Glorious Black and White
I don't often share black and white images on a Friday, but today's examples (scanned from negatives) are better than average. I think you'll like them!
Here we go... a beautiful look at Main Street USA in the evening. The necessary long exposure time has turned most of the people to ghostly blurs, but I applaud the photographer for going for it. As you can see, Christmas garlands and wreaths span the street, so we know this was the holiday season - it seems that in those early days, Christmas decor wasn't used until only a few weeks before the big day - it's possible that they waited until after Thanksgiving.
Instead of the familiar INA Carefree Corner (August 22, 1956 to June 14, 1985) in that building to our left, the sign says "Plaza Apartments", helping us to date this photo to 1955 (because INA had moved in by Christmas of '56). FYI, the building started out as the "Plaza Hotel" for a very short while. Notice the plywood cutout decorations above the sign; those were used in the park through to around 1958 as far as I am aware.
Imagine strolling down Main Street on a cool December night, with the glow of the shop signs to light your way. I can't imagine that they had "area music" at that time, though I could be wrong of course. Still, I like to think of it being rather quiet and peaceful. Let's buy an animation cel or two on the way out!
And here's a really neat photo showing a happy kid posing in front of the Viewliner station in Fantasyland! That would make this from 1957 or '58. The boy is wearing a Keppy Kap to protect his noggin from falling space junk. Notice the Santa Fe logo on the sign; Disney was contractually obligated to use that logo on all of the park's trains (although the Mine Train and Casey Jr. seemed to be exceptions). We can also read text painted on the ticket booth window, making it clear that they would accept a "B" coupon OR 25 cents.
I hope you have enjoyed today's black and white photos!
29 comments:
Major, these are extra nice. You are right about the Christmas decor not going up until after Thanksgiving. Now, I think they put it up the day after Labor Day. ;-)
I wonder what Keppy Kap Kid is pointing to? Mary is bored inside the ticket booth. And we can see a reflection of the Skyway support structure (from atop Snow Hill) in the window of the ticket booth.
Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Fantasyland Viewliner station view like that ! That’s probably why the boy is pointing... he never had either!
Man, that first photo reminds me of how incomplete and unrealistic Main Street looks without any Light Magic and other parade infrastructure topping the buildings.
Mary is thinking, “I hope they let me out before they tear this thing down.”
Nice photos, Major. Thanks,
Those first two pictures have a ghostliness about them.
Wondeful B&W photos. I've never seen or even heard of the Plaza Apts before! Mandela effect?
The first pictures seem so peaceful and wonderful, just like a dream (a good dream. Not those dreams about feeling like you're falling and suddenly you're in high school with just your underwear on and alien zombies are chasing your best friend, Oscar because they think his last name is Meyer. I know we've all had THAT one, lol!)
In the second one, the kid is saying "If we had a Monorail, they could tear this one down!"
A true visionary!
The first pic is perfect for the trash can counters among us, imploring us to waste paper. We can count the ghosts as well.
I, too, had never noticed or heard of the Plaza Apts! I'd like to live there if I were a little shorter.
Thanks, Major!
It's Disneyland Noir, with Philip Marlowe staying at the Plaza and keeping an eye out on all the passing gumshoes.
A lot of people first saw Disneyland in black and white, on the TV show; stepping into the Magic Kingdom for real must have been like the full Technicolor Oz effect. Thanks Major, swell pics.
Zach and JG, I can only see 6. Those cans sure can hide in black & white. And they don’t stay in one place, as we can witness by the one under the “Eastman” (Kodak) sign...it has legs and is walking away.
I love the 3 lonely park benches on the right.
Very unique feel to Main Street. Thanks, Major!
Great pics! Black and white photos always draw me in. The first three are definitely Willoughby material. The kid in the Viewliner shot is a happy camper. Mary is definitely bored, but she wouldn't be if she knew Alfred Hitchcock was doing his cameo off to the right on the platform.
Thanks Major.
@ TM!-
It really doesn't matter what that kid is pointing at, as he's merely Part 2 in the continuing series on GDB of "people pointing at stuff in Disneyland". It's doubtful he's related to the 'lady in dark blue' from yesterday ['cause of the B&W vs. color thing] - but one can never be too certain...
Thanks, Major.
TokyoMagic!, I don’t think you’re too far off as far as Christmas decorations going up right after Labor Day. It can’t be that much after! I think Keppy Kap Kid is actually hanging on to the fence (or is it a wall?), though it does admittedly look like he’s pointing. Good eye on the reflection of the Skyway tower in the ticket booth window!
Mike Cozart, I was pretty excited to get that negative - as much as I like the black and white, it would be great to have it in color.
Chuck, yes, didn’t they know that real small-town Main Streets have snow/foam machines and various spotlights on their roofs? I’ve been to the Midwest, I’ve seen it with my own eyes! That poor lady in the booth really does look bored to tears.
Melissa, I think it helps that the photos have those ghostly, blurry people scurrying about. “If only there was a mansion that we could live in!”.
Gnometrek, I think I have had one or two photos with the Plaza Apartments before, but obviously photos of them are rare, since they changed to the Carefree Corner in mid-1956.
Stu29573, that first one really does have a dreamlike quality - maybe just a little spooky. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only person who has that dream about being chased by alien zombies while wearing just my underwear! “Mr. Gorbachev, tear this Viewliner down!”.
zach, I don’t see that many trash cans, maybe 5? I think the angle from the other day gave us a better look! These days, even an apartment with 5’ ceilings would rent for $2000 a month.
Stefano, oh I like the “noir” idea! Now I want to listen to some of those old time radio Philip Marlowe shows. I always liked it when they talked about the route he drove. “I went west on Sunset and headed up Beverly Glen…”. Hey! I know where that is! Interesting thought about people only seeing Disneyland in black and white, it really must have been a stunner to see it with their own eyes.
Lou and Sue, I can’t find all six cans, I guess I’m missing at least one of them. “It has legs and is walking away”, ha ha! Seeing those park benches makes me wish I could be sitting there, taking it all in as the park got ready to close for the night.
DrGoat, I remember Roger Ebert saying something to the effect that black and white has a certainly dreamlike quality that increases our “suspension of disbelief” (I am paraphrasing poorly), and even though he is talking about movies, I think the same can be said for photos in some instances. Love the Alfred Hitchcock comment!
Nanook, don’t those people realize that they should be pointing with two fingers? I still can’t help wondering if Walt pointed with two fingers because there was a cigarette stuck between them.
Nice photos. Interesting to see the plywood cutouts; can you imagine them putting up decorations of adoring shepherds today? Also funny that most “ghosts” are legs and feet only, as Sue pointed out. Keppy Kid is cute, though he seems to be part of some optical illusion. If he’s holding the fence, then his arm is extremely long, because that part of the railing is going behind the booth with Ms. Tooth-picker! Thanks, Major.
Sue and Zach, the B&W look makes it hard to count, but I can only make out four trash cans. The street looks like a frame from "It's a Wonderful Life".
Major, you are right, the Philip Marlowe angle in Main Street is a great idea, all these need is a little fog. One of the best things about Marlowe was the geographic reality, it seemed real because it was real, mostly. I remember one story where he turned north off Sunset onto Rockingham Circle, again a very real location. I did about four houses on Rockingham back in my LA era, all just a few doors from Shirley Temple's place.
JG
JG, that’s because 2 walked away.
JG, what did you do to those houses?
Main Street turned into Dreamland! And that goes doubly true for the Viewliner pic. A great find Major. KS
Two great photos! It's nice to see an uncrowded Main Street at night with just the lights of the building glowing up the street- so it appeared as an actual street and not a street in an amusement park. I think probably the big Christmas Tree in Town Square came later- not seeing much down there. I like the subtle and tasteful decorations- even the 1950's plywood decoration is cool. Not everything needs to be shaped into a mouse head or branded in some way, right? I've never seen a photo of the Viewliner station so "front and forward". I've also never seen "Railroad" abbreviated into Ry, rather than RR. Perhaps that is "Rail Yard" (?) That is a big piece of ticket booth real estate for quarters! - hope they made a few! I did a web search calculation of .25 in 2021 dollars- and it's 2.29. I suppose they did make their cash back. I recently read that the Viewliner was owned by Walt via Retlaw- if someone could corroborate that possible myth, that would be great! Thanks for posting some really good ones today!
Bu, I wonder if Ry is for railway??
@ Bu-
According to my sources, RETLAW owned and operated the Disneyland Railroad, Disneyland Monorail, the Disneyland Viewliner, and Walt’s apartment until 1981, when they were sold to Walt Disney Productions.
They sold the Viewliner in 1981? Where the heck were they keeping it and why were they hiding it from us? I demand answers!
@ Chuck-
What were you doing in your other life - being a most-stern schoolmarm-??!! I certainly should hope so-! (In reality - you're a man after my own heart-!) I was well-aware of the fact the sentence, if read in 'proper English', would yield a bit of chronological confusion. In actuality, the Disneyland Viewliner was being kept in Walt's right, rear pocket-! [But please don't ask about the timeline between late 1966 and 1981...]
Continue to keep us all on our toes-! It shouldn't be any other way-!
Nanook, I spent the year that my dad was in Vietnam, between my first and second birthdays, living in the same house with my mother, my grandmother, my great aunt, and my great grandmother, all of whom either had been or still were schoolteachers. I can’t help myself.
Just realized what the first two pictures remind me of: the scenes at the Saltair Pavilion in Carnival of Souls.
Sue, I found the fifth trash can but cannot locate the sixth.
Re Rockingham, I was an architect working in that area for many years doing remodels and updates. New kitchens, baths, master bedroom suites, second floor additions, even the occasional tear-down, etc. Brentwood, Bel Air, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills was my beat, but we reached down to Rancho PV and up to the Valley. Fun stuff, for a while, but it’s possible to get tired of almost any job.
JG
JG, thanks for sharing about your work. That had to be very interesting, though I bet working with the "clients" could be exasperating, at times. If you have funny or interesting stories to tell, I'd love to hear some of them.
Here are the trash cans, that I think I see, from left to right:
#1. Left edge of picture.
#2. Under Eastman Kodak sign - with legs.
#3, 4 and 5. All evenly spaced on left side of street - heading toward the train station. You can just barely see the shape of the last one on that side of the street...it's to the left of that last lamp post, on the sidewalk.
#6. On the right side of the street, in front of us.
Kathy!, yeah, I think that in general the Christmas decorations are less overtly religious. Although I’ve heard recordings of the Candlelight Processional, which is the classic Christmas story, about as pure as can be. Interesting that the legs seem so visible, if anything I’d think it would be ther other way around, the legs would be blurs and the torsos would be a bit more discernible. The Keppy Kap kid looks like he has a very tiny hand!
JG, I think we can find better photos for trash can counting; four or five (or six?) doesn’t seem that impressive, when other photos show eight. I’d love it if they added a little atmospheric fog to Main Street, but I’m sure they can’t for safety reasons. Supposedly Universal Studios goes for HEAVY fog for their Halloween setups. I’ve never read any Philip Marlowe, just listened to the old radio shows. Maybe I need to get a book or two!
Lou and Sue, walking trash cans - Disneyland is truly magical.
KS, I’m glad you liked these!
Bu, you said it - this Main Street resembles a real street, and not an amusement park version. Yes, I get that it is idealized, but even so, it somehow felt believable. Now… not so much. Good point about the Christmas Tree, I didn’t even think about the fact that there isn’t one. I’ve seen other Viewliner items that abbreviate “railway” as “Ry”, and always think it looks a little odd, but assume it must have been traditional. When you think about people ponying up over $2.00 to ride something like the Viewliner, I’m sure there were more than a few grumbles from dads who felt their wallets getting lighter and lighter as the day went on.
Lou and Sue, that was always my assumption!
Nanook, I need to start my own company, and I’ll call it EGDIREPPEP. It really rolls off the tongue. I’d sure love to know how much Walt Disney Productions paid for RETLAW.
Chuck, ha ha, I thought the same thing. The Viewliner was in the caverns beneath the Matterhorn.
Nanook, I just want to make it clear that I was going to make a similar comment to the one Chuck made. But then I felt guilty because I knew that YOU knew.
Chuck, wow, that’s a lot of school teachers! You must know EVERYTHING!
Melissa, YES! Love that movie. So moody and creepy.
JG, yeah, I can’t see six either. Wow, you were working in some swanky neighborhoods! I spent the 4th of July over in the Palisades (at Will Rogers State Park), and from there you can look on dozens of multimillion-dollar homes. Maybe I’ll live there!
Lou and Sue, like you said, it’s #5 that is so hard to see. I THINK I see it, but it blends in with its surroundings pretty well at that distance. Still, you win today’s “Count the trash cans” award!
Major, here is the answer to your question about how much Walt Disney Productions paid for everything. At the time, I did not have a date for the article, but George/Viewliner Ltd. (Remember him?) left a comment (whic now appears as it's coming from "Anonymous," since his blog is no longer available) and he had a lot more info about the transaction that took place.
https://meettheworldinprogressland.blogspot.com/2011/03/disneyland-train-and-monorail-sold.html
To my understanding the Viewliners were kept in the Casey Jr. backstage service area for some time. They were supposedly not kept in rail but just sat on asphalt. I think there were gone before the 1981 RETLAW by back .
When Nature’s Wonderland closed , the mine trains were also kept in the Casey Jr. service “yard”. Ken would probably have more insight on this .
Sue, thanks for the cheat sheet on the can count. I accept number five to the left of the light pole, it’s the right shape and spacing. I was ruling it out before because it is so fuzzy.
I’ll email you some good gossip about a project in that locale.
Major, we did a few houses in that area, one huge one at the end of a cul-de-sac on the edge of the cliff overlooking the canyon into the WR park. I’ll share something offline.
JG
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