Today I am happy to present more Devlin family photos! Tom Devlin was nice enough to share these with all of us, and he gave me a little background on who the man in the pictures is:
The gentleman in the photos is my wife's father, Dick Bechelli. Dick along with his brother, Joe, owned Bechelli Belts which was based in San Francisco. The story goes that the Bechelli brothers were contacted by Disney to produce a souvenir Disneyland belt. It appears that part of the meeting included a visit to the park. (Apparently on a very slow and uncrowded day.)
There's Dick Bechelli, standing at the rail of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, looking like a real go-getter!
Tom continues: As you can see the slides have no date but I'm pretty sure this is no more than a year or two years after the park opened. I've tried to find out what the belt looked like but nobody on the Bechelli side of the family can tell me. I'm sure it would be quite the collector's item now.
If anybody out there is familiar with this rare souvenir belt, please chime in!
Tom shared some additional photos of his father in-law on the wonderful Daveland blog... see some of them HERE, and some more HERE.
Many thanks to Tom Devlin and his wife for sharing these fun family photos!
Major-
ReplyDeleteDefinitely some fun views. I'm thinking you're correct about the date of the images. Looking over images of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, at Xmas, it appears the same style of [understated] seasonal pennants were used for 1955 thru at least 1957.
Thanks, Tom (& The Major).
The first shot of Mr. Bechelli is a nice one. He's definitely dressed for business. I've always liked the original blue and white stripes of the King Arthur Carrousel. Thanks, Tom for sharing more of your family pics.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see Tom and Major in the same sentence "Ground control to Major Tom" pops into my head for some reason.
Nice work Tom and the Major. Thanks for both of your archival skills.
ReplyDeleteNanook, it’s true, Disneyland had a certain look in those first two or three years that somehow changed by 1959 - I’m not sure what it is that’s different! The pennants are definitely a good clue, thanks.
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, how often do you see anyone in business attire at Disneyland these days?! I agree, the blue and white stripes are somehow very cheerful for the Carrousel. I’ll take a David Bowie tie-in any day!
Patrick Devlin, thanks to Tom for sharing these fun photos!
Very nice pictures. Definitely no one dresses like this in Disneyland anymore.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these.
JG
How can you tell it's pre-1959-60? Look for what's missing - no subs, monorail, or Skull Rock.
ReplyDeleteMany continued thanks to the Devlin family for their continued contributions!
Wonderful shots of a bygone era. KS
ReplyDeleteSecond picture caption: "Yeah, this is our summer place. Not much to look at, I know, but we really only come for the fishing."
ReplyDeleteseriously, though, these are great shots hats off to the photographer. And a big thanks to the Devlin/Bechelli family and the Maj.
Second second picture caption: "Yeah, this is our summer place. Not much to look at, I know, but we really only come for the swan hunting."
ReplyDeleteMajor-
ReplyDeleteAnother way of determining the timeframe would be a sighting of the cables for the Skyway - but from this angle and limited panorama, a definitive answer seems questionable. But, if one could determine with certainty the Skyway had yet to be installed - in this instance, the image would be from November/December 1955.