Main Street Station, September 1966
Ordinarily, Sundays are when you can almost always expect to see some pretty iffy scans on GDB. But today's photos are pretty nice! Sharp, clear, good color... it's just that they each show Main Street Station for the millionth time.
It's almost 5 o'clock, and the shadows are starting to lengthen as the sun sinks lower into the west. All of the usual details make me happy, such as the Kalamazoo hand car, the Santa Fe logo, and the posters (Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise). And Mickey's smiling face, of course.
A second angle is almost as nice. Notice that the "population" is listed as 50,000,000 in September of 1966 - it took 11 years to get there. Only five years later the park celebrated the "Year of 100,000,000 Smiles"!
16 comments:
The Main Street Station has 5 o'clock shadows.
Major-
Not uncommon perhaps; but still just as lovely.
@ TM!-
Yuck, yuck-!
Thanks, Major.
Thanks for the beautiful photos, Major; and TokyoMagic - for the laugh!
TM! and Nanook and all - don’t forget to move your clocks ahead one hour. It’s now after 3:00 am here so I’m calling it a night. G’night.
Love the clarity of these images. Thanks, Major.
Where are all the people? It's like a Stephen King novel. Spooky. Good one TM.
You can't get enough shots of the Depot, or the Mark Twain. It's a fact. On second look, I do see some people. Probably waiting for time to catch up. These are great shots, thanks Major.
Hey, since when has there been a "Timex" ad on the clock? Looking at old photos, I can see that it was there for a while, so I guess it just goes to show that there's always more details to notice!
Hey, when I was a kid Timex was THE watch to be seen in! Not like those cheap Rolexes! My metallic brown faced model was my pride and joy...although no one ever strapped me to a speed boat to prove it would "keep on ticking." Hooefully they never tried that stuff with Main Street Station either!
Sunny and bright, but dusk is coming. My favorite time to see the lights on Main Street. Nice views, Major!
I wonder if Walt was there that day?
This was about the time of day my wife and I would arrive at Disneyland every other Friday during our AP days. While a few details are different (the attraction posters, the Santa Fe sign, the population count), it still brings back great memories and a smile to my face.
As always, many thanks, Major.
Great views today! Thanks! Reminds me of the excitement of the first day. I'm surprised the foliage around Mickie is so scraggly.
Where's the time go? I feel like I lost an hour,
dz
Beautiful photos at an even more beautiful time of day. Interesting to see the plain, concrete retaining wall in front of the station. If WDI attempted to do that today, imagine the uproar!
Timex was the original sponsor of the clock. Elgin and Lorus were later sponsors.
Timex originally wanted an authentic 1890s bell to ring out the hours; unfortunately that never happened. Timex also originated the idea to illuminate the clock faces at night.
In ancient days, the train station was the "weenie" that pulled you through the parking lot, a guiding landmark floating above the countless station wagons and sedans. When I went last year, you could barely see it until you're at the turnstiles. Today it's more a sudden reveal than anticipation from a distance.
Also, the near-theme-park ambiance of Downtown Disney softens the transition from Anaheim, which itself developed into an upscale, tourist-oriented area transitioning you from "real" Southern California. Back in the day, there was just a hint of a vacation mood with all those wacky themed motels and coffee shops.
Yes, it's nice that the entertainment and escapism don't begin and end at the gate. But there was a certain wonder in Disneyland being so sharply defined, a magical realm rising up behind a mundane concrete expanse, where you went from reality to Main Street is a few dramatic steps.
Nice pics today. Perhaps our photographer decided to take a picture of the station when no one was there and made a point of being at that location around dinner time. I can't imagine he/she was leaving! We don't usually get photos of the station this late in the day.
Looks like the garden forms used to delineate the Mickey floral was made of concrete? Never noticed that. Always something new. Thanks Steve for the clock info.
TokyoMagic!, maybe a few years in the Army will teach it some discipline!
Nanook, I agree that these are nice and crisp, and the lighting is nice, so they’re not a waste of time at least.
Lou and Sue, I woke up at about 3:30 and remembered that I had to “spring forward”, which is a good thing since I was meeting a friend at 10:00 AM. I would have been an hour late!
K. Martinez, thanks!
Jonathan, the people are there, but they are moving so fast that no camera can catch them. Sometimes you’ll hear a weird buzzing or detect a mysterious gust of air, that’s one of the people passing you. IT’S TRUE.
Andrew, I think Timex was always there, but it has changed over the years. No idea what it is now. “Swatch”?
stu29573, I remember those ads. Those watched took a licking and kept on ticking. I used to like wearing a watch, but now, with phones, who needs one?
Unknown, yes, pretty soon the lights will come on along Main Street, the air will cool off, and the park will look even more beautiful. I wish I could see it.
Chuck, I always like to imagine that Walt was there, walking around incognito (or as much as possible), making sure guests were enjoying themselves. Every other Friday, wow! I used to dream of going to the park that often, but usually lived too far away to make it practical.
dzacher, maybe they had just replanted that flower bed now that summer had ended and it was the “off season”? Sometimes Mickey is just dirt, so at least he’s got flowers here.
steve2wdw, you are probably right, and I am glad that guests hold Disney to a high standard. Don’t cheap out on us! I never knew those factoids about Timex, I kind of like the bell idea, and the lighted clock face.
DBenson, you are right, in those days the train station beckoned guests from their parking lot locations. And when the Monorail was routed to the Disneyland Hotel in 1960, they would also see a sleek futuristic vehicle glide past, almost silently, sometimes juxtaposed with a turn-of-the-century steam locomotive. So cool! I appreciate your observations about the differences now that there is Downtown Disney. I know that the coffee shops and motels were kind of an eyesore, but to folks in 2020 they had all kinds of mid-century charm. Thanks for your great comment!
Sunday Night, it always blows my mind when you see photos of Disneyland’s exit in broad daylight, and you see families leaving the park. There’s no excuse! Think of how beautiful Frontierland was at night, or Tomorrowland, or ANY of the lands, really. It’s crazy to also think of the tourists who wanted to do Knott’s and Disneyland in one day. I get that sometimes they had no choice, but it’s a shame to rush it. I agree, those “curbs” that delineate the Mouse are concrete. No wood to rot away!
There's always time for a view of the Train Station. Oddly, I rarely board or exit the train here, which is weird since the building is so great.
The floral Mickey is such a classic feature. I wonder if the concrete curbs were added over time?
Agreeing with DBenson, the view seemed orchestrated for the parking lot approach and DTD has definitely affected the experience. Walt was known to have hated the development that surrounded the Park, so DTD is just an extension of that principal that was carried through in WDW. In spite of this, the Harbor strip was a fun part of the trip all on it's own. Sometimes, tacky is good, or makes for good memories.
Thanks Major and everyone.
JG
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