Nice Frontierland, 1950s
Here are some pretty nice, classic Frontierland views for you! Oh, to have seen that wonderful land as it was back then.
First up is this view of the Old Mill, with the landing for the rafts to (and from) Tom Sawyer Island. I'm a bit confused as to where our photographer was standing, since he seems to be on the water, but not on a raft, not on a canoe... maybe on a Keelboat? There's the little side cascade, which we all agree was there in case guests suddenly wanted a shower.
I like this fun view of Castle Rock, resembling an African termite mound. Quick Henry, get the Flit! Just to the left of Castle Rock is Teeter-totter Rock, and then Merry-Go-Round Rock. Note to self: give all rocks names. Just look at all the people crowding on to that raft! There must be a swarm of bees or somethin'. Fort Wilderness is chockablock with guests too.
This next one is from a different lot, and it shows, with its odd blue-green color cast. Still, its a nice view of the Rivers of America, with two rafts in the foreground, the Mark Twain (as always), and the bandstand to the right. Looking at the distant shore (also to the right), there are a LOT of people!
16 comments:
Major-
"Just look at all the people crowding on to that raft!" Around these parts, we usually refer to that structure as a 'dock'. But you can't go by me - I have trouble keeping track of my toes-!
Thanks, Major.
The Castle Rock Fort Wilderness pic is a beauty. So much to see. If only I could step into these photos. Thanks, Major.
1) Busy picture! Lotsa people going and coming to and from different places. Except for that group of guests sitting on the rock wall in the center of the pic. They've been sitting there for hours... they lost their return tickets for the raft and are stuck on the Island. Some say they are there, still.
Seems like the camera angle is too low for the photographer to be on the upper part of a Keelboat, and too high to be taken from inside a Keelboat.
2) As Nanook noted: That 'raft' is actually the raft dock, isn't it? But still a lot of people! One of the rafts musta had a flat tire and didn't show up on schedule.
Obviously, this shot was taken from a hovering drone. Pesky drones.
3) There are several blue will-o'-the-wisps darting around this photo. Something odd must have been happening with inter-dimensional space that day. Maybe it's swamp gas. I know I always emit blue flames when I get gassy. (The little kids reading this blog will love that last part!)
Thanks for another trip to the ol' Frontier, Major.
Sorry : this is a follow up to yesterdays conversation:
The last Disneyland souvenir wall map was from the park’s 50th…. But they continued to sell them till about 2008 with the 50th logo removed from the corner - but no additional layout changes. Nina Rae Vaughn did the last map and she did a good job to emulate Sam McMimm’s map style. I think Collin Campbell and another artists did them through the 60’s ,70’s and 80’s ….. the designer who painted the EDL castle concept ( I cannot think if his name right now) .
Also from 2005 until about 2015 you could purchase the 1958 and 2005 Disneyland wall maps on the Disney Gallery’s Art on Demand. For sone reason ALL WDI art and related was pulled from the Art of Demand systems in the American parks : including their BIGGEST sellers : Disney park attraction posters . However Disneyland Paris offers a large selection of WDI concept art from the Paris park , all their attraction posters and also a prop sign and art section ( like the prop posters for the different Railroad locomotives of the EDL RR , the Victorian style EDL map in city hall and artwork thst appears in attractions like Phantom Manor , Mr. Toad restaurant , the Discoveryland Arcade Victorian future city posters , the adverting panels from the omnibus and lots more. But you have to go to Paris to purchase the print reproductions .
For WDW’s 50th a reproduction of the 1971 Souvenir wall map was available as well as a reproduction of the 1982 EPCOT CENTER wall map.
The Disneyland complimentary entry gate guides still contain a fold out map of the park.
FRANK ARMITAGE : the other Disneyland wall map artist. Eventually special devices artists traced the maps in the late 70’s into the
80’s based on previous maps.
Nice pics Major. Jump right into the first pic. Looks like the guy in red is going to suspend himself from the suspension bridge. I was pretty young at the tine of these shots, but my memories of Tom Sawyer Island seem to be the ones that stuck the best. The castle rock looks spectacular. That lone guy in brown in the middle looks like he might have a skunk skin cap on. And it does look like a capacity crowd on that raft Nanook.
I think you said it all for the third pic. Nice.
Thanks Major
Nanook, oh I forgot, you Americans call it a “dock”. In my home country of Latvia, we call if a “raft”. Languages, right??
K. Martinez, I’m with you, I’d sure love to be able to walk around that Frontierland (and TSI)!!
JB, the people sitting on the rock wall are waiting for the Disneyland Railroad. Yes, they are a little mixed up. And as I said to Nanook… Latvian. I keep forgetting that you guys don’t speak Latvian. As for the blue-green will-o’-the-wisps, I always wonder how that happens to slides. Moisture? Cosmic rays? Cartoon violence?
Mike Cozart, yes, I know that Collin Campbell did the 1965 through sometime in the 1970s maps. While his style is quite different from Sam McKim’s, I believe that he traced Sam’s maps, making his own changes of course. Is Tim Delaney the person you were trying to think of? I met him when I was hoping to get a job in Imagineering (which of course I did not get). I’m kind of surprised that the “Art on Demand” system is still a thing, even in Paris. Seems like it has been removed from the U.S. parks for quite a while. Now I want to dig out my Euro Disneyland map! But where is it?? I’ve never owned a Walt Disney World map of any kind, I liked them but they were too cartoony for me as a collector.
Mike Cozart, OH! Ha ha. Not Tim Delaney. Wasn’t Frank Armitage a background painter for Disney feature animation? Maybe I'm confusing him with somebody else.
DrGoat, I don’t have a lot of older memories of TSI, mostly because it is yet another feature at the park that my family did not do for some reason. It really baffles me as to why we apparently did the same things every time we visited, without trying some “new stuff”. I don’t think I actually set foot on TSI until the 1980s, when I was a young adult. It was still fun!
I wonder if these photos can be dated to 1956 when TSI opened?
I think the photo 1 folks are on both a raft and the dock, originally this location was called Tom’s Landing and was the original landing point. The shore dock was nearer to the Plantation House. You can see the edge of the dock and that the raft is separate.
I think the photo vantage is from was then called the Fishing Pier, which was just a few steps further down the path.
When the area around the Plantation House was changed, (NOS construction?), the shore dock was moved up to near where it is today, and the island dock used was the one called Huck’s Landing, still used today. The Fishing Pier and the restroom shanty were eventually removed.
Time on TSI was some of my favorite Disneyland minutes as a kid. There was plenty to do, never a line (except to the raft) and it was all free-form, you do it in any order etc. So. Much. Fun. And to some extent, it’s still like that, especially compared to the app-centered schedule mania of todays Park, except everything is also rolled in bubble-wrap. I always came back to shore with a skinned knee, dirty hands and a bump on the noggin from the Fort Escape Tunnel. Fate forfend that anything like that should happen now.
Thanks Major!
JG
Is "special devices" a mechanical tracing device? It kind of makes sense since not everything would be changing in each iteration of printing. Bigger question: where is the original map art? Rotting away in someones attic 'ala Dorian Gray? On the subject of Wilde, I've been told I am at times a Bunburyist, but in the end...I'm probably now old (and salty) enough to play Lady Bracknell. Often times portrayed by men due to her character. OK...now on to American Lit, and Tom Sawyer Island: no fencing on the riverwalk: fantastic and authentic. If little Johnny goes for a dip: his own fault. Love all the little directional signs: what is the font?: someone knows. I want to make signs for my backyard like that. I also would like a full scale Tom Sawyer Island back there, but I'm afraid it would draw the "wrong sort". Frontierland does now have it's moments of looking like this, although slim. The charming shops are no longer charming. The one near the entrance next to the shooting gallery is a pin shop. Pins everywhere. I would really like to see the spreadsheets of productivity per square foot. Perhaps the bottom line, but the top line: not so sure. That's a whole lotta pins to sell. Maybe I missed the plush? The interior is still cool if you look up. Pendleton now merges into the Adventureland Bazaar. "Not Acceptable". Whatever Pendleton is called now, has an old arcade music maker still in there. Maybe it's too heavy to move? It didn't really look "Frontiery" it looked more post Victorian. Are things of the mid 20th, and early 21st centuries now going to be called "Elizabethan de Deux"? Looking back at Victorian architecture...that was a wide spance of time...so mid-century modern and 80's horrible will now be "Elizabethan Architecture"? Just asking. Disneyland will also be Elizabethan I suppose as it opened and continued through her entire reign. She never made the visit, but a few off-spring did. I chuckle at tiny princesses dressing in Belle and other princess costumes wanting to be "real princesses"...I'm thinking that being an actual princess is probably less fun. OK...my time as a Bunburyist has ended, and now back to work...thanks for the photos this am Major.
#1 - There's Dobie Gillis and Zelda down in the bottom right. She's explaining how they'll bring their future children to the Tencennial, right before heading to her favorite attraction, the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry.
It was very clever to disguise the trash can as a shipping crate; when it's full they can just mail it to the dump.
#2 - "Note to self: give all rocks names."
I just call them all George and let them sort it out for themselves. That staircase up Castle Rock is so inviting; I wonder how many daredevil kids tried to climb up the "railing" instead. Dock, raft... what is a dock, after all, but a raft with no get-up-and-go?
#3 - Makes me want to bust out in a chorus of "Old Man River," but I'll have to swallow another bullfrog before I can get that low B-flat.
Bu, A HANDBAG?!?
A couple of years ago, I attended a local performance of The Importance of Being Earnest where Lady B. was played by a man. Now, there's a lot of borrowing and recycling of costumes in our local theater scene, and you never know where and on whom you're going to see a piece next. I'm 5'10" and broad-shouldered, so I sometimes have trouble fitting into whatever the ladies' costumer has on hand. At intermission, the friend I was with said it looked like I'd been really scrutinizing Ross's performance as Lady Bracknell, and was I one of those people who didn't approve of cross-casting the role? "No!" I replied. "I'm just concentrating on his dress, because I'm pretty sure I'll end up wearing it someday!"
@ Melissa-
I'm still laughing picturing all of this-!
Major: Print /Art on Demand is still a big thing and it is available at the Disneyanna/Disney Gallery, Wonderground and in each Florida park as well as multiple locations at each major WDW resort hotel. In fact many of the higher end hotels even feature a exclusive category on their computer terminal menus that feature art reproductions of art work displayed in that particular hotel’s lobby and in some cases rooms. Down town Disney and Disney Springs also offer the art print service.
Disneyland Paris also has print kiosk locations in its parks ,hotels and festival Disney area.
Tokyo and the China parks do not offer Art in Demand as in general the Asian’s traditionally have very little wall space in their tiny homes and apartments. Tokyo Disneyland does at times sells art prints and posters but not often.
A big change that took place from Disney’s Art in Demand is that when it debuted and for several years it was printed at the park by park employees ( most who had little training with the expensive printers) while guests waited or came back later. Today guests must select their artwork and hade it shipped to them after it is printed in any of three locations in the United States ( Colorado - Texas and I believe North Carolina) Disneyland Paris guests receive prints from two locations in England.
There are hundreds of Disney art images and about 20 art categories:including vintage animation shorts posters , animated feature posters , special event created artwork , vintage Western Publishing/ little golden books artwork illustrations ( even from MARS AND BEYOND!!) and there is hundreds of artist commissioned subjects.
Don’t get me me wrong: there is still hundreds of Disneyland / Walt Disney World / Epcot Center and attraction based art to choose from but all WED,WDI concept art and Disney Park attraction posters selections are gone from the American kiosks (technically there is still a Epcot Herbert Ryman piece and a Main Street Cinema Steamboat Willie poster available)
Only Disneyland Paris still offers WED,WDI concept art and park attraction posters on Art on Demand.
The quality of Art on Demand is superior to any kind of reproduction ever offered Thru the Disney Gallery ( with maybe Serigraph reproductions ) in the past the poster lithography, photo reproductions ( faded quickly) and the Gallery’s limited edition photo mechanical lithographs were often murky and almost always color - incorrect ( sadly even as expensive as they were)
Major...unless the photographer was standing up in a canoe (NOT SOP), my vote is that he/she is in another raft waiting to land at TSI...once the one in the foreground has left the dock.
My preference is more towards a mature TSI with all the foliage to give it balance. But these are real gems of the way it was way back when. KS
JB, I'm surprised you didn't comment about the last picture...
There are three AED's swimming away from three kegs (barrels?) of Dynamite on that raft (dock?)...
Fun pictures, thanks, Major!
Mike, I know exactly what you mean regarding the poster repros from the Disney Gallery. We bought identically-sized (but smaller than in-Park display) Disneyland Paris RR and Disneyland BTMRR posters around 1995. As you say, the color is a little murky and one of the two is actually blurry when you get right up to it. The quality difference between those two posters and my art-on-demand 1958 Sam McKim repro is significant.
Post a Comment