Sunday, April 18, 2021

Sunday Snoozers

Crepuscular (adjective) - Of, resembling, or relating to twilight. That's a 50¢ word if I ever heard one, and you can use it later today to astonish your friends and baffle your neighbors. It also happens to apply to this first scan, which is kind of pretty in spite of its flaws. The sun was low enough to leave most of the park tinted by blue shadows, but the high points, like the peaks of the castle, were bathed in a pinkish glow. I can only assume that this photo was taken from the Peoplemover.


This one is crepuscular too! It's a familiar view, but one of my favorites, taken either from the Peoplemover, or from the upper level of the Carousel of Progress building (maybe you know for sure). I was thinking that it wouldn't be long before the fireworks began, but then realized that this was November, and they probably didn't do fireworks in the off season. Try not to cry. Is that Monorail Green at the station?

15 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
Now here's a 'pink' castle a fella could love... Just the right amount-!

Yes, that appears to be Monorail green; although had the designers in Detroit had a hand in naming it, undoubtedly it would be called something like Sequoia Green or Meadowvale green or perhaps Shannon green.

Thanks, Major.

"Lou and Sue" said...

And Main Street would be lighting up, right about now. Beautiful time to be at Disneyland!

In the 2nd shot, we caught that gentleman, in front of the Skyway “support tower” (whatever it’s called) in a strange pose. Running??

Help me get my bearings, somebody...IF we could see Fudgie the Whale, around where would he be??

Thanks, Major! Happy Sunday, everyone!

MIKE COZART said...

1969 MONORAIL GREEN’s actual color :
DITZLER #43827M “EXOTIC OLIVE”

( M is for the metallic flake option) . It was part of their commercial fleet finishes line. The color appears to have been available from 1966 and is obsolete by 1984.

DITZLER/PPG automotive finishes were once the colors of many Disney attraction vehicles.

That red Skyway gondola seems to be at an “uncomfortable” tilt.

Nanook said...

@ MIKE-
Thanks for the correct color name. (Too bad Disney didn't choose to 'update' Monorail green's color in 1969 to one of the latest 'greens'... "Anti-Establish Mint". No kidding-!) That color was available on fine Ford products back then.

JC Shannon said...

Nanook, for some reason Shannon Green is my fav. Go figure. Mike, I have always wanted to know if my favorite Peoplemover and Skyway Gondola colors had a name? Tropical Turquoise or Island Teal, perhaps. Anyhow, I think the Gondola in the photo has a mighty big man at one side. Thanks Major.

K. Martinez said...

Love the second shot with the Matterhorn & Skyway in all their glory. Disneyland was only 15 years old when this was taken. This scene is now from over half a century ago. Thanks, Major.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, the castle had definitely started its trend of turning pinker (and not just because of the late-afternoon sunlight), but at this point it still looked OK! I like Sequoia Green, but would prefer Bug Guts Green.

Lou and Sue, I think the camera makes the scenes look a little darker than they actually were, but I do think that it wouldn’t be long before the lights were turned on. Was there a giant master switch somewhere, like in the Frankenstein movies? That man does seem to be running, but I can’t imagine why he’s running! I think (but am not sure) that Fudgie would have been to the right of the waterfall, down at the lower part.

Mike Cozart, there’s nothing like an Exotic Olive! They should have called it “Erotic Olive”, but maybe that’s too naughty. It does seem like that kind of green was popular in the dates you listed - not sure why some colors go out of fashion. I guess they just start to feel “old”, and people want “new”! The Skyway gondola does look a little crooked, but the occupants don’t appear to be the type to rock the vehicle.

Nanook, Anti-Establish Mint is pretty bad. Maybe they got Wally Boag to come up with names for hues.

Jonathan, I wish I had a color named after ME. “Pepperidge Puce”? I guarantee that the colors on the Skyway gondolas and Peoplemover trains had specific names, Mike has told us what they were! But I don’t remember them, unfortunately. You might be right about the Skyway gondola being off balance because of the adult.

K. Martinez, it’s kind of weird to think of Disneyland being 15 years old in 1970… mostly because 1970 evokes such a drastically different image of America than 1955 does.

Stu29573 said...

I think Fudgie is hiding behind the trees...

zach said...

I dated Exotic Olive but I don't want to talk about.

I wonder if there was a time of year that you could see the sunset through the Matterhorn nostrils?

I like the warm glow of the street light in #1 and the 'lit up' striped trash can.

It's not very well known that Rod Serling fought long and hard to NOT call the show 'Crepuscular Zone'. I agree he was right.

Thanks Major.

Chuck said...

I tend to think of things of or relating to Twilight as crapuscular, but I suppose that's a matter of personal taste.

This truly is a magical hour. We can see one of the streetlights already glowing about 15-20 feet to the left of the trash can in the first photo, and soon we'll see the fireflies around the Plaza.

I don't have any memory of the round Coca-Cola logo above the Tomorrowland Terrace, although I'm sure I saw it that way as a kid. I do remember it with a rectangular logo filling the sign. I don't drink caffeineated beverages anymore (they make me edgy), but that red-and-white logo still makes me feel all warm inside. Either that, or it's the second COVID shot talking.

Melissa said...

My cat tends to get the zoomies as soon as it gets dark, and I always ask him, “Are you being crepuscular?”

I love the kid with the lady in the yellow dress in #2. He’s trying to drag her off to something he’s just noticed, but she’s having none of it.

Anonymous said...

Good old monorail green. It always seemed to be little used...or that I rarely happened to see it while working there. Seeing this was November 1970, the lack of crowds tells me it was definitely before Thanksgiving season. That fellow running may be trying to catch the last sub of the day. The park closed early...like around 6-7 as I recall back then. I was a seasonal then...probably at CSULB that day getting ready for call-back to work the JC in a week or two. KS

Major Pepperidge said...

Stu29573, yes, you are probably right.

zach, she only danced to help pay for college! I think I have some photos from the 1980s (coming up) in which you get a pretty good luck at the sunset sky through the Matterhorn’s nostrils. Rod Serling loved a rich vocabulary, but even he drew the line at “crepuscular”!

Chuck, listen, jokes about crap are MY domain! I could be wrong, but I believe that some of the lights around the park are turned on when it is still bright sunlight. The “twinkle lights” on the olive trees (the EXOTIC olive trees) were always one of my favorite sights. Congrats on getting your second vaccine shot, my second one is about a week away.

Melissa, what does you cat say back to you?? “Very droll, Melissa!”. I’m assuming that your cat wears a monocle. The groovy mom in the yellow (and short!) dress is probably used to her enthusiastic kid trying to drag her from here to there.

KS, it does seem like photos of the green Monorail are uncommon, which would bear out the notion that it was the least-used of the Monorail trains. It didn’t occur to me that the park might close soon - I would be so disappointed to be told to go home at 6 o’clock! I didn’t know that the holiday season was that busy back then, except perhaps for weekends.

MIKE COZART said...

SHANNON: I’m out of town till Tuesday as of today so I can’t access the color names for three PeopleMover cars .... they were actually NOT Ditzler but a Fiberglas/plastic color coating company . The “aqua” PeopleMover car was two different colors over time .. in the 60’s it was actually a bluish color then later changed to ABERDEEN GREEN ( I recall off hand ) and the yellow was FIESTA YELLOW. The PeopleMover cars from 1967-1968 had a plastic coating ( paint) that was actually added during part of the molding process with the ABS plastic bodies .... the warped in the California sun so in 1968 al the PeopleMover car body skins were replaced with traditional cloth backed Fiberglas and coated ( painted) with Fiberglas boat paints. So in actuality real complete 1967 made PeopleMover cars haven’t existed since 1968.lol!

Anonymous said...

Wow, these are really fine pictures, Major.

Photo 1 almost looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting with the lone lamp post and companion trash can. How eerie to have no people about.

We can see that at this time, several castle spires had pennants, the one at the extreme right in photo 1 can be seen in photo 2. This is probably the one we saw a few posts back, and is over the restrooms or perhaps Alice.

The Running Man is perpetually late, like his mentor, the White Rabbit.

Notice the molded benches on the planter wall by the Submarine queue, I think these were engineered out in 1998 and replaced with the weird metallic rocks, which are uncomfortable to sit on. No comfortable people-watching retreats for you! Go sit at the Space bar and spend money!

I hope the red Skyway bucket made it through the Nasal Passages to safety in Fantasyland.

Photo 2 is taken, I think from the second floor deck of the Carousel, but these two could almost be from the same Peoplemover ride, just a few minutes apart. Disney should convert the second floor of Innoventions or Launch Bay, or whatever it is called, into a sit-down restaurant with floor to ceiling windows with this view. Then sell special fireworks-viewing packages with cocktails.

Thanks for this post, Major, and Mike Cozart for all the paint information. I have no earthly need to know the color names, but it is oddly comforting to me that someone does.

JG