Hoo boy, I have some real losers for you today. You probably know the drill by now; if this was any other day of the week, these would never make the cut. But it's a Snoozer Sunday, many people are busy doing things other than looking at GDB, and it's the perfect time for me to use up some bad scans.
On first glance, this first scan is a dark and jumbled mess. Maybe on second glance too. But if you stand on your head (or even somebody else's head), you can just see that we are in the Indian Village, or more precisely, right next to the Indian Village (a tiny bit north). This was an area that was off-limits to guests, so I can only assume that the photo was taken from a Keelboat. There's the wrapped body up on those poles, we've seen that before. In the foreground, it's kind of hard to make out what's going on. Lots of wooden poles, and what might be ears of corn drying. Behind those (to the left) is the circle of bison skulls.
This next one is from the lot of 1962 slides, many featuring a man's beloved wife. And you can see her, just barely, in a world dipped in ultramarine blue ink. She's in the Flower Market, holding her souvenir straw hat, but not a lot else stands out. I can't help wondering if the camera settings were off, maybe this could have turned out to be a really nice early-evening photo!
Major-
ReplyDeleteThat second image was taken during the "Great Disneyland Blackout of 1962". It was in all the newspapers-!
Thanks, Major.
Is that our beloved Ginny??
ReplyDeleteOK, WHO'S standing on my head?! GET OFF!
#1) I don't know what to make of this. It reminds me of a giant Mouse Trap game. One expects to see a steel marble roll down one of those ramps and cause a wooden arm to swing around, triggering a teeter-totter, which flings the 'body' through the air, which lands in the Rivers of America and gets attacked by the Animatronic Exploding Ducks, which then explode, causing the 'body' to fly through the air again, landing back onto the platform from which it came, thus resetting the whole contraption... a perpetual motion machine!
ReplyDelete#2) Ginny after dark! Even dipped in ultramarine blue ink she still poses gracefully. Such a trooper. With the deep blue sky and lack of detail in the shadows, this looks like a day-for-night shot, as seen in countless westerns (and other movies and TV shows).
Nanook, or maybe there was a solar eclipse that day in '62.
Sue, I believe it is her. And I'm not standing on your head... it must be somebody else.
Thanks for the odd, but amusing photos, Major.
I think JB's got it with the day-for-night shot, as seen in countless westerns and Science Fiction movies from the way back when. Or the photographer did it to prove that the lights were lit even during the day.
ReplyDeleteSue, I think that's your Donald Duck hat sitting on your head. Tis our beloved Ginny, rehearsing a scene from Blue Velvet.
Thanks Major, languid photos on a sunny Sunday.
That first photo is pretty odd. I don’t recall a burial scene in the Old Indian Village. Looks like it had similar components to the one on TSI beyond the Fort that you see from the River craft. Or is this a photo of that scene? I’m confused (more so than usual).
ReplyDeleteThose pendants look like corn ears, and pretty sure those plants under the superstructure are corn stalks in early growth. The east coast adage of “knee-high by Fourth of July” doesn’t apply in California. With an early Spring planting date in March, you could have a crop like these by late May and ready for harvest in August. We would often double-crop a corn field by planting winter barley or oats/vetch in Fall, harvest it in Spring, and put in corn right behind.
I wonder if Disney put a fish in each mound with the corn seed for fertilizer as the Indians did? The corn-squash-beans agriculture of the Southwest Indian civilization is fascinating, how each of these vegetable crops sustain, benefit and play off the other to make a rich and varied source of food. Corn stalks make a scaffold for the bean vines, which in turn fix nitrogen in the soil as fertilizer for the corn and squash which sprawl along the ground in the shade of the stalks, with staggered ripening so not all the crops come due at the same time. Nature harnessed by Man.
Day-For-Night Ginny proves that it is impossible to take a bad photo at night on Main Street. It is one of the prettiest sights in the Park at night.
Thanks Major, every day is a good day on GDB.
JG
"This next one is from the lot of 1962 slides, many featuring a man's beloved wife. And you can see her, just barely, in a world dipped in ultramarine blue ink."
ReplyDeleteNow THAT'S poetry! Both of these photos are lovely, dark, and deep.
I wonder if there's a mannequin under those funeral wrappings, or just a block of something carved in an approximately human shape.
"The corn-squash-beans agriculture of the Southwest Indian civilization is fascinating"
The Three Sisters! When I worked with the school gardening program, a number of our participating primary school classes planted Three Sisters gardens because there was a really good children's book about them that was popular at the time.
The first photo almost looks like an accidental shot, but the body is so precisely framed that the photographer must’ve waited until it could be seen. This is another where I would like to know what they told people when shared the picture. Were they intrigued by customs unfamiliar to them? Were they an expert on funeral rituals of the world? In the second pic, I can still tell exactly where to go to make my phone call. Thanks for these other-worldly photos, Major.
ReplyDeleteNanook, hmmm, I think I remember reading about it now that you mention it!
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, it’s Ginny, not that we can see her ;-). Who IS standing on your head??
JB, ha ha, yes, I used to love those things with the big steel ball running along a ramp, they had one at the local science museum. Like a mega-Mousetrap. As for perpetual motion machines, some say they are impossible according to the laws of physics, but I invented one! Don’t forget to install 3 AA batteries. I don’t really understand how that one photo turned out so dark and intensely blue, but at least it was only one and not many. I’d love to be in the shadow of a total solar eclipse, from all reports it is a strange sensation.
DrGoat, even as a kid I was puzzled by day-for-night shots, since I didn’t understand how they were done. Some Hitchcock movies (North by Northwest) have some pretty janky DFN shots. Yes, maybe Sue is wearing a hat that is too tight, not sure about the Donald Duck part!!
JG, I’m not really sure where the scene in photo #1 is, though I assumed it was near the “burial” scene. As you said, I’m pretty certain that those are ears of corn drying, for use in Dorito making, though this was from before the nacho cheese flavoring was invented. Just imagine how bleak that would be. A double crop of corn, pretty fancy. Plant some beans to reintroduce nitrogen to the soil! That story about putting a fish with each corn seed is something I remember from my earliest school days, maybe even kindergarten. “A fish??”. I think I was picturing a goldfish and felt sorry for it. Hey, I mentioned nitrogen, and now YOU are mentioning nitrogen. Everyone’s favorite gas. Can you tell that I respond to these comments as I am reading them??
Melissa, it can’t be poetry because I did not mention daffodils (my fault). Hmmm, interesting question about the mannequin, maybe they went to Sears and stole one when nobody was looking. If I had three daughters, I would name them “Corn”, “Beans”, and “Squash”. Sure, they’d hate me, but I had my laugh.
Kathy! the low angle makes me wonder if it was taken from a canoe. Probably not. Maybe a Keelboat? And yes, I often wonder what the guests heard back in those early days. We’ve been told that the Jungle Cruise was dry and “un-funny” back then, I wonder when they started joking it up? And did some area supervisors think it was disrespectful? I love that glowing “Bell” sign, I think Nanook has one just like it?
Kathy!, or was it Huck? Darn my brain.
ReplyDeleteFlavorful foods seem to go in threes…
ReplyDeleteMirepoix, Trinity, sofrito/sofritto, etc.
Peppers came late to the Americas, however, and celery was a luxury food for many years.
https://www.brit.co/living/food-adulting/how-to-make-sofrito-recipe/
JG
That day for night photo would never even been considered for Snoozer Sunday but it features Ginny…a true GDB Superstar! When are they gonna have Ginny bubblegum cards? On the back of this card it would read: “Here’s Ginny at night relaxing among the beautiful flowers of Disneyland’s Flower Market. And by the way, these flowers don’t need water and they will never wilt!” “NO. 14 of 100 GINNY AT DISNEYLAND CARDS. COLLECT ‘EM ALL!”
ReplyDelete