The Magic Kingdom, Christmas 1972
Today seemed like a good day to use some scans from the Magic Kingdom, from slides date-stamped "January 1973" - so I feel pretty confident assuming that they were taken in December of 1972... the park's second Christmas season. Who among ye dare to disagree?!
First up is City Hall, looking unbelievably huge and grand. This town is obviously very prosperous, they must have sold early versions of fidget spinners (only they were made of gutta percha, iron, and horse hair). I want to climb up to the cupola and pretend I'm an old-timey King Kong. Just like regular Kong, only wearing a straw boater.
Those crazy teenagers, they put a big tree in Town Square! Why don't they get haircuts?! Well, at least it is pretty, and I'm grateful that they didn't use a giant redwood tree. I've heard it can get chilly in Florida at that time of year, but the young woman in pink is dressed for warm weather. while the gentleman to the right of the tree is wearing a plaid flannel coat. The only way to solve this dilemma is to have them rassle.
Garlands and wreaths (purchased at "Wreaths 'n Stuff") add a festive look to Main Street. And like most midwestern streets, there is a giant castle at the end, where they stored grain. Most people stayed on the sidewalks, but those two hoodlums walking toward us are probably carrying switchblades. Don't make eye contact!
Guests were encourage to try to spit their gum through the wreaths, and if they did it, they won a year's supply of Lemon Pledge (for some reason, hey I didn't make the rules). We can see a "Borden's" logo on the ice cream parlor sign to our right, while good old Coca Cola's logo is to our left (the Florida version of the "Coke Corner"?). They should sell edibles and CBD oil on Main Street now, to keep up with the times. Great idea, right?
And, as the sun slowly sets into the north (or whoever it sets), let's take one last look at the tree!
Ho ho ho!
19 comments:
Major-
Such tasteful Xmas decorations - it's hard to believe this is a Disney park-!
"Most people stayed on the sidewalks, but those two hoodlums walking toward us are probably carrying switchblades. Don't make eye contact!" Personally, I'd be more-concerned with the bespectacled lad wearing the yellow/brown striped tee-shirt, who seems to have freakishly-large hands - perhaps due to 'lens distortion', but still-! (Also the gent a bit farther up Main Street with those very 1970's pants-!)
Ho, ho, ho to you too, Major.
#1: Aye, she's a bonnie building, at that!... Oops, sorry, I had my keyboard set to Scottish Brogue there for a second. Interesting trashcan in the foreground; sort of an inverse of the regular green and yellow variety that we see in the background.
#2: Odd place to put a Christmas tree; smack dab behind the flag pole. Makes it kinda hard to take a good picture of the tree. I guess you could walk over to one side so that the flag pole is no longer blocking the tree, but then you wouldn't have that nice symmetry with the tree in the center of everything.
#3: Waldo, in the stripy T-shirt, is gawking at the size of that red bell ornament, "Holy jeans! That bell's big enough to... well, something!... It's big!"
#4: If the kid in the green shirt isn't careful, he's gonna get his foot stuck in the street car track like someone else we know wearing a Christmas tree costume did. The too-pale Castle looks like a painted backdrop on a movie set.
#5: SEE?! If you move off to the side, you can get a picture of the tree without the flag pole. But now it's blocked by other trees! As are all the Main Street buildings... Also, the tree-top star is a little crooked... And I bet that goose on top of the flag pole is gonna poop on somebody below... Oops, sorry, I had my keyboard set to Curmudgeon there for a second.
Nanook, large hands = large...... feet.
Thanks for the stroll down the Magic Kingdom's Main Street, Major.
@ JB-
"large hands = large...... feet." (I'll take your word for it...)
And large feet = large..... shoes.
Disneyland’s Main Street is Victorian charming …. But Walt Disney World’s Main Street is Victorian GRAND!! . WDW’s City Hall is based on Philadelphia’s City Hall built between 1877 and 1901. It was once the largest “occupied” structure in the world ( meaning not the Eiffel Tower or a cathedral tower etc).
Major : Florida can get mighty cold!!! One January in 1992 I was at WDW with some friends and Disney resort gardeners urgently added these blanket like things around the bases of all the palm trees and smudge pots between them to help keep them warm. The air was so cold I had leather jacket that became hard and it felt like I was wearing a horse saddle. While I love the early EPCOT CENTER , the Florida magic kingdom was perfect during its first decade …. When I was given all the attention and EPCOT was just a model at the exit of The Walt Disney Story.
Interesting.....the third pic looks like it could have been taken by the crouching lady, in the second pic. It looks to be taken from almost the same angle, anyway.
JB, ha, ha! It was actually part of the tree itself, which got stuck in the tracks. My feet aren't/weren't small enough to get stuck in the tracks!
JB and Nanook, you both forgot to mention that the guy's large ears tell us that he also had a big floppy pancreas.
First-decade Magic Kingdom! Hooray!
I’m imagining the Major as Citizen Kong, hanging off the cupola and swatting at attacking giant crows with his hat at dusk (yes, I realize crows at dusk are a Disneyland phenomenon rather than at the MK, but it’s just too fun a mental image to resist and actual F8C Helldivers would be out of scale). Then he can retreat to his home at Xanadu and pose by the enormous fireplace while Dorothy Comingore puts together puzzles and whines. There’s a slim possibility I may be mixing up my film classics here, but really - if you’ve seen one black & white film, you’ve seen them all.
Re: some guests in coats and others in shorts, I think I’ve mentioned before a trip to WDW a day or two after New Year’s when I was living in northern Ohio. Locals were all bundled up, while we were in shorts.
There are no less than seven trash cans and five American flags in the third photo. Keep America beautiful, people! Iron Eyes Cody only has so much lacrimal fluid.
I think those two hoodlums are having their own parade. I think it’s adorable. Still keeping my hand on my wallet, though.
Yes, that Coca-Cola sign marks Casey’s Corner, which is the MK’s equivalent of DL’s Coke Corner. No Rod Miller, though, although there is a piano player.
Note there are trash cans with two different decorative designs in the last photo. There’s also a water fountain. No bags of sugar, however - more proof that this ain’t California, bub.
Thanks, Major, for ho, ho, holding on to these for the Christmas season!
Big Hands Kid is clearly up to no good. Fortunately the FBI agent on the left, wearing his government issue sunglasses, has the kid under close surveillance.
Love the striped pants the girl behind the Kid is wearing.
Big hands, big feet... big gloves, big shoes. :)
@ Chuck-
"There’s a slim possibility I may be mixing up my film classics here, but really - if you’ve seen one black & white film, you’ve seen them all". Them's fightin' words, BUB-! The Absent-Minded Professor; Citizen Kane - Dorothy Comingore; Nancy Olson... it may all be the same to you, but...
Main Street photos are the best place to count trash cans.
The cupola of Town Hall resembles that of Philadelphia, minus William Penn.
I love these Christmas views, Major. Thank you.
JG
How can you not get in the Christmas spirit, after seeing these?! Very nice!
Thanks, Major.
Sue
Nanook, I hope you know I’m only teasing. As a guy with a Film Studies degree, it warms my heart to see such an impassioned defense of our shared motion picture heritage.
It was frustrating to see some of my ROTC students roll their eyes when we would show 12 O’Clock High as a situational leadership case study simply because “it’s old” and “color is so much better.” Back-to-back viewings of the 1964 films Dr. Strangelove and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians should dispel that last theory pretty quickly, even if they do both include B-52 refueling sequences.
And recalling another conversation I had with one of my students, no, Citizen Kane is NOT about a “stupid sled.”
Thank you for your continued defense of the faith!
Nanook, those decorations look like the kind you might find on the main street of a real town. Which I think was the point. It gave a nice “neighborhood” feeling to the place! I think the large hands on that youth might be due to the weird body proportions that happen when growing up.
JB, hey, how do I set my keyboard to Scottish Brogue?? I assume they wanted to put the tree on that little “island” in the middle of Town Square, and there wasn’t much room with the flagpole there. Somebody didn’t plan things out, Christmas tree-wise! I like how we can sort of see the reflection of the photographer (his legs, anyway) in that silver ornament. I wonder if anybody NOT wearing a Christmas Tree costume ever really got caught in those streetcar tracks? Maybe a woman with narrow shoes?
Nanook and JB, you both behave yourselves.
Mike Cozart, I’m mixed on how I feel about Florida’s Main Street. It is definitely spectacular, but it’s SO over the top and huge. I’m not sure what the designers were going for - they weren’t trying to evoke a “typical main street”. Maybe they had to go overboard, with the much bigger size of the Magic Kingdom. And I’ve seen photos of Florida orange trees, with the fruit covered in ice! Now that’s cold. Are you sure you didn’t accidentally put on a horse saddle instead of your jacket? It could happen!
TokyoMagic!, hey, I see what you mean! Maybe the person who took our photos was inspired. “She’s got the right idea”. I’ll bet you hardly ever dress up like a tree anymore, due to that scary incident. A floppy… um, OK.
Chuck, I think Disney should buy the rights to King Kong just so they can create the scene you described. Don’t they have flocks of crows in Florida too? As the sun sets around here, we have literally thousands of crows, all flying north. I’ve always wondered where they are going, and who has to listen to their racket! Xanadu, does King Kong roller skate? Yes, temperatures are in the eye (??) of the beholder. I remember going to LAX, and some people from Asia were bundled up as if it was the dead of winter, while we were complaining about the heat. “Lacrimal fluid”, yuck! They should have cloned Rod Miller so that Rod could perform in Anaheim and Tod could perform in Orlando. You know they had the technology!
Grant, I for one am glad that there are Federal agents keeping an eye on each citizen! You can’t be too careful. Yes, those striped pants remind me of some that I owned at about this same time.
Nanook, I saw a black and white movie once, I got so uncomfortable that I had to turn the channel to the Kardashians. Ah, sweet relief! From my understanding, there are more than a dozen black and white movies out there. Maybe even TWO dozen.
JG, when I am elected President, I will decree that statues of William Penn be placed atop all building! Happily, I happen to own a factory that makes William Penn statues.
Sue, that was my hope! ;-)
Chuck, if you have a Film Studies degree, you must have seen ALL of the films of the Three Stooges. I’m so jealous! “Today we will be concentrating on the Shemp era” (raucous applause from the audience). Are you implying that you prefer “Dr. Strangelove” to “Santa Claus Versus the Martians”?? There’s no accounting for taste. Meanwhile, I was very pleased when, just this last Thanksgiving, my niece (23 years old) said that she saw “Citizen Kane” and that it was “So good!”. Made my cold heart warm for at least 30 seconds.
@ Chuck-
I knew you were just joshing-! I feel fully confident, had you been in the audience with me at the Cinerama Dome Theatre in Hollywood for the initial run of Airport 1975 (in October, 1974 - naturally...) you would've been hooting and hollering through the "serious moments" just as loudly as most folks in the audience - and especially when Gloria Swanson and Nancy Olson were 'reunited' in that turkey-! (If only William Holden would've walked down the aisle in a non-speaking cameo...)
(And it was even in color-!!)
I can explain the warm-weather vs cold weather clothing in the first picture. It's a little-known fact, but the Imagineers kept the MK's Main street warm on the west side and cool on the east side, officially to appeal to guests from both northern and southern climates, but really to sell more coffee on the way in and ice cream on the way out.
I swear it's true, a WDW bus driver told me this, and they always have the inside dope.
Also, rather than CBD, Caseys Corner should sell Coca-Cola with historically accurate cocaine.
There’s a early episode of COLUMBO where Lieutenant Columbo is investigating a murder - committed by a collector of giant vintage Hollywood prop and memorabilia collector …. It’s funny because the estate gate and the sled prop from citizen Kane is featured …. And tons of other famous props
…. I always wondered if the Columbo production studio had those pieces in storage or around and it was easy to assemble this impressive collection for the TV show plot ……. Now that I think about it there is a 80’s HART TO HART episode that has a Hollywood charity auction for the Citizen Kane Sled ….. and it’s stolen and replaced with a fake!!
Major: I learned my Lesson a long time ago while eating at a SIR GEORGES Smorgasbord and I am very careful NOT to wear a horse saddle instead of my coat.
Major : WDW’s Main Street is made for and by the Americans during a time of BIGGER shirt collars , shoes … buildings …. Monorails jet planes, shopping centers Automobiles … etc. etc… Florida’s Main Street isn’t suppose to be a small “midwestern” town … it’s a maturing , busting- growing wealthy Eastern Seaboard “city” proud of its growth , it’s citizens and its accomplishments ( just like 1969-1971 AMERICA and the people who created Walt Disney World )
I think to have created a small quaint Anaheim Main Street for the scope of WDW and the amount of crowds it was going to take in would have been a design disaster …( more humans visit Walt Disney World than any other place on Earth … for 50 years!!). And imagineers knew that early on. They were well aware of how Disneyland’s small Main Street becomes choked at various times of the day and Floridas Main Street was prepared to prevent that …. But now today the massive .
I’m glad both American Main Street USA’s are different .
Dean Finder, so Main Street was like the McDLT?
Way too much fashion going on to even comment about, except that I thought the crouching photographer lady was a costumed character at first. Then I realized she was just wearing a 1970s shirt and a translucent blue babushka. Transblushka? I only counted two babushkas in the whole set, which is unushkual for Florida in the early Seventies.
Back then Kong was just Crown Prince Kong, gadding about the globe engaging in youthful hijinks like a simian Prince of Wales.
That's Casey's Corner now, but in the early eighties I remember it being the Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner. It sticks in my mind because that's where we had to meet up with our parents back in the pre-cellphone days.
Melissa: Yes, the original plan was to enclose Main Street in a styrofoam clamshell to keep the hot side hot and the cold side cold, but it would have been an environmental disaster to throw out all that styrofoam every night.
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