Wow, can you believe that it is December already? Today, GDB is proud to present some special guest photos, courtesy of reader Ken Martinez! Ken took these photos of the Christmas parade back in 1996, and they are quite nice - and doubly welcome because I don't have anything that combines Disneyland and Christmas. I'll be posting Ken's pictures in three installments.
If there's one image that comes to mind when I think of Disneyland's Christmas parades, it is the marching toy soldiers! They've been there a loooong time, I have a picture of them marching way back in 1961. It seems that this platoon has gotten a bit smaller over the years - but I am always happy to see these fellows.
And there they go! How do they keep their costumes so shiny?
Pinocchio was a living toy long before Pixar got into the game. If you look carefully in the background, you can just see the blue tail of Ariel the mermaid.
Pinoke's pal Jiminy Cricket shares the same float; he looks even more dapper than usual with his striped scarf. Is that Duffy the Disney Bear on top of that alphabet block?!
Cool, a real Ferris Wheel on a float! Too small for any costumed characters (or for me), but it still looks pretty neat.
One of the green army men from Toy Story is playing… well, I don't know what that instrument is. A baritone horn, maybe? A Ting-tingler? Plastic instruments just don't have the timbre of a real brass example.
I thought these Chinese toys might have something to do with "Mulan", but that film wouldn't be released for another two years. So I can only assume that they represent toys from around the world.
This ends part one! Thanks again to Ken Martinez for generously sharing his personal photos.
Wow-! Nice images, Ken. Thanks so much for sharing. The Christmas spirit is beginning to feel a little bit brighter.
ReplyDelete(And thank you, too, Major).
I concur, very nice photos. Love the park dressed for the holidays and always enjoyed the parade as well. Now separated by distance I rely on your photos and my dvd of "Disneyland Around the Seasons". Thanks for the photos.
ReplyDeleteOoooh thank you for sharing these Ken! That green army man is just playing a marching tuba. They typically use those in most drum and bugle corps rather than the bulky sousaphone you see in high school and college bands. Can't wait to see more of these :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these cool photos, Ken!
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is just a small advance company of sniper toy soldiers. Back in the '80's and '90's, their uniforms were kept shiny by all the ambient hair gel in the air.
I was gonna say marching euphonium, but with the size of that bell I think PsySocDisney is right about the marching tuba.
Thank you all for the nice comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the Christmas parade images and that I was able to share them with you, courtesy of Major.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the rare times I took pictures at Disneyland and I remember that trip well.
Nanook, I am hoping to get more Disneyland images from Ken!
ReplyDeleteAlonzo, I'm going to have to rematch my DVD of "Disneyland Around the Seasons", now that you mention it.
PsySocDisney, I'd never heard about a marching tuba, since I thought that most marching bands used sousaphones. But I'm obviously wrong!
Melissa, my band is called Ambient Hair Gel.
K. Martinez, thank you again for sharing these great pix… part two is coming up!