Friday, May 10, 2019

Main Street Station, WDW, November 1971

I only have six more slides from Mr. X's 1971 Thanksgiving holiday trip to the Magic Kingdom. So sad.

Look at this beautiful shot of Main Street Station! Very pretty, and taken on a perfect Autumn morning. Could the sky be any bluer? A train is packed with guests, about to take their own "grand circle tour" around the park. 


Zooming in, we can see that there are some costumed characters milling about; there's Pooh, and the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit. It's hard to see even in this zoom, but a boy to the right of Pooh's hunny pot is wearing a coonskin cap. Meanwhile, I originally thought that the young woman with the very short skirt was a cast member, but I guess the small child next to her nixes that idea!


Next is this very nice shot looking toward the west tunnels (plural) under the train tracks, while the Lilly Belle locomotive sits above. the 70's fashions don't look too wild yet, but there are splashes or bold yellow, red, and blue. 


Another zoom-in shows some attraction posters in the tunnel - out of all of my WDW slides, this is the only one that shows posters, I believe! We can see the beautiful "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" poster - a nice update on the Disneyland Submarine Voyage - as well as one for "America the Beautiful". 


I sure wish I had one of these!

17 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Oh, those images look so yummy-! Why aren't we all there-? Sigh...

Thanks, once again to Mr. X and to you.

TokyoMagic! said...

Look how easy it would be to jump over that low fence and get into the park.....if that security guard didn't happen to be looking in that direction.

Who were the lucky guests that got to sit in front of that giant porthole, on the side of Captain Nemo's Nautilus?

TokyoMagic! said...

How cute! In the first pic, the white-haired lady wearing the diamond print skirt (or are those knee-length hostess pants?), is wearing mouse ears!

Chuck said...


Aaaack! Only six more Mr. X November '71 slides!

Major, it's hard to tell from this angle, but there's actually just one west tunnel at the MK. It's a lot wider than the one at DL and has a support column in the middle of the entrance and exit portals. It's easier to see in this photo.

It took me forever to find that boy in the coonskin cap. The monitor on my laptop was at the wrong angle, and I wasn't expecting him on his dad's shoulders. I still have my first coonskin cap, bought at the Meadow Trading Post at the Fort Wilderness Campground on my first WDW trip in 1979. The hat part was of rabbit fur while only the tail was genuine ex-raccoon. My sister's example looked a little odd, as there was a large patch of white fur from the rabbit's belly on the front, but it made it easy to tell them apart.

I think this is the first photo I've ever seen of the sign on the train station without an elevation or population count. In researching to make sure I wasn't misremembering things, I discovered that a 2017 refurbishment removed the elevation and population as well as the definite article and the overall property name. I can see how this will save money in the long run so that the company doesn't have to keep repainting every time the elevation changes.

Andrew said...

That's quite a crowd around the entrance. I guess the characters were popular, even back then; face the facts, who hasn't always had a soft spot in their heart for the old-school Winnie-the-Pooh?

It's peculiar seeing the turnstiles out in the open like that with no cover. No MyMagic+® consoles to be seen here.

Anonymous said...

Chuck beat me to it, but he's right, it's one wide tunnel. However, it does still have attraction posters in it (current attractions only, I'm afraid). There is definitely a feeling of grandeur walking through those tunnels and seeing Town Square for the first time- and then walking a bit more to look down Main Street at the HUGE castle. No matter how many times I do it, it still satisfies the soul!

Melissa said...

These 1971 pictures have been such a treat!

JC Shannon said...

X comes through again. Babushka sighting in the first pic. Check out the woman in the Red Partridge Family pants suit in the second photo, cool. Also, two pair of amazing striped pants, love it. I agree, the Nemo poster would look good on my wall as well. TokyoMagic, you are never too old for mouse ears! Love it. Thanks Major.

dennis said...

And the tunnel is missing the "Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday tomorrow and fantasy" sign. They have round ones in Florida, rectangular ones in Anaheim. Maybe they didn't start installing them until after 1971. Dennis Levittown NY

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, it’s photos like these that really make me wish I’d seen WDW in those earliest of days. So nice.

TokyoMagic!, has that low fence been replaced with a much higher one? I wasn’t sure if there wasn’t a higher, more prison-y fence behind the photographer. And it would have been very cool if they could have somehow included the big oculus window for lucky guests.

TokyoMagic!, oh yeah… she’s all in! I like her style.

Chuck, I actually looked at this post at 4 in the morning, and read that paragraph, and thought, “Huh, I need to fix that”. Only to see that you’d already commented on it! Oh well, that’s what I get for writing posts while only viewing the small thumbnail version. I seem to remember that I had a fur hat of some kind when I was a kid, but I can’t be certain it was supposed to be a coon skin cap, or where it came from. It probably got very ratty and was thrown away. Meanwhile, very weird that they have done away with the elevation sign. And the population count was always fun! I don’t get it.

Penna. Andrew, I have to admit that I am surprised at the huge crowds for those characters; those east-coasters needed those fuzzy hugs! I guess I need to look for current images of how the entrance looks, because I have nothing to use for comparison.

Stu29573, see my comment to Chuck! Disneyland’s tunnels still have posters too, though of course the posters for things like “Pirates” are repros. I am almost sure I have read John Hench’s thoughts about the way walking through the tunnels into Town Square was very intentional - and how it works so well!

Melissa, I know, I wish I had lots more!

Jonathan, from what I’ve heard, between the heat, humidity, and potential afternoon downpours, a babushka is probably not a bad idea for ladies in Florida. The WDW attraction posters must be incredibly rare (I have some ideas why, but won’t go into them here), I don’t recall seeing any for sale, though I know someone who has a silkscreened 20K poster.

dennis, the “Here you leave…” sign definitely seems like one of those later additions. I wasn’t sure they even had them in Florida; did Roy Disney give a speech that was based on Walt’s Disneyland speech?

Anonymous said...

These are fine photos indeed.

Walking through the tunnel entrances is a very cinematic way to come in. It's a scene change.

Thanks Major.

JG

Anonymous said...

WDW...when it was squeaky clean and new...and remote! It was a destination...a World unto itself. Now it's surrounded by urbanization...and is a very busy place on its own. Glad I had the opportunity to experience it 'back in the day'. KS

Melissa said...

I remember when the Orange Bird came back to the Sunshine Tree Terrace in 2012, they put up an Orange Bird poster in the train tunnel to celebrate the occasion. Not sure if it's still there.

steve2wdw said...

Fences at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom are still the same height. More turnstiles, but where there's fence, it's definitely jumpable! (Although who'd take that chance, and maybe be ejected for life!)

steve2wdw said...

I should correct myself as the MK doesn't actually have turnstiles anymore....just touch points. It's a much more open feel to the whole entry process!

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, yes, the cinematic experience was something that the Imagineers used in many rides. They also compare a lot of them to entering a sort of dream state.

KS, you are definitely lucky. I still have never been there - and am not sure I want to go these days.

Melissa, I think I have seen pictures of the Orange Bird poster - funny how beloved he became, and how happy people were when he returned! I wonder if Disney now officially owns his image?

steve2wdw, yeah, it’s like breaking into Disneyland, from the outside it doesn’t look like it would be that hard to scale the fence, but you just KNOW that there are cameras and alarms all over.

steve2wdw, “touch points”, I guess that’s what the Magic Band is for?

Anonymous said...

I see Donald Duck in the 3rd photo. Hint: by the man in the yellow shirt and light blue pants.