Today's scans are a continuation of a series of Autopia images from January, 1960. The photographer just loved that Autopia! Generally I feel lucky to find one or two images in any given lot, but this guy took nearly a dozen.
This first one is a beauty. Check out those wonderful Mark V vehicles - the headlights make them look a little bug-eyed and baffled, but even so, I love them. Even the colors are great, that pretty metallic blue, and the frosty coral pink right behind it. Notice the Mark IV vehicles sitting unused to the right, this was a transitional period.
That girl looks mighty happy to be behind the wheel!
There she goes, about to be swallowed by the lush landscaping.
Although these 1960 pictures are pre-Peoplemover, you can still see the impressively complex levels of Autopia tracks with the Monorail beamway. I love that dark metallic teal paint job on the car with the two boys.
Another satisfied customer! Love the flowering tree to the right (Crepe myrtle? Redbud?) and the little bed of colorful blossoms that didn't need to be there, but sure looked nice in Walt's Tomorrowland.
Major-
ReplyDeleteAnd... NO center rail-! (That's exactly what the gal in the first image is gleefully-thinking). The ultimate freedom.
Thanks, Major.
I think after the Mark 7 , the Mark 5 Autopia is my second favorite. I know this was one of Bob Gurr’s least favorite as he felt it was too busy of a design, I understand because there were other designers involved - but Walt gave the approval so there’s that! Notice the “Disneyland” hood name plate on the Mark 5 : I wonder if any of those survive let alone an a actual car! In the photo of the car passing the Tomorrowland Train station the Mark 5 is without its headlights (!?!?) Maybe they hadn’t been applied yet.
ReplyDeleteI could handle a Mark V in my personal collection. Note that the red one in the first picture is missing the script "Disneyland" nameplate on the hood. It also appears that there may have been some chipping in the paint around the front of the hood. I wonder if it was in some kind of crack-up?
ReplyDeleteMike, in the photo with the Tomorrowland train station on to the right, the car is traveling away from us. We see the headlights of that particular car in the previous photo.
Although I am not the Autopia's #1 fan (noise, exhaust, heat) I can certainly appreciate the car design and like that the old and the new cars are in this photo! I prefer the older one and the "Disneyland" license plate, but the new "Disneyland" logo is cool too. It's clear with all of these kids smiles that I was in the minority and probably still am! The guests are so clean cut they could be employees! I don't know if they have the same loading system now with the numbers in bold circles on the concrete, but they certainly were there in the 80's- so I guess that system worked! The landscaping looks neat and tidy...that is probably a crepe myrtle bush- it looks like one- certainly a very showy plant! Guests would ask SOOO many questions about trees and plants! Was very interesting to me. They were always asking (daily, hourly, etc.) about the Jacaranda trees in Advertureland (really pretty...sooooo messy) and the Silk Floss Trees nearby. Silk floss had really pretty pink blossoms and a spiny trunk. The "silk" part doesn't come from the look of the flower, it comes from after the flower dies when it looks like a big ball of cotton fluff. I always thought a horticulture tour would be awesome- I had that book written by the Evans brothers- "Disneyland World of Flowers." I sold it, like most everything else. There are so many specimen trees and plants in the Park I hope someone has archived all the information! Next book please :)
ReplyDeleteBu, you are in luck: http://www.plantsofdisneyland.com/
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome Chuck! Thanks! Not sure If I could insert even one tiny seedling into my yard, but I am certainly going to try!
ReplyDeleteCHUCK: I can’t believe I didn’t notice that!! I don’t see well on my phone screen with my contacts still in..... I feel stupid.
ReplyDeleteYeah, no center rail. I still remember the first time I rode it WITH the center rail. It took some fun out of it.
ReplyDeleteMetallic Blue girl reminds me of every girl I had a crush on in Jr High.
Thanks, Major
That first is so very familiar, except the one we were in didn't have the Disneyland logo either. Could be the same color too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link Chuck. Can't grow most of those beauty's in Tucson but I like knowing about the flora in different spots. It's close to my heart as that's what we do here at work all day long.
zach, Metallic blue reminds me of the Corvette I never had back then.
Thanks Major. Choice pic today.
I like that little car, including the color, Walt was right.
ReplyDeleteThis is no longer one of my favorite attractions, but I loved it as a kid. Maybe after the recent refurb it will be fun again.
I'm with Bu, the tree is a crepe myrtle. The landscaping of Disneyland is a deep and fascinating topic, and especially in Autopia. That whole Tomorrowland forest is so nice. Chuck, thank you for that link.
Thanks for the pics, Major.
JG
Nanook, good point!!
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart, I might have to agree… in fact, I find the “busy’ design to be part of its appeal. Hey, I like the way Edsels look too, so my judgement might not be that dependable. It would be AMAZING if any of the Mark V’s have survived, and it also kills me to think of those cute little cars being sent to the scrapyard.
Chuck, yes, in other photos I’ve noticed that only some of the Mark V vehicles have the “Disneyland” nameplate - not sure why, though. Did it just take time to apply them? Did some never get it? We’ll never know. The chipping is mysterious, because it seems like that big wrap-around bumper should have protected that part of the car.
Bu, I am also not a huge fan of the Autopia as a ride. Although I almost always go on it at least once. It’s a little too slow for me, though there are other things to enjoy about it. As I’ve mentioned before, my young nephew’s favorite ride from his first visit was “the little cars”, so there is still a big appeal for children. As for the bold numbers, I think they have to make things as clear as possible for the guests when told to “stand on #3” or whatever. I see jacarandas all over the place, still in bloom. I love it when they leave a carpet of purple petals on the sidewalk or road. And silk floss trees (I think a friend calls them floss silk trees?) are very distinctive too. I think that fluff is relate to “kapok”, used to stuff mattresses in ye olden days. I recently saw another lovely flowering tree that I eventually identified as a “bristly locust” or something like that.
Chuck, NEAT!
Bu, I guess we can rule out any large trees in your immediate future.
Mike Cozart, it’s OK! No need to feel dumb. I miss things all the time!
zach, I think I am too young to have experienced the Autopia without the center rail, unless I was just a passenger. It must have been fun! When I first read your comment, I thought, “There is a girl who is metallic blue??”.
DrGoat, yes, you and your dad were in a very similar frosty metallic blue car! My sister recently recommended an app for my iPhone called “Seek”, it’s free, and does a remarkable job identifying plants via the phone’s camera. It’s great to use when on a hike (and it’s how I identified the bristly locust tree mentioned a minute ago).
JG, I have to wonder if the Autopia is the favorite of any adult? Once you have to drive a lot every day, the charm kind of wears off, at least to a degree. There are rumors of the eventual removal of the Autopia, which makes me a bit sad, however - it would be yet another opening-day attraction lost forever.
Major, I just started using "Seek" on recommendations from my son, the professional naturalist.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great tool and even identifies ornamentals. Lots of fun on a hike.
JG
Little Susie is thinking equal parts “No center rail!” and “Eat my exhaust, little brother!”
ReplyDeleteI have an app on my phone call iNaturalist that has worked pretty well. Sounds like Seek might be easier to use. You had to take a pic of the plant, then it would compare it to it's database of plants and give you 5 or 6 likely suspects. It's been about 90% accurate. You can upload the pic to a database of where, when etc.
ReplyDeleteWell, I just looked up Seek and it is the same app as iNaturalist. Should have done that first.
ReplyDeleteJG, yeah, it’s a pretty amazing app! I love to use it on hikes, and have discovered all kinds of interesting plants. Once in a while it gets stumped, but not often!
ReplyDeleteMelissa, it’s just like that Disney movie, “Motor Mania”!
DrGoat, you can take a photo for the Seek app if you want to add it to your “archive” of discovered species, but you can also just let the camera get a good look and it can usually ID it just based on that. And yes, Seek remembers when and where you saw a particular specimen. It works with insects, birds, and animals too, but often those are hard to get close to with your phone.
I remember hearing or reading that Bob Gurr said the MARK X was a overly heavy car model and they had to make adjustments to try and lighten it...... ( at first I thought it might be a reason for the car on the one picture was missing it’s headlights before I found out it was driving away from the camera ! Lol.) ....... but could the deletion of the “Disneyland “ hood plate have been part of the attempt to lighten the car?
ReplyDeleteLike the gelatin steering wheels??
Major, Seek also identifies mollusks, as in snails etc.
ReplyDeleteI used it on a fence lizard a while back, I had no idea there were so many kinds of lizards.
JG
Autopia was always one of my favorites as a kid and teenager. It allowed me to feel more grown-up. I still really enjoy excursion car rides and am glad I got to enjoy the ones at Knott's, Kennywood, and Santa Cruz Boardwalk before they were closed down. They seemed to be such a staple of the parks. I don't even mind the ones where the cars go at their own speed.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't object to the design of the cars in the photos, it does say something if you don't know whether they are coming or going. Weren't these an Arrow design?
For years I had a souvenir keychain from Darien Lake, with a picture of me on the antique car ride. It was one of my favorite souvenirs, and I have no idea what happened to it.
ReplyDelete(It was on the same key ring as the keychain my high school French teacher gave me for graduation, in the shape of a Paris metro ticket.)
I’d love to see the Autopia (and it’s sister rides at other Disney parks) remodeled with more futuristic vehicles, maybe solar-electric powered or something nifty like that.
Thanks for turning me on to Seek, guys. Had a lot of fun with it in the backyard this evening. It correctly identified everything I had already positively identified and helped me identify a few more things, including an elongated cellar spider on a web above the toilet in our ground floor bathroom. It also randomly came up with “house mouse” when I had it on as I was walking across the kitchen. Wondering if it saw something I missed. Probably won’t share that anecdote with my wife…
ReplyDeleteMike, I feel your pain. You have no idea how often I’ll see something in a GDB photo that I’ll misinterpret and start commenting on before I realize my mistake, sometimes after I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in research (which often helps me see my mistake). It’s always worse when I’m on my phone or I don’t have my near vision glasses on. Also when I’m driving.
Chuck, glad you and others are enjoying Seek. It’s brought a new level of enjoyment to hiking for us and I’ve figured out a few things in my yard too. My son swears by it and I will let him know my friends are using it too.
ReplyDeleteJG