2 Snoozers from September 1966
Happy Birthday to our GDB pal, stu29573!
Here's a pair of oddball views that have their flaws, but might be worth a look. You decide!
First up is this shot looking down on the turnstiles, floral portrait of Mickey, and Main Street Station. The elevated perspective means that the photographer was aboard the Monorail (the old Mark II style), which is pretty cool, but... the image was very dark. This is how it looks after quite a bit of futzing in Photoshop, and it still feels like we accidentally left our Ray Bans on.
Nevertheless, I would give anything to be walking past those attraction posters toward one of the tunnels beneath the train tracks, to emerge into Town Square, with the sound of a train whistle, and maybe the Disneyland Band, the smell of popcorn... oh yeah!
From the same photographer comes this photo taken from the Disneyland Railroad - the wrought-iron fence shows some motion blur, so the train was moving. There's a mostly open-air dining area to our right, the French Market. And just visible through the trees we can see the cupola that is part of the Pirates of the Caribbean building, though that attraction would not open until March 18th, 1967.
27 comments:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STU!!!!
Lou & Sue
Major-
I had no idea GDB was becoming the headquarters for birthday celebrations. Way to go stu29573. And as such, I can't think of a better time to haul this song out of the vault - which will only have significance for those of a certain generation, who also grew up in So. Cal. But the sentiment works just as well for all... LISTEN HERE
Thanks, Major - the images are nice, too.
Major, I count 19 posters in that first scan. Going by memory, can you tell us if any are missing(?), from that era...
Your assumption that the train was moving, in the second scan, may be wrong. Maybe the photographer was nervous, or maybe there was a tremor. I actually do remember feeling [earthquake] tremors while vacationing in California. I thought they were cool!!
Thanks, Major!
@ Sue-
For starters, there are two: "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln"; "It's a Small World"; & "Swiss Family Treehouse" posters we can see. Additionally, many posters are missing.
Is that just a random man wandering around in the planter (first pic)? Or maybe it's a landscape worker, measuring the height of that hedge?
Happy Birthday, Stu!
Love the French Market pic from the Disneyland Railroad. My favorite restaurant for the atmosphere, both aural and visual.
Happy Birthday, Stu! Hope you have a good one.
Happy birthday, Stu! Maybe the guy in the landscaping is a time traveling Stu who has been roaming the park and is currently looking for where his model Moonliner landed.
Lou and Sue, I want stu29573 to know that Sue made SURE that I didn’t forget your birthday, so she gets a corner piece of cake with a big frosting flower on it!
Nanook, I figure once I started wishing a happy birthday to a few people who happened to mention their big days, I didn’t want anybody else to feel left out. So, Junior Gorillas, let me know your birthday if you want a shout-out! Also, send me $1000. Sheriff John, now that is a real blast to the past!
Lou and Sue, really, you see 19 posters? Now I have to look again, that’s a lot! (Looks at photo again)… well, I see 18.5 anyway. It’s hard to judge what else should be there, because it’s not always clear when they retired a particular poster, such as the Grand Canyon Diorama (one of my favorites), or the related Primeval World. Also, being September of 1966, it must be a little early for things like the Peoplemover or Rocket Jets, or “Adventures Thru Inner Space” or “Carousel of Progress”.. The Flying Saucers were just about to be removed in September of ’66. I was going to say that there’s no Peter Pan, but I believe that one of the leftmost posters (above the “Y”) is the “Pan”. “It’s a Small World” is right next to that, it was a brand-new attraction at that point. I don’t see a Storybook Land. There IS a pretty good selection on display I could talk about posters all darn day! And you’re right, maybe the photographer just had “the yips”, it has surely been the case on many other photos. As for earthquakes, people either seem to be fascinated by them, or truly scared. I’ve experienced quakes while in a movie theater, and the audience just laughed.
Nanook, I’d need to look at my list of posters, but they have a pretty good selection of posters for then-current rides on display. I guess that because “Mr. Lincoln” was new, it merited two posters within 50 feet of each other! The ones I see are: Peter Pan, It’s a Small World, Columbia, Lincoln, Swiss Family Treehouse, Golden Horseshoe, Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room. To the right, Autopia, Lincoln, Submarine Voyage, another Small World, Mark Twain, Swiss Family Treehouse, Dumbo (I believe), America the Beautiful, Monorail, and Alice.
TokyoMagic!, that guy must be a maintenance worker or gardener! Either that or he’s a guest who really wandered off the beaten path. Soon, security will shoot him with Nerf bullets.
K. Martinez, I know you like the French Market! Did they still have regular live music (until recently, of course)? You could listen to some Dixieland Jazz while eating your monte cristo sandwich (my friend Mr. X had to swear off monte cristos because they were so greasy that they made him ill!).
Andrew, now that you mention it, that man wasn’t in the photo when I first scanned it. It MUST be a time-traveling Stu!
It’s easy to take blurry pictures st Disneyland; half the time, you’re in s moving vehicle, and the other half, the thing you want a picture of us moving. Or you only have a tiny window of opportunity and aren’t able to steady your hands in time. That that certainly is a bumper crop of posters!
Felicitations and many happy returns of the day, Stu!
@Nanook, I’ve got that song stuck in my head now!
Happy birthday, Stu!
I think I remember reading in Steve Degaetano's book that the train actually remains stationary and the Park revolves around it.
Happy Birthday Stu
You-hoo, Stu - where are you?
Lou & Sue
Thank you, everybody!!!! Nanook, I hadn't heard that, but I like it! (Around here we had Icky Twerp, who would have probably smashed your birthday cake on your head).
Andrew, you caught me!
Thanks to Major, I took a ride on the Monorail and Railroad for my birthday! Thanks again, everyone! We have a great community of fun here!
Cheers Stu, many happy returns of the day.
Major, I love these pictures, especially the second one. French Market is my favorite restaurant in NOS, and NOS is my favorite part of Disneyland.
Have a good day everyone.
JG
Major-
The 'half' poster at the far left has to be the Matterhorn. [Naturally] you got all the rest.
@ Melissa & stu-
From the "Out of the mouths of babes" department...
Sheriff John [Rovick] hosted a (daily) local children's show, the highlight of the show being the birthday celebration. Sheriff John would read as many as a hundred names, and then bring out a cake and sing the Birthday Cake Polka ("Put Another Candle on My Birthday Cake"). Rovick once received a letter from a mother saying her young son had asked her how old Sheriff John was. She told him, “I don’t really know.” To which the boy said: “He must be hundreds of years old. Every day he sings, I’m another year old today.”
Melissa- that kid must've been channeling you-!
That kid had a point!
From on Virgo to another, have a good one Stu! Major, there is never a dull picture of the Park...nor any of my memories of it. These 2 remind me of the dramatic change in attendance that took after Labor Day. They were wonderful times to fully experience the charm the place had. KS
Pirates opened on my birthday!? I didn't know that. See what I did there? I avoided the $1000 fee!
1966 was a great year for me and DL. Especially if I was AT Disneyland.
I ride the Monorail and train EVERY trip without fail. There is so much to see and hear and you aren't pushing through the crowds. Crowds- that's why nobody goes there. (Apologies to Yogi Berra)
Happy Birthday Stu!
Nanook, up here it was Captain Satellite.
Sitting under the yellow sky and thanking the Major,
zach
KS, did we miss your big day or is it in the next few days? (We’re always looking for a reason to celebrate.)
Zach. :)
Melissa, oh I know it is easy to take blurry pictures, it’s basically my default; even when I’m NOT on a moving ride!
Chuck, that’s where they got the idea for “Carousel of Progress”!
MRaymond, It seems weird for me to respond to your birthday wishes to Stu, but I did it and I’m not sorry!
Lou and Sue, I was wondering the same thing.
stu29573, ah there he is! “Icky Twerp”, is that for real? It sounds like a more aggressive version of Captain Kangaroo’s pingpong balls (which actually looked kind of fun to me). Hope you have a great birthday!
JG, well shoot, several people have proclaimed that the French Market is their favorite, and I’ve never set foot inside it. Arg.
Nanook, ah yes, zooming in I can see that you are correct! Good grief, Sheriff John “would read as many as a hundred names”? That just shows you how popular he was! That letter-writing kid was a real weisenheimer, he’s probably a rich comedy writer now.
stu29573, all great humor has an element of truth in it. Or so I’ve heard.
KS, it’s funny how one used to be able to plan a visit to avoid the biggest crowds. Those days went away with the annual passes. That’s not to say that there weren’t less-busy days, it was just hard to predict when those would be.
zach, I have made a note of your day in my calendar app! It should remind me on March 17th. At first I thought you meant you were born in 1967, but now I see that this was wrong. That Yogi Berra quote is one of my favorites! “Captain Satellite”, jeez. I remember one called “Buggles the Clown”, but can’t recall if that was from when I lived back east or if that was in California. He came to the Navy base where my dad worked and gave all the kids presents (which our parents had paid for in advance of course). I got a sleeping bag with the symbols of the zodiac on it!
Lou and Sue, did I miss something? I don’t see a hint of when KS’s birthday is.
Major, yes, I think you did miss something. KS commented to Stu, above: "From one Virgo to another..." Virgo covers August 23 to September 22. ;)
Sue
Zach: I too was born on March 18, The Pirates of the Caribbean’s birthday .... but I was born in 1968, a year to the date after. Ironically I know 5 other people thru Disney also with a March 18th birthday!
Happy Birthday to Stu!!!!
Mike, I was born on my mother's birthday, so there's another one. I do believe you have also avoided the $1000 fee!
Lou and Sue...
It was a couple days ago. I keep it a secret! KS
Happy Belated Birthday, KS! Good luck keeping secrets around here!
Zach, I was due on my mother’s birthday, but arrived a week late.
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