Calico Mine Train Postcards, Part Three

It took long enough, but we are finally venturing inside the Calico Mine Train ride! (See the first two installments of Mine Train postcards here and here).

One of the most impressive sights along your journey underground is the "glory hole", a vast space (65 feet high, 90 feet wide) where a particularly rich vein of gold is being mined. There is a flurry of activity, with all kinds of hammering, drilling, sawing of timbers, and moving mine cars full of ore.


You won't see this fellow in the ride anymore! Chinese workmen were certainly involved in mining back in the Gold Rush days, but this figure probably offended more than a few people over the years. Bud Hurlbut, designer and builder of the Calico Mine Train, can be partially seen in the cab of the train!


Different postcard, same scene...


I've always loved the thought of underground lakes, rivers and waterfalls! Maybe you would find tiny blind fish in the water. This waterfall is no mere trickle; the roar of the water was exciting, and the spray was welcome on a hot day.


Once more, from a different angle!


We're not done yet! More postcards from the Mine Train are coming.

Universal Studios Pix

Today's batch of photos from Universal Studios (Hollywood, not Orlando!) fall into the category of "leftuggies". Pictures that didn't quite make the cut for earlier posts, and they've been sitting in the fridge until I had to use them now or throw them away.

OK, that's a terrible analogy. Hey look, it's the Munsters house! 1313 Mockingbird Lane. This image was snapped a few years after the end of that legendary series, and the house has been cleaned up somewhat. Nowadays, they don't even mention the Munsters on the studio tour, which is a travesty of unimaginable proportions. Instead they bore you with drivel about "Desperate Housewives".


You can't have a movie studio without a good Western street. Notice the plate-glass windows (both downstairs and upstairs), perfect for a cowpoke to smash through. And the road is a swell place to have a good old fashioned shootout.


And now for the obligatory photo overlooking the lower part of the backlot, the L.A. River, and Warner Brothers Studio. Beyond that... beautiful downtown Burbank.


From 1978, a tour guide is explaining something fascinating, I'm sure. Does anybody recognize this set? I'm wondering if it was from a real show, or if it's just a set created specifically for the tour.

New York World's Fair Selection

Here are three random views from the '64 World's Fair!

I'll start with the best, which is this scarce interior from the General Electric pavilion. After viewing the wonderful Carousel of Progress, or the "Sky Dome Spectacular", or even the dramatic demonstration of atomic fusion (kaboom!), you had a chance to learn about the products and innovations brought to you by your friends at G.E. (part of the "Electric Living" exhibit on the first floor). As you can see, this display shows the wide variety of lightbulbs that could be used to improve life in so many ways, providing "Happier Holidays", "Freedom's Defense", "Safer Streets", "Better Health", and so on. My guess is that the row of cartoon citizens marched in an endless loop.


General Foods did not have an actual pavilion at the fair, but they did have a presence by sponsoring 11 of these "Archways of Understanding": ...giant archways that straddle the roadways at significant locations throughout the fairgrounds. This is arch #4, and you can just see a bit of the electric message board that kept visitors in touch with special events of the fair as well as important news from around the world.


Fountains, fireworks and lights have been a World's Fair tradition since at least 1939. Eat THAT, World of Color! The Pool of Industry contained the Fountain of the Planets, which is a pretty cool name. Want factoids? The Fountain of the Planets, largest in the world, shoots 10,000 tons of water as high as 150 feet into the air in ever-changing patterns. Rockets are fired from 464 launchers; lights totaling 150 million candle power cast their brilliant colors at water and sky. Even though this is a neat photo, it sounds like it barely does the show justice.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Walt Disney World - May 1972

As much as I loved Disneyland's original Submarine Voyage - and I loved it a lot - the version at Walt Disney World was much cooler. Check out those subs! Harper Goff's design for the Nautilus is hard to beat, looking like some scaly prehistoric monster from the deep. I've always been especially fond of the "hull ripper". As for the lagoon, the many palm trees and wonderful rock work make me think of the many uncharted tropical isles that Captain Nemo must have visited.


As far as I can tell, the subs are really very similar to Disneyland's gray versions... you can see the basic elongated tube shape underneath all the Victorian doo-dads. But those doo-dads make all the difference, don't they?

Golden Horseshoe & Boag-Alloons, 1963

It's time for "fun with minutae".

We're standing at the bar in the Golden Horseshoe, and decide to take a photo of the painting of that not-very-naked lady that's hanging above those bottles of booze. Signs for Pepsi cola cannot be avoided. Wait a minute, bottles of booze?


I decided to zoom in for a closer look, wondering if these bottles were supposed to hold whiskey, or brandy, or whatever. But then I noticed the packages of what appears to be genuine Wally Boag "Boag-alloons"! You can see the graphic of what looks like Wally standing with a carpet bag, and to the right of that, some examples of the pneumatic fauna you can create. I've never seen this style of package for Boag-alloons...


... this example is the one I am more familiar with.

Anything Goes Saturday - Roadside USA

Ol' Major Pepperidge (that's me!) needs to get off his lazy ass and scan some stuff! Meanwhile, today's "Anything Goes" installment consists of some photos that I have on my external hard drive, waiting to be useful.

One of the things that I love about digging through boxes of slides is being able to accompany folks on their vintage road trips through the country in their wood-paneled station wagons. That was something that a LOT of people did on their vacations back in the 50's and 60's; and I always enjoy looking at photos of little hotels and motels, gas stations and burger joints; little oases along endless stretches of roadways.

Both of today's photos are from the same lot, and are from Somewheresville, USA. I really don't have a clue what state we are looking at (though it looks pretty arid - the southwest perhaps).

I like the funky look of the Ideal Motel, complete with Texaco gas pumps out front. But the Cliff Motor Lodge is OK too! And from the looks of the parking lot, there are plenty of vacancies. If there's a TV in my room, and an ice machine that goes *clunk* every few minutes right outside my room, I'm good.


This could be the same location as the first photo, or it could be hundreds of miles away. Who knows! The Holiday Lodge has Coca Cola, which you can't find anywhere! A bowling alley next door is always a plus. Next to that is a restaurant called "Restaurant", and then the Siesta Lodge, and finally, a Dairy Queen. Mmmm, Diary Queen! When I used to visit my grandparents in Minnesota, it was always a big deal to go to the local DQ to get a hamburger and onion rings for lunch, followed up by a chocolate-dipped soft serve cone as an added treat. Everything just seemed to taste better there for some reason!

A Bunch From October 1975

I have one fairly interesting slide from October '75, with a few "ho hum" photos. You have been warned.

I like this unusual image from Adventureland; I'd have to dig out a map to figure out exactly where the photographer was standing, but I'm reasonably sure that the Jungle Cruise queue is the covered area to our right. Check out the sign for "Sunkist, I Presume"!


Well, I don't see any problems with that sign at all! (Why the American Flag? Stanley was Welsh, and Livingstone was Scottish, and I'm pretty sure the Africans were African).

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Extra! Extra! Reader and blogger TokyoMagic! has kindly sent me one of his personal photos, showing the sign for what is now the Bengal Barbecue. As you can see, it is the same piece of wood (or fiberglass or molybdenum or whatever) as the old Sunkist sign. Pretty cool! Be sure to check out TokyoMagic!'s "Meet The World" blog HERE.

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A nice castle shot, but.. snore. Try to ignore the hippie in the middle!


Two women check out a souvenir guidebook in front of Captain Hook's pirate ship.


And the teacups; I love 'em but have seen enough photos from this angle to last me a lifetime!

Krazy Cacti, 1957

Today is day 2 of my "lame post" series... unintentionally! Sorry about that.

Anyway, here's a picture snapped from the old Rainbow Caverns Mine Train attraction (pre-"Nature's Wonderland"). In the midst of various natural arches and tumbling rocks, you would find these seven anthropomorphic cacti. They remind me of seven little hippies, but this was years before hippies were around. Check out their long "hair" and even the crowns of flowers. Woodstock, man! Or they look like the trolls from Magic Mountain. I believe they were referred to as the "seven dwarfs" by cast members.


The most interesting/unusual thing about this picture is the train passing in the background, including one of the open-air "cattle cars" from the freight train. Those were a bad idea from the beginning!

Views From The River, June 1962

The alternate title of this post should be "The Curse of the Crappy Camera", because this first photo would be pretty sweet if the photographer hadn't cheaped out and purchased a camera with a plastic lens (that's my theory as to why these look so crummy, and I'm sticking to it).

Beyond Tom Sawyer Island, a rather massive construction project is in progress - the early stages of New Orleans Square. Some trucks, workmen, and temporary walls can be seen, as well as the top half of the still-rough exterior of the Haunted Mansion.


Looking at this picture gives a person the general experience of being myopic and suffering from cataracts. As the Columbia loafs in Fowler's Harbor, I wish upon a fish that the photographer had been more interested in what was to our left!

Boy Scouts, New York World's Fair

Be prepared to visit the '64 World's Fair pavilion for the Boy Scouts of America! Also known as The Wonderful World of Scouting. We all know that Boy Scouts are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent, and low in saturated fat. They'll Do A Good Turn Daily - any more than that makes you dizzy.

Scouts from around the country can be seen on duty; there's a scout sitting on the bench (what's with the red jacket?) who looks decided OFF duty. "Lemme alone, can't a guy smoke in peace?". All of the other scouts would actually go around the fair assisting people in need, for reals.


Yeah, yeah, I already told them about the trustworthy stuff. Aren't scouts "radiant", "humble" and "terrific" too? I can't find too much specific information about the exhibits, although I think it's safe to say that there were probably photos of scouts doing wondrous things throughout the years, not to mention uniforms, merit badges, and probably a few notable scouts. Did you know that Hank Aaron was a Boy Scout? Or Neil Armstrong? The list goes on and on, believe me.


The coolest item in the Scouting pavilion was this mini-"Unisphere". If I had one it would look splendid out by the topiary maze or the koi pond! I hope that this still exists somewhere (it's too chunky to be the one that can be seen at the "Leisure World" retirement village in Arizona).