Parkin' Lot, June 1970
Back in 1955, as July 17th approached, Walt Disney worried about where people were going to park their cars. "Walt, baby!" (he loved it when I called him "baby"), "Why not put them in that big paved area out front? All we have to do is paint some lines on it". Walt was so grateful that he said a swear word, handed me a cigarette, and then he jumped up into the air and clicked his heels together like a leprechaun (one of the sure ways you could tell he was happy). TRUE STORY.
Well, there it is, in all its glory. Acres and acres of asphalt, covered in every flavor of automobile imaginable. It's so beautiful! Good thing we aren't playing "Slug Bug", because I would be punching a LOT of arms right now. There are at least a dozen Volkswagens visible in this one shot.
Zooming in, we see the Disneyland Hotel looms in the haze, at this point it only had two towers, the Sierra Tower, and the then-brand-new Marina Tower. It you look to the right, you can see a tram dropping guests off near the ticket booths, and what appears to be quite a lot of folks waiting in line.
A second shot is remarkably clear considering that it was taken from a speeding Monorail. 1970 would have been a great time to go to Disneyland!
Lovable Main Street Station brings a sense of comfort and continuity, hardly changing in... well, a mere 15 years at this point, but you know what I mean. I like the perspective of seeing all the guests heading toward the entrance, with another tram. And more Volkswagens! The Monorail pylons have some sweet attraction posters, including "Adventure Thru Inner Space", "America the Beautiful", "Carousel of Progress", and "It's a Small World". Fun fact: A Carousel of Progress poster sold for over $28,000 at auction earlier this year.
32 comments:
Major-
"Walt was so grateful that he said a swear word, handed me a cigarette, and then he jumped up into the air and clicked his heels together..." He handed you only ONE cigarette-?? (You must be slipping-!)
As for that 'fun fact' - I think I need to give my Carousel of Progress AP a great big hug - especially since I paid a mere trifle for mine. $28K... yeesh-!!
Thanks, Major.
The last pic reminds me of when I parked my car right up at the entrance to Disneyland in the closest parking space. I was one of the first in line before the parking lot opened. Those were the days.
Thanks, Major.
Wow, that is a lot of Volkswagen Bugs. And I see at least 3, if not 4, Ford Mustangs. In the first close-up shot (second pic), what is that bright red convertible, with the spare tire on the back? It looks a little like Cruella de Vil's car. Oh, and I think that first pic is showing the section of the lot, where the employees parked.
Before Walt built Disneyland (with the help of a few hired hands) he tried other concepts, like a big ol' parking lot, nothing else, no park. Folks would come from all over to park their cars in Walt's parking lot. They would stare at each other for a couple of hours, in the warm California sun, and then leave. This went on for a few months, then people began to lose interest. Walt noticed an orange grove next to the parking lot and set about building Disneyland; which turned out to be much more fun than the ol' parking lot. TRUE STORY. (See Major? More than one can play that game!)
OK, I confess. I really didn't know what to say about parking lot photos, other than there's lots and lots of cars.
In the close-up, me and Tokyo! want to know what that really cool red roadster is in the midst of all the bland cars.
In the second pic, it looks like the Matterhorn has received an extra thick dusting of snow.
Thanks, Major.
Okay, between that first pic, and it's close-up, I counted at least 22 different Volkswagen Bugs!
@ TM-
It's kinda hard to tell at this resolution, but that 'red convertible' could be a 1950's MG TD.
Thanks, Nanook!
Now I'm wondering what that lime green car (bottom of the first photo) with the interesting rear profile is.
TOKYOMAGIC:
That line green car in image #1 is definitely a AMC 1968-1969 AMX.
If you look at the opening of the old Disneyland TV show, that first stylized image of the park has an implied parking lot in front. That vast expanse of asphalt was more than a place for thousands of people to leave their vehicles. It was where you left your car behind and proceeded on foot, or on a futuristic tram. It was the last leg of a pilgrimage where you set aside what was effectively your mortal shell, your body in the automotive reality of postwar America, and set your eyes on a nostalgic train station with real trains, floating high enough above the pavement to beckon the pilgrim even when sedans, station wagons and hardtops engulfed him. It was a spiritual experience.
Now the transition from the real world is more gradual. You traverse a surreal mall of themed merchandise and food, the train station not a clear reality in the distance but a promised glory taken on faith, until your journey is all but complete, and you suddenly see it looming mere steps away ...
It's late and I shouldn't be trying to write.
I counted 26 Beetles and 1 Kharmann Ghia in the first photo. At least, that’s as far as I got when the top 25 feet or so of the central trunk of one of the 45-year-old silver maples in the backyard broke off in a windstorm and crashed into the back wall of the kitchen where I am sitting writing this. That may have thrown my count off.
I don’t suppose I’ll need a cup of coffee this morning.
What great pictures of the Original Cars Land before they built DCA. A place where your car could bake in the sun instead of being stuffed into a concrete oven, like today.
Four hundred twenty four thousand cars in the P-lot...four hundred twenty four thousand most of 'em are bu-uh-uggs....four hundred twenty four thousand ve-hi-cles pa-rking...how do you measure, where the m'ployees parked? Well..there was a short chain link fence there...which you can't really see in photo #1, but you can kind of see where the cars change position and such. For some reason I remember the lane against the fence was a coveted spot. The fun part about riding the Monorail was trying to pick out your car in the sea of metal. The photo of the "mall" or what was to become "the mall" is so crisp and new feeling with bright white stripes and and barricades. I'm not sure if creating the mall was "TRE" or a good thing...and the end of the wall was where the trams would drop off people...and in my time to see the brand new shiny offerings of new GM cars! (and trucks and vans). We called the custom van (which had carpet on the walls the inside) the "LOOOVVVEEE VANNN". Guests were quite captivated by the Love Van. I can see that VW bugs were very popular, probably due to Herbie. Where is EJ Peaker's. Who is that? Me: "who knows"....but she's doing a rip roaring concert at the Tomorrowland Stage tonight. So very odd, but perhaps she was being groomed to be the "new" Sandy Duncan, Michelle Lee, Suzanne Pleshette, Haley Mills, Annette Funicello? Was she the female lead in the "Computer wore tennis shoes?" Don't think so, but it would have made sense. Dexter Riley/Alvin Fernald movies were awesome. Back to the parking lot...the pre-show to the show. It's exciting just to see the photos. The anticipation of the entrance, where just beyond the gate was basically the Chocolate Room of Wonka. And the reveal was just as impressive- designed as such. I continue to be amazed at the prices of attraction posters. I honestly don't even know where I would put it in my house- they are not small. I had a collection of probably 100 animation cells at one point...from Mickey Mouse to the Rescuers and everything in between. I probably should have kept maybe one special one, but didn't. I don't even have photos of them when they were up on a wall. There were some good ones, and I had a lot of pencil drawings as well...storyboards, etc. The attraction posters back then weren't even a thing to be a thing about. Attraction posters are awesome, but I'd rather see them on Monorail pillars, Train Tunnels and other places...them not existing anymore makes absolutely no sense to me as they were...like the parking lot...part of the pre-show. Do they still show movie previews? Haven't seen a movie in years. I love these parking lot photos as I have visceral reactions to them when I see them. There was something about seeing the Hotel in the distance, the space ship Convention Center, the zany low rent motels, the clean cut and tan parking lot guys in unbranded tollbooths with a sign that said very simply in block letters DISNEYLAND (which by the way, there was always extra emphasis placed on the specific training of the employees of the parking toll booths. It was the first impression of a Disneyland Employee to guests, and there was definitely a "look" to them...I've think I've talked about this before. I remember lots of blond hair and RayBans. For myself as well, in the very short time I was out there...)
Nanook, Walt was running low, and besides, I already had my pipe going. You know how it is. While I didn’t pay a trifle for my Carousel of Progress poster, it was still a bargain by today’s standards.
K. Martinez, we never got to the park early, so the idea of being that close to the entry boggles the mind. It always drove me crazy when my mom and dad took forever to get ready to go!
TokyoMagic!, I don’t know what that car with the spare tire is, but I do know that I like it! How can you tell that the first pic shows the employee section of the lot?
JB, I love learning the REAL story of Disneyland, not those same stories that are repeated over and over. Walt thought of the parking lot when his daughters were on the Griffith Park carousel. He sat there eating peanuts and thought, “There oughta be a big parking lot where people can put their cars and then stare at each other”. Roy thought he was crazy!
TokyoMagic!, wow, that’s a lotta Bugs!
Nanook, whenever I see a car like that, I either think it’s an MG of some kind, or one of those kit cars that used to be more common.
TokyoMagic!, we’re going to get Nanook to ID all of the cars, one by one!
Mike Cozart, ah, AMC, makers of the greatest cars in the world!
DBenson, Walt and his people definitely knew that automobile access was key to Disneyland’s success - the I-5 Freeway was going to be a major artery north and south. You sure got poetic! And yet, I’ve read many accounts of the subconscious Disneyland experience that are along those lines… the way guests transitioned from one reality to another, etc. Maybe I’m just cranky, but the original themes for some of the lands (especially Tomorrowland) have been watered down, or just plain ignored; it’s pretty hard to lose yourself in these themed lands now, but I don’t think most people care, frankly.
Chuck, in a way, GDB saved your life! What if you’d been standing elsewhere? Instead you were in a safe location, counting VW Bugs and Kharmann Ghias. But I’m not a hero, I’m just a regular guy, trying to do his part. I hope you replace those trees with new hologram trees, they are so much easier to deal with, and with just the touch of a button you can have beautiful Autumn foliage, or even a completely different tree!
MRaymond, I’m sure our car got really hot, but we never returned to it until after dark anyway, so by then it had cooled off. Luckily!
Bu, the old Monorail spiel used to call the parking lot “your Freeway retreat”, which is one way of looking at it. Did anybody EVER spot their car from the Monorail?? I never knew that area was referred to as “the mall”, it doesn’t have a Hotdog On a Stick, Dippin’ Dots, or Mrs. Field’s anywhere. Worst. Mall. Ever. Lou and Sue had photos of some of those GM cars on display, go back and look for them if you dare. My family had a VW Bug, I think it was a ’64… bronze paint. It was stolen and never recovered. The cops said it was probably over the border in a chop shop. Who knows. I loved those Dexter Reilly movies when I was a kid, especially the one where he turned invisible. “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t”. Wow, such a shame that you got rid of all your cels and other animation artwork. I probably would have saved at least one, but maybe not. I think I first got a clue that I could actually own an original Disneyland attraction poster when I got a Howard Lowery auction catalog in the mail. The photos were small, and in black and white, but memories of those posters came flooding back. I didn’t buy any for a few years, and finally got a Matterhorn and a Primeval World at one of Howard’s auctions. After that I was a serious collector!
Chuck beat me to the Kharmann Ghia. A sea of light colored cars with red accents sprinkled in.
JB, That roadster looks like a Chevy maybe. Definitely a muscle car.
That red car in the second photo, lower right, right above the word blogspot is a Dodge Dart I think.
That bronze colored wagon in the third photo sitting in front of the Mustang looks like our neighbor's car back then. Is that a Rambler?
Very neat pics Major. Thanks. Looks like a great day in the park.
Yeay, Parking Lot! Just like Adventures Thru Inner Space, I considered the parking lot trams one of the "free" attractions. Save your tickets, do as much free stuff as you can! In the second photo, it looks kinda like the policeman from Mr Toad is trying to get people to obey some rule.
"Slug Bug" I never heard, but my kid introduced me to "Punch Buggy" a while back -- same thing. Upon explaining this to my longtime friend from elementary school, he pointed out that had this been a thing at our school everyone would constantly have sore arms
DrGoat, that wagon is a 1964 or 1965 Ford Falcon.
Major, I was seriously considering your hologram tree idea when I realized it would be virtually impossible to hang a hammock from them. I may change my mind again when fall comes around…although it wouldn’t help much with the leaves from all of the neighbors’ trees.
DrGoat, it’s funny how cars go through colors, just like clothing. Certain years mean lots of sea-foam green or some sort of blue, other times, silver, white, “champagne”, and so on. Hey, that Dodge Dart is kind of cute, I want one! We’ll need Nanook to confirm your Rambler sighting.
LTL, I never thought of the parking lot as a free attraction, but it could be! Reminds me of one time, when I was whining to my mom about wanting to go to Disneyland, so she finally broke down and took me (and my siblings). I think she just paid admission, we weren’t there for very long, and I think we rode the DLRR (so she must have bought a ticket just for that?), but it was still great! I’m sure there are regional variations of “Slug Bug”… in Wisconsin they also did a “cemetery swat”, you’d punch somebody every time you passed a cemetery. Lots of punching going on.
Chuck, aha! I wonder if that’s from the era when “Peanuts” characters did ads for the Falcon?
Chuck, obviously you need to get a hologram hammock too. Makes sense now that you think about it, right? I always feel a little guilty for my mom’s neighbors, all of the leaves from her ash trees seem to blow into their backyard. I’d probably feel more guilty, only they aren’t nice people.
@ DrGoat & Chuck-
That bronze-colored station wagon is a 1964 Mercury Comet Villager Wagon. Yes, similar to the Ford Falcon Squire station wagon, but there are some subtle trim differences between it and the Comet - such as those 'triple trim gewgaws' starting above the front wheel well, the 'squared-off' front of the"wooden side trim", and the lighter 'insert' in the rear section of the "wood" trim, where "C O M E T" can be viewed - just not in this image at this resolution.
Yeah I remember when I purchased my first attraction poster . 1987: HAUNTED MANSION : $195.00 - I felt so guilty spending that much money for something like that . But when I unrolled it and felt the satin dry-like ink and smelled the musty 1969 scent I WAS HOOKED!. The next month I bout more but only paid $45.00 each …. PeopleMover, Skyway,Columbia and others. Matterhorn was $100.00…. And with the exception of maybe a dozen at h the time you just told collectors which one you wanted and they could get it for you. ( except for posters after Bear County)
Then in 1988 The Disney Gallery began to sell Disneyland’s giant unused storage of attraction posters 1956-1969. The sign shop and decorating called them GATE POSTERS and TUNNEL POSTERS ….. Disneyland collectors ( and there were so few of us in 1988)
Called them RIDE POSTERS or ATTRACTION POSTERS : attraction posters won out! The Disney Gallery set a single price of $300.00 for any attraction poster title. THAT WAS AN INSANE PRICE!!! I remember the shock of castmembers and collectors. Word got out fast and on the first day rare posters or highly desirable posters sold out , purchase mostly by castmembers and close friends of employees at 35% off the 300.00. Haunted mansion , pirates , submarine voyage , tiki room , carousel of progress, Alice in Wonderland sold out the first day. The Disney gallery continued to sell the remaining supply of original attraction posters until about 1997. the inventory consisted of SMALL WORLD , INNER SPACE , AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL , DL HOTEL , DUMBO , SPACE STATION X-1 . WDI purchases some Tomorrowland related posters for use in the upcoming Tomorrowland Transportation Warehouse Restaurant ( Red Rocketts) then the last of the unmoving attraction poster inventory was sent to the Mickeys Attic sales room at the Disney Official Disneyanna Convention at WDW. They were Marked down to 25.00 then on the last day : $5.00 each.!!!!!
WOW. Thats the Disneyland I Love.
…and what John Hench meant about DCA was better as a parking lot.
You could walk to your own beer cooler and back, besides it was tough to do bong hits on the skyway.
Thanks, Nanook! Looking up the Villager, I see that extra “swoosh” at the back of the “wood” paneling should have told me I was close - right parent company, wrong make - but needed to keep looking.
Major, of course - a hologram hammock! Why didn’t I think of that?
I see a red 1968 or 1969 Chevelle. I love those cars!
Sue
Nanook, I miss car names like “Comet”, “Falcon”, and even “Dart”.
Mike Cozart, my gosh, you definitely scored when it comes to attraction posters. $5 for a Peoplemover, Skyway, or Columbia! I think I paid $300 for my Peoplemover and Skyway posters, and felt lucky doing so. My Columbia was $250 because nobody wanted that one, or so it seemed. I can’t remember what year I bought my first posters at Howard Lowery’s, but it must have been the mid-1990s, so I’d missed out on the best deals. Still, I have over 40 original silkscreened posters, so I can’t be too upset. $25 each at the Disneyana Convention. Or even $5!! AIEEEE!
Anonymous, this was definitely the era when my family went to the park the most. We lived less than 30 minutes away, and I was just the right age to understand that there was more to the place than just “fun rides”. Bong hits? I’m sure you just read about people doing that, and never did it yourself!!
Chuck, I don’t know how anybody remembers the hundreds of different makes and models of old cars. It’s a fun skill, but I know I’ll never have it. My brother is good at it. I guess I was just never that interested, even though I always liked old cars. I didn’t like them so much that I studied them.
Sue, did you have a Chevelle??
Sue: the first new car my parents bought after they were married was a 1965 Chevy Malibu in Tahitian Turquoise . I learned to drive stick shift on that car - it was beautiful!
@ MIKE-
I bought my Matterhorn and Carousel of Progress AP's thru a CM, but I certainly didn't buy either one on the 'first day'. Maybe another Carousel poster 'turned up' later... Even selling at a "mere" $195.00 (+ tax) seemed like quite a luxury purchase; although looking back thru time it seems like a bargain, especially when you factor-in all the pleasure they bring. [I'm staring at three of them as I type this].
NANOOK: the Matterhorn poster was available for several years Thru the gallery. The first batch of original attraction posters was sent to the gallery from the sign shop ( only the second generation posters were held back) the next batch came from decorating when they vacated their buildings on ball road - across the street from Gnal Lumber. The last batch of posters came from the marketing support group over at the Disneyland hotel . So it’s possible that a rare chance have someone a opportunity to purchase a rare poster. Many posters we covet today were thought to be damn ugly in the 1980’s and guests and collectors avoided the poster art despite how popular the attraction might have been . inner space , dumbo , space station x-1 , PeopleMover , skyway …. Were not generally popular posters then.
As a castmember later , we kept in close contact with castmembers working at the Disneyanna Shop in Florida and we would often give “heads up” to our friends working in Florida when rare pieces were coming in or going to be expected. And they in turn did the same for us. One day at the gallery I had a call come into the office from a manager in Florida …. She said she had good news and bad news….. (???) so I asked for the bad news : she said ALL the original screenprinted attraction posters had been removed from the entry tunnels - but she said new posters and frames are going in …. . So then the good news?? She got all the used posters directly from the tunnels to sell at the Disneyanna Shop …. Frames and all ….
I had to sit down and had a instant head ache.
PART TWO WDW sells its original attraction posters .
I asked - thinking omg these are going to be sooo expensive ….. they were not. They were 150.00 framed or 100.00 unframed ….. and we got 35% off!! Sone had already been purchased by WDW cast members … but I purchased 14 of them . Pirates , mansion were already gone ( but eventually a Florida cm who had those two sold me them) the unframed posters had their frames damaged when they were removed from the tunnels . They also sold signs that were related to the entry , tunnels , lockers and train station . Another intersing thing was that at the time the Disneyanna Shop was I under refurbishment so the attraction posters were sent to The Kings Gallery in fantasyland - imagine the surprise to guests looking at swords , chest sets, suits of armor for sale then seeing leaning stacks of Walt Disney World attraction posters for sale!!! The only posters they didn’t sell were The Crystal Palace Restaurant ones … they were sent to the food services offices to be displayed there and in the break area of the actual Crystal Palace.
Major, sorry I’m late today, work is insane.
So weird that a parking lot can create such memories, but there you go. I love these as much as views inside the Park. Thank you. I thought of Thufer today. I saw our school bus once from the monorail.
DBenson, thank you for your lyric post and for posting late at night or morning. You are exactly right.
Renaissance city planners knew the benefit of a vista and the original Imagineers knew it too. That type of visual planning is evident everywhere in the original Park. I think you’re right, the train station was intended to be the “weenie” from the parking lot, as the castle is the weenie from Main Street etc. and the esplanade for DCA and the approach from Downtown Disney eliminated that.
My kids played slug bug but I had never heard of it.
I won’t ever buy an attraction poster, even an imitation because I want less stuff now, not more. But there was a time when I would have wanted one if I even knew it was possible, and I am happy to hear the stories of everyone’s bargains. It feels good to get something you wanted for a good deal.
I’m feeling kind of sad and this thread cheered me up because of nostalgia. Chuck knows what I mean, see my profile. I hope everyone had a good day and wish you a good weekend.
JG
Hahaha, you’re correct, it was my step-brother, and, yeah he got busted.
You had to take the monorail to the hotel to get a proper buzz.
@ MIKE-
Thanks for the stories. Attraction Posters: The Gift that Keeps On Giving.
Mike, what a great car and beautiful color (I did have to Google the color) - I bet you wish you still had it!
Major, my husband had two 1969 Chevelles when we were teenagers dating. One for everyday driving and one for drag racing. He was/is a 'gear head.' Fun memories.
Chuck, I sure hope you wake up tomorrow and your day is dull and boring. You don't need anymore excitement.
Thanks, Major. This parking lot was a big part of my childhood memories.
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