Frontierland and Cascade Peak, 1960s

Here's a nice pair of pix from "sometime in the '60s". That's about as specific as I can get.

Let's begin with this shot looking east across the lower end of the Rivers of America. You know it well! The Mark Twain looks like it is slumbering. With the exception of two young men (?) to the extreme right the park appears to be completely deserted - which leads me to surmise that this was taken first thing in the morning. There are still wet spots on the walkway from its nightly scrubbing (done by spare Lincoln robots). You can almost imagine how quiet and cool it was at that moment. I kind of love this picture!

From the same batch (and presumably the same day) we get this lovely shot of Cascade Peak. The photographer waited for a yellow Mine Train to pass by, and it was worth it. The morning layer of clouds has burned off, leaving a blue sky and brilliant sunshine. The bush to our right with the red blossoms makes for a nice foreground element.

 

Snoozers of '63

It's Sunday, the day when sleep-inducing photos are administered under the strict oversight of medical doctors. Please don't operate heavy machinery while viewing these.

Take a look at this bug's eye view of the Matterhorn. You can see the subtle variations in the "granite", as well as the many expansion joints (at least that's what I assume they are) that interlock like a giant puzzle. It's been a harsh winter, so the snow line is lower than normal. I've always gotten a kick out of the little Charlie Brown fir trees on the slopes of the mountain - it would have been easier and cheaper to eliminate them, but somebody (who could it be?) obviously wanted them to be there.

And here's a view of trees. MANY trees. The Indian Chief waves a greeting from the shore, while a few of his tribesmen lurk further up the embankment. At one time there seemed to be about a dozen fellows up there, but over the years the number got smaller - or maybe they were just hidden by all the trees.

 

More Vintage Christmas Pix

Happy Birthday to our friend Matthew!

Christmas is a holiday that evokes so much powerful nostalgia for many of us. We grew up watching old movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street", and "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" every year. We pored over Sears "Wish Books", made decorations in school, heard endless Christmas songs in stores... it made a huge impression. So looking at some vintage photos from holidays past is a lot of fun.

Let's start with this first one, undated but possibly from the late 1940s. A little girl is delighted with her record album, "Tales of Uncle Remus" (it's playing on the portable record player). Her foot rests on a new toy stove, complete with tiny pots and pans. She got a sketch book, and possibly some new dolls as well. The woman to the right (the girl's aunt?) looks like she just finished her shift at the hospital. 

Next is a pair of photos from 1960 (though I would have guessed earlier if they weren't dated). Santa Claus has made an appearance, at a  church (I assume) in what seems to be the public meeting room. How does Santa keep his beard so silky, with no split ends? A view out the window shows that it is snowy and cold.

Well, there he goes - Santa has a busy schedule. All the children are wearing paper hats that look like upside-down men's underwear. Who am I to complain? I hope they got something a little more fun, though. When I was a kid we got little glazed ceramic manger animals in Sunday school. There's a painting of the Virgin and child on the wall, and the church's priest (with his stylish biretta) says his goodbyes to St. Nick.

This last one is my favorite because it is so darn weird. The slide was labled, "Christmas, 1959", and shows a table with a dozen toothy mouths. Is the pink stuff clay? Or Play-doh? The teeth seem to be some sort of white beans, such as Navy beans. The cigarettes are a classy touch. What these have to do with Christmas I will never know, but I love it.

 

1977 Christmas Parade

It's Christmas Parade time, 1977-style! These should help to get you in that yuletide mood. 

The Dapper Dans are in their "Fruitstripe Gum" outfits, I didn't think those were around as early as 1977. And what do you call those contraptions that they shake - chimes? Ring-a-ding-dings? 

Now we know it's the "Very Merry Christmas Parade", led by the classic wooden soldiers. Look at all that blue denim in the audience!

Who would you be more excited to see, Minnie and Mickey, or Santa Claus? I think it would be these two, for me. Mickey's at the tiller of the little electric runabout or whatever it's called. A ring-a-ding-ding? Jokes are funnier when they are callbacks, or so I've heard. Mickey bought one of those oversized candy canes, but he can take it home, crush it up, and make peppermint bark with it.

It's Mary Poppins herself, dancing on the clouds above the rooftops of London. Hopefully those penguins have lightening reflexes in case she falls, it looks pretty precarious up there.

It's always nice to see Jumbo Jr. (aka Dumbo) in the park. Those colorful monkeys are kind of scary, and remind me of the "Pink Elephants on Parade" number in "Dumbo", except that... well, they're monkeys. Casey Jr. Follows close behind.

And lastly, it's the big man himself, that jolly old elf, St. Nick! I hope he doesn't get caught on one of those wreaths. It wouldn't be a Christmas parade without him, but it also wouldn't be a Christmas parade without the marching toy soldiers (in the first photo), or the silly reindeer.

I hope you have enjoyed this 1977 Christmas parade!

 

Flower Market and Main Street, June 1963

I think both of today's photos are very nice. Nothing to make your eyes pop out and your jaw hit the floor (like a wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon), but good, sturdy B+ pictures.

The soft lighting in this photo of the Flower Market helps to diffuse shadows and mitigate harsh highlights. The bunches of blue flowers are very striking; in fact the flowers seem to be grouped by hue throughout the market. You probably recognize the group of ladies who liked their white sweaters and off-white overcoats.

There they go, approaching the Plaza while a Horse-drawn Streetcar heads south. The sign in the upper right points in the direction of "S. Plaza St" (I didn't know that it had a name), as well as "Lost Children" and the "Baby Station".

 

Frontierland, January 1961

I have two nice photos of Frontierland for you, taken on an overcast January day in 1961. 

We'll start with this view from the deck of the Columbia; it looks like our photographer stood on the shoulders of his wife (it's OK, she worked at Ringling Bros. circus) to get this perspective, above the heads and hairdos of the other passengers. The frontier is vast and mysterious.

Zooming in, we can see details such as the cofferdam over at Fowler's Harbor, along with a pump to keep out the water. You don't want the repairmen to have soggy shoes, do you? Of course not. I'm a little puzzled about the fact that we can't see any of the little shacks that we typically can see in Joe's Ditch - is the Mark Twain just blocking them all? There's also a wooden shack that seems to be on the far side of the path that leads to the tunnel to the Indian Village, was that always there? 

Keelboat alert! If you were next to me I would legally be allowed to punch your shoulder, and no judge in the land would convict me.

And here's a pretty view of the Friendly Indian Village. The teepees somehow look especially colorful here. I've never been clear on what the various doo-dads are that hang from the teepee support poles, way up high. You can see the two babies in papooses leaning against one teepee, while the boy and his dog watch us pass from our sailing ship. Notice the wooden fish (crawfish?) trap dangling in the water.

 

Disneyland Hotel Instamatics

We're getting down to some of the last Instamatics, given to me by our friend Mr. X. Every once in a while it seems that he finds a few more negatives in a drawer, but there might only be one more post featuring his pix from the 1960s. However - there's other great stuff from him still to come.

All of today's photos are from the Disneyland Hotel. Being negatives, they are undated, so your guess is as good as mine as to when the pictures were taken, but "late 1960s" would be a safe bet. Here's a nice view (taken from the Sierra Tower, I presume) looking down on the swimming pool. I seem to remember brochures mentioning an "Olympic-size" swimming pool, but this one looks small to me. Was there another larger pool elsewhere? Each circular table has an ashtray for your smoking convenience (were they generic, or did they have "Disneyland Hotel" printed on them?). In the distance are the garden apartments. And beautiful high-tension power lines.

Blum's Cafe was an offshoot of "Blum's of San Francisco" ("since 1890") in the heart of Union Square. The original was a popular eatery for folks who were out and about, shopping at Macy's or I. Magnin or Potholder Emporium ("No more burned hands!").   Blum's had a famous "coffee crunch cake" that is still remembered by many, though Blum's seems to have closed all of their bakeries (there were several others) sometime in the '70s. I can find no mention of their Disneyland cafe online!

And here's the wonderful Mark II Monorail Yellow (or gold or saffron or lemon or mustard) sittin' at the station. It has one large eye up front, and another on top of its head to see predators trying to sneak up on it. Look, the seats in the nose are still available, hurry up! 

Thank you, Mr. X!

Black and White Snapshots, 1956

I have a real fondness for old photo prints. One has to have a certain appreciation for the charms of a black and white image. I prefer the old black and white episodes of "The Avengers" (starring Patrick Mcnee and Diana Rigg) over the color episodes. In case you were wondering.

Say, what's that crazy deal there? I think it makes moonshine or something! And right under the revenuer's noses. Just for yucks I was going to attempt to colorize the picture, until I realized that it was going to be much harder than I thought. The lesson: never try, and you will never fail.

Peter Pan had nothing to do with this pirate ship, but it is still pretty easy to imagine this one flying through a moonlit sky, glittering with Pixie Dust™ and smelling of fresh-baked cookies.

Rocket to the Moon? Is there room for me and all of my cats? I have a LOT of cats. And they deserve to go to the moon as much as the next critter. Imagine the animated gifs I will be able to create with cats in 1/6 gravity! Plus I've hired NASA to design special little space suits for all of them, even tiny boots.

Every Christmas, teenagers show up and hang those round plant thingies on our castle. That's what drugs do to people. I guess we can be grateful that it's not toilet paper, but if I ever get my hands on one of those kids, they're going straight to military school. Nobody hangs plant thingies on MY watch.

 

Sub Lagoon - Undated

Zoiks; today's photos are real snoozers. And they have weird color too - I couldn't do a thing about it. Remove the cyan cast to the whites, and it turned magenta. Remove the magenta and it looked too cyan. Add yellow and it looked... well, too yellow. I finally had to accept my failure and shame. Also, no Mattherhorn bobsleds are visible - the ultimate indignity.

Our Skyway gondola continues toward the Tomorrowland terminal behind us as the Nautilus continues through the lagoon before it dove to crushing depths in order to go beneath the polar ice cap. Hey, wait! There's a bobsled! All is saved - birds are singing, there is a rainbow in the sky, and random strangers wear smiles of deep contentment.

 

Christmas Pix

It feels like a good time to share more Christmas-related slide scans. To get us all in the mood! 

First up is this fun photo of a 1962 (or possibly December 1961?) Christmas parade, from an unlabeled slide. Luckily, "Gibbel Hardware" was enough of a clue to help identify this as Hemet, California (Riverside County). It looks like it was a beautiful day. Love the vehicle with the sign from "Enfinger's Accordion Center", pulling a float filled with smiling kids playing their accordions. "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"? "Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer"?

I wasn't sure what street the old parade was on, but a little searching on Google Maps helped; it's State Street, at the corner of Florida Avenue. It's easy enough to recognize some of the same buildings, and those palm trees are a little taller, but look much as they did 50+ years earlier.

Next is this nice family portrait on Christmas morning, 1971. I see a Partridge Family album! There's typing paper, a desk calendar, a toy Santa, toy Snowman, and lots of new clothes. 

These last two are a mystery, I mostly included them in the hopes that somebody out there can help to ID the location. I assume that this statue of St. Nick was not there all year long, which is why these boys had to pose for a picture. Gotta strike while the iron is hot.

Antique autos, eh? Sadly I cannot decipher the paper sign in the rear window of that one vehicle, which is a bummer because it probably has the name of the place right there, mere feet from our noses. Help!

I'll have more Christmas photos for you, coming up.