Fairyland Village, August 1966
Here are four photos from a little tourist attraction known as "Fairyland Village". I have NO idea where this park was... a Google search was not much help. There's a Fairyland Village in Australia! I won't be surprised if one of my readers knows exactly where this place was.
It's not exactly the most beautiful place in the world, but it has ice cream (soft serve!), and that moves it up a few notches automatically. Come see our huge gravel parking lot!
These slides were developed at Montgomery Ward's, and they are pretty awesomely crappy. This is how they look after I've tried to restore them, so just try to imagine how they looked beforehand. Here's a very crude Gulliver after he has been captured by the Lilliputians. They brought along a cask, which I'm sure was filled with a non-alcoholic beverage. Yoo-hoo, maybe.
Oh my god, it's a freakin' DRAGON! Run for your lives!! Oh wait, it's not real. But it fooled me for a minute. How embarrassing. He really looks like he was made of papier-maché! To be honest, the childlike quality of these figures is charming to me.
There's the lovely Rapunzel, with her freakishly long golden braids, and her scary witchiepoo godmother is climbing up to deliver a can of whoop-ass. It is clear that Disney totally stole this whole scene for the movie "Tangled".
I hope you've enjoyed your visit to Fairyland Village!
These slides were developed at Montgomery Ward's, and they are pretty awesomely crappy. This is how they look after I've tried to restore them, so just try to imagine how they looked beforehand. Here's a very crude Gulliver after he has been captured by the Lilliputians. They brought along a cask, which I'm sure was filled with a non-alcoholic beverage. Yoo-hoo, maybe.
Oh my god, it's a freakin' DRAGON! Run for your lives!! Oh wait, it's not real. But it fooled me for a minute. How embarrassing. He really looks like he was made of papier-maché! To be honest, the childlike quality of these figures is charming to me.
There's the lovely Rapunzel, with her freakishly long golden braids, and her scary witchiepoo godmother is climbing up to deliver a can of whoop-ass. It is clear that Disney totally stole this whole scene for the movie "Tangled".
I hope you've enjoyed your visit to Fairyland Village!
26 comments:
These pics are a hoot! According to the sign on top of that pointy roofed structure in the parking lot, they also had "live" animals. That's the best kind of animal, as opposed to....well, you know.
LOL, TM!
Place looks weathered by '66.
Gadz! Would you like to be that poor goat stuck out in the parking lot pen all day?
It appears this was part of the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. The zoo is still there but Fairyland was removed in the 80s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowry_Park_Zoo
Ah, I was just going to say that my Google Fu turned up a "Fairyland Village" from the 1960s in North Pole, Colorado ("at the foot of Pike's Peak!"). There are several individual photos for sale online, though none that definitively peg it as this place. If nothing else, the tree-covered mountain in the first photo suggests someplace other than Tampa, Florida.
Dairy Castle seems to be an east coast company, as best as I can tell... Of course that's with about thirty seconds of hard work on Google, so I could be completely wrong...
Major, I'm a sucker for these small town parks, as you know. Thank You!
They were both entertaining to their local audiences and an example of the "state-of-the-art" for which Disneyland raised the bar.
These static displays remind me somewhat of the midway of the old county fairs where unusual things like two headed calves were penned in for people to gawk at...what was the customer supposed to do with Gulliver? Was that just a tableau, like the canal boats without the boats or canal?
Helps keep in perspective how the effects of something like Peter Pan or Snow White, which are kind of corny now, were downright spectacular when new.
"Once Upon A Time", every little hamlet around had a Fairyland or Storybook Land, etc. Good luck finding this one.
@TM, I want to hope that they mean "Live" as in "not stuffed, or figurines".
JH
In the second picture, it looks like the witch was on a track, I bet she moved up and down.
Eric
TM!, Fairyland Village touted their live animals, which they considered to be better than those crappy animatronic animals at Disneyland. I didn't even notice the goat, to be honest!!
Mike, as Brian says, the wooded mountain doesn't look very Florida-y. One of the problems with the name "Fairyland Village" is that it's so generic... I'm guessing that there have probably been a few places with that name. But I do appreciate your research efforts!
Brian, I guess this could be Colorado; somehow I feel like it's the east coast or even someplace like Tennessee or thereabouts. So hard to tell...
stu29573, I didn't think to see if Dairy Castle was a chain of stores. Good thinking!
JG, it does seem like fairy tale or Mother Goose themed parks were by far the most popular, with western themed parks almost neck and neck. It looks like you just walked around and saw each scene, and that was it. Possibly, like Knott's, it was just something to attract you to the local restaurant?
Eric, you could be right; looks like there are wires that might be attached to pulleys, too.
Based on the Red Roof in the first photo, I would guess North Pole Colorado, but this is the first I have heard of this park.
I don't believe any of the photos are from the one in Tampa. Definitely not the one with the mountain (obviously). I was born in 86, Tampa born and raised. and alot of the fairyland stuff and attractions were still there when I went in the early 90's. I actually went looking for it today. But couldn't find it.
Everyone is wrong!!!! This is Fairytale Village in Saratoga Springs, NY. It was located on Route 9 in Wilton. You have some great shots of the place!!!!!
They also had a mini-railroad that circled the place.
Many thanks to you all for posting these pictures, its hard to find images showing a vibrant attraction...My pics came at the end for this place. Not much left anymore
Believe it or not, the park has been long gone, but the building and even the sign remained just a couple of year ago. After seeing these shots I went to take another look (It's right near my son's school) and the whole lot has been replaced by apartments!
Darn!
Anyone know who took these photos or who's collection they reside in? I know the family that ran it and they would love to see these...
Guardrail Gino, the photos belong to me, but I acquired them at a yard sale years ago. You should send the family that ran it the link to this blog post!
Great shots...many thanks for posting..nice to see the place when it was operating..I have some pics taken just prior to demolition showing much devastation. Go to flickr to see under redgatesfarm!
Interesting! I have been looking for old photos of our park, Fairyland Village Lobethal South Australia, opened 1973 still going strong.
There was a Fairyland park in Suffolk County in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We have 8mm home movies and the Reponzale tower is in the scenes. There is also a Mother Goose Shoe and other small exhibits with local actors manning the stations. Captain Kangaroo visited in 1957 or 1958.
George Winters
Fairyland Village was about 2 miles north of Saratoga Springs, NY. The buildings remained, as pictured until about 2007 or 2008. Stan's Flea Market was held at the site until it was razed to make room for townhouses. Stan's even used this sign to advertise!
I believe my parents took me here as a child back in the 50's I definitely remember that Rapunzal tower never knew the location of park but do know it was north of Latham, NY it was on the verge of closing for good as nothing was working or running I can not believe it was possibly still around in 1966 but fairyland sounds the place........
Joie
Amazingly someone sent me photos of this park asking me to identify it, and I could not until I found your blog! I had a picture of the dragon and Alice In Wonderland which were my only clues!
This was definately Fairyland Village in Saratoga springs, I remember going there and that witch scared the #%*&! out of me when I was 4 yrs. old. I always wondered exactly where it was on route 9 and now with Google Earth I know exactly. They tore the remaining buildings and sign down about 2007.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204524820361012&set=gm.1043319885711766&type=3
As it has been said, this indeed was located on Rt 9 in Saratoga Springs, NY. It was developed and owned by Howard Cline, a local business man who happened to have been my wife's grandfather.
Yes, I live nearby in Saratoga Springs and remember it well. I was hoping to find a YouTube video.
Upstate NY. Wilton to be exact.
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