Wednesday, May 20, 2020

A Pair From June 1969

Today's scans are from a lot of two (and only two) slides, from June 1969. Not sure how that happened! Did somebody really only take two photos during their trip to Disneyland? Maybe the other slides wound up in a separate eBay lot. We shall never know.

Anyway, this first one is kind of fun, featuring two tour guides in the parking lot - maybe they acted as greeters as guests arrived in their cars. "Guided tours here, getcha guided tours! Don't think you can afford to do it? You can't afford NOT to! Come 'ere, sonny, you look like a smart kid, tell your folks that you need a guided tour or you'll turn into a hippie. It's only three dollas, why you'd have to be crazy to pass this deal up! Three dollas, it's so cheap my bosses would fire me if they knew what I was charging. But I like the look of you so I'm giving you a special VIP price. Getcha  guided tour!". And so on.


Well, you passed up the guided tour, and I am still shocked. But a ride on a Horse Drawn Streetcar will help. Clippety-clop, as the kids say. That streetcar driver is hooking the traces up to the vestibule. I know my streetcar lingo!


14 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
Maybe the tour guides were being paid on commission that day... Of interest in the parking lot - I spy no fewer than two, Mercury Cougars.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Poor horsey!

Melissa said...

I had never seen the little red cape that goes with the Tour Guide costume before! How adorable can you get?

Andrew said...

I like the reflection of the ticket booth in the Monorail attraction poster case. Thanks, Major.

JC Shannon said...

That poster in shot one is one of my all time favorites. Mr Horsey is about to give Mr Conductor a methane blast. "HoooWee, what are you feeding this animal?" "Carrots, Wilber, lots of carrots."

zach said...

I came THIS close to getting the guided tour! You just weren't persuasive enough. You almost had me with the cape, though.

Look at all the truck campers!

I'm still dzacher, Major. I just finally got around to using my nickname and added an avatar.

Dz, zach, dzacher. I answer to all of them.

zach said...

Oh yeah, dibs on the T bird!

Zach

Matthew said...

Great photos! It appears (and I could be wrong), but the sun is going down in that first photo as the shadows are moving toward Tomorrowland as the sun sets in the west over Frontierland/New Orleans. Not sure why that matters... but found it interesting that the Tour Guides would be out there so late.

Always your pal,
Amazon Belle

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I can only imagine how ugly things could get if the guides were being paid on commission out in the parking lot. “They’re mine! I saw them first!”.

TokyoMagic! I think those horses are treated better than most human CMs these days.

Melissa, for some reason the cape looks like it is a relic from the early 60’s, but they were still going strong in 1969 obviously. I think the guide closest to us looks like Kate Mulgrew.

Andrew, oh yeah, I didn’t even notice!

Jonathan, I’m glad you like that first one. I wish it was a little less dark, and had better color, but I’m still happy with it. And yes, horses can really get you if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

zach, I need to work on my spiel I guess. My idea was to have the guides in bikinis, but unfortunately it was vetoed. Sometimes a genius isn’t recognized until after he is gone. Is your avatar a view from your home? If so, wow.

zach, I thought you wanted a truck camper!

Matthew, yes, I suppose you’re right, it does look like the shadows are pointing in a more easterly direction. I wonder how long a typical guided tour would last? Maybe two hours or so? That would still leave plenty of time to explore the park on your own.

Anonymous said...

Handsome horses.

Dad always admired the Disney horses, having had horses on the farm, but none like these.

We never took a tour either. Always seemed to find our way around ok. Did tour members get to go to the head of the line, or did they not go on rides?

JG

Melissa said...

JG, I can't speak for the time when this picture was taken, but I was on a guided tour in 2008 and we did go straight to the head of the line. I remember that day there was a two-hour posted wait time for Soarin' Over California; boy, did we get some dirty looks from the standby queue!

Dean Finder said...

I'd wager that the kids who traveled to Disneyland in those pickup truck campers still have memories of that trip now.

Anonymous said...

We've seen other tour guides outside the entrance. Such as Here and here.
There has got to be some former tour guides out there as GDB readers. We would love to hear about your Disneyland experiences!

Chuck said...

I love that there's a Monorail poster on a Monorail beam.

Capes were still a thing at that time (think Juliet Mills' costume in Nanny and the Professor).

Only two pictures at Disneyland? I think that's all my dad took on my first visit. And I don't know how many times I lugged a 35mm camera and flash around Disneyland as an APH without ever taking it out of the backpack. Too busy having fun.