Here are two fairly standard scans from August 1962; not particularly exciting, but nice enough that they could have appeared in a publication of some kind. They didn't, but they could have!
A lonely Streetcar driver wonders why nobody loves him. "I'm polite, I bathe once a week, and I sing Johnny Mathis songs to my passengers. What more do they want from me??". I'm happy to report that later this same day, the driver met a woman who was wearing a "I ❤️ Streetcar Drivers" button, and they lived happily ever after.
It seems crazy to describe a scene of a Submarine in a tropical lagoon with a yellow Monorail overhead as "standard", but it's standard for Disneyland. There's a traffic jam on the Autopia!
Major-
ReplyDeleteThat really is quite the traffic jam on the Autopia-! I'm certainly glad I wasn't anywhere near all that highway angst, and instead shopping for glow-in-the-dark tchotchkes at Mineral Hall - especially as it would close for good by the end of the year.
Thanks, Major.
Nanook, just curious….did you ever really shop in Mineral Hall? Sadly, I’m just a dot too young to remember it.
ReplyDeleteThat 2nd shot IS a beauty. The only thing that could’ve made it even better—would be another Monorail on that top track. What a world in motion!
Thanks, Major.
Yes, I did shop there. (Please don't ask me what I bought there).
DeleteThis photo didn't make it into any publications because the horse is looking right at the camera! An amateur mistake if there ever was one! I like how we can see part of the House of the Future peeking up behind the foliage. Years ago, one of our GDB regulars told us what those brass thingys are on top of the Streetcar, but I can't remember what. They look like giant hotel desk bells... or the tops of salt and pepper shakers.
ReplyDeleteWe've got one Sub heading for the waterfalls, while another Sub just came out from behind them. I hope no one got eaten by the sea serpent or roasted by the erupting volcano! Do you suppose one of the Autopia cars konked out and caused that traffic jam? It almost looks like the Monorail is hanging underneath the foreground beamway.
Familiar subjects, but still very nice. Thanks, Major.
Nanook, what did you buy there?
ReplyDeleteI’m going to go out on a limb and say Nanook bought minerals, :-) I have been told I’m a wise-acre though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for brightening up me Monday morning!
There is little that is more evocative of Disneyland than House of the future, Monorails, Sub Lagoon and horse-drawn streetcars.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Major
Zach
"Looking into the camera" reminds me of an episode of Green Acres where the "movie people" were coming into Hooterville and the townfolk were "rehearsing" into a prop/make from junk camera. The lens was a tomato can....and whenever someone was acting, I think it was Mr. Haney saying "don't look into the tomato can"! So when the real camera got there with the Hollywood types, they were still saying "don't look into the tomato can"...and the crew was "huh?" since they were all saying it. That show was so hilarious and absurd. So horse: "don't look into the tomato can". In any case, lovely shots...nice Ice cream wagon and umbrella...so very "Carnation"...Monorail Yellow, crystal water...and an Autopia that looks like the 405 headed into Culver City from the Valley. Guess they have to go electric for 2027...but me thinks this will become "PeopleMover 2027 Revisited"...before it becomes Gummy Bear World, or Frozen World et al. There's a loooottttt of real estate there....just begging for commerce. I saw a video of the 20K in WDW this morning: what a cool environment that was....and then they really didn't do anything amazing...or maybe that's where the Dwarf Mine Train ride is (?) Someone knows. How very Walt Disney that they decided to make the Monorail sail over the lagoon like that ....that WAS and is my favorite part....too bad with all that junk on the windows you can barely see out...I'm sure WD was all for progress, but I think he wouldn't have approved to be blocking views from his Monorail as that was the entire point of it all...anyway: "Progress"....thanks Major!
ReplyDeleteMajor, you have written “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” except for streetcar drivers. A lovely tale.
ReplyDeleteJB, the brass domes are bells, but Mike Cozart has the full story.
And a beautiful “standard” view of the Lagoon. There is a sort-of curlicue thing on the water surface to the left of the sub. Is this an artifact of scanning, or is it a real thing, and if the latter then what? Something from the Mineral Hall?
Beautiful post today, Major. Thank you.
JG
Nanook, I’ve been on Autopia traffic jams, and boy does that every erase all the fun from the ride. Just like real traffic jams. Glow-in-the-dark stuff in the Mineral Hall, my favorite!
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, I’ll bet Nanook asked the CMs in the Mineral Hall all kinds of questions about the various minerals, and they said, “Kid, I just work here for $1.98 an hour!”.
Nanook, I’m kind of surprised that you don’t remember, just because the stuff they sold is so specific!
JB (aka “Lothar”), that horse is a diva. He would only eat organic carrots, hand-washed in spring water. I’ll bet Steve DeGaetano told us what those brass thingys on the Streetcars are - sadly I’ve forgotten. Maybe he’ll tell us again! It’s very possible that one Autopia car conked out, I remember my car kept stalling when I was a kid. A guy would come out, and pull a pull-start just like a lawnmower, and it would run for a bit, and then stall again. It was the worst.
Lou and Sue, he told you not to ask him!
Budblade, he bought some gneiss schist!
zach, it’s really true!
Bu, ha, I used to love “Green Acres”, I’m sure it’s on MeTV, but believe it or not I don’t have a TV. I only read novels by the Russian greats, and write my memoirs on a long roll of paper like Jack Kerouac. The “tomato can” bit sounds pretty funny. Was the umbrella on the ice cream wagon for the CM, or for the ice cream? “This stuff is valuable, we don’t want it to melt”. Did they have chunks of dry ice in those ice cream freezers? I’m still shocked that Disneyland is going to the trouble and expense of making the Autopia all-electric, I guess that ride is still very popular? Or maybe they have no ideas of what else to do with that land. Thank goodness! I think you’re right, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is where the old 20K ride used to be in WDW. Do those wraps on the Monorail actually impede your view out? I thought it might not really affect it when you were inside the trains.
JG, I don’t know that story, I only read books if they were written by celebrities. They are the best writers! Sorry Hemingway, maybe take up stamp collecting. Jeez, are those things bells?? I thought they had a standard bell to ring to tell people to get out of the way. I think the curicue is a teensy hair, the bane of slide scanners everywhere. I swear I spend more time cleaning slides than I do actually writing about them.
Major, HA! I almost signed my comment as "Lothar"! (I think I'm more of a Lothar than a Bluto.) But I forgot, and didn't want to delete my post to add it, or make another post.
ReplyDeleteHorse divas are the worst!
JB, it's OK, ignore my Lothar silliness, you are JB, and you should be proud!
ReplyDeleteSilliness is what keeps us going (and sane) right now.
ReplyDelete^ Oh, that was me... Lothar.
ReplyDelete