Here's a pair of photos that would be featured on a non-Sunday post, except that they are both a little blurry. It's not too horrible though!
Let's start with this photo from May, 1960. There are (is?) the Dapper Dans, on a rather showy bicycle built for four (it's a Schwinn!). Those wheels hypnotized guests into spending more money. Did they sing as they cycled? Sounds dangerous. Are they wearing derbies or bowlers? I can never tell the difference. It's hard to make out through the blur, but a lightpost sign for "The Art of Animation" is just above the head of Dapper Dan #1.
Here's an image of one:
The second slide scan is from May of 1962, and is one of those odd shots of the Columbia moored at Tom Sawyer Island, for some reason. Looking in the foreground we can see some construction going on, probably related to the closure of the Plantation House on January 8th. Additions were made to the Indian Village too. And Aunt Jemima's Pancake House became Aunt Jemima's Kitchen. The Mineral Hall closed too. Now you know.
The little blurry girl in the stroller, behind the Dapper Dans, is popping a wheelie! Actually....I guess that would be two wheelies!
ReplyDeleteWhy is the Columbia moored at TSI, you ask? Because it has been commandeered by the Dred Pirate Pepperidge! He and his scurvy lot of GDBers are fresh off an expedition to circumnavigate the Rivers of America. They relieved many a tourist of their purses, I can tell you. Armed only with his Red Rider carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle, he and his blood thirsty crew are exploring the island looking to claim the land for King and country and bury their ill gotten riches. "Arrg me hearties, get to diggin!", DPP was quoted as saying.
ReplyDeleteMajor-
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to say is, as you're referring to the group. On the other hand - it sounds odd to me. When in doubt: restructure. "The Dapper Dans hypnotize guests into spending more money by appearing on a showy, Schwinn bicycle built for four". (I know... 'built for four' what-?) Ahhh, you can't win.
The bigger question is - are the first two 'Dans' twins-? Or, is it 'the first two twins Dan'-? My head is hurting. [Melissa, please help-!]
Thanks, Major.
DD #4 is the rebel of the group. Hat off, not pedling, obviously looking for trouble. It was he that started that Punk Barbershop movement a few years later. Everyone remembers The Shop Pistols' big hit "God Save the (hair) Cream!"
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, 25 years later that girl would jump the Snake River Canyon in her rocket-powered stroller. It was on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports”!
ReplyDeleteJonathan, listen, just because my pirates have scurvy doesn’t mean we’re bad guys! We just don’t like foods with vitamin C. In fact, we pretty much live on pork rinds and Mountain Dew. BB guns make surprisingly effective weapons, too! Have you ever been hit by a BB? It stings like the dickens. Also, why do you think so many pirates wear eye patches? That’s right - BB guns.
Nanook, yes, “is” might be grammatically correct, but it does not sound right. I know I could restructure the sentence, but as I have established, I am way too lazy. I can’t quite tell if the first two Dapper Dans are twins or if they just agreed to try to look as much alike as possible. They call each other each evening to coordinate!
stu29573, it looks like Dapper Dan #4 is literally twirling his mustache, and for that he earns 2500 Gorillabucks (redeemable at all Woolworth’s stores). Notice that only DD#3 is wearing spats, I am intrigued by the idea of a punk barbershop quartet! Straw boaters, striped jackets, and safety pins through their noses, with their slicked back hair dyed chartreuse.
Which one of you left the rope ladder down?
ReplyDeleteTM! that is one of the rarely seen High Performance strollers that required an "E" ticket.
Blurry, just like my photos.
zach, binging season 6 of Schitt's Creek.
Who can forget those Shop Pistols lyrics:
ReplyDelete"God save the hair cream!"
And get some Listerine!
Cause Dan's got bad breath
And Main Street's dreaming!"
I wonder If Fowler’s Harbor was being remodeled also, no place else to park the Columbia?
ReplyDeleteBack when construction at the Park improved things.
Blur or not, Major, I would swing in with the DPP crew and plant the flag on Castle Rock!
JG
zach, I am surprised there even IS a rope ladder on the Columbia, I guess that’s how maintenance workers boarded while it was moored on the island? You’d think they’d set up a gangplank on the landward side. I’ve only watched the first three episodes of “Schitt’s Creek”, I think I need to get further into it before I decide what I think!
ReplyDeletestu29573, I can never forget those lyrics, I was at their last show at the Winterland Ballroom!
JG, I wondered that as well, or else the Mark Twain was parked there - it seems odd that both big boats would be out of commission at the same time, though. The island would make a good pirate’s lair… just not the kind that was added in 2007.
Major, and over her lifetime, she broke every single bone in her body!
ReplyDeleteZach, ha, ha.....an "E" ticket stroller! Today, it would require a $50 "up- charge"! You know, the same amount that they now charge people to watch the fireworks, from the second level of the Carousel Theater in Tomorrowland.
Major and Nanook,
ReplyDelete"The Dapper Dans hypnotize guests into spending more money by appearing on a showy, Schwinn bicycle built for four"
Try it like this.
"The Dapper Dans hypnotize guests into spending more money by appearing on a showy, Schwinn bicycle specially constructed to carry 4 riders."
I can find the door myself now, thank you.
Fun pics just the same.
W