I like this shot of a deserted Tomorrowland entrance! I can't quite make out the time on the Clock of the World, but it looks like it's about 11 o'clock. Where the heck is everybody?
Well, some of them are on the Autopia, at any rate. The original Autopia vehicles are pretty great, I never get tired of them. Look, the grownups won't let the kids drive, what a gyp!
You know what my favorite thing in this photo is? Not it's not the Matterhorn, tilted at a crazy angle. It's not the old yellow and green, single-car bobsled (although that's pretty cool). It's the boy to the right, perfectly happy to be wearing that pink bonnet. Kid, I salute you!
Didn't the Park open much later back then? Like at 10:00 a.m.? Maybe the photographer was excited because he/she was the "first" person to enter Tomorrowland that day. Love these shots, especially the Matterhorn vehicle!
ReplyDeleteWowie, super Tomorrowland entrance photo, just the way I like - devoid of people!
ReplyDeletePink bonnet boy was roasting in the July sun so - desperate times call for desperate measures.
There were many days like that during the winter season, and it looks like the wind is up too. I can just hear the wind chime-like sounds of all the flag ropes on the aluminum poles. Placang-plang-plang-lang-lang-plang. . .
ReplyDeleteCoxPilot: thanks for adding a sound dimension to that last photograph with all the flag poles. I don't have any memories of the flag court, but my elementary school had exactly the same hollow aluminum pole that made a ringing sound when the hoist ropes struck it. I can only imagine what 49 of them sounded like.
ReplyDelete* echoes Connie and Katella *
ReplyDeleteAll those years at Disneyland, and the thing that I remember the most are the sounds and smells (and the details.) Every time I see a familiar photo from those days, I can actually "feel, smell and hear" the image.
ReplyDeleteA blessing when I need to escape the daily grind and just turn on the way-back machine in my mind's eye.
Still love the smell of hot black top and compressed air, which was the dominant smell in those days, along with the waves of cafeteria food smell floating throughout the park (especially near the central plaza).
Or the strong smell of orange juice and candy on main street, mixed with occasional horse barn odor (which I love too because we've had horses for a long time).
The flight circle had a distinct smell too. Try mixing castor oil and nail polish, and you come close. And that circle was REALLY HOT out there with the blazing sun and the loud buzz of the engines. We sometimes had tans right through our shirts, which left a little white oval where the Disneyland patch was above the left pocket.
Strange things one remembers.
Please keep those memories coming, CoxPilot. We can document the images, but aromas and sounds are a little harder to come by. Would you consider writing a book of anecdotes?
ReplyDeleteIf he does I'd consider readin' it. :)
ReplyDeleteMaj, come to think of it, seeing as it's 1959 and all, maybe that mom who isn't letting her girl drive the Autopia car is driving it because it's her turn first - she might not drive herself!
...and the girl looks like she's prayin' mom doesn't get 'em in a wreck!
ReplyDeleteCoxPilot, that was great! The kind of description that really brings the scene to life by stimulating our other senses. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI have written some stuff for Dave Decaro (at his invitation) and he was kind enough to dedicate a page to it.
ReplyDeletehttp://davelandweb.com/tomorrowland/
flightcircle.html
thanks, CoxPilot, for sharing your wonderful DL memories with us :) it must have been something to work there then
ReplyDeleteevery time i see a photo of the Clock of The World, it reminds me of how sad and mad i am that its no longer there! is nothing sacred?
when we were there for the 50th weekend we took a picture of the display in the Tomorrowland shop window called "Tomorrowland 1955" where there was a replica model of the clock among other things...that is the closest ive been to the real thing other than seeing where it once stood :(