Here's a nice pair of photos from the summer of '62, starting with this portrait of two women posing in front of Main Street Station, with the Mickey flower portrait, the Kalamazoo hand car, the Fred Gurley (ol' #3) loading up with a fresh, crunchy batch of guests. I promise that I won't mention the posters, like I usually do. Especially that now-scarce Alice in Wonderland posters with the word "Fantasyland" at the bottom, I will definitely not mention that one.
Next is this Skyway view (it was strangely faded, unlike the first photo), overlooking the Sub Lagoon, with the Monorail platform to our right (people are enjoying their brief ride on the Stephens-Adamson Speedramp). At least two Matterhorn bobsleds can be seen, along with the queue area for the Fantasyland Autopia.
Major-
ReplyDeleteIt looks as if the blonde lady is carrying a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. I certainly hope she took 100's of great pictures that day-!
Thanks, Major.
I was noticing the rust stains below the iron fencing in the first pic (which is sometimes even worse in other pics), and it made me wonder if those attraction posters were hermetically sealed within their frames, to prevent damage from rain water, sprinklers, etc. Or maybe they just swapped out the posters, if that happened?
ReplyDeleteThat second photograph is splendid. One can even make out the distinctive roof of the Fantasyland Depot in the distance. Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteThe gate attraction posters - were mounted on aluminum panels - as most exterior framed attraction posters were. I’ve seen examples of several posters layered over other posters on the same metal panel. In the beginning the attraction posters were inexpensive and easily replaced with fresh posters.
ReplyDeleteThe first attraction posters displayed inside the two entry tunnels were mounted on Masonite panels ( as were most attractions posters displayed inside or on temporary fences or walls) the first tunnel posters were not in full frames but were slid in on a “U” track like rail - and were had to be inserted from the ends of the “track”. Eventually the poster frames were removed from the Mickey Flower Bed and relocated into the two tunnels. A single gate poster frame was kept each one at the far end of the gate used as a new attraction / showcase poster. Some of the first posters displayed here were the Disneyland Railroad Bicentennial Special and Space Mountain.
I love the first picture and the information about the poster backings, but I don't know what attractions they represent since Major didn't explain them. :*-( We can see Mickey on the far right!
ReplyDeleteCrunchy goodness indeed! In the second pick we see the awning over the sub queue that they said was to protect guests from the sun. Insiders know, however, that it was actually to prevent guests from being flung over the berm by an over enthusiastic speed ramp. As the old saying goes, "Flung guests spend no dough."
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t want to cross those two ladies in the first picture! They look like they’d take you out behind the Opera House with a sack of doorknobs if you got on their bad side.
ReplyDeleteThat first pic has got a lot going for it. You're right, Melissa. That bruiser on the right looks like she's itching to get into a tussle.
ReplyDeleteNanook, my sister and I both had our own Brownie Target six-20 Box cameras, but sis got a Hawkeye a few years later. I never got one, but I did get this tiny little Hit spy camera that I got a lot of mileage out of. Made small black and white photographs.
Chuck, Going back to the last post about World's Greatest Super Pirates....it's got to be Long John Silver. Doesn't look much like Wallace Beery (my favorite Treasure Island), maybe Robert Newton.
Thanks Major, a good start to the day as always.
Nanook, I don’t know why I find it amusing that Kodak was still using the “Brownie” camera name in the 1960s; it seems like such an artifact of the 1920s and ‘30s.
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, I’ve seen many photos in which the posters are very wrinkled, likely from exposure to moisture; I think even condensation might have been a problem, along with rain. My understanding is that they produced each poster in large batches of 50 to 100 (I’m sure there were exceptions), and therefore they could just replace a damaged example with a nice new one when necessary.
Pegleg Pete, oh yeah! I didn’t even notice the little Fantasyland Station. Good catch!
Mike Cozart, I wonder if they used the equivalent of wallpaper paste to affix the posters to their aluminum (or Masonite) substrates? Van Eaton has sold some posters still mounted to boards, it sure seems like those things would be impossible to remove. They almost always look terrible all these years later, too! Isn’t it amazing that the process of silk-screening was considered inexpensive back then? Now it would be cost-prohibitive. Thanks for all the info about the posters, I always wondered if there were posters in the tunnels at the same time as the ones out on the fence.
Andrew, wow, you have some sort of weird superpower. That is definitely Mickey’s ear. Amazing. Something tells me that your powers of observation will help you ID those posters! ;-)
Stu29573, now I want to see footage of the Speed Ramp flinging guests through the air. Maybe some of them even landed in the lagoon - the Mermaids were there to rescue them! And of course we all remember Mark Twain’s quote about “flung guests”, what a wise man he was.
Melissa, I don’t know, those ladies don’t look so bad to me. Maybe I just don’t have good street instincts? Hey, I need a few doorknobs, I’ll make them a good offer on that pillowcase full of them.
DrGoat, I prefer to think that the lady on the right is just annoyed that she has to pose for a photo, when she really wants to go ride the Haunted Mansion. Little did she know she’d have to wait seven years. For a time I used to see wonderful vintage Kodak cameras in thrift stores and antiques stores, when everyone was switching to digital. It made me a bit sad to see so many, discarded and unloved. I’ve never heard of Hit spy cameras, but my great aunt had a Minox that I always thought was so cool. In my grandma’s boxes of photos there were sometimes prints that were no bigger than postage stamps, I wonder if they came from such a camera?
ReplyDeleteThat first photo is so sharp and clear, it really plays up the rust stains on the wall that align with the fence posts.
ReplyDeleteAlso seeing the weep hole in the retaining wall to allow the irrigation water from Mickey's flowers to drain out across the paving. All of this would be "bad show" today, but i'm willing to overlook it all for the sake of those posters.
Did we see the lady in the white sunglasses in an earlier post? They are both wearing what look like sensible shoes for a long day in the Park.
Photo 2 is pretty wonderful. Must be taken from the Skyway. We get a good clear view of the RF antenna on the Monorail roof, used to communicate with the trains on their route to the Hotel and back. I can feel the foot massage from the Speedramp even now.
Thanks for this post, Major. Good start to the day.
JG
Major, I think that Minox camera your great aunt had was much superior to the Hit camera I had. It did have a little leather carrying case though, and the photographs were actually pretty cool. I have yet to find any in the boxes of photos from my parents. I must have been in charge of those, so goodbye Charlie.
ReplyDeleteJG, I loved that foot massage on the Speedramp. Funny the things you remember.
I'm always impressed with the hedge at the top of the flower Mickey. It's always PERFECT!
ReplyDeleteI had a tiny camera when I was a kid. I won it selling tickets to the Scout Craft Fair sometime in the early 60s.
Andrew really does have terrific eyesight and observation skills!
ReplyDeleteSunday Night, what types of crafts?
Mainly above the lady in the red sweater, am I seeing the top of “rocks” in the lagoon, or am I seeing mermaid parts?
L&S: It was a Boy Scout/Cub Scout event. I remember very little of it! I think it was held out at what was Devonshire Downs in Northridge California.
ReplyDeleteDrGoat, I looked up Hit cameras, very cute! It’s just the kind of oddball thing that I love, and the quality looks pretty nice. The Minox was just such a neat, easy to hide design. Part of me wants to buy one, but… I’d never use it, so why waste the money.
ReplyDeleteSunday Night, as the guy who has to manicure the hedges at my mom’s house, I can appreciate how much work it is to keep those darn things so tidy. Neat that you won a spy camera! Do you still have it?
Lou and Sue, Sunday Night made pictures by gluing macaroni and pipe cleaners onto paper plates, and then finishing it all off with glitter! Or that’s what I want to believe, anyway. Nope, no mermaid parts in that photo, sadly.
Sunday Night, anyone who says they remember a Boy Scout event wasn’t really there!
Major - You found my craft! Please send it to me via US Mail insured.
ReplyDeleteSunday Night, I apologize, I have already sold your artwork to the Whitney Museum in New York for $33 million dollars!
ReplyDeleteRats!
ReplyDelete