Card # J-18 features this neat view of the castle; perhaps it is a trick of the lens, but the moat looks a lot bigger here than it did later. To the right... a whole lotta nothin'. No Matterhorn or Plastic Home of the Future. Snow Hill is there and the Skyway can just be seen.
Card # J-19; Casey Jr. and the Storybook Land canal boats. The shore looks so barren, but the miniature scenes (such as Toad Hall) have been put in place, so at least there is something to look at.
Card # J-20 has this fantastic image of Monstro, it's one of my favorites. Years ago one of these cards sold for almost $200 on ebay... but I'll bet you can find one for a lot less today.
J-21 features the Mark Twain, and a Frontierland that looks surprisingly vast. Vesey Walker and the Disneyland Band crash the party over on the Twain's bow.
And lastly, card # J-22, with Main Street Station, the E.P. Ripley, and lots and lots of attraction posters! I'm wondering if the photographer stood on top of a large truck to get this elevated view?
Card # J-19; Casey Jr. and the Storybook Land canal boats. The shore looks so barren, but the miniature scenes (such as Toad Hall) have been put in place, so at least there is something to look at.
Card # J-20 has this fantastic image of Monstro, it's one of my favorites. Years ago one of these cards sold for almost $200 on ebay... but I'll bet you can find one for a lot less today.
J-21 features the Mark Twain, and a Frontierland that looks surprisingly vast. Vesey Walker and the Disneyland Band crash the party over on the Twain's bow.
And lastly, card # J-22, with Main Street Station, the E.P. Ripley, and lots and lots of attraction posters! I'm wondering if the photographer stood on top of a large truck to get this elevated view?
I hope you've enjoyed these vintage postcard views!
I love the photo of Frontierland. The wide-angle lens gives it a feeling of space and size that accurately catches my young childhood memories of the size of the place before I got bigger and screwed everything up.
ReplyDeletethese are so cool....in the first image, what is the red to our right (where there is a whole lotta nothin)?
ReplyDeletethey sure do make the place look
s p r e a d o u t ! !
thanks again for sharing them :D
Nice!!
ReplyDeleteNow THATS a Moat! These are all great! Are these in the "Nickel Tour"? A book I still need to get!
ReplyDeleteVery cool. They give you that -hard to take it all in- feeling of actually being there.
ReplyDeleteChuck's comments about size perception made me smile. Certain objects and places are still calibrated by my inner 6 year old. The Tiki Room looked like a vast cavern in 1966. Now, it's more like a walk-in closet. Every time I sit down and look up I think, "God, this place has gotten small."
ReplyDeleteThese are some of my favorites, as well. VDT; these cards are in The Nickel Tour (http://www.disneylandpostcards.net/0461-0492/index.html).I do have a few dupes.
ReplyDeleteMajor, what are the actual physical dimensions of these cards? Just curious. It seems like if you sent one through the mail, it would stand a good chance of getting damaged in transit.
ReplyDeletePilsner; these cards measure 3-1/2 x 11 and I've seen several that have been postally used.
ReplyDeleteWould you look at all that open space on either side of the castle. If only one could go back in time and walk around Disneyland to see it back then. Not only that, but to see all the orange groves along Harbor Blvd before the motels took over.
ReplyDeleteChuck, I think we've all experienced that phenomenon... "This place looks so small now!".
ReplyDeleteNancy and Connie, I'm glad you liked these, they are my faves!
VDT, You definitely need to get "The Nickel Tour", it is an excellent book and a fun read.
Vaughn, I know what you mean. I should try cropping some photos in this panorama format and see if the same effect is achieved.
Katella, basically all of Disneyland feels so much smaller.
Cyberdillo, thank you for answering Pilsner Panther's questions! It's nearly midnight and I only just got home from my trip. I have seen used versions of these as well, and sometimes they do have some pretty gnarly creases in them.
O.C. Native, seeing Disneyland the way it looks in these photos is one of my "time machine" wishes!
Thanks, Cyberdillo (there's an echo in here!).
ReplyDeleteThese are really nice images, especially the Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer's Island, with the band in uniform on the deck of the steamboat.
Time travel, courtesy of Mr. Walt Disney.
Whoa, I love Storybook Land, as you know, but that picture is hard to take, it's so barren.
ReplyDeleteChuck and KG, I have noticed this phenomenon, esp. in the Tiki Rm. but also many other places.
In fact, when viewed with adult eyes, I am increasingly amazed by the intimate scale of so much of Disneyland. I am convinced that this is a large part of it's charm, and also why that DCA fails in so many ways.
The DCA designers were clearly trying to correct for Disneyland's load capacity and circulation problems. In doing so, they managed the loss of the intimate Disneyland feel. Combine that with the lack of proportional understanding in the modern artists eye, and DCA is what it is.
Thank you Major, very cool stuff.
JG