Thursday, June 12, 2008

Matterhorn, January 1960

I lied to you. All of you. And I am ashamed. Well, not really ashamed so much as very very itchy. I told you that these were taken in January of 1960, because that's the date stamped on the slides. But they were in fact taken on December 29, 1959. If you carbon-date your monitor, you'll see that this is correct.

Anyhoo, the Matterhorn was basically brand-spankin' new when these photos were snapped, and it even looks as if they never quite finished painting on the snow. I can only imagine how excited this post-Christmas crowd must be to take their first ride on this amazing attraction. Meanwhile, other folks to our left are gazing upon a fleet of submarines, because that's not something you see every day. Unless you live in Norfolk or some place like that. You can't tell here, but the line actually snakes on for quite a long while, eventually meeting up with the line for the subs.


Looks like our photographer couldn't resist, and got in line himself. Those clever Disneyland queues fool you, he's not as close as he thinks! But it was a beautiful clear day, and it's pretty fun to watch bobsled after boblsed splash through the icy Alpine stream.

7 comments:

spajadigit said...

These are some GREAT pictures! It looks so clean and new, and that line must have taken forever since they were only running one car at a time!

Wow. Thanks for sharing these!

Matterhorn1959 said...

Thanks I always appreciate a good Matterhorn photograph! Even though they were running single cars, the line still moved fairly fast.

outsidetheberm said...

We always thought the 'less snowy' Matterhorn looked better. It seemed to enhance the forced perspective to some degree. No?

Thanks for the look!

Anonymous said...

Proof that global warming is an erroneous theory. As everyone can clearly see, the Matterhorn had less snow on it back in 1960 than it does now. Al Gore is such a loser!

The Viewliner Limited said...

My first roller coaster ride. It was great. Beauty pics.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

I just rode the Matterhorn about 90 minutes ago and it is still fun as it looked in 1960 (or was that 12/29/59?). It looks still looks great too, I was gazing at it front the "hub" view, it sure looks majestic. Thanks for these!

Major Pepperidge said...

VDT, I am jealous! It's been almost TWO years since I've been to the park, believe it or not.

I thought that the Matterhorn always had two tracks. Guess I should do more research in my "free time", ha ha.