Fantasyland; the most "Disney" of all the lands. Not only would you find Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, and Snow White there, you'd find Monstro D. Whale there too. It made him feel pretty good to be included, but don't expect him to show it. He keeps his emotions close to the vest - except for RAGE. (I'm the same way, as people have met me can attest). Things look pretty sleepy in the park, the wait to ride a Canal Boat can't be more than five minutes. The door to the little lighthouse is open, and a cast member is fiddling with a stack of boxes. What could they hold?? Treats for Monstro?
Next is a standard view as seen from the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship; at first I thought that the Mad Tea Party was closed - but there is a single teacup with a pair of guests. Crazy! I'm not sure I ever noticed that there were small Japanese lanterns above this ride, even back then. Besides the familiar dark rides, we can even see the Red Wagon Inn and City Hall.
Major-
ReplyDeleteAs per usual in these times - everyone's so nicely dressed. Nice pleated skirt on the gal near the Storybook Land lighthouse and the mystery boxes.
Thanks, Major.
Hmm, I suspect those boxes next to the Lighthouse contain frozen krill. As Major noted, the krill are treats for Monstro. He must get tired of crunching on boatloads of people everyday, so the krill makes a nice change of pace for D. Whale.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent picture, even though the lighting is kinda flat; but still colorful! What is that bright point of light on top of Monstro? Could it be that the photographer caught an AED blowing up in mid-explosion?!?
Another flat-but-colorful photo. That Skyway bucket looks rather ominous dangling above everything! Perhaps it contains boiling oil, to be dropped upon invading barbarians below! I suppose you could use AI to add bright sunny highlights (and shadows) to everything. Plus a deep blue sky. It would look great! Although, that NASA guy would probably have 6 or 7 fingers then. ;-p
These really are nice photos, Major. Monstro is bellowing with rage in appreciation. Thanks.
Maybe the Storybook Land employees were required to keep all of the "D" coupons they collected, until they could fill up 10 large cardboard boxes with them, and then they were allowed to move them out of the structure. If I were management, I would have also made them keep their coats and sweaters in there, along with "lost and found" items, spare seat cushions for the boats, a couple brooms and dustpans, bags of fertilizer for the flowers, and extra guidebooks/maps in case a guest needed a replacement. It's not like they didn't have enough room in there!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Major!
The Lighthouse seems like a grim little cubicle to spend the day in. Was it a ticket booth or just a storeroom? I’m assuming those boxes contain whale toothpicks since random guests would occasionally get wedged in Monstro’s teeth. These would be the mint-flavored kind.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could step into Photo 2, except with a ladder or something so I didn’t fall to the ground. Teacups, Castle, power lines, distant palm trees, all the old, beloved dark ride facades, and the Carousel before all the horses turned white. I would be like Black Adder and ride a coal-black steed.
Both photos have plenty of trash cans too. Two in photo 1, the nice pink striped ones, and at least seven (!) in photo 2, both the striped variety and the hip roof models.
Thanks for these views of the most Disney of all the Lands, Major. These are extra nice today.
JG
@Major & Dean Finder, re yesterdays post, here is the successor toy to the one seen in the post, the current one is similar but not identical.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.littletikes.com/products/junior-activity-gy
JG
Nanook, all of my clothing is pleated, even my underwear.
ReplyDeleteJB, in the 1950s and early 60s, krill was a popular “fad food”. A block of frozen krill was just the thing on a hot summer day, and even now, old-timers will fondly recall the taste and smell! That bright point of light appears to be a spotlight embedded in the rockwork; I wonder if it was actually darker to the eye than it appears in this photo? We all know that guests were encouraged to drop pennies or other small items from their Skyway gondolas; folks below knew that it was all in good fun! Maybe somebody could use AI to make the scene look sunny, but life is too short, you know?
TokyoMagic!, did they just toss all of those used coupons in the trash? Or were they incinerated? Years ago I bought some unused ticket books from the friend of a friend, the story is that a box of ticket books was found somewhere in the park, a storage room or something. Whether that’s really true, I don’t know. I got some real beauties! If I can figure out how to photograph some of them without ruining them, I’ll show you guys. Ideally I should hire a hand model. Anyway, once that lighthouse stopped being used as a ticket booth, they probably filled it with all the stuff that guests lost on rides. False teeth, first editions of “The Great Gatsby”, a bowl of butterscotch pudding… that kind of thing.
JG, maybe they played some of Monstro’s whale songs inside the ticket booth. So relaxing! If only they could fit a bubble bath in there! Monstro actually did not like to eat guests who were “ripped”, they were too tough and stringy. A “Black Adder” reference! Boy, it’s been decades since I watched any of those. I saw a photo of somebody wearing a shirt that had the same design as that pink-striped trashcan, it was sort of cool. Did the park sell a series of different trashcan shirts?
JG, oh wow, so THAT’S what that thing is!!
These are great photos of Fantasyland! With Monstro in that chalky black color...which I much prefer to shiny, although hard to maintain...and wayyyyyy prefer to blue and plastic. If I had to add something to Monstro it would be very slight movement back and forth and a little in the jaw too...probably too scary for the wee ones, and I'm sure this scared me as a wee one as well. The BEST thing about this photo is it finally gave me some context to MIDGET AUTOPIA! I had no idea where it was, and it lasted all but a hot minute, but you can see all those mini auto's parked there, and the barn that you come crashing out of. When you are in the boat at Storybook land the canal seems so very narrow, but over near "never never land" it's extremely wide. It would be fun to have canoe races around this particular winding river, although I think crazy employees would chew up the scenery a bit. Looks like NASA guy just got a shipment of brochures, which guests frequently called "BRO-QUE-ERS" (not kidding). In City Hall: "are these bro-que-ers free?".....I'm not sure where that regionalism comes from, but I think it's the same as "SUL-VUH-NEERS"....such as "where are the free sub-vuh-neer bro-que-ers that it talked about at the end of that doll show?".....translated to: "Where might I find the souvenir brochure that is advertised at the end of the it's a small world attraction? I'm sure Major has a few of those bro-que-ers and a whole big box of sun-vuh-neers. These are all true stories, and I have those and more. Onto NASA guy pt. two at the Tea Cups. That is such a clean and tidy shot of that area. It really looks sparkling, with a pleasant like sprinkling of guests. NASA seems to be ready for action with rolled up short sleeves and tucked in tie. Looks like a pocket protector too. It's interesting to note that although the photo looks "straight on"....it belies reality: as you can see City Hall there in the distance: once again, my office showing up in yet another reminder. I'm sure that these light days of crowds made the money people nervous. They made them nervous in the 80's too...to the point where "slow closes" were frequent: basically: shut all the rides down and keep the shops open. Have all the employees extend for an hour. More true stories. Happy belated to Mike and Zach: sorry I missed the celebrations and the fantastic bro que ers. Thanks Major.
ReplyDeleteMajor-
ReplyDelete"... all of my clothing is pleated, even my underwear".
Well, that explains the perpetual dumb grin-!
Bu, I guess I never thought about my preference for a matte Monstro vs. a shiny one. I guess I thought he’d be shiny because he’s wet! I definitely prefer a black Monstro to a blue Monstro, however. His eye used to open and close, I honestly don’t know if that still happens. I agree that it would be cool if they could introduce more movement, but he is a big chunk of concrete, after all (sorry Monstro, no judgement intended). I used to think that it would be fun to raft through many of Disneyland’s waterways. It’s a small world on an inner tube! Not practical, but now that I am worth 100 billion dollars, I’ll just pay them to let me do it. Weird that people didn’t know how to pronounce “brochure”. Is that a French word? I’ve always thought it was kind of funny that they had NASA guys at the Teacups… couldn’t they be a bit more fanciful? I guess they thought that women dressed as Alice would be too dainty for such work. How about men dressed as walruses? Brilliant! I believe that City Hall was the tallest building on Main Street (was it taller than the train station?), so it’s no surprise that we can see it from other lands. Whenever I see a photo from 1956 or ’57 with empty streets and no lines, I imagine that some people got very nervous.
ReplyDeleteNanook, well, it’s the pleats, and the fact that I’m dumb!
The boxes contain Candygrams... Candygram for Monstro
ReplyDelete@ Dean Finder-
ReplyDeleteNice-!