Sunday, August 15, 2021

Almost Rejects

Today's photos (as the title of today's post hints) might have been left in the "reject" folder of scans. But not on GDB! I'll share them, no matter what.

From a slide dated "May, 1960" comes this picture of the Autopia roadway (the Tomorrowland Autopia, I presume), with a group of blurry little cars putt-putting along at six miles an hour. Was the photo taken from the Monorail? One interesting detail is that the rightmost vehicle is a Mark IV, while the other five appear to be Mark V's. From what I have read, the Mark IV cars were retired in 1958, so it's a bit of a mystery as to why that one is in service well into 1960.


And from August, 1965 comes this photo of two climbers ascending the icy slopes of the Matterhorn. Notice that they carry no supplemental oxygen! And they are wearing shorts (or lederhosen), for gosh sakes. But that's how they do it on the Matterhorn. 

12 comments:

"Lou and Sue" said...

The Matterhorn looks smaller, with people on it. Even the waterfall looks a lot smaller...those lederhosen lollygaggers really throw things out of proportion, don’t they?!
Skyway gondola!

Glad you kept these, Major! Happy Sunday, everyone!

MIKE COZART said...

I love when we see photo evidence of a unusual scene or event at Disneyland .... or a previously unknown attraction poster or costume variant ..... or like seeing proof that and older Autopia car model was still running long after it should have been retired! Very cool!
I wonder if the girl in the older car thought “ cool!! I get the older model!” or “ what a jip!! I get the tired old car!” It looks like she’s having a blast though!! Did guests back then even notice or care?

I remember being at Disneyland around 1987 or 1988 and waiting on the Monorail platform as a yellow mark III Monorail departed the station .... while waiting for our Monorail, I thought I’d get a photo of the Monorail coming across Submarine Lagoon and being stunned when Monorail PURPLE ( Mark IV) appeared !!!!! I went Berserk !!! A whole new design!!! I knew nothing about .... Disney news months later had an article about the new monorails ...... but before that nothing. I was so excited to see the new design , but also anxious that the older ones would be replaced ... I shot a whole roll of film of the monorails new and old .... but unfortunately I didn’t get a Mark III and Mark IV in the same frame.

Anonymous said...

I really like the first picture! It has that "toy car set" look that is really nice.
And yes, Sue, I agree that those silly kids climbing all over everything ruin the illusion of size. Although I'm pretty sure that the current Disney admins will let anyone climb anything if the price is right..."Di$ney; We love your money!"

Andrew said...

I rode an Autopia-style ride with two different styles of cars in New Hampshire. It has the last original Arrow sports cars in operation.

zach said...

The Mark IV appears to be the Pace Car. It will pull off when they get the green flag!

Thanks, Major

Zach

JG said...

The Matterhorn is as big as it ever was, those climbers are giants.

The mismatched Autopia shot is a real collectors item, Major.

Some time back, Daveland had a picture with both Skyway bucket styles in the same shot, very weird. It seems there were not always hard transitions for these improvements.

The photo vantage is probably the monorail, but might be the DLRR.

Thank you for these pics.

JG

Chuck said...

I believe that’s the experimental Mark IV(N), which was powered by a miniature nuclear reactor built by General Electric as a demonstration project. Intended for only a six-month trial beginning in September of 1956, due to a statistically impossible simultaneous failure of both the braking system and the accelerator on January 2nd, 1957, the car ran continuously for the next twenty-nine years until it’s nuclear fuel was spent.

The poor guest, one Charlotte Carr from Boston (known to her friends as “Charlie”), was unable to exit the vehicle for that entire period. Concerned cast members took pity on her and handed her a sandwich every day at quarter past two as she passed through the loading station.

Sadly, once the car finally sputtered to a stop, she was charged regular admission for every day the Park was open during her ordeal, although they kindly honored her original “D” coupon for the entire ride.

Nanook said...

Major-
No offense to "Hans and Otto", but to maintain the forced perspective, I'm surprised Walt didn't hire a couple of the surviving 'Singer Midgets' to "ascend the perilous peak".

Thanks, Major.

Anonymous said...

Major- Very unique photos today- thanks.

Chuck- Maybe the Kingston Trio should sing a song about her... ;)

-DW

Anonymous said...

Chuck...My hat is off to you sir for that wonderful summary of Charlie's exploits at the Autopia. At a minimum, she should also have been recognized as an honorary CM by those assigned to that attraction. And perhaps qualified for a Disney pension for the years of service in testing the model. KS

Melissa said...

Well, did she ever return?

Major Pepperidge said...

Lou and Sue, I always think it’s funny when crows decide that they want to land on the Matterhorn in large numbers. Suddenly it looks like a big toy!

Mike Cozart, I like seeing unusual things like the two different Autopia vehicles too! Kids being kids, I can’t help wondering if the girl even noticed that her car was different from the others. It must have been very crazy to see that NEW Monorail style, completely unexpectedly. I guess they rolled them out for a “soft opening”? Or just needed to try them for real on the actual track?

Stu29573, if that first photo was clearer, it might have been a good candidate for a “tilt shift” effect, which REALLY would have made it look like a toy set! The park has had mountain climbers for so long, I guess they decided that the fun of seeing them up on the slopes was more important than the illusion of size for the mountain!

Andrew, neat! Love that little sports car, every bit as nice as any that Disneyland had.

Zach, a pace car that can’t go over 6 mph!

JG, I believe that Daveland had a photo with two different kinds of Autopia cars. Heck, I might have as well, it gets hard to remember after 15,000+ photos! I do remember Daveland’s photo with the two styles of Skyway gondolas, that was very cool.

Chuck, I was hoping that those cars had the turbine engines, such as those experimental cars at the New York World’s Fair! So fascinating. I’ll have to watch that “Jay Leno’s Garage” episode again, it was super interesting. I know that there have been concept cars with proposed nuclear propulsion systems - sounds too potentially dangerous! I think someone needs to write a folk song about Charlotte Carr - call the Kingston Trio immediately!

Nanook, hey, they use that trick in movies (and have since the silent era), why not do it at Disneyland too??

DW, HA HA! Great minds think alike! I immediately thought of ol’ Charlie and the MTA.. I swear I didn’t see your comment before I left my comment!

KS, perhaps a big screen movie needs to be made, starring, Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte. And Tom Cruise as… I don’t know, Walt Disney? Sure why not!

Melissa, she never returned