Friday, May 18, 2012

Frontierland, September 1959

Everybody is having fun in Frontierland, especially here in the Indian Village. The photographer has caught Louise by surprise, but she's a good sport about it. A few of the Indian performers sit behind her, and it looks like the show has already begun.


These next two are a bit blurry, sorry about that! We're looking back towards the entrance to Frontierland, with the Trading Post to our left. You can see the lumpy diseased logs that somebody decided would be just the thing for Disneyland. I find that interesting, because one might assume that Disney would want everything to be "perfect". If you look carefully you can see the Davy Crockett Arcade, and to our right, the Pendleton shop.


There's the Golden Horseshoe! Hurry up, we don't want to miss the Revue.







11 comments:

Pilsner Panther said...

One of the things that I like most about your early Disneyland photos, Major, is that everything isn't "perfect." You can see that- for example- parts of Fantasyland were built out of plaster and plywood! It really did take Walt and his staff quite a while to get that finished and polished look that everyone now identifies with the Disney parks; it didn't happen overnight.

Chiana_Chat said...

Glad they don't have to cut corners now (not that they don't in certain areas anyway), yet me tink stylistically they've often gone too polished and Toon-y / slick / bling-y / Little Mermaid-y the past couple decades (plus).

De-lightful, sunny pics Maj! Now, soon as I've picked up a sun bonnet at Pendleton Woolen folks I'm headed to see The Golden Horseshoe Revue... :)

Nancy said...

the Golden Horseshoe is looking quite golden there in the sunshine, and I especially love how the pretty tree frames the image...beautiful!! Happy Friday!

K. Martinez said...

In the second image, those lumpy logs fronting the Shooting Gallery look like burl wood to me. It gives it that rustic pioneer look. They are still there to this day.

Major Pepperidge said...

Pilsner Panther, one of the places where you can really tell that things are artificial is the old Rainbow Desert. You've seen those lumpy rocks I'm sure; compare that to the amazing rock work seen at the soon to open Carsland!

Chiana, I agree, they can be too slick for their own good, but it can be a tricky line to walk I suppose. If things look less than perfect these days, they will hear all about it from the online community. And if I am sitting behind you at the Golden Horseshoe Revue, kindly remove your Pendleton bonnet!

Nancy, your cheerful comments are always a little ray of sunshine!

K. Martinez, for some reason I thought I had read that the bumpy logs had been removed, and obviously I was not observant enough to notice on my last visit. I'm glad they're still there!

Orange Co Native said...

The lumpy logs are because when they were building Disneyland, the rustic facades for Frontierland were the last to be built and they cleaned out Home Depot and Lowes of all their lumber by that time. So they used some Orange Tree logs that they had laying around from digging up all the orange trees. They didn't have Norm from This Old House to smooth them out for them.

Well, anyway that is my take on it and I'm sticking to it ;)

K. Martinez said...

I just checked out some images of Walt Disney World and they used the same “bumpy” log style on the Frontierland Shootin' Arcade over there. Interesting!

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Re: The lumpy logs - I hope they are still there! I was at the park on Tuesday and the entire trading post and shooting galley area was behind a refurb wall!

Love that first photo - the expression on Louise's face is price-less and the Indian with his big (candid) smile adds to the authenticity... Great post, thanks!

David said...

While Louise was the life of any party, tug boat, lounge, and even Zayre's, she never could get her family to join in. This is why she hated them.

Anonymous said...

I liked that reverse angle on the Indian Village, it's usually the shot of the stage. Can never quite get the geography of where it was in relation to now.

walterworld said...

Think I read somewhere that the gnarly logs were Walt's idea...