Main Street USA, June 1971

Here's a pair of nice views looking down Main Street in the summer of 1971.

There's clouds in the sky to mitigate the sunshine, but it's not quite June Gloom. The Disneyland Band is marching toward Town Square, and judging by the size of the crowds, there must have been a full parade, with the band bringing up the rear. It could have been "Fantasy On Parade", which ran from 1965 to 1976 (with another run in the 1980s). I notice a young girl in a half-blue, half-yellow dress that reminds (somewhat) me of the cast member costumes from Tomorrowland (though of course those were futuristic jumpsuits). See some of Mike Cozart's photos HERE.

A second photo is a bit more sunny, which is always nice. The sign on the Market House shows that one of the sponsors was Burry's Cookies. The rest of the scene is "the usual stuff", but it's a beautiful scene!

Stuff From the Box

Here are the last few pins FROM THE BOX - but never fear, I've already photographed another 40 items from another box! 

First I have two beautiful employee pins from TWA, one with a green stone (a real Colombian emerald, no doubt) and the other with a pink stone (that is probably a genuine Burmese ruby). I have no further information about these - one fellow told me that they were given out to employees after flying half a million miles, but I can find no verification of that. I actually have two additional TWA pins that have the same shape, you'll see those someday.

Next I have photos of three railroad-related pins, beginning with the one from the Chicago, Minnesota, St. Paul, and Pacific RR - presumably given to somebody after a quarter-century of service. What does "V.E.A." stand for? Very Eager Aardvarks? No idea. But one of YOU will know!

Another fun railroad item is this "Careful Club" pin, given out by the Northern Pacific Railway's "Bureau of Efficiency". Puzzled shrug. If you spend less than two hours a month putting pennies on the tracks, you were automatically inducted into the Careful Club.

I've established a theme in today's post, and there's not going back. Well, OK, this is the last railroad item, I'm sorry I lied. It's another swell enamel pin, from the Rock Island Railway. The Twenty Five Year Club, ah, the days when you'd get a job and happily keep it until your well-earned retirement!

General Electric?! He outranks me - I didn't expect him to show up, and my hair is over my collar. This little pin was given out to some happy person, celebrating their 15th year with company. 

I obviously have some affection for the sunflower motif used by 1936 Republican Presidential hopeful Alf Landon (Governor of Kansas), since you've seen an item or two from his campaign on this blog. This is a nice enameled metal lapel pin. FDR won the election in a landslide, and Alf left public office. He lived until the ripe old age of 100, passing away in 1987, incredibly.

Say! There's always more Stuff From the Box!

Sleeping Beauty Castle - March 15, 1957

I realize that Sleeping Beauty is under an enchantment from the evil Maleficent, but I still wish she'd help with some of the chores. I'm sick of waxing the portcullis while she snoozes! Even her woodland friends are no help, they just smoke clove cigarettes by the wishing well. 

It's time for yet another pair of photos of Sleeping Beauty Castle; but this first one is prettier than many. It's surprising what some grass, flowers, and trees will do for a scene. For some reason not many photos were taken looking at the Castle from the east facing west. Try not to worry about that chemtrail in the sky!

This one is also quite nice, with the Disneyland Band marching over the bridge in their blue uniforms, which I kind of thought had been phased out by 1957. I'm not sure why, since I think they look quite spiffy. A father and son are really cramping the Band's style, but they paid $2.50 to get in (that's $9,000 in today's money), and nobody's going to tell them what to do. A Horseless Carriage sits, wishing that it actually had a horse pal.

 

Hippos

You know what? Hippos are weird looking. We're used to them, but yikes! Those gaping maws, those tusks (I'll be the world's first hippo orthodontist), and everything else. I used to read that hippos had pink sweat because there was blood in their perspiration, but have since found out that this is a lie. Their sweat is pink because they are full of sweet frosting.

The jungle is full of many weird and frightening insects, and hippos are the weirdest and most frightening insects of all!
 

Laudable Locomotives March 21 2026

I have a small batch of scans featuring some old locomotives in vintage photos; people seem to like those, so here we go!

First up is this October, 1963 image of a beautiful steam locomotive. I originally labeled this as a "mystery loco", but then noticed that the red rectangle on the side of the cab had words (hard to read on this jpeg, I admit). "Torch Lake"... well that's specific! The Quincy & Torch Lake Railroad (Q&TL), an affiliate of the Quincy Mining Company, was a 3-foot-gauge shortline railroad located at Hancock in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not far from Torch Lake. It...  was designed to take copper-bearing rock from the Quincy Mine downhill to a mill, and return coal uphill to power mine operations. The line was reactivated in 1937 as World War II-era demand for copper caused the mine to reopen. The mine and the railway were shut down permanently in 1945. 

Here's a vintage photo of the engine, from the Henry Ford Museum website - the museum acquired the locomotive in 1969, and you can still enjoy a train ride, pulled by this venerable machine. It’s currently the oldest operating steam locomotive in the U.S. and one of only two locomotives built by the Mason Machine Works left in the world. COOL! Read a bit more about it HERE.

Next is this unusual photo of a nice miniature train, with a film crew in action. The slide was labeled, "Colo. RR Museum, Johnny Cash", and is dated "August, 1974" . Johnny Cash?? Sadly, he's not in this picture, but... on November 22, 1974, CBS ran his one-hour TV special entitled "Riding The Rails, a Musical History of Trains".  Most images that I've seen from this TV special show full-sized locomotives, so I really don't know why this very nice miniature was used. Maybe because of weasels.

Facebook had this behind the scenes photo of Johnny taken while filming the program. "How much longer do I have to sit here, fellas?". "No more than two hours, Mr. Cash". Johnny looks heavenward and shakes his head.

I hope you have enjoyed these Laudable Locomotives!

The Skyway, November 1961

It's time to visit the RESTORATION CORNER again. As I explained once before, I have a small lot of slides that turned various shades of red and pink. But I saved them, hoping that I might be able to restore the color, through the magic of Photoshop. Today's examples turned out especially well!

This unrestored view is unpleasant to gaze upon, there's no denying it. All that gross orangey-pink! But you can see that there is still some color information remaining, so it's (hopefully) not a lost cause.

And hey, what do you know! Now it looks pretty great! As always, I see things that I might have done differently, but at some point you just have to pronounce the thing "DONE". It's nice to see some blues, greens, and yellows. I particularly like this composition, with the Skyway gondola in the upper left, a Casey Jr. train below, and the Skyway Chalet to the right - the photo must have been taken from the poop deck (heh heh) of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship.

Speaking of the Skyway, here's another photo that has turned a revolting shade of magenta that makes me want to do crime.

Say! That's much better. I wonder if the people in the green bucket are friends or family, or if they just happen to be looking directly at us. I'm pleased with the color now, but noticed that Screechy's plumage is usually a lovely blue, yet it appears gray here. I blame society.

Fantasyland Views, May 1960

Fantasyland; the most "Disney" of all the lands. Not only would you find Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, and Snow White there, you'd find Monstro D. Whale there too. It made him feel pretty good to be included, but don't expect him to show it. He keeps his emotions close to the vest - except for RAGE. (I'm the same way, as people have met me can attest). Things look pretty sleepy in the park, the wait to ride a Canal Boat can't be more than five minutes. The door to the little lighthouse is open, and a cast member is fiddling with a stack of boxes. What could they hold?? Treats for Monstro?

Next is a standard view as seen from the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship; at first I thought that the Mad Tea Party was closed - but there is a single teacup with a pair of guests. Crazy! I'm not sure I ever noticed that there were small Japanese lanterns above this ride, even back then. Besides the familiar dark rides, we can even see the Red Wagon Inn and City Hall.

More Dumbo "Information" Brochures

Sue B. is always on top of things, and she reminded me that today is the birthday for Mike Cozart and Zach! And as is tradition, she has sent along two vintage birthday pix. 

First up is this boy's birthday party, undated but presumably from the early 1960s? That cake looks dee-licious, and it is decorated with what appear to be antique bisque figurines, beneath a striped paper circus tent. The paper plates have a Mickey Mouse theme, and they even have party favors. Are those bubble-blowing thingies? Or are they the sort that can levitate a little hollow ball when you blow through them?

Next, two moms and two kids sit in a mysterious plastic box - the wood panelling looks like the inside of a home, but that plastic thing - no idea. Everyone has kazoos, and if there's one thing I have learned in life is to not give noisemakers to children. Don't do it!

Happy Birthday to Mike and Zach, and thank you Sue for the photo.

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Those of you who are especially cool remember a previous post in which I shared scans of two "INFORMATION" brochures from Disneyland. And if you don't remember, that's OK, you're still cool in my book! Both of those brochures were "pink Dumbos" (my description, and probably nobody else's). Well, there were others, with a blue color scheme. This is big news, and I hope you didn't fall down and hurt yourselves. I'm just gonna go crazy and share a whole bunch of scans with you.

First, here's the cover of what I believe is the first of these blue examples - it's a bit larger than all the others, measuring 10.25" X 4" when closed, and 16" long when unfolded. Other than the color, it's the same as the pink versions you've already seen.

Here's one side, unfolded, just for your edification. The text would change over the years, but I'm not going to bore you with all of those variations. Instead, it's a lot more fun to concentrate on...

... the photo spread from the reverse side! This was pre-Matterhorn (and those other familiar 1959 additions); in fact the nice photo of the Viewliner helps to easily ID this version, making it anywhere from June 10, 1957 to September 3, 1958. From my experience, this iteration is the hardest to find, particularly in good condition.

All of the other Dumbo brochures are smaller, roughly 9" X 3.5", or 14" long when unfolded. Sadly, most of these do not have any dates printed on them - it's very possible that this next example predates the Viewliner version - the only difference (other than the smaller size) is that photo of the castle with fireworks. 

Now the Matterhorn, Monorail, and Subs make an appearance, as does the Disneyland Hotel. There's actually a second version of this particular brochure, only the difference is on the text on the other side, so I didn't scan it. But completionists need to know!

A design change includes the "parchment" scroll in the upper right, and that nice little map of the park, along with the Monorail that took you to and from the Disneyland Hotel.

As of this writing (many months before you are reading it), somebody on eBay is trying to sell a hand-painted map of the park (it's only $10,000!). They said it appears in issues of "Vacationland", but it also appears in the map in the previous scan. Pretty neat! If I was rolling in money I'd love to buy it, but... oh well.

And for the sake of thoroughness, I should mention that there is another pink example, this one with a tiny "9/60" printed at the bottom. 

The closest comparison is the photo spread seen in the fifth scan, but there have been a few changes, including a different Jungle Cruise image, a different Golden Horseshoe image, and the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland in the upper left replaces the shot of the Submarine Voyage.

I'm unaware of any other versions of these brochures, but I'd love it if somebody knows of more!

I hope you have enjoyed these wonderful Dumbo INFORMATION brochures.

Old Snapshots

Yeesh! YEESH, do you hear?? I've got this batch of photo prints (possibly from 1965-ish) from a bunch that really only had one that was of particular interest - which you've already seen. Now I'm stuck using up the others - they might be terrible, but you get a lot of them! After today, there are another six, but some of those are at least a little bit of fun.

Here's a familiar group of crocodiles - you can only see two of them, though there is a third lurking behind that bush. My favorite pictures of these crocs are the ones with ducks taking a well-deserved (?) rest on the reptile's scaly backs. I hope they never flew over to the nearby Alligator Farm and tried the same stunt, because they would be ex-ducks.

The sheer number of critters in the "African Veldt" scene can't help but impress, but there are a lot of photos of them, many that are better than this humble snapshot.

I can't be mad at this old mill, part of Alice's village in Storybook Land. Alice bought flour from the mill to make her famous flapjacks. YES I READ THE BOOK!

Speaking of Storybook Land, you could see it from a Canal Boat OR from a Casey Junior Circus Train. Just do both, for gosh sakes. I never dreamed of running away to join the circus, but I'm always up for a ride on a circus train.

 

A Horse With a Hat, 1950s

At some point, the horses that pulled the Horse Drawn Streetcars were fitted with hats. I'd like to think that the hats might have provided a teensy bit of relief on hot days, but... I doubt it was very much. In the 1946 film "Make Mine Music", there was a segment titled, "Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet", in which two hats fall in love. After being separated, they are reunited on the heads of two horses. I assume that hat-wearing horses was an actual thing, but perhaps their use was also a callback to that film.

Dang, it looks good! I told Walt that the horses should wear Chuck Taylor high-tops too, but he coughed and pretended that he had to call Fred MacMurray.