Thursday, May 08, 2008

Main Street, July 1960

Somebody sure loved Main Street! Well, a lot of people did, but this photographer in particular. Notice how he took a photo, walked a few steps, took another photo, took a few steps.... perhaps he suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder! But I'm not complaining. At the far end, down by the station, we can see a banner announcing the opening of Nature's Wonderland. To our right, the Upjohn Pharmacy with its stylized stained-glass mortar and pestle lamp.


Good thing we are on the sidewalk, just look at the terrible traffic these days! The Firetruck just passed us, and two "Gurr-mobiles" are headed our way. I never thought about it, but I suppose that if the smaller vehicles had no passengers, they would continue to drive up and down the street anyway for the sake of atmosphere. Note how empty the street itself is! Nowadays it's packed with people.


Now the little Surrey is coming towards us (those ponies are tiny!!), and the horse-drawn Streetcar passed as well. The Omnibus isn't shown, but when you think about it, there were a lot of vehicles on Main Street back in the day!

at

6 comments:

  1. Thufer8:08 AM

    major,

    i agree with you about people on the street. in most early shots, people tended to stay on the sidewalks more. it is a most curious thing, how people adapted to the 'reality' of the park in the 50's/early 60's -vs- now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Viewliner Limited8:56 AM

    Absolutely awesome pictures. The Natures Wonderland banner and the signs on the lamp posts. Incredible.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown9:43 AM

    I love the fact that you can see the time in the last photo!

    ReplyDelete
  4. mr wiggins10:43 AM

    > in most early shots, people tended to stay on the sidewalks more. it is a most curious thing, how people adapted to the 'reality' of the park in the 50's/early 60's -vs- now. <

    Great shots, major! They're fascinating to me both as a DL fan and as a kid visitor to the Park in the 50's (I remember my parents telling my little brother to get back on the sidewalk. Me? I was already on the sidewalk, neener-neener!)

    Thufer is exactly right -- in the 50's, people tended to adapt to the reality of the Park rather than the other way around. Those funky little wire garden-borders you see in the early photos were literally all you needed to keep most guests off the grass. It was a time when men often wore ties to Disneyland, women wore gloves, and boys scrambled over Tom Sawyer Island in creased pants and shined, painfully stiff, new shoes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CoxPilot3:22 PM

    Technically, those are not ponies, but miniature horses. Believe it or not, there is a genetic difference. I don't believe Disneyland every had actual ponies because the scaled down proportions were not right.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:08 AM

    I think this is 1957, based on the Nature's Wonderland banner.

    ReplyDelete