Vintage Los Angeles

How about some vintage L.A. for your mid-October Saturday? 

Let's start with this nice shot from 1959; we're on Hollywood Boulevard looking West, toward a glorious sunset. You can just see the pointed roof of Grauman's Chinese Theater; "Coffee Dan's" was a familiar landmark in Hollywood for decades.

This undated photo (early 1950's, perhaps? Maybe even late 1940's) shows the NBC building on the corner of Sunset and Vine. It started as a radio studio, and continued to be used for early black and white TV programs. By 1955, NBC had moved into a new studio in Burbank.

Further North on Vine Street, you can still see the wonderful Capitol Records tower. It was completed in 1956, and was called "The house that Nat built", since Nat King Cole sold so many albums for the company. A blinking light atop the spire spells out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code, or so they say. Who knows Morse code anymore?? 

Google Maps' "Street View" has its limitations.... this is about as good as I could get.

Two Nice Ones From Fantasyland, Feb. 1964

Today's photos are an unofficial followup to this post.

I sure do love this beautiful twilight photo of Skull Rock; it's an unusual angle, and really shows the beauty of the grotto that led to the dining area behind the Pirate Ship. There are those "natural" benches made of volcanic rock. The last rays of sunlight have turned things a rosy pink. Two grannies are enjoying the waterfalls and pools. Or maybe they are just groupies of Paul Phillips.

Over on the other side of the castle, we would find another grotto, this one inhabited by marble versions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (along with a few animal pals). This always reminds me of a Disney-fied version of the fountains and sculptures at the Villa d'Este just outside of Rome (it wouldn't surprise me if that villa was an inspiration for this feature).

Entrance & Town Square

Here are two early views from 1956! These slides were a bit faded. 

First of all, don't even think about bringing your picnic basket into the park. I love the fact that this was such a problem in the early days, it was necessary to make a sign. Lots of moms had probably brought baskets full of things like delicious sammiches, macaroni salad, cookies, slices of chocolate layer cake,  and thermoses of iced coffee or lemonade. Mmmmm-mmm! 

There are two other billboards out front, possibly giving the park hours, or maybe warning against excess horseplay. One of my favorite details in these early shots is to see the yellow passenger cars of the Disneyland Railroad. 

Imagine having never visited Disneyland before, and maybe not even knowing much about it other than what you'd read in the papers, and the glimpses Uncle Walt showed on his black and white TV show. Town Square must have seemed like an amazing place, so clean and tidy and evocative of Andy Hardy's America. Horse Drawn Streetcars, old-fashioned popcorn vendors, horseless carriages; this isn't like those other amusement parks.

New York World's Fair, 1940

One of my time machine "dream destinations" would be the 1939-40 New York World's Fair - the "World of Tomorrow". Built as Great Depression reached its 10th year and opening just months before World War II began in Europe, the Fair seemed perched between the past - Art Deco architecture was still prominent - and a beautiful "Tomorrow" featuring gleaming buildings, clean cities, modern marvels, and plenty of everything for everyone.

I was lucky enough to happen upon some rare Kodachrome slides from 1940, and am happy to be able to share them with you here. Let's start with the façade to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company pavilion; out front is "The Pony Express" sculpture; when you walked through the semi-circular entrance, you passed a forecourt with "aromatic pines" on your way to the formal entrance. Inside, lucky guests (chosen by lot) could make long-distance calls to anywhere in the U.S. The "Voder Exhibit" demonstrated the creation of a synthetic human voice. There was a "Hearing Exhibit" and a "Stereophonic Exhibit". Sounds pretty neat!

It's a bummer that this one is so dark, but you can still see the giant cash register, part of the "National Cash Register Company" pavilion. The register itself is 40 feet high, and was atop a 33 foot tall building. The numbers in the display showed the daily attendance (in this case, 236,510) in 2 1/2 foot numbers. Inside you could see a cash register reduced to all of its parts - all 7,857 of them!

Lastly (for today) we have the Communications Building. The official guidebook says describes it  thusly: Flanked by twin pylons 160 feet high, the façade is adorned with Eugene Savage's giant mural which depicts some means of communication. Inside, you could see a presentation of man's progress in communication, from the sign language of the earliest ages to the modern marvel of television. There was also a 20 foot plastic head on one end of the hall, and a thirty-foot globe at the other end. In addition, there were seven panels with animated displays illustrating one of the principal means of communication - postal service, printed word, telegraph, telephone, motion picture, radio, and television. And that was just a fraction of what you would see!

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to the 1940 World's Fair.

Main Street, 1959

If you enjoy seeing local law enforcement playing instruments, then Main Street USA is the place for you. This quartet of saxophone-playing Keystone Cops managed to entertain and bring down one of the largest crime syndicates in the United States. Good work, boys! The cheerful sounds of four saxophones (or saxomophones as I like to call them) lulls criminals into letting their guard down - it's been proven by science.

The colorful Horse Drawn Streetcar is always a jolly sight. Until one of them runs you down. Which is why I propose that they replace the current streetcars with versions made of Nerf foam, and build a railing along either side of the track all the way up and down Main Street so that people can't be hurt. Think of the children!

Fantasyland From the Skyway, August 1960

The composition is a bit wonky, but the color in this 1960 slide is beautiful. So... extra points for color, but I am subtracting a point because there are no caterpillar vehicles (from the Alice ride) visible. Note that the Pirate Ship is still in its "swimming pool"; Skull Rock and the more picturesque lagoon will be on their way real soon.

We seem to have an umbrella problem. They sprout up every day, like mushrooms. Not much else to say about this one except that it is a pretty view that I wish we could still enjoy. Is that polka-dotted thing in the lower center of the image a trash can? If so, I've never seen one like it before. 

Main Street, November 1972

It's time for another "meh" Sunday. How will we know we are having a good day unless we have a few bad days, amirite? 

Main Street Station is bathed in the reddish glow of a nearby star. There's no hint of Christmas yet, so I am guessing that these were taken a month or two before November '72. Still, the sun is almost gone at 5:30, so that tells us something. Don't ask me what, though. I want to build a 1:1 replica of this train station using only Legos.

How hard would it be to make a horse out of Legos? They're awfully lumpy and don't have many straight lines. Stupid horses! It's a conspiracy. I love Town Square at this time of day, in fact I could sit on that bench and wait until the twinkle lights come on. Any second now!

SATURDAY - Around the USA

Some people like to go to Asia, or to Europe (I call it Yurp), or they head south of the border. But there is plenty to do and see here in the good old USA!

Let's go to to Fairfax County, Virginia to see Mount Vernon - the home of George Washington. The land belonged to his family all the way back to 1674. George started building this particular structure in 1757 and continued to expand it for years. It is located near the banks of the Potomac, in case George had the urge to throw a silver dollar across the river (or cross it while standing at the prow of a boat). After George's death, the house gradually fell into disrepair, but it was acquired by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, and has been fully restored. (The photo is from July, 1951).

Speaking of Washington, let's head about 50 miles southeast of Seattle to see Mount Rainier - the tallest mountain in the "lower 48" states. This picture (from 1957) shows a happy couple posing for a goofy photo op in front of the Gateway Inn, which is still open for business today. The photo op is gone, almost certainly deemed to be insensitive by today's standards.

Want to see the Grand Canyon, Bryce & Zion Canyons, Lake Powell, and other natural wonders? Then you might want to stay at Historic Parry Lodge in Kanab, Utah. It's been there since 1931, and was a popular temporary home for many actors who starred in classic Western films (Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, etc). If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me!

ATIS!!

It is not often that I am able to post anything to do with one of my favorite attractions - Adventure Thru Inner Space! Like so many rides, this one was dark - even the queue was dimly-lit, which made picture-taking a bit of a crap shoot. Most people didn't bother. 

Say, lookit that microscope. It sure is mighty! This one is different from most microscopes... instead of making small things appear large, it shrinks people down (smaller and smaller!) until even sub-atomic particles are visible. Like most kids, I was so fascinated by the sight of the full-sized Atomobiles going in one end of the Mighty Microscope, only to appear further along the track, already reduced to only a foot tall. Did the process hurt? What if we stayed tiny??

I've lightened up the picture a bit (even though it is terribly grainy) so that you can clearly see the Peoplemover vehicles as they passed above the microscope. Not only did they provide additional kinetic movement, lucky Peoplemover riders got a cool preview of the attraction.

Here's a neat view as seen from inside an Atomobile as it heads toward the microscope. The lighting, music, and sound effects all helped to make this one of the strangest and coolest attractions ever. 

"It's a Small World", 1964 World's Fair

People seem to love it or hate it, but "It's a Small World" has been around for a looooong time. Next year it will be 50 years old, because (as you know) it debuted at the 1964 New York World's Fair as part of an exhibit sponsored by both Pepsi Cola and Unicef (the Disneyland version opened in May of 1966). 

Here are some photos from the attraction as it looked at the Fair, in the order that they would have been seen (I think!). I wish I had side-by-side pictures to show the same scenes as they looked at Disneyland circa 1966, because I'm sure there were differences, even if they were minor.

This scene of a British military band (wearing those cool bearskin helmets) is one of the first that guests see on their trip around the world.

After visiting Scotland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Denmark, and Germany, we finally see these adora-bobble Scandanavian singers.

Moving through the rest of Europe, we find ourselves passing Israel, Indonesia, Bali, Arabia, and this grinning tiger in India. 

After passing the wonders of the African continent, we find ourselves in South America, where these silly penguins in purple gaucho hats wobble like weebles.

I wish I had a more complete record of IASW at the Fair!