Vintage Florida Amusements

You know what I've noticed? People have birthdays. Practically every day is somebody's birthday. I'll pause while you absorb that bit of wisdom. 

OK, have you recovered? Well, today is JB's birthday! And Sue B. knew it, don't you worry. Here's a series of vintage birthday pix for this special occasion. 

Don't have the kid's party in the former dining room, they'll just make a mess. Cake will be dropped on the floor, sodas will be spilled, ice cream will get knocked over. The solution? Put them in the laundry room! If they don't like it they can lump it (whatever that means). 

Those party hats are so stylish that I would wear one in daily life. Why wait for a birthday? The pink dots go with my eyes (yes, I am a white mouse). That kid better not be spitting on the cake - I'd be watching to make sure. 

Time has gone backwards, and the candles that had been extinguished have relit themselves. Obviously Superman caused the planet to reverse its rotation by flying around it really fast! Knock it off, Kal El. I just noticed that the little girl's shirt is made out of a "Twister" game mat.

I am not quite sure what to make of the boy's expression. He's feeling the pain of childbirth, but that's impossible. Maybe he can see that the beautifully-wrapped gift is a book of poetry, or some equally-undesirable item. Notice the cupcake wrappers that contain a selection of pills, what a great idea. The girl is interested only in her cake.

Happy Birthday, JB, and thank you to Sue!

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Here are two random slides from Vintage Florida!

First up, two photos from "Horn's Cars of Yesterday". I guess if your name is "Horn", you are bound to collect cars. According the the Interwebs, The Horn’s collection of cars began as a hobby for  the brothers  (Herbert and Bob Horn). They were based in Fort Dodge, Iowa and were in the farm and school equipment business. They had been collecting old cars and restoring them to showroom condition for years. If they couldn’t find a part for a car, they simply made a new part to fit in its place!

While on the road as salesmen for the equipment company, the brothers often spotted old cars in people’s sheds, back yards or barns. By the early 1950s, their collection of cars was so large that they decided to do something about it.

After visiting Sarasota in the early 1950s, the Horns decided to shift their attention to antique cars exclusively. In March of 1953, “Horn’s Cars of Yesterday” opened for business.

According to a November 3, 1957 article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, the Horns had more than 70 cars on display in their museum, ranging from the oldest, a 1897 Duryea Buggyaut to the latest addition, a 1948 Lincoln Continental. The collection also includes the 1914 Rolls Royce Town Car used by John Ringling and the Pierce Arrow owned by Mable Ringling. Also included in their collection was a large array of music boxes, ranging from an organ with 176 pipes to an early version of a juke box that was built in the 1870s. Horns’ Cars of Yesterday was an immediate success.

Happily the collection is now part of the Sarasota Classic Car Museum, whose website I used as reference.

It's interesting, Florida really was a popular place for antique car collectors to show off their stuff. We've seen the "James Melton Autorama" (in Hypoluxo!), and the "Carriage Cavalcade" in Silver Springs. I'll bet there were more.  Maybe Bonanza Bill's Jaunty Jalopies? Or (Milton) Frunkle's Flivverville? I made those last two up, but don't you wish you could go to them?
 

Meanwhile, over in St. Augustine, you'd find the exciting and smelly Alligator Farm, full of playful reptiles. It still exists, now called The St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park. It is one of Florida's oldest continuously running attractions. The park began in 1893 on St. Augustine Beach as a minor attraction at the end of a railway running through neighboring Anastasia Island. The alligators were added at first to get visitors to buy souvenirs and see the museum there. Soon, the reptiles themselves became the main point of interest.

Gators are so tame and plentiful in Florida that they are still used to pull wagons and buggies to this day.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Florida!

Two From the 1950s

There is always something a little bit special about old Disneyland slides from the first year or two of operation. While today's examples are undated, they are likely from 1956 (more on that in a minute). 

I love this first photo of two women, one of whom is dropping a postcard (?) into one of the mailboxes on Main Street. Town Square is practically deserted; I'd guess that it was still early in the year, Christmas decor is no longer on the Emporium, but the lady to the left is prepared for a chilly evening.

This second scan is from a damaged slide, but we get a nice look at the Bertha Mae at  rest near Fowler's Harbor. The Keelboats made their debut on Christmas day in 1955; I don't know if the park didn't operate this attraction in the off-season, or if it hadn't actually opened yet. Or what. But it's a swell photo anyway.

More PINS FROM THE BAG

Listen... I know what you've been really wanting. Not candy, or money, or fame, or even love. What you want is PINS FROM THE BAG! Well, you've come to the right place, folks.

I have quite a few pinback buttons from the 1939/40 New York World's Fair ("The Dawn of a New Day"), but this one is a somewhat recent addition to my collection. 1940 was the 126th anniversary of the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy, as witnessed by Francis Scott Key. He wrote a song about it! Hey, let's give Baltimore a pat on the back, it will make them so happy.

Next is this cool pin commemorating the centennial of Marshalltown, Iowa. A Century of Success! I hope that guy sowing crops has some Banana Boat sunscreen on(SPF-50 at least), I don't want him to burn. Looking at the Wikipedia page for Marshalltown, it looks like a very nice place to live.

I'm always fond of pinback buttons for vintage comic characters, especially characters that are largely forgotten today. This one, for the Sunday Bulletin, features the freaky likeness of Ozark Ike. Ozark Ike is a newspaper comic strip about dumb but likable Ozark Ike McBatt, a youth from a rural area in the mountains. The strip was created by Rufus A. ("Ray") Gotto while he was serving in the Navy during World War II in Washington, D.C. as an illustrator for Navy instruction manuals. The strip ran from November 12, 1945, to September 14, 1958.

Ozark Ike comic books almost always featured Ike with his enthusiastic girlfriend, Dinah Fatfield, whose family has been involved in a feud with the McBatt clan for several generations (inspired by the famous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys). I think it's time for a $250 million dollar Ozark Ike movie, with Conan O'Brian in the starring role.

Well, this one is not a pinback button, but it does have pins! It's an unusual celluloid item advertising Kemp and Burpee M'F'G. Co (I've never seen the word "manufacturing" abbreviated quite like that before), and the "Success Spreader", which "fertilizes the Earth". Ordinary sewing pins are are stuck into the rim of this thingamabob, as you can see. You just never know when a pin will come in handy.

Ceresota Flour produced pinback buttons and advertising mirrors in such quantities that they are fairly common. Their ads typically featured this hungry little boy holding a loaf of bread that is almost as big as he is. Pro tip: when sawing away at a loaf of bread, always draw the sharp knife towards your throat; this kid knows!

You have to be of a "certain age" to remember Soupy Sales. I don't really remember ever watching any TV show with Soupy, and yet I was certainly aware of him as a personality. Milton Supman, known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio-television personality, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television series, Lunch with Soupy Sales (later titled The Soupy Sales Show) (1953–1966), a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his trademark. Soupy's two sons, Hunt and Tony, went on to become respected musicians, playing with artists such as Todd Rungren, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie. If you know Iggy's song, "Lust for Life", that's Hunt Sales on drums!

There are many more PINS IN THE BAG!

In Frontierland, March 15, 1957

Here's a pair of pretty nice early Frontierland views... at least, early enough to have that charming "rough around the edges" quality that I personally like so much.

There's a Keelboat (which one???) scooting along the river, past the fairly-new Fort Wilderness on Tom Sawyer Island - the Island had opened to guests less than a year before, and it still has a "new construction" look to it. The berm also looks rather bare, with some weedy trees and some rocks and shrubs - you can still clearly see power lines in the distance.  

Next is this very nice look at the Friendly Indian Village, before the nearby trees had grown large enough to actually obscure some of the tepees at the edges. I'm noticing that wooden "arch" for the Disneyland Railroad to pass through - part of the structure seems to  be holding that hillside in check, but I don't really "get" the point of the arch. Cinderella's Castle (from Storybook Land) and more power lines are easy to spot! Shiny Boy and his faithful pooch have not made their debut yet. 

Tuna Boat and Pals, June 1962

It was pretty hard to take a bad photo of the old Chicken of the Sea tuna boat. It just looked so darn good! The color combo of coral, butterscotch, and ebony is pretty striking. There's quite a crowd crossing the gangplank, I wonder if they knew it was a restaurant, and not a ride? Mom is happy to rest her feet while sitting on that bench carved from igneous rock.

We're not too far away from the Pirate Ship - there it is in the background, along with the Storybook Land lighthouse, and Monstro's dentition. But it's the foreground that is the most fun here - pretty Snow White (along with two Dwarfs) poses with a lucky boy on a beautiful sunny day.

 

My Mom

I need to beg your indulgence today, as I decided to do a brief (?) tribute to my wonderful mother (Joan)  who passed away unexpectedly just over a week ago. She lived to be 90 years old, and still went to the gym six days a week. She was mentally sharp, had a comfortable home, and four kids who loved her. We should all be so fortunate. Today's post is more for me than for anybody else, but I know you will forgive me. I'd scanned a bunch of photos for her 90th birthday, and chose a dozen.

Here she is at around age two (I guess), with my grandparents in their yard in Westwood, Los Angeles (where my mom was born). I'd asked my mom if that house was still there, and she said that it had been torn down, replaced by apartments or condos.

Now it's about two years later, and Joanie is in Wisconsin visiting her cousins. What is that dog, a Cocker Spaniel?  I think my mom looks pretty cute here.

If Joanie was four or five years old in this next picture, then this has to be around 1939 or 1940. Color photography was uncommon at the time. She's standing in her grandmother's garden in Aurora, Illinois.

By the time this photo was taken, my grandma and grandpa had moved to Encino, which, at the time, was "the sticks". Hillsides and farmland. At some point she owned a horse, which she took good care of, getting up in the dark to muck out the little stable, feed it, and, I don't know, whatever else you do to take care of a horse. Sing it a song? The other girl is her lifelong friend Tuppie (her nickname, short for "tuppence").

I remember my mom telling me that this photo was taken at her high school, not long before she was to move away from home to go to the University of Colorado in Boulder. 

I believe this one was taken as Joan moved into the sorority house in Boulder, she belonged to Gamma Phi Beta. The photo has a professional look to it (I guess). My mom remained friends with some of her sorority sisters for decades.

Here she is on a date with the man who she would marry (my dad, of course). She met him on a blind date; Joan was in LA to visit her parents, and my dad was going to USC. It looks like they were at a fancy restaurant, I wish I knew which one.

They were wed in 1958, and remained married for over 50 years, until my dad's passing. Years later, my sister got married in the same dress that my mom is wearing here.

Some of you have seen this picture before; my mom is holding baby me - I was the second of four children.

Joan was such a fun mother, she loved arts and crafts, and was always trying new stuff, from stained glass to mosaics, origami to cake decorating, and she loved collecting seashells, minerals, beads from around the word, old buttons, ethnic artifacts, antique German marbles, and too many other things to mention. She's holding a cake with my sister's name on it, maybe for a birthday, though it doesn't look like the cakes she typically made. Maybe my sister helped? I thought that the time of year was wrong (based on the dried ears of Indian Corn hanging from the cupboard) but some familiar Christmas decorations are hanging from the chandelier to the left, and that would be about right.

I'm behind my mom (sorry I am eclipsed) in my cool velour shirt, probably a Hang Ten shirt.

Here's my mom and dad in my grandmother's backyard in Encino - I would guess that this is from around 1995. The two of them look pretty happy.

And finally, a photo that I took myself in 2017, when my mom, brother, and I took a trip up to the Eastern Sierras. Near the town of Lone Pine is an amazing area called the Alabama Hills famous for its unusual rock formations. It was incredible to be there in April when there was not one other person around.

Well, that's it... thanks for your patience. I'm going to miss my mom terribly, but I know that this is all a part of life. I was so lucky to have her!

IASW Snoozles™, June 1967

Sometimes these Sunday Snoozles™ are SO bad (or dull) that I truly feel guilty sharing them. But not so guilty that I am going to skip them, obviously! Visitors were charmed by the fanciful topiaries in front of It's a Small World, and today's photographer certainly was. "That bush looks just like an elephant!", he cackled. The boys on his bowling team will get a laugh out of it, if he knows them (and he does). 

It looks like that giraffe needs more time to fill in, but it will do. I won't storm into City Hall and demand my money back. THIS time. I like the gold details on the façade of this ride, they remind me of the boxes full of die-cut, embossed Valentine's Day decorations that my mom had when I was a kid. In fact she still has them! I wonder if Rolly Crump used things like that when mocking up the model that he built?

 

Vintage Kids

Hey! It's Nanook's birthday! Yes, Sue B. reminded me. And she also sent a series of scans from a vintage birthday party - date unknown, but probably from the Renaissance. 

Whoa, that's some cake! Yellow frosting reminds me of desert sands, while various cowboys shoot it out, some on horseback. It's like a John Ford movie! The plates are "Flintstones" themed, but who's complaining? Everyone has their very own balloon to inflate later.

I'll never forget going to a neighbor's birthday party, when I was a kid, and watching the boy spray saliva all over the cake when he blew out the candles. I passed on the cake, much to the mother's astonishment.

Oh boy, I see some party favors! Sadly I can't tell what they are. Birthday Boy has a nice stack of presents,  I'm sure that the red beribboned box contains a ball peen hammer. 1,001 uses! On the washing machine, a sweet toy race car.

"Here, Marky, open this!". She knows that he really wants that ball peen hammer, but he'll just have to wait. But it's OK, he's about to discover that he has a subscription to GQ magazine!

Happy Birthday, Nanook, and thank you, Sue!

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Kids! They are omnipresent, and omnivorous (just sayin'). Hand a kid a rock? He'll try to eat it. It's hilarious! I picked out two vintage photos of some vintage kids, just for the halibut. 

First up is this three year-old (?) proudly holding his toy tractor, which must be new because I don't see the usual paint scratches and dings, and the tires are still glossy. Don't play with it, kid, in 70 years it will be worth, I dunno, $100? Why have fun now when you can have money later? My uncle Harold (in Minnesota) had a very old toy tractor in his basement (on a shelf next to the Hammond electric organ), and he generously gave it to me long ago. Of course I still have it. Uncle Harold and Aunt Florence were such good people, I remember them fondly.

This photo is from the 1960s, but 30 years earlier these kids would have been in Our Gang comedies. I'll call them Clarence, Violet, and Barnaby. They're giving that groovy "soapbox car" (there's probably a more appropriate name) a helping hand, maybe they lived on a slight hill so that gravity did the work. The car is made from pegboard, wagon wheels, scraps of lumber, and a length of clothesline for steering. I had hoped we might be able to see the year on the California license plate, but no such luck. 

Slide Restoration

I wasn't sure what I should share on this Friday post; I have lots of scans to choose from, but not a lot of those are worthy of a Friday (when I at least try to share slightly better stuff)! So I decided to pick a pair of restored images, since those turned out pretty well.

We've seen plenty of photos of the old Burning Settler's Cabin on Tom Sawyer Island, one of those features that demonstrate the "hard facts" of life on the Frontier. As you can see, this slide (and all of the other slides in this batch) is very faded - they are dreaded Anscochrome slides, and are awful! What a shock to learn that they were eventually acquired by GAF (also horrible).

Say! That's much better! Thanks to the miracle of Photoshop; all of our woes are gone, and what's left is happiness and a pleasant vanilla aroma. I wonder if the natural gas that fueled the fire had an additive to make it more visible in daylight? Probably not. That poor settler had worked so hard, but he ran with scissors, and this is what happened.

Next is this washed-out view from the passageway through Sleeping Beauty Castle. As if it was the smoggiest day ever.

Much better! I guess the little family in front of us just arrived, even though the sun was setting? "We'll allow 2 hours at Disneyland, I have to be home for the big game between the Denver Monkeys and the Rhode Island Tardigrades". He'll be rooting for the Fighting Moss Piglets. The transition from the dark tunnel into the spaciousness, color, and light of Fantasyland is an old architecture trick ("compression and release"), used by old architects.

Two From August 1970

Here's a pair of scans from the summer of 1970 - August, to be precise. Kids are already seeing "back to school" commercials on TV, and it's a huge bummer. Vacation just flew by! It must have been a hot August, the Disneyland Band needed to find a shady spot to perform, though the bandleader has to suffer. Fame isn't easy. A lady in the distance is capturing the whole thing on her movie camera. No sound, but she will play "Stars and Stripes Forever" on the kazoo when projecting the film for friends. Judging by the crowds back by the Bank of America, there was probably a character (or two) there, but I can't see them.

Next is this late (LATE) afternoon photo looking northward on Main Street. Most everything is in shadow except for the upper parts of the buildings on the right, but even those will be beyond the reach of the sun soon. I love the nostalgic feel of this one!