Mickey and Minnie! March 1962
Let's all wish GDB pal Ken S. a very Happy Birthday! As usual, Sue B. has provided a vintage birthday photo for us to enjoy (how does she do it?). Two boys and a girl (who I almost didn't notice) enjoy wearing plaid. One kid has his feet on the furniture, a real no-no. Maybe it's OK since the chair is plastic? I'm thinking maybe the kid with the plaid pants is in mid-blow (some of the candles are out already), and he probably spit right in his brother's eye. Yuck!
There are lots of fun things to do at Disneyland (news flash), but meeting some of your favorite characters in person is way up at the top of the list for many people. Especially if you get to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse!
Mickey has dressed up for the occasion, with his massive top hat and his claw-hammer coat. He kept things playful though, sticking with the red shorts. Hey, at least he's wearing pants, right? The two ladies to the left (one with a babushka!) are mighty amused by Casper the Friendly Ghost's encounter with The Mouse.
Buzz-cut Photographer Boy has worked up the courage to say hello (Mickey can be a little intimidating, he can't help it), and he's going to hand Mickey a $5 bill because Mickey gots to get PAID. It's nice to get a good look at the scarce "Art of Animation" poster (the exhibit was in Tomorrowland from May 28, 1960 to September 5, 1966).
In spite of the brilliant sunshine, it was obviously a chilly day, almost everyone is wearing some sort of protection against the cold. Not Minnie Mouse, though, she is ready for the Easter Parade, in her pink skirt, hat, and matching parasol. Stylish as always.
The ladies are holding 1961 gate handouts, so either these photos were taken months earlier, or the park was using up the last of the '61 brochures. The 1962 gate handout (which is orange instead of blue) is quite a bit scarcer than all the others, for some reason, so either scenario wouldn't surprise me.
38 comments:
Major-
You ain't kidding ...how does she do it-?? Plaid-o-rama - and the pants on the birthday boy appear to be flared, too.
Minnie IS so stylish - although her loafers are a bit grody-! 'Mr. Moneybags', who's about to hand a $5.00 bill to Mickey can easily afford it, as it appears he may be carrying a Rolleiflex camera.
Thank you, Sue. And a very happy birthday to Ken-!
Dip, dip, and swing, Ken S. (lyrics from that canoe paddling song). i.e. Happy Birthday! We all enjoy your tales as a CM and the photos you share. Thank you.
Sue's birthday photo: Dang. The calendar is too blurry to read the date, or see the picture. We had a white, wall-mounted phone just like that. Judging by... well, everything, I'd say this photo was from circa 1972. It's funny that all three kids are displaying unusual expressions. If the kid on the left isn't reacting to his brother's spit, then what IS he doing?
Mickey photo #1: Hmm. This version of walk-around Mickey is a little odd; maybe even scary. (No wonder the kid turned into a ghost!) The Mouse looks like something heavy fell on his head, squashing him down. Even his hat and snout are dented and rumpled. With those limp, lifeless arms, I think one of the Three Pigs is actually inside the costume.
Mickey photo #2: Man, if Buzz-cut Photographer Boy's jeans were any stiffer, he'd be completely immobile! It looks like it would be painful to walk in them. The chafing!! Looks like Casper is making another appearance in this photo, too. Mickey still looks like a deflated balloon.
Mickey photo #3: Oh dear. Minnie looks just as odd and disheveled as Mickey. Her nose looks like a pockmarked meteorite. And I'm not even gonna mention her shoes. I wonder how long this version of the Mouse Couple lasted?
Gate Handout photo: I love all the stars sprinkled around; giving it that Disney Magic. And the illustrations are particularly nice. More detailed than the smaller ones we often see on the borders of pamphlets and such. I like the "Disneyland" text as well. Hand drawn, no doubt.
Thanks to Sue for another amusing 'birthday card'.
Thanks to Major for the gate handout scan. And for GDB.
Happy birthday again to KS!
I wonder if those were "Magic Candles," which relight themselves after they've been blown out?
JB, if that is a telephone on the wall, then where are the numbered buttons? All I see is a big round clear thing on it. How was someone supposed to call out?
There is something seriously wrong with these versions of Mickey and Minnie. Donald Duck doesn't wear pants, but apparently Minnie doesn't like to wear a top. I guess these characters were all created before there were "censors."
Happy Birthday to you, Ken!
Thanks, Sue & Major!
Happy birthday, Ken! Hope you're having as much fun as you bring to every comments section. And thanks to Sue, our own Ghost of Birthdays Past, for another great kids'n'cakes picture!
Wow, whoever made Birthday Boy's pants didn't do so great matching the plaids. That and the angles of Big Brother's and Little Sister's heads is making me a little seasick. The cake looks like it's full of fudgy goodness (not to be confused with Fudgie goodness) and that's a great classic Pyrex bowl.
Are those nonfunctional, vestigial arms on the Mickey suit, or is it just the way he's standing? I don't think I've ever seen that Art of Animation poster before. Buzz is all business. He's going to interview Mickey for the school paper. He asks the hard-hitting questions! "Mr. Mouse, do you have any response to the recent allegations of playing barnyard animals like musical instruments?"
Look at the immaculate white gloves on Mrs. Bluesuit! I bet she's got a copy of Emily Post in her handbag. Both mouse costumes do look a little bit shopworn. I'm sure those two fashionable ladies took Minnie to the ladies' room and helped her freshen up.
Happy birthday, Ken S.! Thanks for your always interesting comments. I hope you have supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day filled with fortuosity and a little bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!
Immediately drawn to the Western Electric 554 wall phone in the birthday photo. TM!, I’m not completely sure, but based on old radio programs and movies, I think you would simply lift the receiver and ask the operator to ring Murray Hill 4-0098. Unfortunately, operators sometimes made mistakes and you’d get a wrong number. It was murder making phone calls in those days.
Unthemed concrete and asphalt. Simply marvelous.
Happiest of Birthdays to you, Ken! CLICK HERE!
Happy Birthday Ken! Once again, a photo that deserves hours of forensics. Things I own in photo: Pryex bowl: check, tongs in bowl, check, dishes, check, glassware...in the garage, but check...phone...Check...Phone book on phone book chain (that was a thing.)...no...but phone books were being delivered to my house up until just prior to the pandemic. Even the "white pages" today on the internet, jettison you to parts unknown right before filling your computer with viruses. The book wasn't hard to navigate, maybe it comes back. The white chairs are stellar, I have the table too...somewhere in the garage. I was on a "table binge" a few years ago, and bought quite a few. I had the plaid trousers and there is a photo somewhere of me in them. Mickey and Minnie: this is where conflicting stories about "That would NEVER happen if Walt were alive!"...OK..the costumes need a rehab...the shoes..."welcome to Disneyland, thanks for the cash, our #1 prime spokesmodel is here...in tat." Perhaps they should be holding hobo sticks and little satchels instead of umbrellas. I do love the outrageousness of the scale of the costumes, it's very other worldly, as were some of the former costumes- especially the Ice Capade creepy ones. I'm wondering when Mickey got "normal"...someone knows...all you need here is a balloon vendor in Pincocchio garb. A look I also admire. The ladies who lunch took a detour from their cocktails at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport to walk around the shops of Disneyland...perhaps they went on the Matterhorn, who knows. Love the gloves and full jewelry. The Art of Animation straight from New York, London, Paris Munich...everybody loves...pop music. If you remember that song, God bless you. For reals- was this a traveling show that went from Tokyo to Tomorrowland? Someone knows. I knew about the exhibit, but did not know it was on a whistle stop tour. The Met recently held a Disney exhibit about the influence of French decorative arts. It's over, but perhaps the next stop is Tomorrowland? I'm not sure the sophistication level is there between some Star Wars thing and some Pixar thing, but we would enjoy it all the same. The book is still available from the Met website. This is not an ad and Fantasyland is closed.
And if Murray Hill isn't home, you can talk to his wife!
I am going to call this group the fashion bunch. Just look at all the early sixties duds on display here. We have the kid in the the rolled up jeans plaid shirt and U.S. Keds, the go anywhere outfit of 1961. Look at the two ladies sporting Don Loper originals, complete with gloves, talk about out dressing even the Mickster. Check out Olga and Svetlana, spies for sure, dressed in their Trotsky best. "Look at decadent schoolboy running from scary mouse." I feel underdressed now. Happy birthday Ken! Thanks Major.
Murray! Melissa who doesn't love Murray! Right! Murray Hill from Accounting! Everyone loves him :) and his lovely wife Beverly Hill! A lovely couple!
Happy Birthday Ken, Many Happy Returns of the Day! Thanks for the fascinating stories.
Thanks Sue and Major for the pics, that kitchen sure looks familiar, even though I’ve never seen it before.
Amazing how long it took to get the Mickey/Minnie character costumes dialed in, these are still awful.
Those ladies do bring up the tone, looks like my Moms church friends.
I sure like the line art on the gate brochure, deft and economical, gets the point across, job done, etc. The JC skipper is barefoot?
Thanks Major!
JG
The best of birthday's to you Ken. Hope it is very happy.
Great pic as usual Sue. I really dig that awning thing above the breakfast bar. Plaids and patterns were the theme with this family. I see that telephone book hanging under the counter by the phone. Don't see those much anymore.
Those 2 women do look like they are dressed for church. Can't imagine how it was back then when men wore suits and women dressed in their best. We were there back then but I have no recollection of what other people wore. Dad and Mom dressed nice but definitely casual. We mostly went in the summer, so it was Arizona casual.
Thanks Major and Sue and Ken, for having a birthday.
@ Chuck-
Without getting too nit-picky... if that was an operator-assisted call, I imagine we'd still be dealing with only six digits. (I'm just sayin').
OH - and now that I've re-studied that image, I can see both the finger stop and ringer 'volume' lever are located on the wrong side of the phone - so the image is flopped. That's going to affect the whole space-time continuum. @ JB- You might want to flop the image and then re-check the calendar...
Am not at home to check this slide, but I think it was stamped September 1975. I believe I mentioned the date in my email flopped-scan to Major??
-Sue
Stupid cell phone
Nanook, I think Minnie is wearing a pair of shoes that she’s had since the 1930s. Sure, they’re scuffed and cracked, but she remembers all the fun movies that they were in, back in the black and white days.
JB, I forget if Sue had a date for that birthday photo (I’m away from home at the moment), but I do seem to recall that she said it was from the 70s. I don’t mind the “top hat Mickey”, he’s sort of cute, unlike some earlier versions. At least he dressed up! I imagine that both Minnie and Mickey have taken more than a few tumbles, resulting in all of the dents. Makes me feel bad for the people inside the costumes, I’d imagine it would be nearly impossible to get up without help. Those gate handouts are great, and a fun way to start your Disneyland paper collection. Don’t start! It never ends! I just scanned dozens and dozens of items for the blog, and there are boxes I haven’t even touched yet.
TokyoMagic!, at some point in a child’s life, they learn to spot those trick candles, the way they spark and sputter. But they are still fun! That phone was only there to call Russia, this was the house of Richard M. Nixon. Re: Minnie not wearing a top; the other day I drove past a bus stop in the Valley, and an old woman was standing there, no shirt. Nothing. It was hot, but… yeesh. Did they let her on the bus?
Melissa, Sue really does keep me on my toes, birthday-wise! Maybe mom bought those plaid pants at Sears, I had some plaid pants from that store at about that age. Mostly for church-going, believe it or not. Those were from the days before I would burst into flames walking into a church! I’m sure that Mickey and Minnie’s arms were non-functioning, which must have been weird for the performer. As I said to JB, a fall would be tough to recover from, I wonder if they had handlers nearby just in case? Those gloves are pretty nice, very classy!
Chuck, only you would recognize the precise model of telephone on the wall! You could dial “M” for Monkey. Barbara Stanwyck tried it, and it didn’t go well.
Bu, we still get a phone book delivered once a year, and it is about as thick as a magazine now. The poor yellow pages folks have had to move on to another way to make money. How about NFTs? Those are a good scam. Not surprised that the bloom is off the rose for NFTs. Amazing how much of that decor you own, you must like mid-century modern stuff. We’ve seen plenty of instances of things in the park that Walt supposedly did not allow, and yet we have it preserved in a photo. Such as modern-day trucks in Frontierland, or a nice aluminum boat with an outboard motor on the river. Sometimes they just had no choice, I’m sure. I do remember the “Pop Music” song. Never one of my favorites, but it was considered early New Wave, so it gets some credit. I used to really be into New Wave, and even quite a bit of punk, though you wouldn’t know it to look at me.
Melissa, I hope his wife isn’t in the middle of making pot roast for dinner.
Jonathan, I would wear those shoes today, though I own no Keds. I have some Sketchers that sort of look like them! I appreciate those old ladies and their fashion, my grandmother would have gone to Disneyland dressed up like that as well. Olga said something about proletariats too, she always does.
Bu, who was Beverly anyway (as in “Beverly Hills”)?
JG, yes, we’ve been lucky to hear Ken’s wonderful stories, and will hopefully hear a bunch more coming up soon-ish! Like I said, I sort of like those costumes, for some reason I find them cute and not terrifying. The skipper does appear to be barefoot - and while that was surely not allowed at Disneyland, we have seen them wearing sandals.
DrGoat, you should have seen my mom’s house when she and my dad moved in, everything was avocado green and harvest gold. The kitchen had indoor-outdoor carpeting in a swirling green-gold psychedelic pattern. The cupboards were painted a creamy green. It was kind of awesome, looking back at it! Whenever I see people very dressed up at the park (in old photos), I often wonder if they came straight from church. Those were the days!
Nanook, didn’t they still use 7 digits, only they used a letter prefix? Like HUdson 59372? Maybe I’m wrong.
Sue, gosh, I didn’t remember that you said that the photo was flopped. Sorry, I was probably distracted.
Sue, gosh, I didn’t remember that you said that the photo was flopped. Sorry, I was probably distracted. (Man, I’m so funny).
Sue, my phone is stupid too!
Major, I hadn’t noticed or mentioned that the scan was flopped when I emailed it to you...I was just commenting that I may have included the slide’s stamped date when I originally emailed it to you...
—Sue
Happy birthday, Ken S.
I'd place that photo as mid-70s by the brown plains. That's when fashions went from brighter colors to earth tones and bell bottoms expanded to de-lux proportions.
As a kid in the early 1980s receiving those items as hand-me-downs from older cousins, I was well aware that styles had shifted - other kids made sure of that.
Ok, all, I just got the chance to check the slide...it is dated September 1975 - but that would be the "processing date."
Happy Birthday KS! Thanks for all the photos & stories from the past.
Thanks Sue & Major for today's pictures.
Yes, I think the air pressure in Mickey & Minnie's deflated heads needs to be checked...
-DW
I'm with Dean Finder, mid-70's is most likely.
The styles that later seem to define a decade usually don't have good definition until the mid to late years, and that earthtone plaid certainly defines that decade.
Glad that's over.
JG
“As a kid in the early 1980s receiving those items as hand-me-downs from older cousins, I was well aware that styles had shifted - other kids made sure of that.”
Yeah, I can only remember having one new, storebought garment (well, not including shoes and underwear) until I hit junior high school. That one time was the year Mom got sick and couldn’t finish sewing our Easter dresses in time. Everything else was either homemade or hand-me-down. And after me, it all got shipped off to some poor sucker of a younger cousin. Their grandkids are probably wearing it as we speak.
Sue, I guess I was confused by the “email flopped-scan” thing? Not sure what you meant, but it’s not a big deal!
Dean Finder, gosh, your memories of fashion colors is way better than mine! I thought that earth tones were “in” even in the late 60s. As a “Navy kid”, second of four children, I wore my share of hand-me-downs!
Lou and Sue, thank you for checking.
DW, ha ha, Mickey and Minnie need to do that thing where they blow on their thumbs to inflate their heads. (That was in a cartoon I think? Can’t recall which one though).
JG, yes it’s true, the look that we think of as the “psychedelic 60s” probably really became more prominent around 1970, though of course there are always the early adopters. I'm hoping earth tone plaids come back! ;-)
Thanks for all the good wishes everyone on my 39th Birthday. ;)
I wished a fellow canoe co-worker today on his birthday that it was time to paddle another round on the River as well.
I immediately looked at those plaid pants and said "mid-70s". Somehow I missed jumping onto that trend. Kept it at jeans. The cake looks good. Come to think of it...ANY cake looks good!
Sue, thank you for sharing that birthday greeting! I'll have to train my boys to sing it in harmony! KS
Tokyo!, you lift up the 'receiver' and pound on the clear round thing to get the attention of the 'operator' and ask her (always a 'her') to connect you to the party to whom you wish to speak.
BTW, pounding on the clear round thing causes a squirrel to get agitated and run along the 'telephone lines' from your house to the 'operator'. That's how it works, you see. Edit: Ha! Chuck beat me to it!
Jonathan, thanks for that laugh!
Nanook, thanks for the mirror-image heads-up! I still can't tell what month and year it is. At first I thought it said September, but after some manipulation it looks sorta like April. I can't make out the year.
Sue, so it's probably September... maybe... and maybe 1975... maybe.
Major, yeah, I guess this version of Mickey & Minnie are sorta 'cute'... in a Nara Dreamland sort of way.
Wow, so weird about the topless old lady. They probably did NOT let her on the bus.
JB, it could be 1971–but that would mean the photographer sat on the undeveloped film for quite a while...
;o)
—Sue
We came to the table
On the fifth of Septapril
In nineteen and seventy-one
I am not able
To see why Septapril
Should finish before it’s begun.
(I was trying to make a new version of “Remember, remember the fifth of November,” but it kind of got away from me.)
Sue, at least it hatched, for us to enjoy all these years later.
Melissa, it's only a failure if we don't try at all. I think I got that from a fortune cookie.
Major-
It's highly-unlikely prior to 'direct digit dialing' that 7-digit numbers had appeared - but in Manhattan, Chicago, and Los Angeles all bets might be off. Avalon, CA (as in Catalina Island) finally switched to direct digit dialing on June 3, 1978. Wikipedia claims it was 1983 when the telco exchange in Bryant Pond, Maine was converted from hand-crank phones & switchboard operators. And according to the NY Times, that followed a September 8, 1973 "... decision by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, who ruled that the Bryant Pond Telephone Company may continue operating its hand crank telephone system".
Understandably, the residents there loved that service...
"Mrs. Kenneth A. Bradley, who has been a phone company customer for six years, says, “There have been so many occasions the company has been a personal friend in need, really. That's how we feel about it. Sometimes when I go out, I just call the telephone company and tell them I'll be gone for a while and not to accept any calls for me,” she went on. “And when I get back I call the office to report that I'm home".
Robert McKeen, who has worked for the company for 27 years as an operator, said, “We give a great deal more personal service than does a dial system. You don't get names on a busy dial signal. If a local number is busy, we'll call them back. Actually, it's a 24‐hour secretary service built into the system.” "
And speaking of all 'these greens'... in the ONE episode from the original "Perry Mason" series that was shot in color (in preparation for the 10th season - which was not to be), you can see the original colors from the courtroom - where the judge's bench, and surrounding woodwork has a glaze/stain of an odd green/gray, that "reads" differently when photographed in B&W.
Melissa, An A+ effort! The 5th of November will be akin to the 9th of November this year. Kind of scary.
Got a picture in my head of a guy sitting on a roll of undeveloped film, like a Faberge Egg, for 50 years. As JG said, we can all enjoy that moment, wondering what those 2 rascals are up to, being at least 60 now.
Speaking of rotary phones, those digits are probably worn off by the constant dialing to their partners in crime. It reminded me that we were on a party line for a couple of years when I was very young. Now that was strange. I do remember our phone number was Main 2-7524.
My mother remembers being on a party line until she was a teenager. It was a big, noisy family, and they always had trouble shushing all the kids so they could hear if it was their ring.
That Jungle Cruise skipper has Wilma Flintstone feet.
In 2003, I discovered a twin-lens reflex camera that had been my grandfather’s that still had an undeveloped roll of 620 B&W film in it with unused exposures. I shot the last few frames and then took it to the professional camera shop downtown. The camera had been kept in a cool, dark, and surprisingly dry closet, and all of the pictures came out. Based on the last exposure he had taken, there was a 42-year gap between the first exposure and the last.
Funny how we can remember our first phone numbers. Dr. Goat, we were LUdlow-2-xxxx, and I also remember other voices on the line, so it was a party line. At some point, Dad paid extra for a private line since his brother got an unlisted number because of work stress and he was worried that someone would hear their conversations or figure out the number. I think they were both a little nuts, looking back on it. Guess that’s how I got like I am.
Chuck, that’s an amazing story of those photos.
JG
I love Chuck’s film story, too!
I brought my dad’s last two rolls of film to get developed last year. No luck, no clear pictures developed.
COlumbus 1-4966. It’s been almost 55 years.
—Sue
533-2316.
My Grandma had the same phone number from the day direct dialing came to town until the day she died. Like, 50 years or so. Unthinkable today!
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