Monday, September 13, 2010

Main Street, March 1958

I love this first photo from Main Street USA, taken down near the hub (or should that be "up near the hub"?). There's a lot going on in this picture, with the horse-drawn fire wagon in the foreground, and the Omnibus just behind that. There's a surrey full of passengers to the right (I'm not sure I've ever noticed the the surrey was brown before). In the distance, the Monsanto Home of the Future and the Skyway cables. Even though it's just a photo, you can almost feel the movement.


The streetcar looks great here, on this sunny day. I think the clock in the distance says that it is just past noon. Say, what's that to the left? Let's take a closer look.


There's a striped tent next to the Red Wagon Inn (which is not visible here!)... looks like an exhibit of art is on display. Was it for sale, or just for lookin'?

6 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

Huh lookit all the hubub at the hub, bub. (And a bibbiti-boppity-boo too). Tink that gal on the firewagon is in woe from the heckling the Omniboys (on the Omnibus of course) are giving her? Not only is the surrey (with the fringe on top) brown, it has ladies in dresses, not part of the set but just visitors, and a little boy up front, looks to me like he could be holding the leather reigns of one of the horsies (supervised by the operator of course, but would they dare that now?).

Hm. Maybe they were fumigating the Red Wagon Inn and it was going by "Red Stripe Inn"? Peer through the glass and watch bugs plunge and dance... hehe. But just as neat to me is the hats, polka dot dress and happy mood the picture evokes. Looks like a nice sunny day on old Main Street. :)

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Love the Yellow wheels on the (brown?) surrey! Why the sour face on the girl riding in the fire wagon?

Nice depth of field on both of these, the second one zoomed in great!

Connie Moreno said...

I love those streetcars. Funny thing, I hardly ever ride them but when I was a castmember working a closing shift, I'd go in the back and stretch out on one of the streetcar benches during my break and lay there thinking about how gosh darn lucky I was to be backstage!

JG said...

One of the best parts of the old Tomorrowland was the combination views obtained with the streetcars and horse vehicles in the foreground and the House of Tomorrow in the background. All this looked very plausible. Unlike the "astro-orbiter" ding-dong of today.

SundayNight said...

That tent looks similar to a picture of a temporary "art show" tent that was (I think) located out near Fantasyland. Apparently they sold art by Disney artists there. Maybe they were trying this location to see if it generated more visitors.

Nancy said...

the middle picture reminds me of a "real" Main street in the Old West....and still no one walked in the street....hehehe

i would buy Disney art. in fact, in 2008 we did at EPCOT Center and the artist was signing his work that day...a nice treasure in my collection :)