In Town Square, 1950s
Here are two scans from a faded batch that required some red-hot Photoshoppin'. I regret that I didn't make a "before" view so that you could see how washed-out they were, but oh well.
Standing in Town Square, our photographer noticed the C.K. Holliday overhead (I was going to say "passing by", but it was likely stopped). The engineer ("pilot"? "driver dude"?) is looking right at us! It's like when Sammy Hagar made eye contact with me when he was onstage. I'll never wash my eyes again! You can see the black ears of those weird Mickey balloons, and even a tiny bit of one of the freight cars being pulled by the locomotive.
This next one restored nicely, it's a great shot of a Surrey (or whatever the vehicle actually is), pulled by two cream-white horsies. I wish I had a carrot for each of them, but I only have two plugs of chewing tobacco. I'm sure they'll enjoy a chaw, just like Stu29573 does. Mmmm, tobacco-y.
14 comments:
Very nice work, Major — Thank you!
All I have to say is:
#1: Black olives. Those are definitely black olives.
#2: Bu’s office!
Nice photo of the C.K. Holliday. A bit blurry though. The photographer must've been using his 'aging movie star' lens, which hides all sorts of wrinkles and other signs of getting older. I agree; those weird Mickey balloons look lins of... alien. Or like giant plastic grapes. I see a couple of chemtrails in the sky. I suppose they could be emulsion scratches, but I KNOW CHEMTRAILS WHEN I SEE 'EM!!! Is that a "Dumbo" poster in the bottom right corner?
A wonderful example of Disneyland's Main Street. A lot of people seem to be looking at us (the photographer); the people on the Surrey and the guy on the park bench. Maybe the photographer was someone special; recognizable... Maybe it was Walt!
Sue, they're plastic grapes! ;-p (Or maybe it's caviar.)
Nice de-fading, Major. Thanks.
Major-
In the 1st image, we can just spy two AP's - can't figure out the one on the left, but the poster on the right is a Mad Tea Party - Dumbo - Carousel.
That 2nd image did restore nicely; it looks quite lovely.
Thanks, Major.
Nice shot of the C.K. Holliday. Seems the roundhouse crew have been a bit too enthusiastic with the Brasso, having completely distorted the "1" on the sand dome, and the numeral's surrounding red oval.
That is a very nice picture of the Choo-choo (a technical term). The driver is checking to see if we are a Russian assassin, since his job is critical. I imagine they would always be wary of foreign influences. Didn’t Mike Cozart tell us the mouse ear balloon maker went out of business?
Those people in the second picture are thinking about us, the future people who would be looking at them standing in the background behind the horse-drawn thingy. Does this vehicle still run? Or has it been retired? Come to think of it, the tires look pretty good here. This photo is very likely pre-1957 since the trash can at the left is the plain green model. The fancy can rollout appears to begin first in Main Street, so a plain can here means early days.
Thanks Major!
JG
*Sigh* I once again find it necessary to point out that a pilot "flies" a plane, one "sails" a boat, and one "drives" a car. We don't have engine drivers in America. No one "drives" a train here. We have engineers, who "run" (or operate) trains or locomotives. If you lived in England, however, "driver" would be entirely appropriate.
C'mon people!!
/railroad-terminology-lesson-over.
Lou and Sue, I only like black olives on pizza!!
JB, boy you are a stickler, the train pic is pretty good. Maybe a tiny bit “soft”, but not by much! Yes, those balloon ears look like giant alien (or insect) eggs. They’re about to burst! I was afraid to mention the chemtrails because I didn’t want to cause a panic. Yes, that is a Dumbo poster! The second photo was definitely taken by Walt Disney, and I am willing to sell it. For BIG MONEY.
Nanook, I think the other poster might be a Rocket To The Moon (?).
Steve DeGaetano, I see what you mean about the “1’. However, you gotta admit, that brass is gleaming! I wonder how often they had to polish it?
JG, we all know how much the Russkies were jealous of Disneyland. There were stories about how they were going to build their own park, BETTER than Disneyland. Did they ever do it? Borschtland? I don’t remember if Mike said that the Mickey-ear balloon manufacturer went out of business. Now I’m trying to remember if they had those at the park the last time I went. They do run the Horseless Carriages, or at least one of them, I was happy to see one on my last visit. I should have taken a ride, you never know if it will be the LAST CHANCE.
Steve DeGaetano, I just love getting you all worked up! :-)
I dunno, Steve. I tend to think of the people who operate vehicles that go overhead as "pilots." :-) Although I guess some of them do have "engineers" as well. Not too many "navigators" on tracked transportation systems, though...
Those aren't balloons, they're the top of a massive stack of cannonballs to repel invasion by beatniks.
I thought that the engineer/fireman terms was specific to running the boiler and firebox of a steam locomotive, so the term driver was acceptable for diesel and electric locomotive operators.
Steve, I know the difference, but was just taking a cue from the Major as a joke.
BTW, I have a friend from Scouting who was a Navy ship captain who later captained a ship for NOAA. He referred to himself as a "ship driver" in conversation.
JG
I noticed the olives right away...and when they are photographed they all tend to be "matte" than shiny....with the color balloons, they were shiny...until the heat hit them...then they turned matte. And thinking about it, when it was windy, the black ink from the Mickey face and the "Disneyland" logo would bump into the group of balloons and get them all scuffed up. Which guests thought was "dirt". "Can I get one that's not all dirty?"....they say with 30mph wind gusts and a balloon bouquet ready to take me off like Mary Poppins...."guests". Yes Sue, there is my office...or "The Office" where I was stationed at, and that you all have seen some backstage views of which are not glamourous at all. I can see the light fixture through the door though, and it does look like the same one that was there a few years later. It's nice to see all the horses and vehicles on the street. The Park was so much more charming when it wasn't wall-to-wall humanity. I suppose it keeps the lights on though: so be it. Looks like Walt is sleeping as those windows have the shades drawn. Just as a note as I look at the restrooms....this area was always prone to sewer issues...so it always smelled like barf-dust (orange) and sewage on busy days....when I was there kind of recently, they had put up a shield of people...and stanchions and whatnot...and the smell...THAT smell....was still in the air...and the restrooms were closed. I said to an employee "Sewers?"....they said. "Yes. Again."....I said "that hasn't been fixed since 1955" and apparently....I was right. Something is wrong under there, and the same issue is out at the gate: near the exit as you are exiting on the right side. Take a whiff next time you are there :) Thanks Major!
Nope, Dean! Early diesels were crewed by both an engineer and a fireman! Even without a boiler or firebox. Railroad traditions don’t die easily.
Thank you, all, for the train 'lessons.' You always learn something here. The driver drove the train over the cannonballs.
Bu, I can hear you now, "Alll - waaays ... un - tang - ling...."
Chuck, don’t tell me you believe in flying machines??
Dean Finder, beatniks are easy to repel, they just stand there and play bongos, or snap their fingers. Pretty harmless, really. I have zero knowledge of train crews, past or present, so let’s hope that Steve D. chimes in again.
JG, Steve’s fact about how an engineer “runs” a train reminds me of when I went to a railroad museum up in Bishop, CA. One old locomotive had a staircase so that you could look into the cab. My mom wondered where the steering wheel was! I told Steve that story many years ago.
Bu, I didn’t think about how the balloons would smudge each other on blustery days. I wouldn’t want a “dirty” one either, but I also would probably be too happy to have a balloon to be very choosy. I can’t imagine seeing a photo of City Hall and thinking, “Hey, that’s my old office!”. Gross that it smelled so bad, you’d think that they would have taken the time to really fix whatever the issue was. After all, I’m sure that guests could catch a whiff occasionally too. BAD SHOW.
Steve DeGaetano, I suppose that makes sense. And I’m glad two guys had jobs!
Lou and Sue, even as a kid I thought it was kind of a miracle the way a balloon seller somehow knew just which string to select if you wanted a particular yellow balloon. As if they had a superpower.
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