Two Random Beauties
It's Friday - a good day to share two very nice scans for the start of your weekend.
From "sometime in the 1950s" comes this photo of a woman and her little daughter, posing in the Indian Village with the "wigwasigamig" (or birch bark house) in the background. The mother's polka dots help to confuse and startle werewolves, allowing her to safely escape.
It's hard to ignore that crate with shovels leaning against it, along with the ladder next to the boy. Not to mention the group of 5-gallon Sparkletts bottles! More of those "hard facts" we keep hearing about?
Another "sometime in the 1950s" photo features the wonderful Junior Autopia, which debuted in July of 1956, and used vehicles that were identical to the ones in the "Senior Autopia", except that there were blocks on the pedals so that the short legs of kids could reach them. This whole area looks so surprisingly empty and undeveloped!
Traffic was light this particular day, too. That lucky girl got a tomato-red beauty to drive. Curiously, I saw a piece of trivia on one website that stated that the "Junior Autopia was the only Autopia track to have a center guardrail to prevent accidents on the raceway". Um, really?
I hope you have enjoyed today's scans!
19 comments:
Ah yes, the 1950s. When Sparkletts bottles were made of heavy glass, and people wore hats made out of shredded wheat.
Look at the attraction attendant ( or Disneylander as they were called then) is safely running between the moving Autopia car and the thick / high curb...,,I wonder how often that turned into a painful accident with those thick aluminum safety guards pressed feet and ankles again the concrete curb!?
Major-
Maybe those five gallon bottles were from Arrowhead Springs-? 'Center guard rail'-? Yeah, I'll just bet.
Thanks, Major.
In #1, The lady in the 'coolie' hat wasn't content with having a run-of-the-mill hat. No siree! So she spent all morning gluing corn flakes to it.
No, wait. I changed my mind, she glued little orange butterflies to her hat. Quite a fashion statement! Three seconds after this photo was taken, her hat lifted off of her head and flew away.
I must be a werewolf because I too, am confused and startled by all those polka-dots of many sizes. Sort of like Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors", except... dots. She looks like a nice mom, though.
I have no clue why they would leave those tools and water jugs lying about like that. I would say "bad show" but maybe that concept didn't exist in the early years.
In the Jr. Autopia photo, all the cars have the same vanity license plate. Isn't that illegal or something? How are cops gonna know which car to pull over?
I like that deep blue car behind the tomato-red one. Shiny!
Thanks for the Friday pics, Major.
Jaffa Bonbons (a brand of chocolates)
That is one honey of a dress! Love how Mom and daughter are sort of color-coordinated without matching.
I’m not sure I’ve ever been as happy as that kid in the red car looks! Beep beep!
I think the wigwasigamig (and perhaps the rest of the Indian Village) is (are) undergoing renovation or may even be under construction. You can see what appear to be "birch bark" rolls behind the water bottes, and it looks like there's a painter or paperhanger next to the wigwasigamig just to the left of the woman in the lycanthrope-proof dress.
I think that website showed a garbled version of the truth. The Midget Autopia was the first Autopia track to have a center guardrail (although I think that was as much for power distribution as it was for safety). You can see how a person only casually familiar with Disneyland history could conflate the "Midget Autopia" with the "Junior Autopia," and then over time "first" morphs into "only." Not trying to give them a pass - distributors of inaccurate Disneyland lore should have their pudding privileges revoked - but can see how this could have happened.
I like these early Disneyland pictures. You can even hear a scraping sound emitting from the last one.
Happy Friday, and thanks, Major!
A doozie of a pair!
The first one is good not because of Disneyland (let's face it, a pile of construction tools could be anywhere)but because of the sweet mother/ daughter combo. By the way, werewolves hate the dress, but vampires love it, so it's always something, isn't it?
The second pic shows how the Junior Autopia was originally themed as a beach racing area. Unfortunately high speed rollovers were all too common. I mean one or two would be ok, but they were having. like, 15 a day! Yikes!
Those Sparketts glass bottles were HEAVY. Those delivery guys had to be strong...they still do! Painter guys "costume" didn't change much from the 50's to the 80's. "Bad Show" was said a lot in my day, but I don't think it was so much of a big deal back then when they were trying to finish stuff. I remember a story about Walt seeing a truck or something on Main St. or Frontierland/etc. and said "what is that truck from 1950 something doing here in 1890?!" That may have been the beginning of bad show. Speaking of bad show...that awning on the Junior Autopia needs a good hose-down. I'm sure the giant cat box that the Junior Autopia was built on is creating that dusty disaster. That must have been those darn Santa Ana winds- those were not fun days at Disneyland btw...hot hot very hot... what is the deal with those hats? Paper, cornflakes, etc. guess it was to "keep cool" but hats just make me super extra hot! Back to the painters...there was one painter...I think his name was even "Walt" who had a mustache in the very non-mustache time. I may have told this story..don't remember...I questioned it and he said that he had a special rule for him. To my knowledge, and view it was the only mustache I saw....one guy in the Golden Horseshoe band had a goatee. Did anyone know who that Walt was?
What I find interesting is that there is only one CM visible in the picture...the only one apparently running the attraction. Maybe the others are in First Aid after attempting to jump the cars at the load/unload position. This one didn't last very long. KS
This one didn’t last very long.
KS, the attraction, or the employee??
KS, I think maybe the guy wearing the light blue cap at the "gate guard" position at the entrance to the load area from the covered queue is also a CM. He is shirt and pants are in the same color and style as the guy in the foreground risking his ankles for the guests.
What is Mom holding in the first pic? A fishing pole? A pipe cleaner on a string cat toy? Love that triangular thatched hat! I guess kids were having such fun driving that the scenery didn’t need to be fancy on Junior Autopia. Thanks, Major.
TokyoMagic!, yeah I remember I had a friend who had a glass Sparkletts bottle that he was filling with pennies. I couldn’t lift it! The Shredded Wheat on hats was tradition on Easter.
Mike Cozart, I know, I’ve read that cast members working on the Autopias sometimes got crushed against that curb, even breaking legs or ankles. OUCH.
Nanook, “Arrowhead Springs”, now why didn’t I think of that?
JB, people from the “old country” typically glued cereal to their hats, although Froot Loops and Honeycomb were most popular. Rebels liked Special K. Multi-sized polka dots are well known for scaring monsters of all sorts. All the license plates aren’t the same! One says “Disneyland” in Swedish. One says “Disneyland” in German. And so on! The difference is subtle.
Melissa, that girl really does look happy. Doesn’t it appear that the photographer (a parent, presumably) is practically standing on the track?
Chuck, it’s true, since we don’t have an exact date on these, the wigwasigamig could very well be under construction. I wonder where they got their birch bark rolls? Not exactly an item from the local hardware store. And you are probably right about the mixup of the two different Autopias… I am always amused at the jumble of “facts” that exist on the Internet in regards to Disneyland. You need to take everything with a generous spoonful of salt!
Lou and Sue, ahhh, that grinding, scraping sound. You can hear the paint coming off!
Stu29573, Glad you like these! I am always happy to be able to share bette-than-usual scans. As I have mentioned before, I like good Disneyland photos with people almost better than shots with NO people… they folks add so much. A beach theme, why didn’t I pick up on that?!
Bu, yeah, I used to be the guy at the office who had to change the Sparkletts bottles, and they were lightweight plastic by then. It was still a grunt! It’s no wonder that painter’s outfits didn’t change, white coveralls do what’s need to be done. Nobody cares about looking fashionable. Yes, I’ve read that story about Walt and the “bad show” several times, which is why it is always surprising to see examples of bad show in vintage images. It happened surprisingly often. I guess they just had to do some of the work during the day when guests were present. I never thought about the sand, but you are right, imagine on a day when the Santa Ana winds were really kicking up. Awful! I don’t really like wearing hats, but now I do to keep the sun off my face and out of my eyes, especially when hiking. We’ve seen Stagecoach and Conestoga Wagon drivers with beards and mustaches, so there must have been an exception for some Frontierland cast members.
KS, you make a good point, where are all the other Junior Autopia guys?? For Tomorrowland we often see three or four men doing various tasks.
Lou and Sue, HA!
Chuck, now that you pointed it out, I think you are right about the man with the blue cap. It looks like he’s keeping an eye out for cars coming in for a landing.
Kathy!, huh! What IS that thing? I think it might be a monkey toy on a stick. Just a guess though! I’d love to find one of those thatched hats, but it would have to say “Disneyland” on it somewhere; I’m sure that similar hats were sold at other tourist destinations. You’re right, kids did not care about scenery, they just loved burning some rubber.
Vampires love the red polka dot dress because it looks like a very tidy, elaborate pattern of blood splatters.
"...distributors of inaccurate Disneyland lore should have their pudding privileges revoked..."
When I was little and Dad would work nights, sometimes he'd prank call at dinnertime and say he was The Pudding Monster coming to steal our dessert.
"Unfortunately high speed rollovers were all too common. I mean one or two would be ok, but they were having. like, 15 a day!"
Sounds like a day at Action Park!
Stu, I seem to remember reading that vampires are very obsessive compulsive. And that you should spill some beans (or whatever) on the ground, causing the vampire to stop and count every one of them while you make your get-away. So a vampire would count every dot on Mom's dress before feasting. I guess that would give Mom time to pick up one of the shovels, sharpen the end of the handle and run it through the vampire's heart! It would work, I tell ya!
Bu, "giant cat box". Ha! I wonder, did the park have a feral cat population in the '50s? If so, that would make your description all the more accurate!
Kathy!, it looks too thin and short to be a fishing pole, so I'm going with the cat toy.
Melissa, about the "Pudding Monster" phone call, what a weird and wonderful thing for your dad to do!
Sorry I’m late, I was gluing cornflakes to my hat.
Cute kids today Major, thanks.
JG
JB, I see that someone is up on their X-Files lore. ;-)
A bit late...
Sue...LOL...probably both. I lasted 3 months on the Autopia!
Chuck...I think you are right...there is a CM at the turnstile!
KS
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