Here are four more nice snapshots, from photos taken by Lou Perry, and generously shared with us by Sue B. (his daughter). All of today's pix were taken in November of 1959, and they all feature Main Street Station.
It's 1:15 PM, do you know where your children are? It gets dark so early in November, that's why it looks more like 5:30. This is a swell look at the station, with the Kalamazoo Hand Car and Santa Fe sign, and Mickey's flower portrait, sans flowers at this particular moment. Why not use some of those blooms from the Flower Market? They look good year-round.
This is a nice angle as seen from the exit gate, probably taken at about the same time as the photo above. It's so warm and inviting! Look at those roses, such a nice way to beautify the outer area. And as alway, I have to point out the posters. Do you think that window to the left was to readmit guests who had a hand stamp?
The sun continues to sink, but still bathes the front of Main Street Station in golden light, while the back is all cool shadows.
And finally, the most unusual of the bunch, this amazing night shot of the ticket booths/entry gates, glowing with cool fluorescent light while the station is outlined with "popcorn lights". It might have only been 6:00 or 7:00 at this point, and the park could very well have been closed by now.
Thanks to Lou and Sue! Sue recently sent me some other gorgeous night shots of Tomorrowland, but you'll just have to wait to see those.
Major-
ReplyDeleteSome lovely shots here - but it's hard to argue with the nighttime shot as being the nicest of the lot.
Thanks to Lou & Sue.
Wow!! That entry night time shot is amazing ! I have never seen a vintage nite time view like that!!
ReplyDeleteThe last pic of the nighttime shot of Disneyland entrance is my favorite. So very unusual. Nice contrast between the cool fluorescent lighting and warm popcorn lights. Thanks Lou & Sue and Major.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nanook, Mike and Ken, for the nice comments! But you have to admit that’s a sad sight to see in real life - it means your Disneyland day is over.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed the ghostly glow coming from the monster Matterhorn . . . or is my imagination running away with me??
The contrast in the two different types of lighting, in the last picture, reminds me how annoying it looks when people sometimes mix together Christmas lights that just don’t ‘blend together.’
Major, knowing how good you are with posters, I bet you truly can identify one or two of the posters in the last picture...
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, that last image is pretty special. And Sue, yes, that is the Matterhorn!
ReplyDeleteThank you to Lou, Sue and the Major, too, for these pics!
I never knew that those DISNEYLAND ovals lit up at night. Cool - great pics!
ReplyDeleteI'm still working on my own floral Mickey for the front yard. Totally unrelated: there's an Exxon station near my house that creates their logo in flowers every year. It's a gas station. I always want to go inside and give them a pat on the back...
Are those phone booths? Come get me Ma, the place is closed.
ReplyDeleteThe roof shadows in the first pic makes me think of Witch Mountain.
My Mickey at the chalet is never without flowers. Heads would roll if that ever happened.
1959, what a great year.
Thanks Lou and Sue and Major.
Zach
I prefer to think that the night time shot is me arriving for Date Nite and the Elliot Brothers are about to tear it up! The night is young and love and music is in the air! Ah, to be young again....
ReplyDeleteEchoing everyone's sentiments. Do think the third shot is lovely too. If the sun was setting, about 4 o'clock, there is no big crowd. What a delight.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Lou $ Sue, and Major.
Nanook, there are a few beautiful night shots from Lou and Sue coming up, I am looking forward to sharing them with all of you!
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart, it really is an unusual shot - especially from the 50s.
K. Martinez, yes, I like the cool and warm lights too - that eerie blue glow from the fluorescents almost make it seem like you really are passing through some sort of sci-fi portal.
Lou and Sue, it was always a bummer to be leaving Disneyland, but I was usually so tired by then! And we still had a long drive on the freeway before we got home (unless it was when I lived in Huntington Beach, then we got home pretty quickly!). And yes, that is the Matterhorn, I should have pointed it out myself! I think the camera exaggerates the differing temperatures of the two kinds of lights, modern cameras usually have settings to compensate for one or the other.
Lou and Sue, oh I can definitely ID some of the posters, I just figured you guys were tired of it by now, ha ha. From the left; Grand Canyon Diorama, Columbia, Astro Jets, Storybook Land, a mostly-obscured Monorail, and what might be a Tom Sawyer Island.
TokyoMagic! are you sure that it’s not just a tree disguising itself as the Matterhorn to better survive?
Andrew, OK, now we will need to see photos of your floral Mickey - in progress and when it is complete! And I am impressed that your Exxon station has a flower logo, you should fill up your car (when you’re old enough to drive, I mean!) with “premium” once as a thank you. By the way, you can’t be 14 forever, have you turned 15 yet?
zach, yes, I have learned that those are indeed phone booths. I would think that they might put those somewhere further off to the side, but nope, they’re right there. Now that you’ve mentioned Witch Mountain, I can’t help thinking that the shadows cast by the dormers look like stylized witches in profile. I’m glad to hear that your Mickey at the chalet is always surrounded by flowers!
stu29573, I didn’t skip you this time, you left a comment during the 10 minutes it took me to respond to everybody else! Date Nite at Disneyland back in those days must have been the best, what girl wouldn’t be impressed!
ReplyDeleteDrGoat, yeah, Jason Schultz has a book (“Jason’s Disneyland Almanac”) that has the attendance figures for almost every day that the park was open, and there are some winter days where only 6,000 people showed up. Imagine!
Those few, who don't know the magic of Disneyland after dark, are missing out. I like 'em all, but especially the after dark shot. WTG Lou. Thanks to Lou and Sue and Major.
ReplyDeleteThey picked all of the flowers off of Mickey to stock the Flower Market. Kind of like shearing a sheep, the flowers will grow back.
ReplyDeleteWe have speculated before about the phone booths, I wonder if they put them there so you could call your family or a cab for pickup, or in later years, to the bank for a loan to buy the tickets? On my last visits, we bought our tickets the day before in the booth in our hotel, which was a great timesaver.
The exit is the saddest part of Disneyland, but turning back to take a photo is brilliant. I hope no one turned into a pillar of salt because they looked back.
I love all these pics, but the night shot is mighty fine.
Thanks L+S and the Major.
JG
Thanks Lou & Sue. I love seeing the train station from different times of the day! For some reason the 50's makes me think of cold fluorescent lighting. Seems to be time it was heavily implemented.
ReplyDeleteWhenever we left the park I would always make sure to hit the proper lane to get my hand stamped. It was a nice souvenir of a fun day.
I'll be 16 on July 10th. :-)
ReplyDelete@ Andrew-
ReplyDeleteI'm certain it's a mere 'oversight' on your part but, I have yet to receive my invitation to your birthday party. (I'm just sayin'...) Wait 'til you see the present you're getting-!!
Andrew, there was a Mobil gas station near my house, that used to have their logo of Pegasus, in flowers. I always thought it was so cool of them to make the effort to do that. But then they ripped it out and replaced it with that bright green stuff that they use on miniature golf courses. They ruin everything, don't they? :-(
ReplyDeleteMajor, ha, ha! Yeah, if you are a tree at DL, you better disguise yourself, or else they are going to come and chop you down!
Omnispace, I used to do the same thing when leaving the park....I got the hand stamp whether we were coming back or not. It smelled neat! I don't do that anymore. I guess I picked a bad time to stop sniffing DL hand stamps!
Jonathan, wait’ll you see a couple of other night photos from Lou. They are beauties!
ReplyDeleteJG, it’s surprising how often the Mickey flower portrait looks pretty bare; I assume that they pulled the old, fading blossoms and are in the process of replacing them with new ones. I’m sure that the phone booths were used for cabs (assuming there was a cab company in Anaheim?). Or for calling someone about selling a kidney for tickets. “I’ve sold one already, thank goodness the body has three kidneys!”. The exit is sad, but it’s even sadder when it’s still daylight!
Omnispace, it’s funny how things like lighting make an impression on a youth, even if they are not sure WHY it does. Even now, they have the Matterhorn bathed in blue/violet lights at night, it feels (dare I say it) magical. Yes, I always got my hand stamped, we had a blacklight at home, and if we were lucky the glow might be visible for a day or two.
Andrew, 16! It’s like we lost a whole year!
Nanook, I’m sure Andrew has PLENTY of gold coins already, he doesn’t need any more!
TokyoMagic!, I see more and more of that fake grass, even on people’s front yards, it never looks quite right (though I guess it’s better than a dead lawn). I love the idea of a floral Pegasus, one of my favorite corporate logos. Gosh, I don’t remember how the hand stamps smelled!
@Tokyo & Omnispace...
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I wasn't the only kid to get my hand stamped out when leaving for the night?
It's a Junior Gorilla thing, I guess.
Major, as I recall, years ago the hand stamp ink smelled sort of like mimeograph fluid. A weird, sweet alcohol astringent odor, hard to describe, but distinctive.
JG
@ JG-
ReplyDeleteYes, that's exactly right. And at some point (in the 1980's-? - perhaps later...) it took-on some nondescript, mild, "industrial" odor, that completely took the fun out of it. YES - they do ruin everything-!
Sue, thanks again for bringing us Lou's awesome photos (and I'm glad you're here, too)!
ReplyDeleteJG, I had no idea that when you sheared a sheep, flowers grew back. You farm kids are a font of arcane knowledge.
I remember getting my hand stamped on entry on my first trip to Cedar Point. I was only three or four. It felt weird. I cried.
Chuck, you have to plant the right kind of sheep.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, Mickey is usually planted in purple and white alyssum, which is hardy and thrifty but needs to be replanted every other year or so.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/alyssum/growing-sweet-alyssum.htm
@Nanook, I can tell you are old like me since you didn't ask what a mimeograph was. The old stamp fluid was probably full of lead and nicotine, strained through baby seal fur.
JG
@ JG-
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah - old enough-! I don't know if you meant to refer to the Mimeograph process (stencil duplicator) when speaking of the smell from the black light stamp inks, but your proper description actually applies to the Ditto machine (spirit duplicator), as the alcohols were a major component of the solvents used as the "inks" in this process.
Breathe deeply now....
And also thank you kindly, TM!, Andrew, Zach, Stu, DrGoat, Major, JC Shannon, JG, Omnispace, and Chuck!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought much about the hand-stamping until some of you brought it up. I recall that, sometimes, you would get a Disney employee who would really pound your hand hard...and then there were others who would press lightly and NOT roll the stamper - so you'd get an 'incomplete' stamp on your hand. Bummer.
Nanook - Yeah! That great Ditto-smell instantly takes me back to grade school. Mrs. Pisecki's 3rd grade class...Ditto copies of Illinois wildflowers and Illinois birds to color.
Andrew - Oh(!) to be 16 again! Enjoy! Now that you'll be driving, you'll have NO excuse for not visiting all of us. Road trip!