A Trio From 1973
Hey hey! Here are more swell scans from a batch of 35mm negatives, courtesy of my friend Mr. X. This is kind of a random selection, but they are very nice.
Here we are at Frontierland Station - it wouldn't be renamed "New Orleans Square Station" until September of 1996, even though the buildings in the background tell us that we are in the Crescent City. Or is it the Croissant City? Here comes the beautiful #3 locomotive, the Fred Gurley, a-chuggin' along.
Business is booming at the Hills Bros. Coffee Garden, it's standing room only, just like when I went to see Zamfir (master of the pan flute). It was pandemonium! Women threw their babushkas onstage during the show. But I digress.
I need some WD-40 and an assortment of washers, and maybe a new garden hose (one of those springy ones that curls up). And you know that they will have it at Miner's Hardware, because they have everything. Is money tight? Your credit is always good at Miner's! Spit on the floor, they like it. Y'all come back now, y'hear?
Thank you, Mr. X!
30 comments:
Major-
It must'a been 'free refills day' at Hills Bros Coffee Garden. And depending on when one searches for their logo - sometimes it has a period (as the Warner Bros. logo has) - other times not - as seen here.
All I can say about Miner's Hardware is - if they fail to carry Tupperware - I'll have to take my business elsewhere-!
Thanks, Major.
In the choo-choo, chuff-chuff photo, I like how the train is bordered on all sides by all the trees and shrubs... except in the direction the train is heading. It's gonna burst out of the right edge of the photo any second now!
Shiny red pleather jacket sighting on that kid in photo #2. Plus 2, 3, or 4 different shades of burgundy-colored pants in the crowd. Also a pair of plaid pants and, I think, a pair of red, white, and blue striped pants. And then there's the lady in front wearing an all red ensemble. A single yellow mouse-ear balloon and NO TRASHCANS! Although we know there has to be at least one behind that crowd.
Hey! The door's open to the Hardware Store! (Was it always open?) Let's duck our heads down and squeeze through the opening to see what's inside! I'm sure there's all sorts of 5/8 scale items that would come in handy.
Thank you Mr. X and Mr. Pepperidge.
Mother Murphy's Meals - All Hours! Does that mean I can get a burger and fries at 2:00 a.m. after the bar closes?
The coloring in these three photos is beautiful. Thanks, Mr. X and Major.
It was 1973 in the Hills Brothers Coffee House with my grandparents while having desert and coffee ( I had milk) waiting for the Main Street Electrical Parade I got impatient waiting at the table and wandered into the connecting building - DISNEYLAND SHOWCASE - A LEGACY FOR THE FUTURE …. And saw models of old west mining train passing Thru a flash-flood town ( Thunder Mesa Runaway Railroad) A clear dome model with two wires insure - 1 blue , 1 red ( Space Mountain and double track layout) and other models and renderings… I became obsessed!! Weeks after I was drawing pictures of the mine train and the flash flood town …. And making clay copies of what I had seen. It was years later Tony Baxter told me that starting in 1973 for a very short period of time , Disneyland Showcase had a special display of PHASE 2 for the newly opened Walt Disney World , and all those models I remembered ( and Tony was amazed I could describe them so well from so long ago) were of future developments for WDW … this was to attract Disneyland guests to someday visit The Vacation Kingdom . And that mine train model was built by him! He later send me a photo of that very same model signed “ Mike, Dreams do come true! - Tony”
Yes! The color and quality is outstanding in these images.
I was always very impressed with the architecture and construction of the Hills Bros/Egg House/et.al. building. It was a little bit different than all the others on Main St. and had a "permanent" feeling as it was-or appeared to be- made out of stone...with it's stone bench, window frames, door frames etc. The little balcony with it's fret work on top was lovely- here with the little birdcage. So very well designed. Is it possible now to go anywhere in Disneyland, walk in, and get a table? This restaurant seemed to be one where that was possible. You can see the top of Donalds head there in the crowd of paparazzi. As an employee when you saw a crowd like this in front of a back stage access door, you kinda went "ugh" knowing you would have to plow through. Sometimes you'd see it from across the street and decide to go over by the Bank and go that way instead. The character leads did try to make attempts to get the characters more "out in it" but crowds are harder to wrangle than characters. Looks like Mama red pantsuit, with shiny red jacket, and red socks and shorts are all coordianate, while dad said "no". There is camera guy, looking very satisfied with his gigantical Polaroid camera- it kind of looks like one- those cameras that the scantily clad ladies would use to take photos of groups of people sitting in booths and places like the Stork Club or the Playboy Club. Where is Gideon in these photos? Who IS that? "It's a kitty!". The smoke mark above the tunnel in New Orleans Square I thought at one point was painted on: "how can that steam be so dirty?!" I don't think it's painted on- I do think the smoke is a little dirty. Who is Jeremiah Colt? and would't all that tin stuff get rusted handing out there like that, and why do miners need cheese graters? Are they making quesadillas in the mines? All good questions for a very sharp detailed shot. Thanks for the crisp photos this morning Mr. X! BTW: How is Madame X?
The buildings on the other side of the tracks at New Orleans Square look so real and add so much interest to the scene that it was years before I realized that it was essentially just a view block with some access doors hiding the Pirates of the Caribbean show building.
In the second photo, just to the right of the woman in the red suit, it appears that a mother and daughter are sharing components of the same plaid suit. To the left of Red Suit, there’s a smiling man with an enormous camera. To his left, we see a balding fellow taking a vertical photo of something, probably the hugging couple facing away from us between Big Shot and Red Suit. If it weren’t an afternoon shot, I’d be tempted to assume JG’s parents are at a table behind the crowd, sipping coffee while he’s off in line for the Matterhorn.
Miner’s Hardware, home of the World’s Largest Cheese Graters. This is an exceptionally good, clear photograph of the building that brings a lot more of the wares on display into sharp focus. Note the lineup of undersized kerosene lanterns in front of the left window. I have a table lamp (in storage) that I got about 1975 that uses a scaled-down replica of a red lantern as its body; I’m going to theorize that the Disney team secured some of those to put in this display. Also note the period-accurate, rectangular fluorescent light fixture on the ceiling just inside the door. The bottom of the right-side door could use some paint or a good scrub to get rid of those boot scuffs.
Thanks a bunch, Mr. X & Maj P!
Also - don’t recall ever noticing the exposed “adobe” brickwork to the left of the door. Another nice detail.
BU:actually BOTH facades of the Hills Brother Coffee House entry repeat elsewhere on Main Street and it’s side streets ( minus the wrought iron balconies) most Notably, the “cut”stone facade is the same facade to the China Closet! About 6 facades are duplicated along Main Street USA.
What a cool memory, Mike! And good catch on the split up plaid suit, Chuck. I wonder if the one girl got chilly and her companion offered her her jacket. My other grandmother had a red pantsuit just like the lady in that picture, and she also had the exact same pantsuit in a red and white check. Sometimes she would mix and match the solid and checked trousers and jacket.
The cast-iron stoves on display at the miners’ hardware store are lovely. One of my very earliest memories is of falling and burning my hand on our Ben Franklin stove; I must have been three years old. One of my cat Tommy’s middle names is “Benjamin Franklin” because he’s very solid and shiny black, with four short legs and a tail that’s always pointed up like a stovepipe.
1973!!! Am in in these??? Am I in these???
Alas, the jackets show that this was probably NOT June. The quest continues...
Not a random mix today Major. The common denominator here is quality! So much to see that I don’t mind the lack of trash cans, we know they there somewhere, only a hot-dog munch apart.
I remember Dad laughing at the animatronic laundry on clotheslines visible from the train platform. No the smoke isn’t painted on, the IASW facade has similar stains from the animatronic smoke.
Chuck, you are right, Mom and Dad would be outside in the garden behind that crowd, enjoying their coffee and a minute’s peace, holding hands. They have been very close in my memories this week and this picture feels good, thank you.
Miners Hardware is even more comprehensive than the Templeton Ace Hardware (since 1885, still with the original front door handle). Nowadays you might be more likely to buy software there. Chuck, that fluorescent lamp is an oil-burning type. Here in the living room, I have two of those kerosene lanterns (full size) that date from that era of smoke and steam, one red lens, one clear.
Just fine memories here Major, thank you so much.
JG
A required stop back then for my parents. I can still smell that heavenly coffee. Really nice set of pics. Busy on a thing at work, but sounds like these photos brought up some good memories for some here, including myself. GDB is the best at doing just that. And a split-up plaid suit too boot.
Thanks Major, good job.
And thanks Mr. X.
By the way Major, did you take in the Riverdance show playing across the street from Zamfir? Then there was the insanely popular, ultimate snore master who's name I can't remember right now.
It finally came to me. it was Yanni that was dubbed the snore master, followed by Andreas Vollenweider, whom I thought was the best of the new age gang.
Major... nice photos, and such nice colors. Or, if may I say, a "Wonderful World of Hues"
Nanook, that was the day when every Hills Bros customer got a free pet rock! So cuddly. I admit that it feels weird to leave the period off, but I’ll still sleep great tonight. Tupperware wouldn’t be invented for many years (it’s the 1890s, remember), so they use a pig’s bladder to store food. Should I sign you up for two, or three?
JB, if it wasn’t for that lamp post to the right inf photo #2, I’d say it was “postcard worthy”. But now it’s only fit for garbage! Sorry, I get worked up. I need more burgundy clothing in my life - that, and “brown mustard yellow”. The all-red outfit is pretty striking, you have to admit. Good question about the door to the hardware store, I don’t think it is usually open!
K. Martinez, 2:00 a.m. is the BEST time to get a burger and fries, especially a nice Tommy’s chili-cheeseburger with extra pickles.
Mike Cozart, it sounds like that experience of seeing the Disneyland Showcase literally changed your life, which is pretty amazing. Sort of a random thing, you could have easily not gone in. Making renderings, models, and clay copies, that’s hard core! I always wanted to do stuff like that when I was a kid but had no idea how to go about it, plus if it wasn’t perfect I didn’t want to bother. I wonder whatever happened to that Mine Train model??
Bu, I’ve always liked that Hills Bros building, all the way back to when Maxwell House lived there. It definitely has a “permanent” feel to it. One of the things I dislike about the new brick treatments that they have added to some of the buildings on Main Street is that they feel cheap and anachronistic at the same time. They just don’t look good or even remotely like real brick facades. Aha, Donald is there! I kept thinking there must be a character, but didn’t notice Donald’s forehead and blue cap. I doubt dad owned many bright red shirts, but you never know. The smoke mark is real, steam trains do produce exhaust - in this case diesel exhaust. You see the results over by “it’s a small world”, where a particular arch gets stained by smoke. Cheese graters can be used to make hash browns and other delicious stuff!
Chuck, I’ve always thought that the buildings near New Orleans Square station had a slightly sterile look to them, but then again, any area right near a train station is probably not going to be full of decorative frippery. I wonder if there were any concepts that would have made those facades even more detailed? IS that man holding one of those old “Speed Graphic” cameras like Weegee used to use?? Or is it a giant early Polaroid? I wonder where Disney would have acquired scaled-down lanterns, and why a company would have made them? I like the boot scuffs on the door, that feels authentic. And yes, check out that fluorescent light inside Miner’s Hardware! Just like a real hardware store.
Chuck, that was put there by “big adobe”.
Mike Cozart, wow, I had no idea! Now I’m going to have to dig out a photo of the China Closet! I honestly thought that all of the Main Street buildings were unique.
Melissa, it looks so warm and delightful in that Hills Bros image, but I guess it really must have been a little chilly. I’ll bet Chuck was right about the girl borrowing her mom’s (?) coat. I can’t imagine my grandma ever wearing a bright red pantsuit! I wonder how they treated the cast iron items in front of Miner’s so that they didn’t rust? Nobody wants to buy a rusty stove.
Stu29573, you are right behind Donald Duck!
JG, it’s true, these are very nice, I always tell Mr. X what a good job he did. He’s very modest about them. I wish I had more vivid memories of the times I went to Disneyland with my mom and dad, but I think I was so caught up in my own childish excitement that I was not even paying attention to them. In Los Osos there is an Ace hardware store called “Miner’s Ace”, I always think of it when I see the “Miner’s Hardware” in Rainbow Ridge.
DrGoat, I’m still not much of a coffee drinker, but have fond memories of the smell of coffee when I was at my grandparent’s house in Minnesota. My brother and I slept in their basement, so there was also the smell of laundry detergent, cement, and other miscellaneous aromas. My grandma used an old-fashioned wringer so that she could hang her wash on the clothesline outside!
DrGoat, I wonder if you are referring to Michael Flatly (I think that was the name of the Riverdance guy)?
LTL, I only wish Mr. X had take a few hundred additional photos!
I really enjoy reading the comments/backstories/details at this site.
PS, I just remembered The Hues Corporation, known for their 1974 single "Rock the Boat"(!)
LTL, "Rock the Boat", I VIVIDLY remember that song!
DrGoat (sorry, somehow missed your later comment), ha ha, Yanni. That New Age stuff that was so popular (and maybe still is?). Not familiar with Andreas Vollenweider.
Major and Dr. Goat, Andreas V was a harpist, as I recall. He was very big with the "new age" crew. For a while, I lived near a global "energy center" and that music was everywhere.
Nanook, if Miners Hardware doesn't have Tupperware, I bet they have Pyrex casseroles, hopefully the nice avocado green and harvest gold kind.
I wish I could read the menu sign at the coffee house, wondering if they still had the cream-cheese on raisin bread with pickles. I thought that sounded so weird as a kid, and I would eat that now in a heartbeat.
JG
JG, hmmm, I'm sure Andreas V is very talented but... I'm more of a banjo guy. Plinkety plunk! Not sure what a global "energy center" is (presumably a New Age thing?). Cream cheese on raisin bread sounds good, but... with pickles?? That does sound a little weird. But hey, I'd try it. "Don't knock it 'til you try it" was my dad's favorite motto.
JG -- here I found an image of Hills Bros menu:
http://randomneatstuff.blogspot.com/2012/04/disneyland-hills-brothers-coffee-house.html?m=1
Lots of stuff with pickles... odd.
"Head for the Hills Brothers Coffee ..." -- Anybody ancient enough to remember that slogan on commercials?
LTL, I'm still unclear if the pickle was on the side, or on the sandwich!
DBenson, I don't remember it, but that doesn't mean that I never saw those commercials.
LTL THANK YOU! that’s the menu. There’s the cream cheese on raisin bread. But maybe I was wrong about the pickles? It’s been over 50 years, so…
DBenson, I do remember that slogan.
Mom and Dad would stop here at Hill Bros. for a coffee, but I could run ahead and ride the bobsleds before the line got too long. Once I came back and caught them holding hands and smooching. I realized then my parents had a life before I came along. That’s the story Chuck was referring to.
JG
At a recent (though more like 5 years ago now) repaint of Tomorrowland in WDW, they added a black accent to the peoplemover tracks where they cross the train tracks. That way, the smoke from the locomotives won't discolor it
"Tupperware wouldn’t be invented for many years (it’s the 1890s, remember), so they use a pig’s bladder to store food. Should I sign you up for two, or three?"
Major, I will take one, if you can burp it, too.
"I only wish Mr. X had taken a few hundred additional photos!"
Major, I concur. More, please!
LTL, I still love that song.
Great photos, Mr. X and Major.
Wow, mind BLOWN. Never noticed repeat buildings on Main St. I thought that was just faces in Pirates which got worked over and over.
Mike Cozart, could you please further explain the repeating Main St. facades, and save me weeks of comparing photos? Thanks.
Pirates? Of the first group we encounter, watching the mayor being dunked, two could only be considered twins, but that one is pretty obvious. It goes on and on.
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