Please take a moment to think about the many veterans - men and women - who have sacrificed to make our lives better!
Here are two very nice images - the last two from a batch circa September 1963. Hopefully they were worth waiting for!
Oh baby, it's that supa-cool Mark II Monorail, looking sleek and vaguely shark-like as it digests its most recent meal of about 60 passengers. It almost has eyes. Those black eyes, like doll's eyes. The "General Dynamics" logo is still present on each end of the "Submarine Voyage" sign. While I am happy being a Major, perhaps someday I too will be a General. Although "General Pepperidge" doesn't quite have the same ring, admittedly.
Notice the tour guide to the right, she seems to be waiting for folks to disembark from the Monorail.
Here's a better look at that logo... how can something so simple be so evocative?
As an added bonus (and because I found it on the internet), here are some samples of Erik Nitsche's posters (he did many more than these 15). SO fantastic! I would like one of each, please. Or two.
Next up is this fun photo featuring the Golden Horseshoe Revue. There's the beautiful Betty Taylor, a be-masked Wally Boag, and a bemused Fulton Burly. Wally is removing one mask - I believe he wore yet another mask beneath it. Zing! Does anybody know what song accompanied this bit?
This waitress isn't crazy about the loud BANG from the gun Wally is holding! Or else she doesn't like the singing.
That waitress looks a little bit like Annette Funicello in Babes In Toyland. Notice I didn't say that she looked like Lesley Anne Warren or Fred MacMurray from The Happiest Millionaire....or Lucy! ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe Erik Nitsche posters make the whole post for me today. Those are extremely cool! Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteSuch a pristine shot of bluey sitting in the station (belly full of plump passengers). It makes one think that if Walt's vision had come true and this form of transportation had reached the big cities (like San Francisco) would the riders disembark-adaro. Thanks for posting. Happy Friday GDBr's. Thank a veteran today and tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the early 70's we had several of the GD posters hanging inside our garage!! My parents both met working at General Dynamics in 1960. My dad started in the purchasing dept of government contracts and my mom was an executive secretary. When my dad first attempted to ask my mom out she would have nothing to do with him and would reply " blast off!!" And "get outta town" like dialog from the Donna Reed Show!! Eventually my mom fell fir my dad after they were put on the same bowling team in the General Dynsmics League.
ReplyDeleteAnyway , when I became Disneyland obsessed and discovered the coercion to the Sub Voyage and those GD POSTERS ( the ones in our garage were long gone) my dad explained the walls of the San Diego GENERAL DYNAMICS offices were covered with those posters and my dad insisted there were Disneyland Submarine Voyage attraction posters on the hallway walls as well!
Beautiful MONORAIL image BTW!!
I'm with K. Martinez – those posters sure are somthing else! And the photographs aren't too shabby either. Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteSplendid post today, Major. Salute to the veterans and their families.
ReplyDeleteSeems like that should be "Admiral Dynamics" since they are making submarines, but ok.
JG
TokyoMagic!, it’s true, the waitress does have a similar bouffant. All men and women had that exact hairdo that year. Even Fred MacMurray!
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, I once went to a collector’s home in Malibu, holy moly, the wall was filled with original Erik Nitsche posters! I wonder if he still has them?
Alonzo P Hawk, I have to think that the Monorail could have been adapted for practical use in cities, but it never really had a chance. Change is hard for people.
Mike Cozart, ha ha, your mom sounds like a girl who needed to be won over! Good for you dad for not giving up. I still remember an auction in which 4 Nitsche General Dynamics posters went for something like $1400 (for all four), now you would be lucky to find one for that price.
Pegleg Pete, thanks!
JG, I noticed that some of the posters have tiny jets on them as well, so I guess GD also was involved with aircraft design?
Yes- San Diego's General Dynamics was doing aircraft and mostly space craft and missels . My mom still has scale wooden painted desk models of various rockets that her division worked on - one of them is the ATLAS CENTAUR ROCKET.
ReplyDeleteMajor, on second glance, she does bear an uncanny resemblance to Fred MacMurray. It must be the hairdo.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we can see a little bit of the smoke in the air from Wally's gun. It's in front of the draperies, just above Betty Taylor. Unless it's from a cigarette that she was smoking on stage.
@ TM!-
ReplyDeleteActually - everyone bears a resemblance to Fred MacMurray. Well... it's the law-!
"This waitress isn't crazy about the loud BANG from the gun Wally is holding! Or else she doesn't like the singing."
ReplyDeleteLOL! Who knows? Could be both. :P
TokyoMagic!, funny, until you pointed it out, I didn’t see the smoke. For some reason I expected it to be down rather than up!
ReplyDeleteNanook, no offense to Fred, but that sounds like a nightmare.
The Disney Dudebro, maybe you’re right!
Being a major ain't a bad thing, but a general's pension is much better. Trust me on that.
ReplyDeleteI spent a year working for General Dynamics. Sadly, I never saw a single poster like these. Come to think of it, I never saw a single poster. Or even made the connection between my employer and vintage Disneyland. I feel cheated.
That top left poster looks like the Tent of Tomorrow at the NY pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair.
ReplyDeleteChuck : don't worry - at WDI I worked with a guy who had been there for about 8 months when he was amazed to see a Mr. toad car in the hallway - which had been in the same spot for at least 2 years .
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDelete"When the Monorail comes at ya, it doesn't seem to be livin'... until it bites ya."
ReplyDeleteThanks Major!
12/12/17