Today I have more photos taken by Lou Perry, shared with us by his daughter Sue B!
We'll start with this great one from November, 1963... it's Sue with Pluto! Such a cute picture, Pluto won't let anything happen to Sue on his watch. I believe that "Peter Pan's Flight" is to our right, with "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" over Pluto's shoulder, and of course the Carrousel to our left.
The next two are from 1958. "Pre-Sue"! I love this postcard (or souvenir guidebook) worthy photo of the Pack Mules returning from their journey through the Rainbow Desert. All of the passengers are little kids. The faux rocks and wooden tunnel entrance are as familiar as old friends by now.
I wonder what sort of problems could be experienced on the mule ride, if any?
Next is this really nice shot of a Stagecoach entering the corral with the same rocks and tunnel entrance behind them. Whenever I see the little staircases on the Rainbow Ridge hillside, I have this mad wish that I could climb up and see things from up there. "Why, these buildings are tiny!". It looks like a mom, dad, and their child (partly obscured) had the whole top of the coach to themselves.
THANK YOU, Lou and Sue!
Yay, more great photos from Lou and Sue!
ReplyDeleteSue, you were such a cute little kid!
Major, you are correct, that is Peter Pan's Flight to the right, but the facade behind Pluto was the Mad Hatter Shop. Pluto's blocking the signage.
I love the shot of mud wagon #6!
Major-
ReplyDeleteWell, well, well - 'Sue steps out'-! I was wondering when we were going to see some personal shots. (Is that a small, black ribbon in Sue's hair-?) No babushka needed here. Oh yeah - Rainbow Ridge is also here. It kinda got upstaged.
Okay, Sue - you're officially inaugurated. Thanks for sharing the fun with us.
I forgot to thank Lou, Sue and the Major, too!
ReplyDeleteAnd now I am wondering where all the other guests are in that first pic. There's no line for Peter Pan's Flight, and nobody is pushing, shoving or crowding in, to get a pic with Pluto. What a great day to be at the park!
Awwww, what an adorable little Suelet! And a Kavalkade of Kute Kids on their Pac-Mules!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see Little Sue in her GDB debut!
ReplyDeleteThe worst problem on the mule ride was when the animatronic muleskinner broke down. It was really bad when the one patterned after Yul Brynner blew a fuse. Worst thing that could possibly go worng...
TM!, where are all the other guests? Well, for starters, I wasn't even born yet.
Thanks again, Lou & Sue!
That's a great picture Sue. Thanks for sharing! I'm guessing that you have it framed or it's at least one of your favorites?
ReplyDeleteWhile everyone fusses over little Sue, I'm sure that JG will only be interested in the pavement. ;-)
Yep, Sue was a cute kid! Of course, all of us "rhymies" were cute ;-) .
ReplyDeleteThose steps to Rainbow Ridge remind me of the great scene where Black Bart tries to hide behind the buildings while gunfighting with Sherriff Lucky. It doesn't end well for Bart, or the forced perspective.
Frontierland; Where Nothing Can Go Wrong...Go Wrong...Go Wrong...
TokyoMagic!, notice that Sue doesn’t have a white oval over her face, ha ha! Thanks for the correction on the Mad Hatter Shop.
ReplyDeleteNanook, don’t forget, we first had a look at li’l Sue last Halloween (October 21st, to be exact). You don’t see a lot of 3 year-olds with babushkas, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible! I do think she is sporting s little black ribbon. Sue was goth before goth was cool!
Melissa, I sure wish I had a photo of myself at the park, a nice one with Pluto or one of the classic characters! Sue is lucky.
Chuck, you must have been off doing top-secret stuff last October (I know, if you tell me you’ll have to… um… “eliminate” me), because we saw baby Sue HERE a year ago! Did muleskinners actually skin mules? I would think that the mules would object, but what do I know. Ha ha, “worng”, I always loved that line in the “Westworld” poster when I was a kid.
Andrew, I picture Sue’s house as having walls covered in hundreds of framed photos. And one of those walls with lots of pictures, with pieces of red yard connecting them, like you might see in “CSI”. JG loves him some pebbly pavement.
Stu29573, I can imagine Sue in commercials for wholesome products such as Kool Aid or a nice toy. She’d be more famous than Rodney Alan Rippy! (Anyone? Anyone??). Sheriff Lucky had to shoot Black Bart after Bart was exposed to gamma radiation and grew to be 50 feet tall. It happened all the time in the Old West, with those uranium prospectors.
Sue, I'll add my admiration. That is adorable. Love those comfortable shoes. Such a great pic.
ReplyDeleteMajor, I think when critters are involved, there just might be problems at one time or another. Certainly true in my world.
That last shot is pretty nifty. Almost looks like those photographs that are focused in the center and blurry on the outside. Makes it look a bit 3d. Can't remember the name of that process. There is a site you can upload your photos and do it online. Someone here knows I'm sure.
Thanks Little Sue and thanks Lou for taking that gem.
Thanks M.
You look like a truly happy child there, Sue! Great pic. Thanks for sharing your dad's photos with us. As always, they're a special treat.
ReplyDeleteSue, I'm assuming were real close in age too. My first trip to Disneyland was in 1963 and 1958 is pre-Ken. We must be same year or a year apart.
My goodness, cuteness overload here.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lou and Sue for these fine pictures.
Interesting that there are no adults on the mule ride.
I'm not sure, but the term "muleskinner" might refer to the beatings administered by the mule drivers. It was a harsh world then, and that term "beaten like a rented mule" did not originate out of thin air. Sad to consider, and I'm sure the Disney mules lived the life of Reilly.
I would certainly like a foot tour of Rainbow Ridge, especially that little cottage near the top of the hill. Zach and I were going to trade off between staying there and the hut at the entrance to the Jungle Rivers.
Andrew, how well you know me. The pavement was probably the second thing I noticed in that picture, after the adorable kid. I do vaguely remember this look, but not as vividly as the pebbles at the Pirate Ship or Tiki Room.
Notice how the drainage channels are done in concrete to make the pebble look like the dirt that would prevail in a medieval castle yard? The pink paving appears to give way to the familiar "slurry", but there might be a ring of it around the carousel.
Today, this area is paved in a sort of brown cobblestone, with tile "sidewalks" that are mostly the same elevation as the central walk area. Everything appears "flat" and yet not a drain grate to be seen. The drainage concealment is a work of art of civil engineering. My hats off to the WED designers.
I am noticing the black ribbon and the date of the photos. Could the ribbon and the notable lack of crowds be the result of a monumental sad event occurring in November 1963? Sorry to bring it up.
Thanks Major and everyone.
JG
I feel rather foolish having forgotten Sue's GDB debut last year. But we've never seen her in Disneyland before, and that smile says it all.
ReplyDeleteThe tagline on the Westworld poster has stuck with me, too, since I read the script (the closest thing the film got to a novelization at the time of its release) in 8th grade. Usually when I reference it I get blank stares (of course, that's fairly common with almost anything that I say). Nice to be in a crowd that "gets it."
JG, I mentioned earlier this week that we are cleaning out our garage. Yesterday, I stumbled on the July 14th, 1964 issue of Look magazine focused on the then-upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions. The cover features a "brand-new" painting by Norman Rockwell, A Time for Greatness, featuring Kennedy speaking at the 1960 Democratic convention. The national pain is still palpable in the accompanying copy.
My newlywed parents, lifelong Republicans, took the train to Washington to pay their respects before his coffin as it lay in state in the Capitol rotunda. I know we don't go there here, but I find it harder to imagine that sort of consensus today. Truly a different time.
The issue also features a Ford ad with the following copy in small print at the very bottom:
"Ride Walt Disney's Magic Skyway at the Ford Motor Company Wonder Rotunda, New York World's Fair."
DrGoat, it looks like Sue is wearing Chinese slippers, I used to buy those (when I could find them in my size) in L.A.’s Chinatown. Cheap and comfy. I wonder if some of the Disneyland mules had bad reputations? “That’s Gwendolyn, she bites”. I think a lot of old camera lenses had problems such as being able to focus the whole frame; vignetting is another problem (dark edges and corners) that I have to deal with all the time.
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, I’m only a few years younger, but at this point it feels like the difference is kind of meaningless!
JG, hmm, you might be right, maybe those muleskinners were mean cusses. Poor mules! Interesting theory about the November 1963 date; it didn’t occur to me, but it is certainly very possible. Luckily, young Sue wasn’t burdened with the worries of the adult world at that time. That sure was the beginning of the 1960s having so much turmoil (that and Vietnam and Cuba of course). Still, it’s all a part of history, which makes it fascinating now that we can look back with some perspective.
Chuck, I barely remember what happens on my own blog, I sure can’t expect other people to remember what goes on! I thought that I might have read a novelization of “Westworld”, but maybe that was a while after the movie came out? Or else I’m misremembering completely. Looking back at JFKs Presidency, there were certainly many world problems (that darn Cold War, civil rights, etc), but it still seems like there was some hope for people. I can’t say personally, since I was too young to be aware of such things. I love looking through old magazines and finding ads for the World’s Fair - or Disneyland!
Sue- what a cutie you are in this photo. I had also forgotten the Halloween photos so went back and looked at them and picked up on comments I had missed. We're all getting nostalgic here :)
ReplyDeleteMajor-
ReplyDeleteYes - the Halloween photo - somehow I managed to forget that gem. So, let's correct the record and say 'Sue steps out... at Disneyland'.
Chuck and Major, I remember watching the funeral on TV, in black and white. My parents did not vote for Kennedy, I'm sure, but we mourned like all Americans that sad day, even me, when I was too young to understand.
ReplyDeleteJG
Chuck, when I try to say “GDB debut,” I sound like Twiki from Buck Rogers.
ReplyDeleteYep, Nanook, that's a small black ribbon - sort of "Pebbles-styled," but without the bone. Though I think somewhere there's a picture of me in a babushka, as a little kid - but NEVER(!!!!!!) as a teen or adult (as they were out-of-style by maybe 1970, at least for the teens). I remember going on a date in the mid-70s and flying out the front door to hop in my boyfriend's car - and my grandmother yelling out the front door, "SUSIE, DON'T FORGET YOUR BABUSHKA!" (I didn't OWN a BABUSHKA!) I wanted to crawl under a rock, at the time.
ReplyDeleteAs long as we're covering fashions, in that picture I'm actually wearing Mary Jane shoes, with the little black straps that buckle. Those looong pants are hiding the straps.
Andrew, that first picture IS a great shot of the fancy pavement that was so common in Disneyland.
I do remember standing with Pluto. He felt soft, like a chenille robe, and made me feel warm (as I remember feeling a little chilled).
Chuck, the other day you mentioned about cleaning out and moving... are you moving closer to Disneyland, or to me?
If I have time later, I may try to find out the date this picture was taken. It would be interesting to see if it corresponds with JFK.
Ken, I was born in 1960, but my first trip to Disneyland was in November 1959 (but my parents didn't know it, at the time). My mom told me that she rode the Matterhorn on that 1959 trip, not knowing she was pregnant. Everything turned out OK, thankfully.
I really appreciate all the nice comments from everyone, and all the laughs! Thank you, Major and fellow-Jr.-Gorillas!
Sue
Major, I finally remembered the photo effect I was thinking about. Tilt-shift.
ReplyDeletehttps://tiltshiftmaker.com/photo-editing.php
I remember that day in 1963. I was 13 and in Jr. High. They announced it over the loud speaker. A sad day. It was truly a different time Chuck. My parents were Democrats but we had all kinds of friends from very conservative to artists and craftsmen that were very liberal. Boy I miss that.
JG: in 1983 Disneyland’s New Fantasyland ( EPCOT’s GERMANY PAVILION TOO!) actually featured some REAL Germany cobblestone pavers brought over from Munich and Cologne. While they are modern made, the fabrication technique is centuries old. While the cobble guests walk across appear as a beveled or rounded off square on the surface , the stone goes down into the ground about 9 inches deep making them extremely strong and long lasting. I’m not sure if those real cobbles are in place today ( I believe they are ), but they once outlined the paving and walking areas directly in front of the new 1983 facades and around King Arthur Carrousel.
ReplyDeleteSue, Yep! We were born the same year.
ReplyDeleteKen, how cool is that! I think we grew up in THE best years! I especially LOVED the 70s!!
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart, that is a wonderful piece of info. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe products I saw today on StreetView look like they could be these cobbles that you described. Those were the locations that I looked at, more or less where Sue's pic today was taken, allowing for the 1983 plan changes.
The tile "sidewalks" then are probably the "accessible" route for wheelchair users.
Maybe that's how the drainage is invisible, water runs between the cobbles into a rock layer?
JG
Chuck, I wasn't born yet, either!
ReplyDeleteMajor, I noticed the absence of a white oval. Sue is much braver than I am! I guess everyone is!
JG and Mike, I remember when the New Fantasyland opened in 1983, that the "cobblestones" were only in front of the dark rides, and here and there around other attractions and buildings. I clearly remember the main walkways still being the slurry-coated asphalt, which I thought was more noticeable than if they had put cobblestones everywhere, or just left the slurry everywhere. It definitely looked "patchy" or incomplete. What year was it that they put the stones in the main walkways throughout Fantasyland? I want to say that it was sometime in the nineties, but I don't feel like getting out all of my photo albums to try and confirm that.
Also, Fantasyland has at least a couple drains with grates over them, right in the middle of the cobblestone walkways. The two I can think of are between the Carousel and Dumbo. I have also noticed for years now....maybe even decades, that there is a very putrid smell in that specific area. I've always assumed it was the drains, but I have never asked around, to see if anyone has an answer for the cause of the smell. Has anyone else ever noticed a really bad smell in that area? I actually don't think there has ever been a time (in the last 10 or 20 years) when I haven't smelled it in that area. It's just that sometimes it is stronger than other times. Knott's had that problem in a couple of locations, back in the eighties.
Here is the spot on Google street view, where you can see one of the drains on the ground in Fantasyland:
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8135414,-117.918947,2a,61.5y,272.01h,73.35t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2Wp4UzNTLm6xWRLF_84wDw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
And here is the other one:
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8135421,-117.9190637,2a,39.9y,314.98h,75.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snxfFt704xpDHpTu2YYMpYg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
TokyoMagic! If those smelly drains are between the horses and the elephants, I have a pretty good idea as to what that smell is coming from. :)
ReplyDeleteMajor, I don’t think TokyoMagic always covers his face, because I thought he handsomely appears in the video he posted on his blog, from when the new Fantasyland opened. Amiright, TM??
ReplyDeleteSue, ha, ha! THAT is the reason for the smell! You hit the nail on the head! (And Monstro isn't too far away, either!)
ReplyDeleteSue, awwww.....thanks! Yes, I do appear in that video....or at least the 18 year-old version of myself appears in it. I also appear in one of my 2012 Dapper Day posts, but I never pointed out that it was me. I'm sneaky that way. ;-)
Melissa, I can hear it in my head. Mel Blanc was awesome. I've been listening to a lot of Jack Benny lately, and he is just superb in that show. I understand he also did a few voices on the side for some obscure cartoons over at Warner's. As I recall they were insects or spiders or, I don't know, some kind of bugs. Nothing anybody remembers, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteDrGoat, I hope we can find ourselves in that kind of world again. "If you can't say nuthin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all." - Thumper, Bambi, Walt Disney Productions, 1942.
TM! does appear in that video, Sue, but you have to know what he looks like (or do a lot of detective work) to pick him out of the crowd.
And while I am cleaning out the garage and starting a new job next week, I'm not moving anywhere - just trying to make the place a bit more livable. We have too much junk and not enough space to store it in. I'm off to a great start by getting rid of all this worthless Disney garbage that means nothing to me. :-)
The garage is a continual problem. In fact, while I've been on leave this week cleaning out the garage, I found a printout of a 2011 e-mail that starts with "sorry I missed your e-mail - I'm on leave cleaning out my garage."
TM! I just found your picture on one of the two Dapper Day posts you had on your blog! How cool!! I love it!
ReplyDeleteSue, I agree with you. I especially LOVED the 70s too!
ReplyDelete@Tokyo, I went back now to those Dapper Day posts. Looks like so much fun.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has done at least one Dapper Day, maybe more, but it seems like a lot of work to me.
Once several years ago, might have been 2013(?), we were visiting as a family and we had tiki cocktails in Trader Sams'. A young lady with a bright floral dress came in with a dapper party and stood at the bar. We had one of the tables against the front wall. There was some flash photography going on with the dapper group. We didn't think anything about it, since we didn't know about Dapper Day then. But some time later, I saw photos of the lady in the floral dress at Trader Sam's bar on your blog. So we must have been in Trader Sams' at the same time. I can't find that post since I don't remember when it happened.
Does this sound familiar at all?
JG
Ha, I went back and found the post by brute force search, I commented on it in September 2011. Long time ago.
ReplyDeletehttp://meettheworldinprogressland.blogspot.com/2011/09/dapper-day-at-disneyland-evening-affair.html?showComment=1316204632426#c1509840356943812589
We were sitting just to the left out-of-frame in this photo >>
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8QRBmkXVbCs/TnAGFbtvuvI/AAAAAAAAGfM/3uaoxnSLFok/s1600/Dapper%2B22.jpg
JG
Sue, I'm glad that you were able to "follow the clues" and find the pic! After JG commented and provided a link to the older Dapper Day post, from 2011, I realized that I also included a pic of myself in that post, as well. So, I guess I'm not ALWAYS hiding behind a white oval! Just ALMOST always! ;-)
ReplyDeleteJG, I'm also glad that you were able to locate the post that you were remembering. And to think that we were probably in the very same room, at the very same time......9 years ago! Wow, it doesn't seem that long ago to me. Where does the time go?
Thanks, TokyoMagic! I followed the "clues" again and found you in that post. How fun!!!
ReplyDeleteChuck, BTW, when I earlier asked you if you were moving near Disneyland or me, I was NOT trying to be fresh! I only meant - are you moving west (nearer to Disneyland), or east (which is heading in my direction), from where you now live. But that doesn't matter anyway, since you aren't moving anywhere. I hope you now have a clean garage! ;)
Sue
@Tokyo, it would have been fun to meet you and say hello. Actually, it still would.
ReplyDeleteCheers. JG