quite honestly)...I was backstage getting a new change of clothes from Wardrobe, heading to my locker...and Santa was approaching me...in full costume...now: backstage, you normalize a lot of things....you walk past things that would blow guests hairs back...but you've seen them a hundred times...so it's just..."I need coffee before work! Gotta rush!" Anyway...so there's Santa...seen him before, will see him again...he checks my mood....and says to me very genuinely, "What could be wrong? There's only smiles for Christmas!" completely in character...well, I did give him a smile...it was kind of the sweetest thing ever..."suspended reality"...and that Santa (there were a couple if I remember) had the real long grey hair, and the full REAL silver white full beard, and a real belly.....he kind of WAS Santa. And for that very short moment, it was kind of magical, and very unexpected. What a nice memory. Snoozles(tm) can sometimes conjure up non-snooze-ly things! Thanks Major!
ReplyDeleteNanook, I do think that the lights in the background of the last two photos are probably a part of the Monorail beamway (or “beanway”, as my fingers want to type).
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, I’m just trying to find that silver lining with these “meh” images!
JB, I always wonder why certain photos turn out so dark, when you know the actual scene was probably very bright. The late-afternoon sunlight on the Monorail was probably beautiful and warm. I can only assume that the photographer used the wrong film, or messed up the manual settings. I can’t really tell if the Skyway gondolas are golden, they almost have a greenish cast in that dark picture! I love the beautiful watercolor background paintings from “Snow White”, and Grumpy’s pipe organ is a real feat of design. They did a pretty decent job making a version of it for this parade! I’m not sure about the rifles that are carried by the Toy Soldiers, I’ll have to do some research.
Anonymous, I definitely have plenty of slides that are worse than these - I just always want every image to be bright and clear, even the night shots!
TokyoMagic!, good eye on those trees - did they used the “Babes in Toyland” costumes for the Snow White haunted forest? Based on my last visit, the Small World mall was a good place to watch a parade (especially the second, later parade) because the area was not as crowded as the Main Street area. I’ll take any photos you are willing to share, even Snoozles! I think that pic of the Seven Dwarfs float is not bad - a little soft, but still perfectly presentable.
zach, I know what you mean, I do love those old Monorails (the Mark I, II, and III), it’s hard to dislike any photos of them! Don’t worry about my dark side, everything will be back to normal tomorrow.
JG, I think I’ve seen some of your high school trip photos? In fact I think I still have some in a folder somewhere. I’ve kind of forgotten that the color went “ugh”, was the garage too hot? Too humid? Too HAUNTED??
Bu, as a kid I was aware of Fantasy on Parade because there were TV commercials for Disneyland in SoCal, and of course those made me want to go to the park every time one aired. I don’t remember going to Disneyland at Christmastime when I was a kid, sadly. I suppose the Electrical Parade was “over the top” by 1970s standards, but boy I loved that one. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Today’s parades are definitely loud and BIG, I was talking to a friend of the blog while in Disneyland and he shook his head, clearly not liking it! But I must be low class, because I admit that I kind of liked it. I believe they still have a real Santa in their Christmas parades? As opposed to a Mickey Santa, I guess. I love your story of running into Santa backstage, and how he was completely in character when you were in a bad mood! I just scanned some negatives for a friend, with photos of his niece and nephew at Disneyland (probably early 1990s), and two of the photos show the kids sitting with a very believable Santa, with what I think was a real, full white beard. I didn’t remember that they ever had a Santa at Disneyland that kids could meet, but the photos are very cute.
Major, yes, you have some of my high school photos, but those were taken with the 35mm and these survived nicely. Thank you for scanning them.
ReplyDeleteI recently bought a little slide scanner to process some 110 negatives from my last trip to the Park as a kid. I bought the 110 camera because the big SLR was clumsy and heavy, but the 110 negatives did not like the hot (or cold) garage. These might have been GAF film too. I don't think the garage was haunted, although I am convinced that there are ghosts and that I encountered one once, just not any here.
JG