Monday, December 14, 2020

Black and White Snapshots, 1956

I have a real fondness for old photo prints. One has to have a certain appreciation for the charms of a black and white image. I prefer the old black and white episodes of "The Avengers" (starring Patrick Mcnee and Diana Rigg) over the color episodes. In case you were wondering.

Say, what's that crazy deal there? I think it makes moonshine or something! And right under the revenuer's noses. Just for yucks I was going to attempt to colorize the picture, until I realized that it was going to be much harder than I thought. The lesson: never try, and you will never fail.


Peter Pan had nothing to do with this pirate ship, but it is still pretty easy to imagine this one flying through a moonlit sky, glittering with Pixie Dust™ and smelling of fresh-baked cookies.


Rocket to the Moon? Is there room for me and all of my cats? I have a LOT of cats. And they deserve to go to the moon as much as the next critter. Imagine the animated gifs I will be able to create with cats in 1/6 gravity! Plus I've hired NASA to design special little space suits for all of them, even tiny boots.


Every Christmas, teenagers show up and hang those round plant thingies on our castle. That's what drugs do to people. I guess we can be grateful that it's not toilet paper, but if I ever get my hands on one of those kids, they're going straight to military school. Nobody hangs plant thingies on MY watch.

 

17 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
Boots is going to the moon, too-? Wow. (Some cats have all the luck). Bon voyage.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

I don't remember ever seeing benches that close to the Clock of the World, before. And they are sitting right in the middle of the entrance walkway, into Tomorrowland.

Major, don't worry about those teenagers.....I'm sure most, if not all of them, fell into the Castle moat, since the railings along the Castle bridge hadn't been installed yet.

Chuck said...

I can't imagine the Jolly Roger smelling like fresh-baked cookies. Fresh-baked tuna, sure, but not cookies.

Puss-in-Space-Boots.

Nobody hangs plant thingies on my watch, either. My front door, but not my watch.

Anonymous said...

Fun Facts!

The Clock of the World actually doubled as a coffee maker. It was removed when the Hills Bros protested that "future coffee" was hard to compete against! I know all of us here in the future would agree!

The Pirate Ship was originally going to only serve anchovies and anchovy based products (Chocolate Anchovy Sundae, anyone?) but marketing heard the idea and threw up.

The Rocket to the Moon was built by cats. In boots.

The teens responsible for the plant thingies were eaten by the carnivorous gator-swans. The gator-swans were later cooked and sold at the Pirate Ship on hamburger buns to reduce liability.

You can believe all of these because they're called "Facts!"!

K. Martinez said...

You'd probably be in luck with getting all your cats to the moon. I hear The Cat From Outer Space works for NASA these days. Perhaps "Toonces the Driving Cat" could pilot the Rocket to the Moon.

Nice B&W images. Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

And then there's the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, "Kitty Boots"!

"Lou and Sue" said...

I especially love the picture of the Roc-oon!

Thanks, Major!

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Wow. Percolator of the future and a Toonces the Driving Cat reference all in one post! Y'all on a roll this morning.

I have to agree with the Major though. I'll bet Popcorn Sutton had something to do with the design of the World Clock. It shore does look like the cap on a big ol' still.

DrGoat said...

Major, sounds like Tinkerbell gave you a double dose of pixie dust this morning, and it was contagious. Everyone has Dangerfield syndrome. It's un-treatable but always a welcome affliction. It's really a pleasure to wake up on a Monday with laughs. Thanks!
When I was a kid I thought it would cool if that ball on the World Clock was actually a giant Van de Graff generator or a Tesla Coil. Welcome to the future! It's shocking.
I think our cat Tag has already been to the Moon. He keeps tracking moon dust all over the house. One small step indeed.
Thanks Major and keep 'em coming everyone. We need it.

Melissa said...

Moonshine? Well, doggies! I’m gonna go ride a submarine around the seement pond!

That’s not pixie dust; it’s just cookie crumbs.

It’s so weird seeing Disneyland in black-and-white. Makes it feel like an episode of The Twilight Zone.

JC Shannon said...

One of the great mysteries of the 20th, is what happened to the clock. Okay, so you had to have a PHD in astrophysics to read the thing, but it would have made a great garden folly. Cats in outer space, what a great name for an alternative rock band. The b & w film adds a certain Veronica Lake noir look to the park. I like it. Thanks Major.

Anonymous said...

Major, thanks for leaving the crinkly edges visible on the scans. I wonder why that detail was provided on old photos?

This is a very fine survey of old attractions. Clearly, this photographer had their priorities straight.

I've never understood the World Clock, and neither have my cats.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, Boots is going, as is Speedy, and his sister Lulu. They’ll have little tea parties.

TokyoMagic!, I feel like I’ve seen other photos with those benches near the Clock of the World, but maybe they weren’t that close. I’m glad the teenagers fell into the moat, maybe that’ll learn ‘em!

Chuck, Pixie Dust eliminates unpleasant odors like fried fish or cigarette smoke. I’m glad nobody hangs plant thingies on your watch, even though the pun is very painful.

Stu29573, moon coffee is the richest kind! Mrs. Olson knows it’s even better than Folger’s. Yum, imagine a nice anchovy burger! Curiously, nobody has ever asked for the recipe. (Actually I am one of the people who does not like anchovies, at least on pizza). I’ll bet you my dad would have tried a chocolate anchovy sundae; his motto was “Don’t knock it until you try it”. We used to groan when he made salami and jelly sandwiches. Where do I get me onea them gator swans? Maybe they still have them in Florida?

K. Martinez, I’ve never seen “The Cat From Outer Space” - I only just watched “That Darn Cat” on Disney+ (it was charming in that Disney way). It was fun to watch Hayley Mills. Toonces could definitely fly a moon rocket, or any aircraft for that matter.

TokyoMagic!, it’s the long awaited sequel to “Meowsers!”.

Lou and Zue, OUCH.

Alonzo, if only we could somehow combine a driving cat with a percolator. We’d make millions! Popcorn Sutton? Is that a character from Li’l Abner? I love the name, now I have to look it up.

DrGoat, you know, sometimes I’m just in the mood to be silly. Other times I just need to write some blog posts and get them done! I hate to admit it, but it’s true. Dangerfield Syndrome? Maybe one’s eyes bug out, and you have the urge to keep tugging on your tie? Wow, I love the idea of the World Clock being a Van de Graff generator. Now THAT would be cool. Imagine how it would look at night? It would go ZAP at the top of every hour… folks would gather to watch. Hey, moon dust is worth its weight in gold, save it all and take it in baggies to the folks at Pawn Stars.

Melissa, I wonder if any moonshiners ever smuggled alcohol using a makeshift submarine? Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I kind of agree about seeing Disneyland in black and white, though it is usually more of a shock to me to see something that has always been in black and white and then actually seeing it in color. Like footage of FDR or something like that.

Jonathan, I think I’ve seen photos of the Clock of the World backstage after its removal, it looked like it was lifted using a crane, and just kind of ripped out of the ground. Whatever they did, you know it wasn’t pretty. I guess it was too big for most people’s backyards, but man, what a souvenir! I wish Veronica Lake was in these photos.

JG, I’ve wondered why old photos had deckled edges - maybe it helped make it easier to separate one photo from the other when they’d been stacked for a long time? Just a wild guess. Eventually they just went for the straight edges. I’d love it if Disney+ did a show highlighting old attractions like the World Clock, but maybe that is just too “niche” for mainstream audiences.

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton was an American Appalachian moonshiner and bootlegger. Born in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, he grew up, lived, and died in the rural areas around Maggie Valley and nearby Cocke County, Tennessee. He wrote a self-published autobiographical guide to moonshining production, self-produced a home video depicting his moonshining activities, and was later the subject of several documentaries, including one that received a Regional Emmy Award.

DBenson said...

As a kid I could never let go of the idea that the moon rocket was an actual attraction that was always closed when I was there. One of Disney comic books had Big Bad Wolf and the pigs flying it to another planet and back, which I took as proof that, at the very least, it had a finished interior.

Also spent a lot of time studying an old souvenir map, and assumed it was similar bad luck that deprived me of riding the cattle cars and passenger coaches on the railway, or running around Holidayland.

I still want to believe Edison Square is under construction.

Major Pepperidge said...

Alonzo, now I don’t feel so bad that I didn’t know who “Popcorn” Sutton was! I’m not up on my moonshiner history, though he sounds like a real character. Maybe someday somebody will make a documentary about me! It will win a regional Emmy for “Most Boring Documentary”.

DBenson, I guess the Moonliner was a bit of a cheat, but it was such a COOL cheat. I think I might have the comic book you are referring to, it’s pretty widely available on eBay, though copies in good condition can go for kind of a lot. Studying those old souvenir maps was a favorite pastime of mine, just thinking about it makes me want to look at one right now! It would have been cool to get Edison Square - if it had been built in the ‘50s, I wonder what changes would have been made in 2020? Maybe it would be completely different.

Chuck said...

Wait - FDR was in color??!!