I'm finally getting around to sharing the last two scans from a small lot of stereo slides from 1956, having something to do with a visit by a group of rowdy Jaycees. Worse than squirrelly teenagers!
We're on the wrong side of that chain-link fence, looking at the passenger train while it was stopped at Main Street Station. I wonder if any old-timers remembered riding on trains that looked much like that one? I also wonder if the lady walking from left to right worked at one of the ticket booths? You never know. You can tell that this is an early photo because of that wire fencing around the grass - a dead giveaway.
Thar she blows! Monstro sends up a plume of hot breath and atomized water, just daring any whaler to try to come for him. He eats whalers for brunch! I like the '50s fashions, especially the girls in their floofy dresses over near Monstro.
Major-
ReplyDelete"You can tell that this is an early photo because of that wire fencing around the grass - a dead giveaway". And... you can tell it pre-dates mid-June 1956, as there are no attraction posters on the iron fence.
Thanks, Major.
In the first pic, I wonder why that little kid is all by himself out in the middle of nowhere. Well, not exactly nowhere; he's close to the floral Mickey. Maybe his family is out of frame to the right. He's probably pretty safe here, though. The swans and ducks rarely venture outside the entrance tunnels.
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice clear photo of Monstro. Eye wide open (I'm guessing he only has the one). He has a healthy sheen. Shiny Boy could take a few pointers from Monstro. It looks like it just stopped raining; puddles everywhere. No umbrellas in sight, though. Also no fedoras or babuskas; odd. Nice aqua and white shirt on that guy.
Thanks for the pics, Major. Not a lot to be snarky or funny about in these photos, but they do show a somewhat slow and quiet Disneyland in its early years. And that's OK, too.
I'm assuming that the guy on the far left of the first pic, was an Exit Gate attendant? It's nice that they let him have a chair. The current gate attendants were finally given stools, just in recent years.
ReplyDeleteMajor; asking if there were oldtimers in 1955 that remembered riding passenger trains like the Disneyland & Santa Fe RR would be similar to asking someone in 2022 if they remember riding Adventure Thru Inner Space or The Flying Saucers!! There were several dozen short line railroads in America that continued using older rolling stock into the 1950’s. The famous Virginia & Truckee Railroad of Nevada operated till 1946 and was still using passenger coaches from the 1870’s!! Many of the railroads that went bankrupt in the 1930’s and 1940’s switched quickly over to being tourists railroads .... and some were temporarily used by the military during WW2 ..... saving them from being scrapped.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny because my Disney friends and I always think about how much time has actually passed : 1900 to 1955 seems like such a giant passage of time ... but 1970 seems like it wasn’t THAT long ago! The 80’s and 90’s seem like it was a decade ago.... but my God! It’s 2022!!!
This is THE FUTURE!! It won’t be long before Disneyland is 100 years old!! Will it survive?? Who knows. 125 years ago places like Coney Island and Steeplechase Park were so magical people them probably could not imagine it ever going away. I know the Disney Theme Park phenomenon has world appeal : BUT it was built by Freedom loving Americans specifically for Freedom loving Americans ..... and many of those Americans are disappearing quickly.
The first photo looks like Nara Dreamland, and in the second picture, the lady is being hypnotized by Monstro!
ReplyDeleteKeeping my comments short as my comments lately have gone to the black abyss of the Interwebs...Asphalt and chain link. Well...that's class! But in 1955 I'm not sure people noticed or cared that much since Disneyland was full of distractions to keep you distracted from the things that needed distraction. Tokyo: I am flummoxed over the fact that Main Gate employees got a stool. Sitting or doing anything else but stating at attention waiting to serve was not allowed. Maybe a few people sat down to do their jobs, but never at Main Gate. Sitting and crossed legs...well...it's a look. Looks like the non-themed Men's basic grey slacks and white shirt combo. Perhaps if this was a female employee the costume would have been a bit more Main St. USA (?) Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a photo of a female working at the gate in the early years. Maybe they thought they needed strapping lads to maintain law and order at the gate...especially with the flimsy chain link fences. Didn't those train cars ultimately go "somewhere" like Travel Town or something? I know one like it was refurbed to become the Lilly Belle. Mike: I do agree about the passage of time. 1980 seems like yesterday. I do think Disneyland is forever. As much as I cringe at Star Warsy things and whatnot it does keep the place open and running. Walt Disneyland however is fading very fast- but that is our job to keep it going.
ReplyDeleteAh Monstro, the whale with the shortest digestive tract EVER. Is it any wonder that people come out the other side unscathed? Ok, that's gross. Never mind.
ReplyDeleteThose tiny white fences were effective due to the fact that they were triggering devices for "Destructinon 270021 Death Rays (TM)." Upon stepping over one, the hapless victim would be vaporized in a puff of popcorn scented smoke. They were discontinued due to the fact that too many park guests were being eaten by swans, ducks, and Ravinous Bugblatter Beasts of Traal. Vaporizing some just seemed to be crossing a line. Plus, the guests' money went away in a poof rather than in Disney's pockets. A marketing nightmare, really.
Chain link. I hate chain link. For...personal reasons.
Thanks, Major!
Positive proof that Monstro had a spout.
ReplyDeleteI remember his eye blinking, and then, years later, it didn’t blink anymore and I doubted that it ever had.
I wonder if there was a maintenance protocol for whale polishing? So much wax, every so often, run the buffer for so many minutes, clean around the eyelid, wipe up the blowhole and change the filter, requires medium rolling scaffold, two laborers and one supervisor, plus safety observer.
Stu, just missing being masticated must have seemed like a miracle to most guests, to say nothing of not being digested either. Definitely one of the odder cinematic transitions in the Park.
JG
Bu, all of the the Retlaw 1 cars are still in existence. Car #101, the combine, is presently owned by the Carolwood Pacific Historic Society and on display at Walt’s Barn next to Travel Town in Griffith Park. Cars #102-105 are owned by Santa Margarita Ranch just off the 101 in San Luis Obispo County. And, of course, Car #106 was converted into the Lily Belle and still rides the rails at Disneyland. You can read more about them here.
ReplyDeleteNanook, yes, well this is from the same batch as one of the photos that I linked to, where you get a better view of the then-empty poster displays!
ReplyDeleteJB, it doesn’t look like that kid is posing for a portrait, because he’s looking to our left (his right), maybe he just ran ahead of his family? It happens. I’d say on an uncrowded day in 1956, he’s probably pretty safe! The water on the pavement might be due to the nightly washing that it got, I wonder if they still do that? Is there a pavement equivalent to a Zamboni machine? I’d love to go back to this early time in Disneyland’s history to see what it was really like.
TokyoMagic!, I assume that you are right, he’d probably stamp your hand with glow ink if you planned on returning later in the day. Did they really not let those guys sit as a rule?
Mike Cozart, you are right of course. I just saw a meme that said that 1980 is further from 2022 than it is from 1939, which is true. Crazy. And I am definitely at that stage where 1990 seem like “yesterday”, and yet it is 30+ years ago. People often point out that “American Graffiti”, which seemed like a real throwback to ye olden days, was about kids in 1962 Modesto, a mere 11 years before the film came out. It is quite a thing to consider Disneyland’s future, with all of the changes to the park, and to the way that people can experience it. I don’t like to wallow in negativity, but I have to admit that I am not happy with the way it handles crowds, and the way they want you to spend lots of time checking your phone for Genie+ or whatever. Guess that makes me an old fart!
Andrew, ha ha, you’re right, that first photo DOES kind of look like Nara Dreamland! I can’t decide if the person being hypnotized by Monstro is an older girl, or a young mother.
Bu, the early park was built on a budget. A big budget for the time, but we’ve all heard about how they ran short of money eventually (which is why Tomorrowland was unfinished). Most folks were probably used to chain link and asphalt at amusement parks. Making somebody stand for hours and hours seems cruel, unless there is a real reason for it. Why not give a gate attendant a stool to sit on?? Seems like a real a-hole move. I doubt that they let women work the gates back then, possibly because of the potential need for some “muscle” if things went haywire. The women got to work in the ticket booths! The train cars went to a collector up near San Luis Obispo, though I don’t know if he still has them. You can see one at Travel Town though, near Walt’s Barn.
Stu29573, I’ve always thought that it would have been cool if they could have built Monstro to be 10 times larger, so that you could really see his vast insides like in the movie. I had no idea that those little white fences were so deadly, now I’m glad they’re gone.
JG, I used to drive my dad crazy because I’d want to see Monstro blink, but then I’d stand and stand and nothing would happen. I think that usually my dad made me “get moving”! I’ve also wondered if they periodically cleaned Monstro, or if they just gave him a new coat of glossy black paint.
Chuck, the one time I went to Walt’s Barn, they had a TV monitor with a slide show of vintage images of the WDRR, including some of my photos! It was kind of funny to see. My sister lives up in San Luis Obispo, and years ago her husband, a photographer, invited me to go up to ride the old Disneyland Retlaw cars, but I couldn’t due to work. It would have been fun!
Stu, POPCORN SMOKE IS PEOPLLLLE!!!
ReplyDeleteSomewhere, Douglas Adams is smiling.
JG, wow, who knew that keeping Monstro spick-and-span and shiny was such a convoluted process!
JB, I left out lubrication of his eyelid actuator...
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, there are maintenance protocols like this for all kinds of complex equipment, including tool lists and staff requirements, so why not whales?
I wonder if Bu or Mike has any background on this stuff?
JG
..... well I don’t have any inside details regarding Monstro’s eye blink. I do remember it. Often details like that get axed or suspended with maintainence cutbacks ....and often never return. Like the storybook lighthouse flashing light .... the haunted mansion traveling light ... Mark Twain Landing audio .... things like that. Park operations used to have a very rigorous maintenance program ( technically they still do) but they had high requirements at one time as to what can not be operating in an attraction and remain open. If the attraction was closed , the area management teams were on a countdown to get the attraction back open ASAP ... or else! In the late 90’s early 2000’s these requirements were greatly lowered ... . Today an attraction. Will remain open with a major effect not working and there’s no rush to fix it anymore. The idea is ... the guests are already here .... so Madame Leotta doesn’t have to be fixed till closing Etc.....
ReplyDeleteI remember on some walk thrus of new tomorrowland there were concerns about how much of the kitchen ventilation system Atop Tomorrowland Terrace was visible to guests that would be exiting from the upper level to Innovevtins when it opened. Dave Durham from WDI explained Disneyland wouldn’t give them extra money to hide it or decorate it into theming .... and that Disneyland looks at thing like
“ how many people won’t come to Disneyland if the cooking vents are visible from Innoventions??”
“How many guests won’t come to Disneyland if Submarine Voyage is closed...?”
“How many guests won’t come to Disneyland if Monstro’s eye nolonger blinks??”
Get the thinking?
Monstro is indeed the prince of Whales! For the longest time I never knew he blinked or spouted, because all I had seen of him were still pictures. I got so excited the first time I saw old Super 8 film of him in “action!”
ReplyDeleteThose 1950s summer dresses are lovely indeed. The young girls in the pastel full skirts by the rock work look like they could be Alice in Wonderland’s cousins. Alma’s OK Adventures in Mild Curiosityburg. She ends up having a Weak Coffee and Stale Doughnuts party with the Sub-clinically Depressed Haberdasher.
I was just watching a 1967 episode of The Invaders with scenes shot at Marineland in Palos Verde. From what little we see it looks like a very pretty park.