The Mysterious Benefactor delivers once again, with more rare shop interiors from Frontierland, circa 1978!
These first two are very unusual, showing a display of vintage firearms, presumably the kind that one might have found out West in the 1800s. I'm unclear as to where exactly one would have found this feature - although I know I have read about such a display somewhere. Any ideas? I'm guessing that this could have been from inside the Davy Crockett Arcade. Notice that it's the young men who are especially interested!
We've seen a similar view before, with people to our left taking aim, so it's safe to say that this definitely is from inside the Davy Crockett Arcade. I wish we could see the merchandise at the counter more clearly. What are those colorful things hanging from that one support? Hats I guess?
THANK YOU, Mysterious Benefactor!
Hmmmm, more great pictures but they seem to have a mind of their own. For example, when you try to click on the first picture, the second one pops up.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos MB and MP, of a great shopping era. I had one of those leather purses...
^.
ReplyDeleteI should add that I had one of those leather purses in the 2nd picture (just tap the first picture to see it). ;)
Major, that couple firing the guns on the far left, were in one of the pics you posted last month. The customer at the counter (with the beard) is also in both pics:
ReplyDeletehttps://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Axv_TOlXxHY/XxDc9qSSvBI/AAAAAAAAUcE/KQPEgaipCj4veSFFtwfzncLw4Wfms-5hQCPcBGAsYHg/s1600/FR0298%2BFrontierland%2BShop%2BInterior%2B%25286-1978%2529.jpg
Those colorful hanging items are bonnets. Karen Grassle stitched every single one of them, by hand!
It's funny - I remember this store from this era and the '90s, but I don't have any recollection of the firearms collection. And that would be something I would think I would notice. But apparently not.
ReplyDeleteThere appears to be a rack of belts on the far left in the second-to-last photo, to the left of the guy in the yellow t-shirt. I wonder if one like mine is hanging there?
I agree with TM! - those are bonnets hitched to that post.
TM!, she had some help from Lindsay & Sidney Greenbush. The Melissas were too busy having adventures to pitch in.
TokyoMagic:
ReplyDeleteKAREN GRASSLE IS GOOD
SHE COOKS
SHE SEWS
Those western figures in the last image were at some point in the early 80’s sold across the way in the shop next to the Shooting Gallery - they must have been something very popular as I recall there being about a dozen different ones. They all had a similar “metallic” like shellac or glaze on them. One of them was a old west fireman with suspenders up over a pink Union Suite and a fire helmet - I remember that one because my grandfather on my dad’s side was a fire captain and my grandmother contemplated purchasing it but was concerned getting packed in their luggage returning to North Carolina.
I’m also wondering if that last picture is the plank ceiling shelf that ran the walls of the shop across the street and NOT the Davy Crockett Arcade???
In the third shot, Mr. X was standing right inside the "barn door" entrance off the pathway to Adventureland, according to this image, in which you can see the same counter. These pictures are some of the best. Thanks, Major and Mr. X.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would have loved looking at all those cool guns as a kid! And then you could go shoot at stuff at the Gallery! Wow!
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that the 3rd picture was taken from a slightly raised angle. Whoever took it (I remember you saying that MB didn't actually take these, but he donated them) must have jumped up an someone's shoulders. I hope they knew them! That could be embarrassing.
Major, you're correct about the firearms. Henry rifle is the one on the right with the shiny receiver. I don't see a Winchester but I'm sure there's a couple in there. Also a double barreled shotgun above the Henry. That pistol collection is nice with lots of iconic Colts. I do remember that display. Being raised in Arizona, you get familiar with firearms pretty early on, so I was drawn to a whole bunch of rifles and pistols in a neat display window. Had to have been a little earlier than '78 though.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Karen Grassle is good. Cooks, sews, directs and acts all at the same time.
Never liked those type of "sculptures" in the last pic. Something about them screamed tacky.
Thanks to you M.B, these are really cool pics, and thank you Major for putting them up for all to see.
...or MB gives the best donations, but Mr. X takes great pictures too!
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, I fixed the photos at 4:30 in the morning (my standard “waking up time” apparently). Google Photos is starting to truly aggravate me.
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, I tapped the picture with my finger, but nothing happened! ;-)
TokyoMagic!, yes, I mentioned in the text that we’d seen a similar view with those shooting gallery folks (though my writing didn’t make it super clear I see!). Honestly, who would buy a bonnet like that, and why? I don’t know who Karen Grassle is, but I am assuming she was not from “I Love Lucy”.
Chuck, I think the firearms had been on display for decades, but these are the first photos I’ve ever seen of such a display, so it’s hard to be completely certain. It was obviously a nice way to keep boys occupied while their parents shopped. Lindsay & Sidney Greenbush. You mean GreenSTREET? “The Melissas”? Huh?
Mike Cozart, jeez, everyone knows Karen Grassle but me, apparently! Did she win a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics? Was she in a shampoo commercial? I could look her up, but that would be cheating. I wonder what the “metallic” glaze would be on those wooden figures? I can’t even imagine. I’ll bet your grandmother could have had that fireman figure shipped home, too bad she didn’t get it. As for the plank ceiling, I have no idea!
Andrew, I am mystified as to how you know where the photographer was standing, but I believe you! These are from the Mysterious Benefactor, not Mr. X, just FYI.
Stu29573, I probably would have liked that gun display too. Collections of *anything* were interesting to me. Even “Gone With the Wind” thimbles from the Franklin Mint. Since these photos were taken (apparently) by a hired, professional photographer, it is very possible that he was allowed to stand on a counter (or some such thing) to get a different perspective. OR he just climbed up on somebody’s shoulders, I like that theory too!
DrGoat, I am impressed that you can ID any of those guns at this resolution. I don’t even know what a receiver is on an old gun. Is that how you hung up when you were done shooting someone? Yuck yuck! I wonder what became of those old firearms… collectors probably would have paid a pretty penny for some of them. Calling “Antiques Roadshow”. I’m glad to learn that Karen Grassle is good and NOT evil. Evilness is bad, if I’m not being to controversial. I kind of agree with you about those sculptures, I don’t really like them, but they do evoke the era when they were popular.
Andrew, ha ha!
Great indoor photos, Karen Grassle would love em. You may not know this but the Major is a crack pistoleer. He can shoot the wings off a gnat at 25 yards. Grizzly bears tremble at the mention of his name. Yep, Pistol Packin Pepperidge is a legend here in Montana, where point and click means, you're out of ammo. Thanks to MB and PPP.
ReplyDeleteThe shop photos are interesting, but not as interesting as the customers.
ReplyDeleteBucket hats and tennis visors, and gym shorts for men. The 70's were awful, and I had a shirt like the red-white-blue one in the first photo.
I don't recall the gun display at all and have no idea where it might have been. I never spent much time in this store or stores. Kind of reminds me of the firearms display in the Alamo.
Thanks Major and MB, very much indeed.
JG
MAJOR : Karen Grassle played Caroline Ingall's in the 1974 TV movie pilot of THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE and the tv series that followed and has played her character in all versions of the show and reunion movies. The joke I sent to TOKYO MAJIC is from a very early episode where the students are to write essays about their parents or family and present it at school open house . Laura Ingall's does such a great presentation about her mother but didn’t actually write a essay at all and the only thing on her paper is “ ma is good ....she cooks .... she sews”
ReplyDeleteIt’s a very famous episode - in fact most of my friends use another quote from that episode from Nellie's essay where she basically brags about how rich she is constantly repeating “her ( house , dresses , furniture etc) is the nicest ( house, dress, furniture, etc) in Walnut Grove .........”
So if I see a really nice car for example I’ll say “ wow!!! That’s the nicest car of all the cars in Walnut Grove!!!”
And I think in the 70’s Karen Grassle DID do a shampoo commercial!
Mike, thanks for the laughs! As a teenager in the 70's I never watched Little House on the Prairie, but I later watched it as an adult and loved most of it. (The ending was the worst, though, you have to admit.) I'll have to find the episode you mentioned, and watch it now, for laughs.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for another fun day!
I blame The Melissas for the fact that there were two or three of us, minimum, in every class I was ever in. You knew the teacher liked you if you were just “Melissa,” not “The other Melissa” or “No, the other Melissa.”
ReplyDeleteThe guy in blue stripes adjusting his shorts gets an A++ in Putting Together an Outfit.
The left hand statue has a distinct John-y Wayne-y look.
Many thanks to the Myst. Ben. for these rare glimpses!
Major-
ReplyDelete"Collections of *anything* were interesting to me. Even “Gone With the Wind” thimbles from the Franklin Mint". Well - I've been racking my brain trying to think of the 'perfect' Xmas gift - and now I know just what to get you-! It's gonna be soooo exciting to see your face come Xmas morning-! (Actually, it would be rather odd to see your face on most any morning - so I haven't the vaguest idea how I'd manage to do it on Xmas morning...) Perhaps if we channel a Hallmark Movie - there could be some sort of Christmas miracle/divine intervention...
The key was the gray box on the wall at the far right of today's picture.
ReplyDeleteIt's not directly related to this post, but if you zoom in on that previously-posted exterior shot, you can see the same Exinwest boxes on top of the display case that are in the old picture TM! posted.
I was so involved with figuring this out that I mixed up MB and Mr. X. If you're reading, Mysterious Benefactor, I'm sorry!
Mike, I remember Karen Grassle doing a commercial for shampoo or soap - some beauty product - while LHotP was in production. Another actress I had a crush on in my teens...
ReplyDeleteJonathan, if there’s one thing I know about Karen Grassle, it’s that she loves indoor photos. And photos of chipmunks. Real ones, not the costumed variety. I wish I could shoot the wings off a gnat, or put a hole in the middle of a quarter tossed into the air! Now that’s a skill worth having.
ReplyDeleteJG, come on, you and me… we are going to bring back the bucket hat. At first it will be worn by businessmen, but eventually the trend will spread to rap artists and then “the kids”. I think a lot of us wore red, white, and blue in the 1970s… they were almost the “unofficial color palette” of that decade. Was the firearms display at the Alamo in the basement?
Mike Cozart, oh, she was the mom! I always thought she was pretty. I didn’t watch “Little House”, but my sister was crazy for it, so some of it sunk in by osmosis. I mostly remember the over-the-top strings of the soundtrack! I thought Laura was supposed to be a smart kid, why did she write such a lame essay about her own mother? It’s funny how certain shows catch on with particular generations. Like the Brady Bunch. “Pork chops and apple sauce!”. Lines that somehow got out into the world beyond their shows. I would totally believe that Karen Grassle did a shampoo commercial, she has those wholesome good looks.
Lou and Sue, why was the ending of “LHotP” so bad? Did aliens come down and challenge the town folk to an air guitar contest? Did it turn out that the whole thing was just the delusions of a madman? Did it turn out that apes actually ruled the planet?
Melissa, well, my real name is pretty common, so teachers would just call us by our last names. It was crude, but effective. I look at some of those ‘70s fashions, especially for young men and boys, and cringe. Tennis was a big deal back then (Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe), and it seemed to me that kids dressed like they were headed to the French Open.
Nanook, oh I hope you didn’t buy them, I already have that set of thimbles, arranged on a tasteful simulated walnut display case. Now I’m thinking of branching out into commemorative plates and spoons. The sky is the limit! You can buy me the “I Love Lucy” plates though, if you really want to.
Andrew, excellent deductive reasoning! And I’m sure Mike Cozart will be happy to see his beloved Exinwest sets once more time. I’m sure the MB forgives you!
Chuck, yes, Karen Grassle was quite the dish. Looking on Google Image Search, there’s a picture of her in a yellow t-shirt. Hello! Funny how I honestly don’t think I knew her name until today.
Major, hahaha! I like your ending suggestions better than the real one they used for Little House on the Prairie...
ReplyDeleteSPOILER ALERT!
Per the internet description of the finale:
The [railroad tycoon] land grabber waits for church to spring his surprise. Great consternation ensues as the land grabber shows he owns every square inch of dirt under Walnut Grove and will evict everyone who doesn't go to work for him. He even has a U.S. Army regiment to back him up, using the same sort of logic that was used in various Government grabs of Indian territory. The townspeople back down (although the colonel in charge is a sympathetic figure) - but Laura, who has done very little up to this point, expresses her frustration by smashing all the windows of her house so the land grabber can't get to them. This gives another town resident, who already works for the iron mines, an idea - the land grabber can have the land under Walnut Grove, but he won't have one useful stick of the city. In ritualized settings of dynamite (starting with the Wilder mansion) the entire town goes kaboom one building at a time. The Army colonel grins as he tells the land grabber the self-destruction was perfectly legal, and residents of other towns who have been invited to watch the hostile takeover prepare to fight in similar fashion. The land grabber leaves with his tail between his legs, and the townspeople go off to start new lives elsewhere.
Hello Major, as I recall, the ALamo display was just inside the building. Tables with glass cases over horizontal displays, not vertical like today's picture, but an impressive display of firepower. Texas is all about the guns.
ReplyDeleteJG