From my pal "Mr. X" I bring you two more wonderful vintage snapshots that he generously gave to me.
Holy Toledo, what a crowded day! I've seen it worse, though. Mr. X liked to take photos from this vantage point, standing on a bench so that he was above the babushka'd heads of the multitudes. The Rocket Jets are up, the Peoplemover is showing off, and all in all the place looks great.
I should get out a map of the park so that I can determine whether Mr. X was in the very front or the very back of the Monorail when he took this photo. But that would involve effort, and I hate effort. OK, I lied, I looked at an old map, and it didn't really help much. I'm going to go ahead and say that he was sitting in front. Ah, I feel better now! Notice the Motor Boat Cruise down below.
Major-
ReplyDeleteI had always heard that "...Tomorrowland is a city on the move..." However, looking at the first image 'they' may wish to recant that statement.
Thanks to Mr. X & you-!
Yes, that's quite crowded. One 4th of July I went with some friends and it was so crowded that the foot traffic stopped for about 5 minutes between the Tomorrowland Terrace and Submarine Voyage. The whole crowd was just stuck not being able to move forward or backward. It was pretty scary. We left the park right after that and returned to the hotel room to relax. The next day was more tolerable.
ReplyDeleteIn the 2nd image, Mr. X was sitting in the front of the Monorail. The monorail is gliding over the Fantasyland Autopia entrance after coming off the sweeping curve over Submarine Lagoon. I like the little Autopia "exit" sign just above the ".com" portion of the watermark.
Mr. X does it again. Thanks to you both.
It's a great big beautiful babushka, shining at the end of every day!
ReplyDeleteTwo awesome pics.
Thanks to Mr. X and Major!
Mr. X really knows his composition - leading lines, near/far perspective, rule of thirds, center of interest. And...he did it within a square format!
ReplyDeleteAwesome!!!
Bill in Denver
There's something about square formats that just scream "VINTAGE!!!!" to me. Reminds me of the drawer in our family room end-table when I was a kid - my parents kept a pile of loose, B&W 126 prints in there, and I loved looking through all of the "BC" ("before Chuck") pictures, including a few from the '64 NYWF.
ReplyDeleteThanks for scanning these WITH the white border, Major - it's part of the charm.
@Alonzo P. Hawk
ReplyDeleteIt's a great big beautiful babushka, shining at the end of every day!
Welcome to the General Electric Carousel of Babushkas!
It's a great big beautiful babushka, shining at the end of every day!
It's a great big beautiful babushka; a babushka’s a fold and tie away!
Mom has a scarf, and that’s the start:
She folds it in two triangle parts,
And when it becomes her millinery,
It’s a dream come true for you and me!
So, it's a great big beautiful babushka, shining at the end of every day!
It's a great big beautiful babushka, a fold and tie away!
Father:
Well, the robins are back. That's a sure sign of spring, especially when they’re wearing chiffon babushkas instead of wool. What year is it? Oh, just before the turn of the century. You can tell because of the newfangled artificial silk invented by Mr. Chardonnet over in Paris that my wife’s fancy new babushka is made out of.
Yes sir, we've got all the latest things. Gas lamps, a telephone, and the latest design in cast iron stoves to dry our wet headscarves in front of. And isn't our new icebox a beauty? Holds fifty pounds of ice. Milk doesn't sour as quick as it used to. Our dog Rover here, keeps the water in the drip pan from overflowing. Gets all his cotton babushkas wet and smelling like damp dog hair in the process, though.
Mother:
But with my new wash day marvel, it takes only five hours to do the wash. Imagine!
Father:
That's right, folks. Now Mother has time for recreations like, uh...
Mother:
Like canning, and polishing the stove, and calculating the base of an isosceles triangle in comparison to the vertical circumference of the human head?
Father:
Okay mother. You just iron the wrinkles out of my raw silk, hand-painted, twelve-inch square babushkas.
Mother:
Yes, dear.
I'm in love with the second picture. I mean, of course it give you that "You are there" feeling, being taken from the actual Monorail car, but shots from the Monorail aren't always that crisp and clear. I don't think I've ever seen a good shot from that angle, and I know I've never seen the tall Motor Boat Cruise Sign. It reminds me of driving through West Virginia, Where the billboards are at highway level, but you can look down and see that the posts holding them up go improbably far down through the trees and the mountains at the side of the road, usually further down than you can see from the car.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that strikes me about the first picture, other than the majesty of Mrs, Catseye Babushkapants, is the swarm of kids who look like understudies for The Brady Bunch. I always assumed the show took place in SoCal because of the constant sunny weather. Although they made all six kids live in two bedrooms and one bathroom, I figured that was for philosophical reasons, since they didn't really seem to lack for money for other things, so I imagined they were at least once-a-year Disneyland regulars. (Pennypincher Dad probably made them share two ticket books, though.)
There's nothing like an instamatic pic to make a photo come alive. Both of them, but particularly that first shot, just feel like it's a great day there and fun things are happening. Must be all the yellow hues. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteNanook, it sure wasn’t a city on the move after the fireworks were over last autumn. In fact, most of the park was jammed unlike anything I have personally experienced, and I’ll bet that was not even an especially bad night by today’s standards.
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, you were lucky that you had more than one day! With one exception, I’m there for a single day, and if it’s crowded, well, too darn bad. One August day years ago my brother and I managed to get on something like 5 rides the whole day!!
Alonzo, when it becomes a reality, it’s a dream come true for you and me!
Bill in Denver, I don’t want to give too much away, but Mr. X’s first name is “Ansel”.
Chuck, I totally agree; I think of the hours I used to spend at my grandmother’s, going through box after box of photos. Some were tiny sepia prints, some were curled and yellowed, but MANY of them were the square-format prints that people of a “certain generation” (i.e. ME) remember so well.
Melissa, if only we could get a Rex Allen to read your script! I can hear it in my head (it drowns out those other voices pretty well - for the moment). However, I think Father would have been much more impressed by those clear plastic babushkas that are worn in the rain.
Melissa again, I am still unsure if that lady is wearing a babushka or if it is some kind of weird snood. And it is hard to tell which kid goes with which parent, but I think that a large group of them belong to the guy in the brown pants. Maybe. As for the Monorail pic, I think it is unique among all the photos in my collection, but that can be said for a lot of Mr. X’s photos.
Tom, as you probably know, I am all about Tomorrowland, so that first photo is particularly wonderful to me!
@Mellisa,
ReplyDeleteI was hoping you would run with that line and you did not let us down! Very well done!!!!
@Major,
Rex Allen Jr is still around and sounds just like his Dad. He narrated the COP documentary from Extinct Attractions Club.
I'm going out on a limb but I think the back of her babushka looks just like your avatar.
@Alonzo P. Hawk
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks! Combine one of my favorite songs, favorite attractions, and favorite words/garments, and I can't go wrong! I've had Scene 2 going through my head all night.
Father:
Whew! Hottest summer we've had in years. Well, we've progressed a long way since the turn of the century, twenty years ago. But no one realized then that this would be the age of babushkas. Everyone's wearing them: farmers, factories, whole towns. We don't worry so much about the youngsters being out on windy days. And what a difference in our home! We can run as many wires as we need, in any direction for Mother's new electrical servants; electric sewing machine for hemming, coffee percolator for staying up all night learning new wraps and knots, and they all go to work at the flick of a switch. Take it easy...you'll blow a fuse!
Dog:
Grrr!
Father:
Well, the days of lugging heavy, hot irons from an old stove to an ironing board are gone forever. And with an electric iron and electric lights, Mother has something to do to fill in her evenings. Now it's no problem at all to get my silk acetate fourteen-inch square scarves smooth, right Mother?
Mother:
Yes, dear.
Father:
Well, we've got indoor plumbing now, saves a lot of walking. We can just leave our lightweight babushkas on all day instead of changing into the wool ones we used to keep on a nail by the back door. In our new bathroom, we've got a... a houseguest... Cousin Orvilka.
Orvilka:
No proper shower caps atall around this place.
Father:
Sorry, Orvilka. You know, just when it looks as though we've gone "a head" about as far as we can, we read about the things those research people at General Babushka are working on, and we can be sure of one thing...
Father:
ReplyDeleteWell, it's autumn again, and the kids are back in their acrylic fringed babushkas; thank goodness. Now we're in the frantic forties. And it's amazing how today's household appliances are helping to take over the hard work. Like our new electric washing machine. It does about everything but fold the scarves along the bias and match up the opposite corners. And that's real progress, believe me.
Dog:
Grr!
Father:
Sport, stop pickin' at your bandanna! Yes, sir, kitchens are now places to relax in. Grandma and Grandpa have taken over my den. Radios and automatic record players are now combined in one unit, and Grandma has a new hearing aid. Of course, she has to be careful what kind of babushka material she puts over her ears now. Some of the new synthetic fibers are too…
Grandma:
Hmm?
Father:
Nothing, Grandma.
Grandma:
Oh, I thought you said you had a new shearing blade. That sheep’s getting kind of scruffy.
Dog:
Grr!
Father:
Sport! Now, where was I? Oh, remember back in the twenties when young people got their exercise dancing the Charleston? Well, today our daughter Jane keeps in shape with electricity.
Jane:
(On exercise machine) I'm not going to the dance with that jerk Wilfred.
Babs:
(Over telephone) I don't blame you one bit.
Jane:
I wouldn't be seen in his old jalopy. Makes my hair bounce and shake like a bowl of jelly – even Granma’s industrial-strength babushkas from the old country can’t contain it, and they’re woven with twenty-five percent asbestos fiber and twenty-five percent whalebone. Oh, and listen, Babs...
Father:
I'm having another phone put in next week. Well, thanks to progress, Mother and I can spend more time together. We've got the new electronic babysitter. Television is here and no doubt it will improve. But I'll bet there'll always be the good guys in white babushkas shooting it out with the bad guys in black babushkas. Yes sir, it seems like these are the best years of our lives. Well, I guess it's about time to move on. All of us should know the song by now. Let's sing it together...