I've shared some "ALMOST REJECTS" before, and I have lots more for you! Yes, I want this to sound like it's great news.
This first one isn't really that bad, though I had to lighten it way up, and as you can see, there is some weird stuff going on in the sky area. But it's still an OK look at the old fishing pier on Tom Sawyer Island. There are no anglers testing their nerve and skill against Nature - yet.
You can see why this one is an "almost reject"... shot from the Mark Twain's rail, the photographer tried to capture the Disneyland Railroad as it passed the group of Indian warriors who want NO funny business on their territory. "Just keep passing through!".
Moving over to Adventureland, we have this "meh" photo looking along the Rivers of The World. Those indistinct lumps in the river are the three crocodiles that guard the ruined temple and its treasure. It leaves a lot to be desired!
Major-
ReplyDeleteI can't quite figure out what that 'toy soldier-looking thing' is towards the right edge of the 1st image. A Babes In Toyland escapee...
Thanks, Major.
in the first pic, the guy to the right of the fishing dock in the half green/half white shirt, has a neck BUT NO HEAD! I don't see any AEDs (Animatronic Exploding Ducks), but I bet he lost his head during a duck ruckus.
ReplyDeleteIn the second pic, we see more of those white rocks (Disnesite), also found along the shore and in the shallows of the Rivers of America. These are the remnants of glacial deposits from the Matterhorn during the last ice age.
In the third pic, besides the 'lumpodiles', we also see the anaconda, or is it a python, lounging around in that tree overhanging the water. I wonder why the lighting and colors are so blah? It does lend a certain moodiness to the scene though.
Nanook, I think that 'toy soldier' thing is the headless guy I mentioned above. The red parts are probably a swarm of little kids around headless Dad.
Major, "Almost Rejects" are FUN! Show us more!
I always enjoy "Almost Rejects".
ReplyDeleteIn the first pic you've got Tom & Huck's Treehouse, Castle rock and Fort Wilderness all in one shot.
In the second pic I like how the photographer captured the Disneyland Railroad passing through Indian territory from the Mark Twain.
The third and final pic isn't bad either. Love the dreamy hazy look of the jungle.
When it comes to the "almost rejects" photos, I'd like to see more, please. Thanks, Major.
Nanook, I think that toy soldier-looking thing is actually two people, with glowing orange faces, carrying picket signs. They both showed up some years later, with their picket signs, in Los Angeles' Pershing Square.
ReplyDeleteIn the first photo, I do believe you have captured a genuine ghost. I suspect we have a rare pic of the ghost of Charles Cornwallis. Taking a break from chasing the Continental Army all over Virginia, the Chuckster has decided to visit the happiest place on earth. "Yorktown, Schmorktown, I'm goin to Tom Sawyer Island for a little R and R." Spooky. Thanks major.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as an indistinct lump myself, I find these photos to be perfectly satisfying.
ReplyDeleteThe detail in photo 1 that stands out to me is the bandanna flag over Castle Rock.
Each of the others is the kind of photo I would have ended up with in my Instamatic roll, blurred, low contrast, odd angles, and fully representative of a magnificent day in Disneyland.
Thanks Major!
JG
"Almost rejects" I actually prefer. In my previous job, we would take photos of areas without looking at the viewfinder, knowing that it would help us see things from a different perspective...not our own..and not our eyes. It's kind of amazing what can be caught in a camera lens for a split second...I could wax poetic about that for an entire semester, but will stop. I have a even better appreciation for Tom Sawyer Island as the years drone on. That the vegetation was there, but not as lush and it adds a layer of humans that would not be ordinarily be visible as trees and plants grew. It looks very exciting over there. Before it's time, it was an interactive and immersive environment where you called the shots and the elements of the story...depending on which way you went and what you discovered. In Pirates of the Caribbean, the "money shots" are intentional, and intentionally intentional. On Tom Sawyer Island you really do have the same visceral experience in a tactical realm. Where if Pirates became a walkthrough, perhaps it would be the natural evolution of Tom Sawyer Island. Something to ponder on this warm Summer day 3000 miles away from Disneyland. I'm wondering if the stick the snake is on was one of those upside down orange tree roots? I'm wondering if any of those roots still exist or have rotted away? Someone knows. The DLRR is very authentic looking there. I think the train lost something (not TRE) when it went to the front facing cars, or the open format of cars. The authenticity of the closed cars I'm sure limited sightlines, but it seems to be a more of a legitimate experience and less "theme park". I think I see Ronald McDonald trying to jump out of the car on the right...just saying. What an interesting viewpoint for the camera. Some food for thought: often times, Kodak, and others, would plug the fact that Disneyland was the most photographed place on earth. Which leads me to believe that the surface has not even been scratched with what we haven't even seen yet. Something else for a Sunday ponder. Thanks for the AR's!
ReplyDeleteNanook, I assume that the “toy soldier” thing is an adult and maybe two kids, but admit that it looks really weird!
ReplyDeleteJB, yes, it’s the “no head” part that really throws me off. Otherwise it would be easy for my brain to turn it into at least one adult (with a white shirt) and at least one kid (girl, red skirt). I’m still unclear about whether the boulders that are seen around Frontierland are rocks that were found on-site, or if they were transported there from elsewhere, or if they are entirely man-made. I never understand why some old Kodachrome photos vary so greatly in quality, maybe it has to do with how they were stored for 60 years?
K. Martinez, yes, that first angle manages to compress a lot of stuff into a single shot! I love the second shot, except for that darn blurriness. And I agree about the dreamy quality of photo #3, I’ve certainly seen worse!
TokyoMagic!, only certain aliens have glowing orange faces, so we finally have real evidence of aliens on Tom Sawyer Island. The press will have a field day with this!
Jonathan, aliens AND ghosts? These photos are worth thousands. Maybe millions! Which is nice, because I was thinking about building another mansion. Funny how things just work out sometimes. I’m not familiar enough with the way Cornwallis looked, but I believe everything you wrote.
JG, I’m not sure if that’s one of those orange flags with Mickey Mouse’s face, as was often seen at Main Street Station. Probably not, maybe it was just an orange (red?) piece of cloth.
Bu, my photos are bad enough, so the idea of not using a viewfinder is frightening. At least I could get one of those Rolleiflex cameras that have the viewfinder on top. Like the kind that so many legendary photographers used. Tom Sawyer Island was a simple idea that was brilliantly executed. The idea of having to take a raft to get there was brilliant. And I think that most people have at least a little bit of the explorer in them; with all of those trails, and caves, and rocks to climb, and a fort to look at, a guest could easily spend an hour over there. From what I understand, some real “scenic railways” had those open-sided cars with seats that faced sideways, so they are “authentic”, although I admit that the original yellow passenger cars feel more like what you would see on the Frontier. Like the ones at Knott’s. I do appreciate being able to see better!
The Jungle Cruise was reputed to have trees uprooted during construction and turned upside down to imitate jungle trees like mangroves and similar.
ReplyDeleteThese are visible in many early photos and were undoubtedly taken out over time as the wood decayed.
The ones I have seen in the oldest photos were walnut trees, however, not orange trees. I’m experienced with both varieties and can tell the difference. I’m not saying that no orange trees were used in this way, could have been dozens of them, I’m just saying all the ones in the old photos that I have seen are almost certainly (to my eye) walnuts and not oranges.
The snake’s branch in today's pic is neither orange nor walnut, however, but more likely walnut than orange in any case.
Everyone has heard the “Disneyland carved from orange groves” tale so often, it’s hard to believe there might have been other orchard crops on the old farm.
JG
Now that I look closely at the stumps to the left in today's picture on my big PC screen, those are definitely walnut trunks. The white bark with black vertical cracks are those of an English walnut, not sure what variety. Most walnuts grown for commercial sale in California are the various English varieties with the smooth white bark, the black cracks we see here indicate an old or diseased tree. I had 20 acres of trees like that once. The English varieties are commonly grafted on to disease-resistant black walnut rootstocks that have a rough gray bark more like an oak, and completely unlike the English graft. The graft line on a mature tree is very obvious, even to the untrained eye.
ReplyDeleteThe branch the snake is hanging from is anybody's guess, but unlikely to be a walnut.
JG
JG, I assume that they now use fiberglass copies for any trees that are partially submerged. The real trees from the original groves were a good way to get an effect quickly, but I’m sure they knew that they wouldn’t last. I have no idea if citrus wood is hard or not, but walnut sure is, maybe that’s why those were used… just a little tougher. The snake branch might be artificial?? I know someone who has one of the old snakes in their living room! While you are right that most places just mention orange groves for Anaheim, the ones that are more conscientious do mention walnut groves too. As you know.
ReplyDeleteJG, I see a lot of walnut trees growing wild all over SoCal, I wonder if the nuts were spirited away by varmints, and they just continued to spread and spread? Not sure if they are English walnut trees or not. Still, it’s fun to see them! Same with wild roses and lilies, always a nice surprise to find them on a trail.
Major, the nuts are probably spread by birds and squirrels. They germinate easily, we would have many little seedling trees in nooks and crannies of the turn rows and near buildings etc. these don’t thrive because of the English root.
ReplyDeleteYes, the JC trees are probably some kind of wonder material now. Walnut wood is very tough and standing trees can last for decades, but in water, who knows. It was a brilliant economy move by Disney.
I think the walnuts were used because of their shape, the branching scaffolding of oranges just doesn’t look like that look they wanted. I don’t know how tough the wood is, I don’t think it is as durable as walnut.
JG
Major, there are no anglers because the fishing pier is on the other side of the island. We are looking NE at an out-of-service raft tied up to the dock on the SW corner of the island in the center foreground and a crowd waiting for a raft at the dock at the W center of the island in the distance. Depending on which map you are looking at, both have been referred to as “Huck’s Landing” - the near one on the Sam McKim Disneyland souvenir maps and the far one on the TSI handout maps.
ReplyDeleteCheck out this map (https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b3d7f804eddec6e826be0c9/1618726705363-SOX8VK2R5UZL52DGYBPL/82399B5E-C1C9-45B3-A464-35F5CD57E8E7.jpeg?format=750w) for reference. The two landings described above are on the W (left) side of the island, while the fishing pier is the hashed area on the E (right) side of the island, just to the left of the word “Conestoga.”
All maps above are from the DisneyHistory101 website (https://www.disneyhistory101.com/tom-sawyers-island).
ReplyDeleteBut... Major said that was the fishing pier in photo #1. And Major Pepperidge is always right. Ergo, all those maps you showed us, Chuck, are WRONG! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI was pretty sure that was a raft in the first pic as well.
The second image has the look of a scene that caught the photographer by surprise ("look, the train is going by!") and he clicked the shutter button without really composing the shot.
ReplyDeleteThat last picture is so low to the waterline and missing elements of the JC boats, it's nearly unrecognizable as a JC ride. I would almost believe that it was genuinely from somewhere in Asia.
JG, my guess is that submerged, untreated walnut is not going to last very long. Eventually it’s just going to decay! And, since the boats passed beneath the snake branch, they couldn’t risk it collapsing or breaking. I’m so used to seeing walnut trees covered in green leaves that I don’t really notice the pattern of their branches.
ReplyDeleteChuck, oh I’m sorry, I should have made it clear, I was referring to the SECRET fishing dock for the cool kids. Not that other one! Sure, those Sam McKim maps are great, as are the souvenir handouts, but none of them list the secret fishing dock. (OK, OK, I admit that I didn’t give that photo a close enough look).
Chuck, thanks for the link to that DisneyHIstory 101 page.
JB, I think the lesson that we can all learn is that I am unpredictable and mysterious.
Dean Finder, you are probably right, the train suddenly appeared and the photographer tried to fire off a shot as quickly as possible. Thanks to your comment on photo #3, I have a whole new appreciation for it!