Pontoon Bridge, 1950s
Most of you know that Sunday is the day when I typically share scans that leave much to be desired. Today's scans have an obvious issue - blurriness - that I almost deleted them without anybody else seeing them. But I finally decided that there was still fun to be had, in spite of the lack of focus.
Both are from the 1950s, and both show the Pontoon Bridge on Tom Sawyer Island. If they had been in crisp focus, I would prize them above most photos in my collection. But alas, it was not to be. The photographer had the 'yips". I like this angle, with Castle Rock in the background. Various articles of red clothing make for nice accents (like pimientos in a casserole).
We can still see the smiles on the folks crossing the bridge, while two Canoes race frantically in the distance. Whichever Canoe wins gets to tip the other one over.
14 comments:
Major-
Oh... the potential-!
Thanks, Major.
I don't mind the blur! What I don't like in that second photo, is the horizon. It definitely needs a six-story parking structure sticking up above the trees. Come to think of it, get rid of those trees so we can actually see all six stories!
Good grief, those red clothing accents are EVERYWHERE! It looks like a scene from The Handmaid's Tale. I've never seen the show, but I have seen clips.
The blurriness almost looks like the camera lens was smudgy; like it was smeared with Vaseline.
If the first pic had been in focus, and if it had been a bright sunny day with blue sky, this would have been a real keeper for sure. The bridge, Castle Rock, and Fort Wilderness; visually, the three best things about TSI. Oh well. Even with its shortcomings it's still a nice photo.
In the second photo, the juxtaposition of a couple of boulders, near and far, makes it look like there is a giant guy sitting at the head of the leftmost canoe. He's facing toward the other paddlers in the canoe. And he's wearing a painter's cap.
I'm a few minutes late writing this comment because I was reading Tokyo!'s 2-part Russian novel that he posted a few minutes earlier in yesterday's thread.
Thank you, Major.
JB, please watch my eight-part miniseries, coming this Fall!
These pictures are so blurry, you can’t even make out the Viewliner in the background.
TM!, I hope you shoot your miniseries at Universal and manage to work in the Court of Miracles, the Paramount House, Six Points, Texas, and the decaying carcass of Prop Plaza. Add in a sky beam or two, an all-CGI character that will drive merchandise sales, and some homages to The Wizard of Oz and I think you’ll have a hit. I am willing to take 15% of the profits in exchange for not suing you for stealing my ideas.
Chuck, I like your ideas of filming at Universal Studios. I want to have a scene, where I lose my cotton candy in the "Flash Flood." And there will need to be a scene where I run in slow motion, across the "Collapsing Bridge," just like Jamie Sommers did. Too bad the "Glacier Tunnel" isn't there anymore, otherwise I could have a meeting with Big Foot.
I wonder if the red sweater folks were from a school...or a GANG! They were being run off TSI by the exploding animitronic ducks (version 1- they weren't supposed to explode). They were later esten by the swans. The pictures are blurry because they were taken by the swans...and they were excited.
Castle Rock was the coolest of the cool. It could be argued that the caves were cooler, but who wants to waste the time...
Oh my, the photographer has much to answer for here, Major.
Still the lack of focus makes these more like my memories of That Time and This Place than mere photos might do.
These are certainly well-accented with red. Reminds me of the color-coordination in the Schwinn Bicycle brochure you posted some time back, except this is not art direction.
The second photo captures very well the disorienting feeling of the shaky bridge. My poor mom refused to cross the pontoon bridge although she would travel the suspension one.
There’s something to love about any old picture of the Park, I guess. Thank you.
JG
It looks like these people were beamed back from Minnesota for a Target convention. A strong choice for a brand identity and it worked. Pontoon bridge. No grannies, no "softies" on the pontoon bridge! Don't get on that thing with me or my friends or you will be ricocheted into the Rivers of America. We purposely ran and jumped onto the pontoon bridge in the hopes of getting wet, or catapulting ourselves. Honestly, it was super hard to get anyones feet wet on that thing...as much as we tried. It looks like an insurance nightmare to me now, but it the day...it was awesome. I never saw anyone fall, but I sure saw people holding onto those ropes for dear life: those SOFTIES that should not even be ON Tom Sawyer Island much less on the pontoon bridge. This was the island of scrapes and bruises...intentionally. I think we even showed them off back at school..."we went to Disneyland and got all busted up!" Castle Rock was another one of those crowd control marvels that I made note of: one way up, another way down. Keeps everything in order. "Order" was not the course of the day on TSI...Injun Joes cave is for screaming, yelling, and scaring wee ones, the teeter totter rock was for cracking your head open, the suspension bridge was for wildly trying to make it sway even a smidgen with the hopes that you would fall to the depths. The island was actually some relief in a Disneyland full of law and order. You don't mess around on rides...they kick you out. No wonder those Yippees took it over in the attempt of anarchy in 1970. I don't mind that the photos are fuzzy, my memories are too. I look at it like an Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds commercial at Christmastime..get the Vaseline for the lens boys. You can see the parking structure from INSIDE the park? Talk about bad show....oye vey...its not even painted go away green.
Tokyo, thanks for the long informative Knotts posts on yesterdays thread, especially the photo of the plaque!
JG
Nanook, this was definitely another case of holding the slides up to the light and thinking, “NICE!”, only to be a little crushed when I discovered that they are blurry.
TokyoMagic!, please report to Disney HQ immediately! You have big ideas. My only question: Why not SEVEN stories?
JB, it’s funny, looking at other photos from this batch, the highlights of red are everywhere. It was clearly a fashion thing, red was the “in” color. Makes me wonder if a movie star had worn a red coat or sweater, setting off a new trend? I don’t think it lasted more than a year or so. Vaseline? “What are you doing, Fred?”. “Putting Vaseline on the camera lens, what does it look like?”. (Sad trombone sound). I agree, that first photo would have been an A+ example if things had been just a little bit better. Ha ha, I see the “giant guy”! Painters love canoes, it’s a known fact.
TokyoMagic!, I hope your miniseries stars Richard Chamberlain, Angie Dickinson, George Kennedy, Lindsay Wagner, Robert Wagner (no relation), Eva Gabor, and special guest, Charro!
Chuck, the Viewliner was hard to capture on film because it moved so fast. Like a bullet! Some might say it was like a bullet, AND a train. And of course TM’s miniseries will be shot on the Universal Lot, they will even manage to use the “ice tunnel” in a dream sequence. Maybe even Bruce the shark. However, they will need to shoot a few scenes on Hollywood Boulevard.
TokyoMagic!, ha ha, I love that you mentioned the “Glacier Tunnel” and Jamie Sommers, aka Liindsay Wagner. We both have a talent for filmmaking and casting!
Stu29573, it was the dreaded “Red Sweater Gang”. Don’t let the fact that it was made up of young girls, mothers, and old ladies fool you! They’ll get your defenses down by handing you a sandwich and then BLAMMO! I’m trying to figure out how swans operate cameras, but “nature will find a way”, right?
JG, I just couldn’t bring myself to toss these scans in the trash, it made me too sad. So here we are, with two blurry photos! About 15 years ago my sister got a tomato-red wool overcoat, so I think of her when I see these. I preferred the suspension bridge too, but not because the pontoons made me queasy… so many people on the pontoon bridge had to stop and jump up and down, as if they’d never seen anything float before. I think there was even a sign asking guests to not do that, but… you know.
Bu, ha ha, see my comment to JG! So YOU were one of the pontoon bridge jumpers! Breaking the rules, like a hooligan. You probably had a toothpick in your mouth and called men “pops” and women “honey”. I can see it all now. They had to add the netting so that guests wouldn’t fall in, I don’t know if it was just a precaution, or if it was due to people actually falling in. I’m happy to say that I did not experience screaming people inside the caves, but I DID scrape the top of my head on one of those rough cave walls, it hurt like hell, there was blood. Ha ha, “an Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds commercial”, I can picture it now.
JG, now I need to go back and read yesterday’s comments again!
Guess you could only wear red, white, blue, or black on this day. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s funny to not see logos and sayings, and most prints except plaid and stripes, on clothes in old photos. Guests today would never dress so plainly! Maybe my glasses have Vaseline on them, and not the camera lens. Thanks, Major.
I have never seen so many people in red, except at Christmastime. Do we know the month these were taken?
I loved the pontoon bridge, too.
Thanks, Major.
—Sue
Kathy!, you are right, colors were pretty limited at that time. That's why it's fun to see some bright greens, yellows, and blues starting to appear in fashion around 1965, suddenly there are these spots of completely different hues! Even stripes in old photos are not that common, plaids were appropriate for only certain things.
Sue, these were undated, so we can only guess at the year, much less the month. TSI didn't open until 1956, so this might be from early 1957.
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