It's Mother's Day! The more I hear about some of my friend's mothers, the more I realize how lucky I am to have a good one. Sue B. saw one of my own family photos from when I, Major Pepperidge, was a mere caterpillar, and she suggested that I might share it with all of you. Hey, I don't mind, it's not like I look like that anymore! I do generally still have that confused expression most of the time, though. Love you, Mom!
And here's a SUPER CUTE photo from Sue, with her mother, Donna! Now we know where Sue's red hair comes from. Such an adorable photo, you can see how proud Donna is. THANKS Sue.
It might be Mother's Day, but it's also another Snoozer Sunday. Where has the time gone? I'm sharing two more photos that might have been left on the cutting room floor on other blogs. But not on GDB! Both of these are from March 1962.
This first one was taken from a speeding Monorail as it passed through the parking lot, referred to as a "freeway retreat" in at least one recorded spiel. Our photographer tried to snap a picture of the Matterhorn and the Rocket to the Moon (with no "TWA" logo at this time) but he didn't factor in the gravitational pull of Jupiter, resulting in a blurry image. Darn you, Jupiter! Still, all is not lost, since we get a whole bunch of Matchbox cars to enjoy in the foreground.
Next is this view of Fantasyland, also taken from the Monorail as it went around the Matterhorn. I would point out the landmarks, but you guys know them better than me.
Major-
ReplyDeletePerhaps there's some significance to blurred images on Mother's Day - or maybe not. Happy Mother's Day to all.
Thanks, Major.
Awwww! Baby Pepperidge! And Baby Sue! Thanks to both of you, for sharing your personal pics! I'd share a pic of my mom and me, but.....well, you know.....white ovals and all that stuff.
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day, to all of the mom's out there!
It's Baby Major! He looks just like Baby Yoda only a little less green... and with smaller ears... and smaller eyes. Pretty Mom, too.
ReplyDeleteIt's Baby Sue! She looks just like Baby Yo... Oh wait, I did that already. Um... She looks just like Baby Sue! Pretty Mom, too.
In the parking lot photo, what is that large gray-green building that occupies the entire middle of the scene? The Administration Building? The Grand Canyon/Primeval World showroom?
In the last image, Skull Rock looks strange from this angle. Also strangely purple.
Pretty much the only thing in sharp focus in this photo is Cinderella's Castle.
Let's count trashcans! One!... um... One. There's probably others but I can't tell.
Thanks Major and Lou & Sue. And thank you, Moms.
@ JB-
ReplyDeleteIt's the old Administration Building.
…which also shares a roof with Primeval World. :-)
ReplyDeleteTiny puppy children! So sweet. Happy Mothers to any mother Gorillas. Mother Gorillas do not have a gender specific name, they are Gorillas, and their babies are "infants" just like us humanoids. The Bambi shot is also so very sweet. This was the only Disney movie that my own mother was remotely connected to for some reason that I will never know. She never understood my fascination with the "dark arts" of ticket books, brochures, guidebooks, et.al. The parking lot is always awesome: even a blurry one. That big building is the show building for the Grand Canyon and the Dino's. The "new" Admin would be built in front of it facing the parking lot, but later in the 60's. I think at that time "Casa Dominquez" would still be around and house whatever offices still. When you were in the University in the Admin bldg. you could hear trains and music and dinos, etc. always in the background. On the other side of the show building would be employee lockers upstairs, cash control, character zoo, barber shop and the vending machines that sold hair nets, combs and cheap black socks and hose. No excuses to not be costume compliant. As the Administration building was on the parking lot side of the tracks, there was an underground tunnel that went underneath the tracks and then back up to the backside of the admin building (the backstage building) that was separated by the train running through the building. That tunnel is where a "history" wall was, where there were some of the "Mickey Floral Employee Photos" from various years. I wonder if they are still there, I am in a few of them. As you traversed the tunnel to get in-berm, there were the coveted "Admin" lockers...which were just like the other locker buildings, just inside the basement of the admin building. These were thought of for the "special people club", and perhaps at one point there was a pecking order to get a locker here- like boxes at the Hollywood Bowl...but that I think was tribal knowledge. I kept the same locker behind the depicted show building in todays photos for my entire tenure and it was just fine. At one point they asked me if I wanted to be in the ad building (lockers were run by the wardrobe team.) but I didn't think saving just a few steps would be worth the move. The ad bldg. lockers did have great adjacency, and it was easier to get to wardrobe just a few steps away. That time going to change your costume was really rather nice, as it was relatively quiet, and you saw/chatted with people from all over the park. "How are you...what's going on..where you working today?" Sometimes you had time to grab coffee at the Inn Between. Since Disneyland was a 24 hour operation it was always open and also served breakfast. I think at the time I griped about that morning time it as it was time we weren't paid for- and you had to get ready...and blah blah blah. Bratty 20 something! . I should have enjoyed it more, like most things I experienced in that time. I don't have much for photo #2 other than I can smell burgers from Fan 2 through my computer screen. Note on Mothers day at the Main Entrance: we gave out Carnations with pins to all the mothers. It was not an advertised thing. Just a nice thing. So very sweet like the pictures of moms today and Bambi.
ReplyDeleteMajor, please wish your beautiful mom a 'Happy Mother's Day!' from us. If it wasn't for her contribution (YOU!) to GDB, we wouldn't all be here having so much fun every day.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the caterpillar resemblance, but maybe more of a cute, adorable little bug. We're all glad you grew up to be a big Disneyland fan, and more!
That parking lot picture has that tilt-shift feel to it. Those cars really do look like toys.
Happy Mother's Day to everyone!
Thanks, Major.
Major, what a good idea for a post. Well done.
ReplyDeleteGood to see two of our favorite adults with their mothers. Good looking moms, good looking kids. Thank you for sharing these.
You know us well enough, Major. The GDB audience will enjoy practically any pictures of Disneyland. Even a view of a go-away green wall will provoke comment and memories, and we like it that way.
JB, good to see you back in form. Agree on only 1 can today. For a moment, I thought Monstro had gone a stroll since there was an empty cave, but no, that’s the exit from Skull Rock Grotto, we are looking right in line through it. Our favorite whale must be concealed behind the foliage to the right.
Bu, the William Faulkner of CMs, thanks for the memories.
JG
Baby Major and Baby Sue held by their moms. Perfect for Mother's Day!
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day out there to all the moms.
Thanks for sharing your "mother and child" photos with us Major and Sue.
Bu, yes, thanks as always for the commentary and memories. And you are right - if this is 1962, that can only be the backside of the Grand Canyon. Primeval World and the Administration Building were built in 1966.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was completely remiss in properly oohing and aahing over the Major and Sue’s baby pictures. You were both adorably cute as are your mothers. I am thankful for each and every one of our Junior Gorillas’ mothers, without whom this blog would still be pretty cool but not so radically awesome. I treasure you all.
@ Chuck-
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction-!
Nanook, well, you know, this started out as a regular “Snoozer Sunday”, until Sue suggested that I share my photo with you guys, and then she added the one of her and her mom, and the Bambi image!
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, you can already see the evil twinkle in my eyes. “Someday I will rule the blogging world, and have dozens of readers!”. I figured I could share my baby photo because nobody will ever recognize me from it!
JB, I’m sure Sue would be happy if everybody shared some personal photos - baby photos, sure - but maybe others as well! What do you think, Sue? I was going to answer your question about the Administration Building, but I see that Nanook beat me to it (though I think it was just for the Grand Canyon at that point). As for the purple cast to Skull Rock, that’s on me, I almost always have to futz with the colors to some degree, and probably should have removed more magenta from some of the neutrals.
Nanook, yay!
Chuck, I wish I shared a roof with Primeval World.
Bu, I’m not sure any of my family members understood my fascination with Disney Animation (my first obsession), and then my subsequent fascination with Disneyland. None of them got interested the way that I did. Sure, they liked going to Disneyland, but that’s as far as it went. And I don’t think it was until the 1990s that I seriously got into collecting vintage Disneyland ephemera; think of all the years I could have been buying good stuff that wasn’t even old at the time, but IS now! I love the idea of being inside the Admin building and hearing the dinosaurs. Hopefully you’d be able to tune that out after a brief while. I want a vending machine that is full of socks and combs. I didn’t know that only certain people got lockers in the basement of the Admin building. I always think it was a little crummy that you had to be at the park at a particular time to change into your costume (or whatever), but that was unpaid time. Thanks for all the fun memories!
Lou and Sue, I will definitely pass along your sweet Mother’s Day wishes to my mom! Ha ha, I guess I do look like a bug. Hopefully not a slimy one. I was so excited to scan that parking lot photo, so it was a bit of a bummer to find that it wasn’t entirely in focus. But it’s still nice!
JG, this was all Sue’s idea! I can take no credit. I just happened to share a few photos from my childhood with her, and she suggested that I post the one with my mom today. I guess I should increase her pay by 25%!
K. Martinez, it’s funny, one of the reasons I started this blog is because I learned to scan slides by first doing some of my mom’s family slides way back in the early 2000s. And because I had that experience, I knew that I could share my Disneyland slides with others. So I can give my mom some real credit!
Chuck, I didn’t even think about that, but it’s true, there was no Primeval World in ’62. Seems hard to believe! And yet… I love the regular old Grand Canyon diorama almost as much (maybe more?) then the fancier dinosaur scenes. Thanks for the very kind words!
Nanook, as I have learned from experience, erroneous statements get corrected here. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Happy Mother's Day to all!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Sue & Major for the beautiful photos.
-DW
How well I remember the "History Tunnel"...showing the new attractions by year of introduction. Hope it is still there but at some point one would just run out of space on the length at the tunnel. In my time working at the University...and just walking though as an employee there was still room for more years. But I digress.
ReplyDeleteNow in my time, all those services...lockers, cash control, barber and such were in the pictured building. And yes, there were some prized lockers in the Admin Building. But I was happy where we were. We had showers...I'm not sure the other did.
As for getting ready in advance of one's shift...well, we took it in stride because we would be released 15 minutes in advance of the end of a shift to change and clock out. And since so much of our social life revolved around those we knew at the park, and the activities sponsored by the Disney Rec Club, there was plenty to do. And we'd also come in early for a cheap meal. Who cooked at home??
Happy Mothers Day. Major and Sue...what cuties. My first pic was always an embarrassment...one of those posed shots in your birthday suit your folks liked to show other parents back then. KS
Major-
ReplyDelete"I figured I could share my baby photo because nobody will ever recognize me from it!" A few years back when "we broke bread", one of my first thoughts was - 'Gee, I wonder what The Major looked like when he was a wee lad-?' And oddly-enough I pictured this image - right down to the 'confused expression'-! Ah-ha... someone did recognize you-! (I must be clairvoyant, or some such).
Happy Mother's Day! Thanks for sharing the nice baby photos, Major. You look just like a baby deer -- oh wait, you're in the second pic! Still cute, and Sue too :). I'm off to play with those toy cars in the parking lot, vroom vroom!
ReplyDeleteDW, thank YOU!
ReplyDeleteKS, gosh, I don’t think I have heard of this “history tunnel” until today, I wish there were photos of it. As for lockers, I think that people get to feel a sense of ownership over their lockers; it was always weird to clear my high school locker out at the end of the year, only to get a different one at a different school (I went to three different high schools) the next year. Thanks for the insight on getting ready in advance, and also the fact that they released you 15 minutes in advance of the end of your shift, which was nice. At least they didn’t expect you to use an additional 15 minutes after that! The idea of all of the social activities available to cast members back then sounds so appealing, I wonder if any of that is around these days?
Nanook, ha ha, I do generally look bewildered in most situations. I might be crazy, but I think that “baby me” and baby Sue look like they could be related! I guess it’s just that “baby look”.
Major, YES, I would love for everyone to share personal photos - especially from their younger years. When I first discovered this blog, I went back to the beginning and looked at every photo and comment, from Day 1. I LOVED seeing everyone's personal photos. (I do currently picture most everyone as a 5-year old at Disneyland.)
ReplyDeleteMajor, we do look a lot alike...I think it's that same "confused expression."
Chuck, I echo your last sentence and couldn't agree more!
Fun, heartwarming post today!
Well, I was out doing Mothers Day stuff, so I'm really late to the party! In fact, my blog post will be tomorrow, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteHappy Mothers Day, guys!
Lou and Sue, thank you again for the idea to post our baby pix! For my part I love seeing the personal photos of all of the Junior Gorillas; they can be fond childhood memories, photos from Disneyland, or any amusement park!
ReplyDeleteStu29573, it's good to be busy! Glad you checked in, I'll take a look at your blog tomorrow.
Cute baby pictures! The title “baby Pepperidge” sounds funny.
ReplyDeleteThe original Disneyland Time-Line Tunnel had been all filled up by the mid 1990’s. So fir a short time rather than continuing the history order the last panel in the case would just feature whatever the newest addition was at the time. For those of you not familiar with the display , the lowest access corridor leading under the 1966 administration building ( it also contained the costume designs group by 1968, featured a long , long tunnel that felt like a high school principle’s office. In 1966 it was lined with attraction posters . Then a long display case system was added to both sides of the hallway with sliding lock glass doors floor to ceiling. The insides featured panels to represent each year from 1955. From the beginning the designers would have had to have known the space available wound be limited. Different divisions of Disneyland donated things for possible use and I know Rolly Crump helped with the creation. Photos , artwork , flyers pieces of models , press gifts , props …. Even pieces of costume fabric told the history of Disneyland. By the 1980’s a display panel intended for a single year had to be grouped to feature several years like “1983 - 1986”. In the early 2000’s many of the display pieces from this time line tunnel were sold by Disney on EBAY Thru Disney auctioniers . By the early 2000’s the glass doors and cases were removed all together. Around Disneyland’s 50th flat panels with collages of a Disneyland history timeline were on display ( computer printed vinyl mounted on black core lexAn.
Upstairs on the firsts floor between character costume issue we’re a series of display cases featuring The Art of Animation with little Dimension figures identical to the ones in the 1963 Disney National Geographic ( the little Mr. Nat G Ographic man - explaining the process of animation ) most of the actual cels were of Jungle Book … but some of the last cases featured cels from Robin Hood. Another case showed several examples of the costume characters development …. From the film to the costume studies … a final maquette and then the fabrication of the costume and the final version which if you were a cast member viewing the display would probably be about to be putting on in a few minutes. This series of displays is long gone.
Today I don’t think there are displays like that for castmembers ….. Disneyland doesn’t want castmembers knowing how much better the past was ….. and knowing the park’s history isn’t gonna help them promote Star Wars or PixAr ….. and it doesn’t matter anyway …. As a park employee you are not going to be around long enough for it to even matter.