Monday, July 08, 2019

Main Street & Hippos - Together Again!

Here are the last two scans from a very dark batch of 1950's slides. Do not adjust your device. 

If you're going to have an olde-timey Town Square, you need an olde-timey popcorn wagon right in the middle. The popcorn seller liked to be called Colonel. Get it? "Kernel"? He wears a helmet because he has seen far too many niblet-related tragedies. "They were just kids! They never stood a chance!". Meanwhile, one of the secretaries from Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce walks toward us with a souvenir straw hat under her arm and bags full of wondrous goodies.

I love the two little boys in the foreground, also sporting souvenir hats. Maybe they are hoping to meet Zorro.


This image is pretty dark, but the golden sunshine sure makes this one an interesting picture. Plus... hippos. "Hippopotamus" means "water horse", and no wonder; it looks exactly like a graceful horse to me


17 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Those hats are the cat's meow for any young lad. I do believe we can just see the head and left arm of Roasty-Toasty Man turning his glass tumbler filled with popcorn. (I wonder how long the Cretors name appeared on the ends of their popcorn carts-?)

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Wow, .20 cents for a bag of peanuts and .15 cents for a box of popcorn! I've been told that the popcorn in Star Wars Land, costs $6.50 for a small bag. I was also told that it tastes every bit as gross as the blue milk, which is $8.00 a glass. I can't wait to try both. Maybe I'll pour the blue milk over my popcorn!

Andrew said...

The boys are either looking for Zorro, or trying to figure out how they can get the secrets of the amazing "popcorn cannon" that the vendor has ingeniously rigged up. I mean, it's right next to the cart, and Disneyland workers had more downtime back then...

JC Shannon said...

That was a really corny joke Major. Those two hippos look like a couple of politicians arguing about who is the bigger liar. Most people don't know this, but you can ride a hippo if you first bribe them with cabbage heads and Hostess Snowballs. Thanks Major.

"Lou and Sue" said...


There may be a 3rd Zorro in the picture, from what I see. The parents had to be exhausted at the end of that day!

Major, hippos weren't called water horses because of their gracefulness, but because of their long flowing manes and tails.

Sue

stu29573 said...

Actually those hippos are a while lot closer to Main Street than I ever thought as a kid! You walk out the back of the fire station, and you're in a jungle!

Melissa said...

Colonel Corn was second in command to General Foods.

I noticed that third black hat, too. It kind of looks like the Three Amigos got shrunk down in the Mighty Microscope.

The first time I saw real, live hippos was at Disney's Animal Kingdom. They were completely underwater, just standing around and cooling off. Weirdos.

K. Martinez said...

Aw shucks! I'm all ears when it comes to corny jokes.

Hip hip hooray! Back in the sixties, I think one of the hippos got tired of working on the Jungle Cruise so he walked on over to Fantasyland to work on "it's a small world" and is still there to this day. Thanks, Major.

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Lol, I can't hear the word Niblet without thinking of The Little Green Sprout (the young protogee of the Jolly Green Giant). You'll need the extra wide saddles on them thar water horses.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I’ll bet those boys were so thrilled to get their genuine Zorro hats (or whatever they are supposed to be)! Cretors should have made sports cars.

TokyoMagic!, I was so sure that the blue milk was going to be vanilla-flavored, and I guess it sort of “pineapple-coconut”? I’ve heard complaints that it isn’t creamy enough. And the green milk is liked by some, loathed by many. I would never pay $6.50 for a small bag of popcorn, I’d rather put that money toward a real meal (though I used to buy the soft pretzels with cheese in the past!).

Penna. Andrew, hey, puffed rice was “shot from guns”, why can’t popcorn be, too? Next experiment: oatmeal shot from guns.

Jonathan, I am a-maized that you didn’t like my joke. It’s good to know that hippos like hostess snowballs! I’m not a fan of coconut, but I always loved the look of those snacks back in the day, with the bright blue or pink colors.

Lou and Sue, oh yeah, look at that. Three Zorros in one photo, that must be worth some sort of large cash prize for me! Now I am trying to picture a hippo with a flowing mane, and it isn’t working.

stu29573, it really is amazing to realize how close some of the other “lands” are to that jungle. And I never really thought about how Walt would have had a splendid view of it from his apartment!

Melissa, I remember having some Zorro merch when I was a kid (though the show must have been airing as repeats by then, I wasn’t around in ’57 thru ’59), even though I barely remember seeing the actual program.

K. Martinez, I have a rare photo of several different hippos in the Frontierland river! See it HERE

Alonzo, I still have my vinyl “Little Green Sprout” doll, somewhere. I have a small collection of advertising mascots, and he was an early acquisition.

K. Martinez said...

Major, according to that link you provided, hippos in Frontierland don't exists (bad link).

Anonymous said...

Major, it's well-known that Mark Antony was a big fan of popcorn. On the death of Caesar, he exhorted "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears..."

I love hippos, even robot hippos.

JG

Chuck said...

Ken, maybe that was his point... ;-)

"Lou and Sue" said...


K. Martinez, did you notice that "they" used the same paint on the IASW hippo that "they" used on the castle?!?! But it looks great on the hippo!

Sue

Major Pepperidge said...

K. Martinez, I’ll try again… look HERE

JG, I am generally against the idea of lending corn to ANYBODY

Chuck, nope, it was just a blunder

Lou and Sue, ZING!

K. Martinez said...

Major, Ah, yes! Now I remember. The hippos made their special appearance on April 1st.

Lou and Sue, yes "they" did use the same colors, didn't they. I think anything looks better than what they did to the castle.

Melissa said...

Anytime anybody tries to justify a poor aesthetic choice, all I will be able to think of is, "But it looks great on the hippo!"