Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Main Street Station, August 1960

Sharp-eyed folks might get their first glimpse of Disneyland when they spy the Matterhorn from the freeway. Or, I goess you could count the parking lot as part of the park (debatable!). But for many, Main Street Station is the first real piece of Disneyland that they remember - it's right there, out front, every time! 

As usual, folks wanted their pictures taken in front of the Mickey flower portrait, which is looking a bit anemic here. There's the Kalamazoo hand car. And what's the deal with the Kodak "picture spot" sign to our left? I am not sure if I've ever noticed that before.


You know me, I am always happy to see the beautiful attraction posters when they were on display out front; So, when I held this slide up to the light for the first time…. hooray! Unfortunately it's blurry. Happens all the time, but still, kind of disappointing. I can identify seven of them (from right to left: America the Beautiful, Jungle River Cruise, Golden Horseshoe, Submarine Voyage, Tom Sawyer Island, Skyway, Art of Animation). Hey, I have all of those!


13 comments:

Nanook said...

It's a happy day when so many attraction posters are on display. Also nice is the Nature's Wonderland banner announcing The Western Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland that opened back on May 28th.

Again I ask - where is my time machine-??

Thanks, Major.

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Even blurry these are awesome shots of the Navajo Chief and the combine car in the station.

Hand crafted at the Disney Studios these were beautiful.

Although they don't give the view the open air cars do they were more authentic.

Super Tuesday!!

Melissa said...

It may be blurry, but the composition of that second shot is great. I love how the attraction posters echo the windows of the railway car. And, on another level, the frames evoke the cars, with the fence standing in for the coupling between them.

Tom said...

Major, I agree with the feeling that the station is really the first impression of Disneyland. When I finally brought my daughters to Disneyland for the first time, we took the monorail from DTD. It was at the moment we first saw the Main Street Station with a train just pulling in that it hit us: we had arrived at last.

That second shot is terrific, even with the blur. I wonder what the banner over the left tunnel entrance says?

Nanook said...

@ Tom-

Thanks to Daveland, HERE'S your answer. Enlarge the very first image.

Snow White Archive said...

Major, do you happen to have a Snow White Adventures attraction poster?

By the way, the guy with the hat in that first photo looks like he's heading off to prison rather than about to step into the Happiest Place on Earth. ;)

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I had a friend who used to have his collection of framed attraction posters (not repros) all over his beautiful home, I loved going over there just to see them. Sadly, he has since sold most of his collection.

Alonzo, it IS amazing that those passenger cars (and even the locomotives) were built at the studio. No outsourcing needed! That makes them extra special, even though I like the other locos that are genuine antiques.

Melissa, my mind is officially blown.

Tom, my last visit to Disneyland was the ONLY time I entered the park via the Monorail from Downtown Disney… I really missed the whole experience of walking under the tracks onto Main Street! See Nanook's comment for the answer to your question.

Nanook, I know I have a good shot of the actual sign somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can find it.

Snow White Archive, No, I don't have one of those unfortunately; I concentrated my collecting on the earlier silkscreened posters from the 50's and 60's; the Snow White poster is from 1983.

Nanook said...

@ Major-

I knew you had an image of the banner, too. I'm not certain if THIS is the best one, but at least it's another angle.

Tom said...

@ Nanook - thanks. I guess if I'd read your first comment a bit more carefully, I'd have had the answer right then!

Nanook said...

@ Tom-

Oh sure. And as you can see, in addition to Nature's Wonderland, there's also a plug for America the Beautiful, which opened in the CircleVision Theatre back in March, and also opening concurrently with Nature's Wonderland - The Art of Animation opened in Tomorrowland.

Melissa said...

Love the perpendicular WONDERLAND and WURLITZER in that banner pic.

bigbrian-nc.com said...

In between the Golden Horseshoe poster and the Submarine Voyage poster is a Natures Wonderland poster, so now you can identify eight of them, although i never would have tried to identify the ones furthest away, they get tiny and the glare from the angle gets worse as you go to the left, great god identifying as many as you did!

Melissa said...

Melissa, my mind is officially blown.

Odd as it sounds, I had the same terribly intense instructor for intro-level Art History and Russian Lit. He ruined me for ever being able to look at or read something and just see a lovely picture or an interesting story. My brain immediately starts looking for patterns and parallels and symbolism until sometimes I feel like the love child of Fox Mulder and Sigmund Freud. It's fun for me, but sometimes it can annoy my friends!