Here are three more photos from 1937Fan! The first two pix were shot by her Aunt in November of 1964.
What a scene! I've always wondered if the Imagineers built scale models of the lagoon, and the curving Monorail track, etc, so that they could get an idea of the wonderful views that would be possible in this area. Of course the lovely calm water of the lagoon, the blue sky, the bright sunlight... all of those things just added to the beauty.
From above we get a tantalizing hint of the abundance of life in the sea. Corals of many kinds, seaweed and kelp, anemones, sea stars, turtles, and various fish such as the red and black fellow that I believe is supposed to be a California Sheephead. Or not. Who am I, Jacques Cousteau?
This next one is from a group taken sometime in the 1970's, and shows a late-afternoon look at a Matterhorn bobsled (before the sleds were doubled up) right around "splashdown". Love it!
THANK YOU, 1937Fan!
Major-
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to top those images of the Submarine Voyage.
Thanks to 1937Fan.
I love how almost everything in that first pic is super clear, and then we have the Monorail, with it's slight blurriness, giving us a sense of motion.
ReplyDeleteAwww! That fish is smiling at us!
Thank you, 1937Fan and Major!
The Monorail photo is a classic! I tried to get that shot every visit. Both evoke the magic of early Disneyland. Thanks, 1937Fan and the Major.
ReplyDeleteZach
I found your blog while searching for 'grad nite' info.
ReplyDeleteI love these types of photos.
I am especially fond of pictures that show rides that have been eliminated.
I loved many things about the Anaheim location.
I have an old postcard of the Monorail passing over the Sub Lagoon. That view is a classic. Walt trying to explain his vision to a stranger. "No, no, it's not a train it's a monorail, and it will pass right over my submarines in my lagoon, it will be right next to my Alp." "Right Walt... feeling okay?" Thanks to 37 and Major.
ReplyDeleteHear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! I hereby proclaim the first picture fully and completely "Postcard Worthy!" 1937Fan may now enjoy all the benefits and bonuses such a position affords. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteMy Aunt will be thrilled with this review and I am sure she will proudly proclaim her benefits and bonuses to all! :)
DeleteShe certainly earned it!
DeleteI'll add my admiration of that first pic too. Just doesn't get much better than that. It's all there.
ReplyDeleteThat smiling fish must have seen an elephant fly, TK.
Thank you 1937Fan for a perfectly wonderful image.
And thanks Major for delivering it.
”Corals of many kinds, seaweed and kelp, anemones, sea stars, turtles, and various fish...”
ReplyDeleteMakes me think of the robot from Logan’s Run. “Fish, plankton, sea greens, and protein from the sea!”
I am a sucker for shots like #1, that show two or three forms of transport going at the same time. And I love how the light is hitting the water droplets in the Matterhorn picture, making them look like sparks!
@Melissa
ReplyDeleteThanks, now I'll have Roscoe Lee Browne repeating that in my head all day.
That is a replica of a Sheephead. My friend shot one with a spear off Catalina and insisted we cook and eat. I would highly advise against this as it tasted much worse than it looked!!
Very nice photos, Thanks.
The first pic is pure magic. Whenever I stood in line for the Matterhorn Bobsleds, I loved watching the Monorail make it sweeping curve over the Submarine Lagoon with the submarines passing below. Again, pure magic.
ReplyDeleteThanks, 1937 Fan. Today's pics are extra cool!
Many thanks to 1937Fan. I agree, that first pic is post card worthy. I'd say it's even worthy of coloring book status. You can tell the Monorail and Submarine are having a good day.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the craziest fish I have ever seem. Not sure if he would be sushi worthy.
Love the post-splashdown pic. Guests might have appreciated the alpine meadow more if they had to hike 50 feet up the Matterhorn to get to it.
P.I., we're glad you joined us! Hope to hear more from you!
ReplyDeleteNICE pictures, today! I especially love the Matterhorn picture - my favorites are these "up close" shots where the Matterhorn fills up the entire picture. You get a feel for its size - MASSIVE.
At first I thought, Major, that you were pulling our legs about the "California Sheephead" fish name. But, silly me, why would I think that you would be 'ribbing' us. ;)
Another fun day at Disneyland - thank you, 1937Fan and Major!
I love that first picture so much! I'm glad everyone is enjoying!
ReplyDeleteThe best of Tomorrowland for sure.
ReplyDeleteWelcome P.I., come again soon!
Major, I've been amazed at the number and scale of the models used to develop other attractions, especially the Pirates, so it's nearly certain that models were used in the design, even if we didn't see any pictures of the process for this addition to Tomorrowland. The sculpting of the Matterhorn alone would require many maquettes, my experience in modeling fake rocks from models to life size will attest to that.
The simultaneous construction of the subs, monorail, and Matterhorn accounts for why the bobsleds were considered part of Tomorrowland for many years in the guidebook maps. As a kid, I couldn't understand it since the bobsled theming is clearly related to Fantasyland, and the mountain itself is undoubtedly conceived as a backdrop to the Olde Europe buildings and the mini-Alps in Storybook Land. At some point, the mapmakers noticed and the Matterhorn was quietly moved to Fantasyland. It was done overnight with a very, very large dolly.
The grass is always green in the Alpine meadows. Imagine schlepping the lawnmower up there, yet someone did. I wonder if the mower was stored inside the mountain in a closet?
@Ken, I never thought of that monorail view as a reason to prefer that queue, I usually waited on the Alice side. Of course, now the lagoon side is the only line.
Thank you, 1937 Fan and Major for a bright start to the day.
JG
JG, I can picture the mower in a red, with white trim, plastic barn-shaped shed, in the Matterhorn.
ReplyDeleteNanook, every old photo of the Sub Lagoon reminds me of how great it used to be!
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, yes, sometimes a little motion blur is a neat thing. That fish might not be smiling, maybe it has gas. Do fish have gas?
zach, it IS a classic, I sure have a lot of photos taken from more or less the same place, but I never seen to get tired of the view!
P.I. Welcome! Sorry I don’t have more “Grad Nite” stuff, I would recommend the old “Vintage Disneyland Tickets” blog for that. Hope you come back.
Jonathan, I used to be a very avid collector of old Disneyland postcards, there are a couple that look much like this view. I still love the postcards, it’s just that the only ones I still need are very rare and cost a fortune!
stu29573, I think (but am not sure) that Walt saw an Alweg monorail (the stubby “loaf of bread” version) on the same trip that he saw the Matterhorn. Who knew both would wind up in his park??
DrGoat, “That smiling fish must have seen an elephant fly”, ha ha!
Melissa, you mean Box? I know that “Logan’s Run” is considered cheesy by today’s standards (my best friend thinks it is awful), but I have always loved it. Plus… Jenny Agutter. Rumors of a remake have been floating around for years! All I care is “Who will play Box?!”. A series of 1s and 0s, probably.
Alonzo, Roscoe sure had a distinctive voice! Even as a kid I knew it was “that guy”. So that Sheephead didn’t taste so great? I know it isn’t the case, but somehow its red coloring makes me think that he is warning us not to eat him. Yes, I am seven years old, mentally.
K. Martinez, I have waited in some LONG lines for the Matterhorn, but there was always so much great stuff to look at that it seemed to go by relatively quickly. That lagoon is still one of my favorite things, every park should have a few bodies of water.
Omnispace, I think there are some more photos coming from 1937Fan… I’ve done some juggling of posts, so then I lose track of what is coming. Alonzo says the Sheephead didn’t taste so good, but maybe those are considered a delicacy by a brave few?
Lou and Sue, I like it when the Matterhorn fills the frame, but sometimes it looks great from far away too. How can I choose? They are all like my children! ;-) I have no idea why that fish is called a Sheephead, except that some sheep have black faces. Otherwise… who knows?
1937Fan, thank you so much, you’ve been patient! I want to make your photos last, so I only share them once in a while.
JG, I have definitely seen at least one photo of Walt standing with a model of the Matterhorn - maybe a few. I can’t remember if I’ve seen any models of the whole lagoon area with subs. Sometimes I’m surprised that certain things like that seem to only have been documented in black and white, when color film was certainly regularly available. Maybe the thinking was that if they were going to be seen by the public, it would probably be in a newspaper or magazine, and probably in B&W. Also, color is often unstable (unless they used the dependable Kodachrome), so maybe it’s just as well. I’ve even seen D23 post images that have turned red. I should offer them my services! I NEVER thought about how they mowed the grass up there, ha ha! Like you, I thought it was a little weird that the Matterhorn was part of Tomorrowland, but as you said, they moved it finally. They used big casters, I thought.
Lou and Sue, my mom has two of those plastic sheds (“Tuffsheds”) in her backyard. No mower though, she pays some guys to do it.
Anyone who dismisses Logan's Run as cheesy has to fight me first! And I have no sense of fair play.
ReplyDelete@Lou and Sue, a plastic barn would be the only way to store the lawn mower.
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember a "man door" in the base of the mountain near where the bobsleds enter, not sure if it's possible to reach that nice lawn without crossing a track.
Maybe the lawn is cropped by animatronic goats like the one in Big Thunder that eats the dynamite.
JG
Sue, I can't get close enough with the Google street view to see the tracks.
ReplyDeleteThe crowd is making me claustrophobic, even just on the screen.
Google should take advantage of the Disney closure to re-shoot all the street view with an empty park.
JG
Major, I'm so glad you added those last two words in your response to Ken. But if you hadn't, that alpine meadow would be a great place to hide them since Disneyland doesn't have a funhouse.
ReplyDeleteThanks, 1937 Fan! Tell your aunt we're loving these!
Thank you Lou and Sue, JG, and Major Pepperidge. I was not expecting to be welcomed by anyone.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, message boards for automobilia, and photography, have been the only places on the internet that have welcomed me.
I love amusement parks, but I haven't been to one in decades... I went to a few Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando. However, I don't view that as the same thing.
Throughout the seventies and early eighties, I would visit Magic Mountain, SeaWorld, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and a bunch of traveling carnivals that would take place at shopping mall parking lots.
I also remember Movieland Wax Museum and Marineland.
I used to keep memorabilia from every amusement park I visited. Now, all I have is my grad nite brochures and ticket stubs.
JG, hahaha(!), a door at the base of a mountain...I love it! :)
ReplyDeleteJG, you hit on an excellent idea - Google really does need to do that NOW.
Chuck, hahaha!
P.I., if you haven't already done so, I HIGHLY recommend that you look at all of the past 'Gorillas Don't Blog' posts and comments, and also the other blogs the Major has listed, too. Great fun, pictures and info! I read less books now, but more blogs - am LOVING it! The folks on this site are fantastic, too!
Btw, has anyone seen the freshly-painted WDW castle?? I'm keeping my opinion to myself. All I will say is that it coordinates with DL's castle.
Melissa, I find Logan’s Run to be such a fun sci-fi adventure. And I love the shots of the futuristic city, all wonderful models.
ReplyDeletestu29573, who earned wha?
JG, maybe the grass itself is audio-animatronic. Walt’s greatest triumph! Looks real, but never needs mowing or watering. And it can recite all of Abe Lincoln’s speeches. I’m glad the door in the Matterhorn is a “man door” and not a “yeti door”.
JG, I wonder if they have been using this down time to do any upgrades or maintenance? Refresh that paint, replace those lightbulbs. I’d love to see a large series of good photos (get the people from Tours Departing Daily) of the park as it is, devoid of crowds.
Chuck, yes, now that there’s no Skyway, there’s no danger of somebody looking down to see a few skeletons on the grass. Someone always snitches!
P.I., I feel like I might not necessarily have the best Disneyland photos, but I post every day - and the friendly conversations in the comments are half the fun (if not more). Sounds like you have been to all of the classic SoCal amusement parks, even if it has been a while. I haven’t been anywhere since I took my niece to Universal Studios (to see “The WIzarding World of Harry Potter”) last year - we had a great time. I am a collector, so I hold on to so much stuff that other people would probably consider to be worthless, but some smarter people probably get as much enjoyment out of seeing images of those items on the internet - for free!
Lou and Sue, I think there really is a door at the base of the mountain - maybe just inside one of the lift tunnels? I could be wrong. As for blogs, I still love them, but feel like they have been supplanted by Instagram and Twitter, and to some degree Tumblr and Facebook. The day that Google discontinues blogs will be “a sign” to me that I can hang up my hat! The repainted WDW castle looks exactly as I imagined. I guess all those original Imagineers who chose more subtle colors didn’t know what they were doing?
Mahor, 1937Fan's aunt deserved the postcard award!
DeleteMy take on the WDW castle? I'm glad you asked. I'll just say that it's now easy to tell there are no real stones in those walls...
Major, sorry I missed the Yeti door joke opportunity. "Man door" is to distinguish from a big door like a roll-up, that's all.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a way to get inside, otherwise how do CM's get to the basketball court on the upper level?
JG
That’s why they call it the Mandoorhorn. They’re going to use it as a filming location for The Mandoorlorian.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I LOVE Logan's Run". Such a classic from my youth. I still enjoy watching it. "There is NO sanctuary".
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who LOVE Logan’s Run I offer you “plankton and nutrients from the sea” for those who do not : it is time for your CAROUSEL : BEGIN CAROUSEL : CITY DATE : 7:2020 : INITIATE CAROUSEL.
ReplyDeleteStu - FYI: I see that you are hitting 'reply' in order to place your comments after someone's specific comment, like today...but [it appears] that only works when viewed on a cell phone. When GDB is opened in a computer (or iPad?) any 'reply' comment entered gets put at the end of all the comments - as comments are all chronologically arranged when viewed (on a computer or iPad). I think that's why the Major didn't know what your 11:50 AM comment was about. That's happened to me, in the past, so that's why I'm mentioning it. For what it's worth...
ReplyDeleteSue
Thanks, everyone, for the fun day!
stu29573, Ah! I agree! And while I haven’t read any stories about WHY Cinderella Castle was painted with the new palette, I am sure they will justify it as being based on the concept art by Eyvind Earle. Who was an amazing artist and colorist, but he was designing for an animated film. The cartoony colors now used all over both parks (including those stones) are not appropriate. I’m sure once they read my opinion they will rush to change everything back!
ReplyDeleteJG, to work as a maintenance person on the Matterhorn, you must be able to climb it. Without supplementary oxygen!
Melissa, to quote Dr. Smith… the pain! The pain!
K. Martinez, I loved the blinking gems on the palms of the citizens. Hey, mine just started blinking!
Mike Cozart, ha ha, I’m not going to Carousel! I’m going to run around until I meet Peter Ustinov! Remember those great matte paintings of Washington DC, returned to nature? As a kid I was blown away by those.
Lou and Sue, I rarely look at GDB on my phone - I need it to be bigger! Like those cell phones you see advertised in “Parade” magazine with the giant buttons. You’re right though, I had no idea that the comments would appear in “threads”. In fact, it never occurred to me that it COULD do so.
You can look at GDB on your phone?
ReplyDelete@Melissa... snort. Good one.
ReplyDeleteI love the Mandoorhornian.
JG