Friday, March 21, 2008

Intimate Apparel Shop

We're off to see the "Wizard"! Today's slide comes from a rare set of souvenir slides, circa 1955. I have six small white cardboard boxes, each with 10 slides. The color has been preserved, but unfortunately they are a bit soft when it comes to their focus. Some of them are downright blurry. Such a shame!

Nevertheless, here we see an rare shot of Main Street's legendary "Intimate Apparel" shop (also sometimes called the Main Street Corseteria and the "Wizard of Bras" - - was that a castmember nickname?). Main Street had its share of oddball shops! Cole's of California (bathing suits?!), and the Wurlitzer store (wanna buy an organ?), to name two. But the idea of a shop that sold lacy underthings - - at Disneyland - - boggles the mind. On the Disney website, there is a quote in regards to Imagineer Bill Martin: "One of our first ideas for Main Street was a corset shop called 'The Wizard of Bras.' For some reason, Walt didn't like it." And yet, there it is. Somebody convinced him!


You can see the stuffed lady sitting on the porch (to the left). I can imagine Walt thinking "What if we could make that stuffed lady move and talk? Maybe even interact with the guests?". But that would have to wait a few years...



The Intimate Apparel shop closed in 1956 (replaced by the China Closet), while Grandma's Baby Shop didn't even last that long, closing in 1955 and having the honor of being the first Main Street business to go away. It was replaced by the Silhouette studio.

6 comments:

outsidetheberm said...

We have a flyer around here someplace from the Intimate Apparel shop. Will try to locate.

It's such a shame the focus is off on this shot as it's really a nice view. Thanks for the look.

Matterhorn1959 said...

The reason for the Wizard of Bras was the advertising tag line for the company. Several, several years ago Bruce Gordon and Dave Mumford did a presentation at one of the NFFC shows and had found some audio for the spiel for the shop. I distinctly remember the echo sound of the announcer when he announced The Wizard of Bras!. It was definitely a funny moment in the presentation.

Jason Schultz said...

You have sixty shots from 1955?! It's hard to figure out the exact name of the store, because it only existed when the nomenclature was so fluid. The opening day guide calls it "Corset Shop, V-Ette (Hollywood-Maxwell)." An advertisement calls it "Ye Olde Hollywood-Maxwell Bra Shoppe." It seems to have been half store and half exhibit, with the Wonderful Wizard of Bras brought to life on a revolving stage. There's a great story about this in the Premiere Edition Souvenir Insert.

Matterhorn: The Wizard of Bras spiel was released on Disneyland Forever. I think I also have a video recording of that presentation.

Major Pepperidge said...

I have the audio spiel from the Intimate Apparel shop somewhere, interesting because it's so strange with the connection to Disneyland.

jedblau said...

Outsidetheberm: would love to see that flyer!!!

Chris Jepsen said...

I spun off of your post here with a "Wizard" post on my own blog:

http://ochistorical.blogspot.com/2008/03/disneylands-wonderful-wizard-of-bras.html

Thanks for the inspiration!