Here are two from a newly-acquired batch from August of 1970!
I like this sunny, bright photo of the Matterhorn, with waterfalls and Skyway buckets and a dash of awesomeness. There's even a bobsled, if you look carefully. I have plenty of photos of this attraction, and yet this particular image makes me love it all over again.
Meanwhile, up in the Skyway, let's look northward toward It's a Small World. The Disneyland Railroad is just passing through - there's no stopping in Fantasyland anymore. Partly hidden behind the treetops are two structures - a yellow and red striped abomination (I really don't like it!), and the blueish one to its right. Are they both souvenir stands?
Major-
ReplyDeleteThat image of the Matterhorn really is a honey-! And as far as 'abominations' are concerned... One man's abomination is another man's babushka - or something like that-!
Thanks, Major.
Major, the blue and white stand was the Small World Souvenir Stand and the yellow and red one was the Caricature stand/kiosk. You have posted pic of it without the turrets. I'm not sure if the turrets were added at some point to the existing stand, or if a whole new stand was built. This is how it looked when I got my caricature done in 1976. And I still have it!
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand why the Fantasyland train station wasn't just relocated. They could have put it over on the west side of Small World pretty much where the train station sits today. It seems like an odd decision to eliminate one of the stops along the train route. Since Walt was still alive at the time, I'm assuming that was a decision that he made himself.
Oh, and the engine of the little "train" ice cream stand can be seen just to the right of the Small World Souvenir Stand.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite feature in today's post would be the old Ice Cream Train that used to be located next to the Motor Boat Cruise area as seen in the second image. I always made it a point to stop at the Ice Cream Train vendor carts to get an ice cream treat or frozen banana dein there during my visits to the park back then. I was disappointed when I discovered it was gone.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I loved that red & yellow Caricature Stand! It had a nice old-fashioned 1950's storybook fairyland feel to it, even if it was built in the 1970's. I loved it when they built fanciful structures like that.
http://davelandweb.com/fantasyland/images/70s/FlandCaricatureStand_70s.jpg
A-ha! In that black and white photo that Ken provided the link for, we can see the old caricature stand and the new one side by side. That answers that question. Thanks, Ken!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could ride the skyway through the nostrils of the Matterhorn again.
ReplyDeleteJG
The Skyway!! I miss it more now than ever. Mostly because there are views of the park we will NEVER GET AGAIN! All those great vantage points for photography forever lost. So sad.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there will be a "TomorrowLand Drones" ride some day, where we'll all have personal quadcopters we can pilot around the park. What could go wrong?
Nanook, now I am going to invest all my money in a plan to make men’s babushkas the next big trend!
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, before Toontown was there, would there have been a good place to relocate Fantasyland Station? There might have been a “whole lot of nothing” to the west of IASW. It IS weird that they just removed it though.
TokyoMagic!, oh yeah! I didn’t even notice the train ice cream stand.
K. Martinez, that Caricature Stand does feel like it came from one of the many Mother Goose / Fairy Tale amusement parks around the USA; in fact, it really looks more like an inflatable “bounce house” to me! But that’s just my opinion, I am glad that you like it!
TokyoMagic!, ask and ye shall receive, or something!
JG, the nostrils remind me of the nasal openings on a skull. Gruesome!
Tom, I don’t know if the Imagineers realized how big of a loss it was when they removed the Skyway. With all of the Cal OSHA regulations and ADA considerations, I don’t foresee any sort of ride that gets guests way up in the air again. But we can still hope!
Abominabushka!
ReplyDeleteI love all the motion that's going on in the first picture, at all different angles. You got the waterfall, the Skyway line, and the sleds, and then the people walking into the frame at the bottom. It's just go, go, go, and it's awesome.
Major, there was a whole lot of nothing next to It's A Small World prior to Videopolis being built in 1985. It was just grass and trees. They even referred to it as the Small World Meadow. Maybe putting a train station over there by itself wouldn't have drawn people over to it, but I bet people still would have disembarked at a Fantasyland train station. Here's a good shot showing how open the area was: http://davelandblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/disneyland-railroad-my-first-shot-for.html
ReplyDeleteHere's another pic of that area from a few years later. I was always fascinated by that undeveloped area once I learned that it was being looked at for future expansion of the park. I know I've mentioned it before, but I was always disappointed with their decision to build Videopolis there. It would have been perfect to have the traffic flow through this area and into the area behind Big Thunder. Now I'm wondering if Star Wars Land will be another dead end like Toontown and Critter Country or if they will connect the Star Wars area with Toontown to improve traffic flow.
ReplyDeletehttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/GoGoGorilla5/11-72_OnTrain.jpg
@Tokyo, I have seen sketches of a possible SWL site that would extend from Critter Country through the backstage area around behind the Rivers of America and come out via Big Thunder Ranch to the concourse to Fantasyland.
ReplyDeleteThis area is approximately the 14 acre area described in the press release and except for the Big Thunder Ranch area, it's all now currently backstage. Presumably those uses would be relocated to newly purchased lands, of which Disney now has quite a bit, but not contiguous to the Park.
It is complete speculation, but fits the descriptions given so far. I think it would be great to cut through Critter country since it would improve west side circulation and give more room to hide from Fantasmic. It would be a great promenade in both directions.
Another layout showed a 14 acre bite out of backstage almost completely northerly of BTR, but this one isolated about 5 acres of backstage behind Critter Country and would make that isolated area and SWL hard to service and access while SWL would be a complete cul-de-sac. Hope they don't pick that.
Can't wait for more information. They have promised to spend 1 Billion Dollars, something cool has to result from that.
JG
JG, I've seen the maps that people have drawn up, speculating where exactly the new land might go. I don't think the 1 billion dollars has to be spent entirely inside the park. I think they will get to apply a portion of that budget towards the new parking structure that will be built to the east of the park. How much does a parking structure cost these days?
ReplyDeleteMelissa, it really was amazing! This was the Fantasyland side of the Matterhorn too, so you didn’t even have the added bonuses of the Submarine Voyage, the Peoplemover, and all of that other stuff.
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, even though I have seen photos of that meadow before, it is still a cool sight. Thanks for the link.
TokyoMagic! again, my photo isn’t quite as spectacular as Daveland’s. I agree, Videopolis was a disappointment, but I know that a lot of people have fond memories of watching their favorite bands there.
JG, I thought that they were going to spend well over 1 billion, but maybe I am mistaken? Of course I hope hope hope that whatever they do, it turns out to be incredible, and NOT just something for Star Wars nerds. We won’t know for years, but it does sort of look like SWL will be a dead end, like Toontown.
TokyoMagic!, I’m sure a massive parking structure is quite expensive, especially if they have those ramps like the “Mickey and Friends” structure has. The last time I was at the park, we were rerouted to another parking lot (I don’t even know what it was called), and if we hadn’t already had our tickets (enabling us to hop on the Monorail), we would have had to walk a really long way to the front gate. I hope they have trams or something for the new lot.
Major, One of the beauties of being a non-local when visiting Disneyland is that I already have a parking space for my car at the motel I stay at. I just get up in the morning and walk across the street to the park. No muss, no fuss.
ReplyDeleteDisney promised a $1 billion investment into the resort if the city of Anaheim would forgo a gate-tax on the resort. It's really not that much when considering what they spent on Buena Vista Street and Cars Land to rehab DCA. It was about the same amount, wasn't it?
Also that's the Tomorrowland side of the Matterhorn. The bridge and the waterfall are the clue. The Fantasyland side has the monorail passing by along the mountain base.
Ken, I believe that the World of Color, Little Mermaid attraction, Carsland and Buena Vista St. were what we got for the 1 billion that they said they were going to spend on "fixing" that park. Oh and also the "place-making" of the Ferris wheel, the swings and the "Goofy" coaster. I would think that this one billion could potentially be used up with Star Wars Land and a parking structure and that's it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, thanks for that extra bit of info. I forgot about the World of Color, Little Mermaid attraction and place-making. It sounds like you're about right with 1 billion only covering Star Wars Land and a parking structure. I find it fascinating to think of the initial costs for their projects through the years. 17 mil. for Disneyland, 400 mil. for Walt Disney World and 1 bil. for EPCOT Center. Now one billion doesn't even cover an entire theme park.
ReplyDeleteKen, I remember Disneyland's Space Mt. costing approximately the same amount that it cost to build all of DL in 1955. I know Tokyo DisneySea cost 4 billion in 2001 and it opened the same year that we got DCA which only cost 600 million....and I think that even included the cost of the Grand Californian Hotel! It just shows you how very little they spent on building DCA. I wonder what the estimate was going to be for building Westcot?
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