Monday, May 18, 2015

Two From July 1967

Some of you may recall a post from a while ago, showing two photos taken from the hub. This first photo is from the same lot - our photographer turned to his / her right toward the entrance to Frontierland.

Man, it is pretty busy on this summer day; it reminds me of the way things are around a "Fantasmic!" performance today. If this was truly taken in July of '67, then perhaps the crowds were in force for the debut of the New Tomorrowland. However, it is more likely that many of those people are heading to the "Pirates of the Caribbean", which had opened only months before. Still, it looks very pretty with flowers, and plenty of trees for beauty and shade. I like the baskets of flowers hanging from the light post. The sails of the Columbia look neat, way in the distance. 


As always, I like to do some vintage people-watching! The little girl in the blue shorts is having an awesome day, while her sister (behind her) has run out of gas already.


A second image from that same bunch shows this view looking toward the Monsanto House of the Future. If you look closely, there are a LOT of people waiting to get in. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks, it will close in a matter of months. To our left is the tent-roofed souvenir stand. 

I originally assumed that this picture was taken from the Skyway, but it looks too low now that I think about it. Any ideas?


17 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

The angle for the HotF is so unusual, it really looks as if the location is anywhere other than Disneyland.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Maybe the House of the Future pic was taken from the Monorail as it curved around the Matterhorn? So it appears that the HOTF's covered patio had already been turned into a souvenir stand by July of 1967. I wonder what year that happened? I had just assumed it didn't occur until the HOTF was removed.

Nancy said...

Love the House of the Future view here....

I like to get views that show more than one land or theme. here we see the ultra-modern house, the fantasy of the circus tent in the souvenir stand and you can see the roof of a Main Street building high in the trees. Very cool!!

Chuck said...

Check out the crowds! Even the deck of the Columbia is awash with people.

The Monorail is a good possibility for that second shot. Did the Omnibuses ever head that far north? I seem to vaguely remember reading somewhere that at one point they had a stop in Fantasyland, but maybe I dreamed that. Or imagined it. Or made it up. I do that sometimes.

Unknown said...

That last shot is a gem!

You can second Nanook's vote for somewhere other than Disneyland in a fantasy world. It's where the House of the Future wound up in a little mid-western park.

And is that the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse on the skyline in the distance? Such a great angle...

Unknown said...

Oh, and Chuck: the omnibuses went around to the backside of Snow Mountain (the backside of dirt?) but I'm pretty sure they stopped that with the coming of the Matterhorn.

K. Martinez said...

In that first photo it's the pre-WALL-E physical shape of the people I find interesting.

Chuck and Patrick,

Here's a Daveland photo of the Omnibus stop/boarding sign next to Fantasyland Autopia which was open at the same time as the Matterhorn Bobsleds. So either the Omnibus was still going into Fantasyland or the sign was yet to be removed.

http://davelandweb.com/autopia/images/50s/SteveC_LgT_Autopia.jpg

Melissa said...

The Frontierland gate shot is a great peoplewatcher indeed!

Love the matching blue or green tennis shoes on the three sisters (or cousins; there appear to be two ladies of maternal age together, so hard to tell whose girls are whose). Sis and I always had matching sneakers (except for those years when we could only afford one pair that met the parochial school’s standards of no logos, writing, or pictures, even on the inside, (no cheating by covering up or obliterating) and had to share one pair, passing them off between P.E. classes).

Love the little stripey-shirted boy at right whose Dad is steering him by his noggin!

The man in blue at far right with his hand up to his face is obviously a time traveler talking on his cell phone.

At left, behind the aqua-colored trash can, which is behind the nice lady in the stripey tank top – is that the rare male babushka in the wild?!?


Monkey Cage Kurt said...

I like these, I can almost feel the hot July So Cal sun and I’m pretty sure I smell popcorn. It’s still cold here in Oregon right now. Pics like these almost make me pine for OC, well at least the OC within the berm.

Boy! Melissa you have a good eye. I would never have discerned the “matching blue or green tennis shoes”. I can’t even see the color at all. The Dad steering the boy by his noggin is a funny observation as well.

Tom said...

I vote for Monorail viewpoint on that third shot. I think the skyway would be going through the mountain right when this shot lined up the way it did. I'm not sure the omnibus would have had a high enough vantage point for this angle.

Either way... definitely a new one! Great find.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I think this might be a unique view among my thousands of Disneyland slides!

TokyoMagic!, that must be right, the height seems to match up to the Monorail. And what else could it be? It’s too high to be an Omnibus. I don’t know for sure, but I think that tent had been a souvenir stand for a while by ’67.

Nancy, the funny thing is that the circus tent is actually supposed to be part of the ultra-modern house; but it does look like it belongs in Fantasyland.

Chuck, I don’t believe that the Omnibuses ever went quite that far north, though I could be wrong.

Patrick Devlin, yes, you can always tell the Swiss Family Treehouse by its reddish hue.

Patrick Devlin #2, I am pretty sure that the Omnibuses DID go around the Matterhorn for at least a short while.

K. Martinez, now I am going to have to do some research (when I have time, which might not be for a while) to try to find a photo of the Omnibus circling the Matterhorn!!

Melissa, my mom would take us (4 kids) to this crappy shoe store that had the cheapest sneakers; I still remember getting some blue faux-Converse things that turned brilliant purple as the weeks passed. Nowadays nobody would look twice at purple shoes, but back then it was not done! I can’t tell WHAT is on that man’s head (in the background)!

Monkey Cage Kurt, enjoy the cold… it will be hot soon enough, I’ll bet, even in Oregon. We’ve been enjoying gray, overcast weather, and I am loving it!

Tom, the Monorail is the only thing that makes sense; I’m pretty sure that the tent was very close to the base of the Matterhorn - again, I would do some research if I had more time today!

K. Martinez said...

Actually the Omnibus would've had to discontinue just before the Matterhorn build, because the new monorail track which was being built simultaneously with the Matterhorn and Submarine Voyage was too low for the double-decker bus to pass through. Duh!

So I'd guess that Omnibus signpost was actually yet to be removed.

Unknown said...

Cool shot there, K. Martinez. I love these kind of Disneyland mysteries that crop up from time to time.

Major Pepperidge said...

K. Martinez, are you sure the Monorail track was too low? Over on Matterhorn’s blog, there is a photo of the Omnibus making its way north of the mountain. I have the feeling it went completely around it to come back down Main Street, at least for a short while.

Patrick Devlin, it is amazing that there are ANY mysteries about the park after all of this time and all of the analysis.

K. Martinez said...

Wow!! There it is! It still looks like it would scrape the monorail track, especially when looking at the monorail track passing over the Autopia entrance. Great job Major!

Snow White Archive said...

If I had a time machine to take me back to the mid 60s, this is exactly how I'd picture things looking.

And as K. Martinez said, it's interesting to note the...

...pre-WALL-E physical shape of the people.



Anonymous said...

HOF is from the monorail, no doubt, too tall for a bus, and too low for the skyway. The train slows down there to make the last set of snaky curves into the station.

I had heard the stories of the Omnibus circling Snow Hill, but have never seen pictures of it off the Hub after the Matterhorn.

The monorail track makes some fairly significant grade elevation changes, but it is hard to notice in the train. You can see one such gradient in the Matterhorn Blog linked photo, right behind the Autopia Eagle.

We have talked off and on about the perceived grade elevation of the beamway around the Matterhorn. I think this is partly due to the steep earth grade at the mountain base, the beam is at the same elevation, but the pylons look shorter because they are partly embanked by the hill. The beam might also slope down a bit around the Hub side of the mountain where the HOF pic was taken, and then back up again to the station.

It's fun such to speculate about things that don't matter, but reliving the memories are a joy.

Thanks Major.

JG