Sleeping Beauty Castle, June 1963

The first photo for today's Sunday post is very nice - taken on a beautiful June day, with bright sunshine and a lovely blue sky. Nanook has already seen it! Long story. With the little family in the foreground, it could almost be a picture right out of a souvenir guidebook. 

Another photo, same day (apparently earlier...), same general location, but it isn't as pretty. Still... wouldn't it be nice to be there with nobody around?

New York, New York

I have a few scans from New York City in the 1950's... people seem to like those! 

We'll start with this dramatic view (circa 1953) looking southwest, with the lower part of the island of Manhattan stretching out before us; our photographer was at the "Top of the Rock" - the observation deck of Rockefeller Plaza, approximately 850 feet (260 meters) high. As you can see, it affords a beautiful view of the Empire State Building. Barely visible in the distance we can juuust see the Statue of Liberty in the Hudson River, halfway between the Empire State Building and the right edge of the photo.

Here's a relatively recent photo from the same vantage point.

Next we have this undated, slightly mungy photo taken at the junction of the Avenue of the Americas and 49th Street. There's Radio City to our right. Let's stop off at HoJo's for some fried clams and orange sherbet!  The nearby buildings looks surprisingly old and un-skyscrapery. 

Using Google's "Street View", this was about as close as I could get to the previous image. Things haven't changed a bit!

I Heart Tomorrowland - May 1962

Hey folks... it appears that Photobucket (my photo host) has experienced a massive outage. They are supposedly "working on it" - who knows, by the time you read this, maybe the issue has been resolved. I am also without my computer at the moment - it is on the fritz - otherwise I would just re-up the pictures via Google. I apologize. A word of advice: DON'T EVER USE PHOTOBUCKET FOR ANYTHING!

I have some nice photos from Tomorrowland, 1962 style!

I love this first one, taken as the sun was setting on a lovely May afternoon. The colors are really fantastic! Lemon yellow, coral pink, blue-violet, deep green. The American Flag has already been lowered - it's hard to tell, but it looks like the Clock of the World says that it is around 5 o'clock.

Zooming in a bit affords us some primo vintage people watching. Look at the way that rocket gleams! Notice that the "TWA" logo is gone, soon to be replaced with the "Douglas" paint scheme.

Next is this picture, taken shortly before or after the first one; it's the Monsanto House of the Future, almost appearing to hover like a friendly flying saucer (no probing aliens here) above the lush landscaping. I've always loved that sign to our right. I love it so much I'm going to marry it.

Vintage Postcards - Knott's Berry Farm

Oh boy, this time Ken Martinez takes us (via his vintage postcards) to....

Knott's Berry Farm Part 2 - Ghost Town Buildings

With today's post I wanted to feature four of my favorite buildings in Knott's Ghost Town. Of course all the Ghost Town buildings are my favorite. With all the changes to Knott's Berry Farm for better or worse, I'm grateful they still have much of Ghost Town intact. That and Calico Square are pretty much the reason I go to Knott's.

This is one of my favorite postcards of Knott's Ghost Town. The Iowa School which was built in 1879 was actually from Beloit Kansas and moved west by a group of Iowa farmers. The school house was moved to Knott's in 1952 and included the original furnishings. The bell tower was added by Knott's.

The Bottle House was built in the 1940's. It's also one of my favorite buildings in Ghost Town. I noticed when waiting in the queue for Radiator Springs Racers at the Disneyland Resort they had a similar style of bottle house hut in the queue. I also like this set of postcards because the architectural details really stand out. Nowadays the orange rising pylons and track of the Silver Bullet roller coaster rise above these buildings.

Here we have the Miner's Bank with the "blown out" second floor. This building was added in the 1950's. Another thing I like about these postcards is all the costumed characters. There are no tourists present and the photos are staged as if it were taking place in the time period portrayed. This one's a great example of an action scene portrayed in the old west.

Finally to close out today's post is the famous Bird Cage Theater which featured live old time melodramas back in the day. I have never been inside. According to the Knott's website, Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies (formerly Billy Hill and the Hillbillies of Disneyland) are currently playing at the Bird Cage Theater as well as The Marshall Purdy Show on alternate days during the summer of '16.

Hope you have enjoyed today's postcards of some great classic buildings from Knott's Ghost Town. Long live Ghost Town!

Information Source material: 

http://www.socalhistoryland.mysite.com/Historic_Knotts.html

Once again, thank you to Ken Martinez for sharing his collection and writing these great posts!

The Flower Market, June 1963

The Main Street Flower Martket is mostly forgotten, unless you are talking to a real Disneyland nerd - of course by 2016 it's been gone for a long time. But it sure was a popular subject for shutterbugs! It must have been hard to resist all that color - especially all of those not-quite-natural blues, purples and teals. Flowers from Venus?! Fitting right in is the pretty lady in her robin's-egg blue dress.

Same group of photographs, different day (I think) - lots of women and girls are enjoying the faux blooms, while the guy in the middle is patiently working his way back to the bathrooms (far left)!

Vintage Disneyland Matchbooks

Here's some more vintage Disneyland ephemera; nothing incredibly rare or valuable (Matterhorn1959 laughs at my collection!), but fun nonetheless. I've photographed some humble matchbooks from various locations around the park - I already collected old matchbooks when I was a kid (mostly given to me by my grandparents - both smokers at the time), so examples from Disneyland felt like a natural extension of that collection.

Let's start with this nice book from "Casa de Fritos", featuring that crazy Frito Kid. Hey, Klondike! Because I am a mental patient, I only want unused, unstruck matchbooks, and those can sometimes be a bit harder to find. Notice that it shows the façade of the original location.

Here's version 2 from Casa de Fritos. Somebody must have slapped the Frito Kid on the back, because he maintains the same expression from the first book. This time we see the second location for the Casa, when it was over by the Mine Train.

Believe me, with all of these matches I am sorely tempted to take up smoking. So far I have resisted, but darnit, I want to look cool. I like this smaller matchbook featuring the Red Wagon Inn ("On the Plaza") and the Plantation House. 

It is only upon looking at this photo that I think I might need an upgrade on this other (later?) matchbook for the Red Wagon Inn and The Chicken Plantation. I was tender-grown too, but you don't hear me bragging about it. Until now.

You know what would be the perfect accompaniment to a tuna burger? A sweet, sweet cigarette. But I'm out of matches! Lucky for me, the Pirate Ship restaurant has a basket full of them. Considering how many zillions of these that were probably given away, this particular matchbook is rather scarce.

I hope you have enjoyed today's vintage matchbooks!

On Board the Monorail, September 1972

Here are two more photos taken while aboard the Disneyland Monorail, circa 1972! We've got one of those sweet nose cone seats. (See two previously-posted photos HERE). 

As you can see, we are zipping along the beamway, with the vast parking lot on either side of us. Say, there's a tram! I've seen so many older photos of the parking lot that it is almost a suprise to see that bright yellow muscle car to the right. Dead ahead - the sign for the Disneyland Hotel, and the two towers - the Sierra Tower and the Marina Tower.

You can more clearly see the reflection of one of those classic paper bags...

... like this one. Only the one below is sad because it is empty.

Oh my goodness, we're almost there! I can practically taste it. It tastes surprisingly good. There's lots to enjoy about this photo, including the cars (a Pinto wagon, in classic "butterscotch"), the groovy people moving hither and yon, the Travelport, the palm trees, and oh yeah - the Hotel Monorail station.

So-so Sunday, 1957

Here are a pair of "blah" photos, as befitting a sleepy Sunday.

I've always wondered about this stuffed bison on display over in the Indian Village; maybe someone figured that the average person had never seen a real buffalo before, and they would be thrilled to be this close to one? The person to the right (mostly out of frame) is a kid, and he seems to tower above the bison, so was it a stuffed juvenile? If so... weird.

This isn't really a terrible photo, though the humans insisted on moving, which resulted in blurriness. Maybe they were moving at supersonic speeds! Just beyond that fence was the corral for miniature horses, which as far as I know were only there for display. Perhaps they marched in some parades.

Hawaii in the 1950's

Like so many other places in the world, I wish I could have seen Hawaii in the 1950's. Servicemen returning from the Pacific after WWII helped spread the word about that tropical paradise, resulting in the proliferation of tiki bars and bright, colorful clothing. Also, every kid in America was wearing a coonskin cap and eating a big bowl of poi. We've all seen the photos. 

This first photo shows the Princess Kailulani Hotel as seen from Kalakaua Avenue. This hotel was built by the Matson Line (famous for their island cruises), and it opened in 1955. At the time it was the tallest building in Hawaii at 11 stories.  These days it is the Sheraton Kailulani Hotel - it has expanded considerably, but this building is still there. Notice the building to our left, with the "canoe prow" roof...

....Well in this photo, we can see the canoe prow(s) down below us, which means that this next view was taken from the Princess Kailulani Hotel, looking toward the venerable Royal Hawaiian Hotel... the "Pink Palace". This famous pink stucco edifice is one of the oldest hotels in Waikiki, opening in XXXC, and even today it is considered one of the most luxurious places to stay. Look at that blue, blue Pacific ocean, and the virtual forest of trees - how many of those have survived to this day? 

More Tomorrowland Construction

Lucky you... it's time for two more fantastic photos of the 1967 "New Tomorrowland", under construction! 

Both shots were taken from the Disneyland Railroad. Look at this amazing view, as the Peoplemover track is being built (teeny tiny men are working, in spite of the diminishing sunshine). Scaffolding and stacks of lumber are everywhere - I think it's safe to say that the Autopia was down on this particular day, though the Skyway appears to be up and running. Notice the Christmas star atop the Matterhorn. In the foreground, guests prepare to board our train (or else they'll have to wait for the next one).

Now our train has moved forward a bit; to our right is the Skyway station... you can see part of the track that the buckets moved on to turn around. What a mess... it looks like a construction site alright! There appears to be a light perched atop the Skyway station - with the shortened winter days, it appears that work might have continued into nightfall. 

There are bundles of rebar, presumably for concrete columns... possibly for the structure that held the Peoplemover station and the Rocket Jets? Let's hear your thoughts, wise ones.