Views From the Entrance
Usually my first look at any slide involves either holding it up to a nearby light source, or putting it on a light box to evaluate the quality (or lack thereof). I was pretty happy with these, until I actually scanned them, and found that they suffered from the common malady of BLURSITIS. It's not an advanced case, but it's still noticeable.
I almost always like photographs showing the ticket booths and train station. And I do like this one, in spite of the blursitis. Two nice ladies (mother and daughter, presumably) pose in the late-afternoon sunshine. Were they really just arriving as the sun was going down? Granted, it was December, when it gets dark at something like 4:30 PM. Maybe they'd spent the morning at Knott's Berry Farm, and then headed over to do Disneyland. It happened. If you thought you were going to bring your picnic lunch into the park... think again! The trashcan just behind that one woman has something painted on the sign, but it wasn't decipherable, even when I zoomed in. Notice the poster for the Mickey Mouse Club 3D Jamboree to the left.
This next one is from a different lot, but suffers from the same soft-focus issue. I like the relatively humble Christmas decorations on the Train Station. I never get tired of the old yellow DLRR passenger cars. And of course there are the POSTERS!
29 comments:
There is that black and white curb again.....beckoning. Always beckoning.
The "no picnic lunches" policy didn't apply to whole fried chickens....and sides.
Wouldn't the Main St. train station look better at Christmastime, if it was dripping in hundreds of thousands of illuminated icicles?
Major-
"Blursitis"-! That's a good one. I don't know why it hasn't yet been adopted by a drug company so they can market a pill to cure it - whatever 'IT' is.
As for that 'sign'... it's actually a separate sign, turned at about an 85° angle from the trash can. It states: Loading Zone for Disneyland Hotel Tram. (Don't ask me how I know - just thank me for saving GDB a few dollars by not 'referring to' you know what...)
@ TM!-
The B/W diagonal striping on the curb seems to be a 1957-1959 thing.
Thanks, Major.
1st scan: Please forgive my poster-ignorance, but I’m not familiar with the 4th from the left...I see two Mouseketeers...??
2nd scan: More far-right extremists.
Thanks, Major.
^
That was me, Sue
Nanook, I wonder how many people tripped and fell on their face, between 1957 and 1959? Maybe people weren't as distracted back then, although we have seen plenty of vintage photos of vintage people, looking at their vintage cell phones.
Sue, the Major provided a link to a close-up of that "Mouseketeer" attraction poster!
In the first blursitis afflicted pic, the last word on the sign on the trashcan looks like "tram". I don't know if that helps though.
The Opera House is peeking over the Train Station.
It's hard to pin down the year this photo was taken. My guess is 1962... just a hunch.
In the second afflicted photo, it looks like there is not a speck of wind, with the flags hanging straight down. Anyone wanna guess what those two attraction posters are on the extreme left and right?
Tokyo!, "...didn't apply to whole fried chickens....". Yes, I'm sure that's what the fine print says at the bottom. I'm also sure there's something there about great grandmothers as well.
Nanook, Ah. Thanks for the decoding of the sign! It never occurred to me that it was a different sign, at a different angle.
1957-1959? I guess my "1962" date gets shot down. So much for hunches.
Sue, at least they're not wearing red today.
Only a slight case of blursitis, Major. Give the slides a couple of aspirin, they'll be good as new in no time.
Thanks, TokyoMagic! Silly me. I even read Major’s commentary—yet didn’t put 2 and 2 together. It’s waaay past my bedtime. Good night!
Sue
JB, yes...I'm sure there was a mention of great-grandmothers. They are always exempt from everything. I bet great-grandmothers were even allowed to enter with switchblades.
Goodnight, Sue! :-)
@ JB-
The attraction poster on the far left is the Astrojets; and the one on the far right is Tom Sawyer Island.
I recognized the tram loading sign right away - there are two variants used at the same time of this sign. However , why is it sooo low. The sign is used on higher bracket posts …. Was it kept low to keep the Vista of the park entrance clear?
Above the “no Picnic lunches” sign is a SPACE STATION X-1 poster. Also 2 TOMORROWLAND ART CORNER “streets of Paris” attraction posters …. Interestingly where you could purchase ACTUAL attraction posters ….the more you purchased the price dropped on each …. In fact a complete 18 poster set was offered Thru the Disneyland Mail order and Art Corner catalogs.
Major: would you be interested in the rare poster variation “ TOMORROWLAND ART CORNER “streets of Yonkers” attraction poster? Or “SPACE STATION ROOM 222” ????
I would be interested in a Room 222 Poster. I loved that show. Karen Valentine in her greatest role, leading into her second greatest: "North Avenue Irregulars." When I worked in one of the many malls of my lifetime, the student PBX operator on Room 222 was my gift wrapper for a season. She also told me she played "a feminist on a 70's TV show..." ummm...did you just tell me that you were the first one that David Cassidy sang "I think I love you" to?!!!? on the Partridge Family!!!! I kind of melted down. She had great stories to tell about her days in the business before moving on from it. RIP Jane Actman. You meet interesting people in the San Fernando Valley. Moving on to: Attraction Posters. I love them, I just don't know where I would put any of them. I'd probably end up donating/selling/giving them away. I like them better on the fence in front of the train station than in my living room...and... for the love of all things good and holy...they look SOOOOO great there...ESPECIALLY when they are in aggregate! I loved how in "Saving Mr. Banks" they recreated that look, and there were a few more visual things in that movie that were so subtle, only the most attentive Jr. Gorilla would understand. I enjoy that obscure things like "Art Corner" (basically a merchandise location) and 20000 Leagues would also get their own poster...being that they seemed more temporary. Did Babes in Toyland also have it's own poster? Or Fort Wilderness? Or Fan II? I suppose at that point in history, possibly everything was considered temporary because "Disneyland will never be completed....(et.al.) Please...let us NOT confuse that statement with TRE, as one has little to do with the other. I am confounded by "trip and fall" there at the gate. Even in those times. At first I thought those were lines painted on the asphalt. It seems to be a full scale curb. KEINE PICKNICK-MITTAGESSEN!!! It sounds more serious in German. Wow..that is a big "NO" about picnics...guess people were bringing in full scale hampers and such like they were in their box at the Hollywood Bowl. I was always fascinated by the foreign language guidebooks...does anyone collect these? We would get great joy reading them aloud as some words in Disneyese were not that translatable. Stroller in english was "Kindersportenvagen". I still refer to strollers as such. Japanese tourists seemed to always want the English version of the guidebook. You learned basic words in multiple languages just by hearing them hundreds of times a day as well as you can imagine. 50 cents in Japanese is "Oh-Jo-Cent-Oh". I always thought there should be free language classes at the Disney University. Perhaps there was and I didn't pay attention... (?) Thanks for the big trip down memory lane this AM Major!
Amazingly, the current nickel-and-diming Disney Parks regime is not so restrictive about food in the parks. In fact, a family brought an entire Thanksgiving dinner into WDW's Magic Kingdom.
I can hear the train bell and the Announcer Voice.
Great stuff today, Major. Loving the plain green trash can too.
Bu, on my first to Europe I scored a menu placemat from the ferry to Belgium, a Rosetta Stone of English, French and German, which was very helpful throughout the trip, except for things that were the same in English as French,i.e. “vol-a-vent”, which turned out to be quite good.
JG
@ Bu-
"...I loved how in "Saving Mr. Banks" they recreated that look, and there were a few more visual things in that movie that were so subtle, only the most attentive Jr. Gorilla would understand". Are you referring to the "subtle and incorrect addition" of the 'two-sided' attraction poster frame on the fence-? A moronic decision Hollywood is so skilled at employing. (There was plenty of screen time seeing them head-on).
And speaking of Room 222... Lloyd Haynes lived across the street from me for many years. (You can pinch me later-!)
Nice, wide shot of the entrance. Even if it isn’t terribly sharp, it really shows just how the area was laid out at the time.
Looking through the windows of the ticket booth at the upper left corner of the “Please, TM! - control your great-grandmother’s picnicking urges” sign, there’s an attraction poster that looks like it features the Matterhorn, but I can’t quite match it up with any Matterhorn poster I’m familiar with. That also doesn’t make sense as the actual name for the slide dates it to 1956, three years before that attraction would be built. What am I seeing?
Mike, my favorite variation is “SPACE STATION MY FAVORITE HUSBAND.” I think we’re safe referencing that here - it’s the TV adaptation that tends to make some people here ILL.
@ Bu-
"...didn't apply to whole fried chickens....". Yes, I'm sure that's what the fine print says at the bottom." Unfortunately, nothing as much fun as that. In reality it says: Ask attendant directions to SPECIAL PICNIC AREA
@ Chuck-
Oh, Chuck, I see what you did there... "There's no room in this plant for levity, however weak!"
Oh, those two ladies aren’t going into Disneyland. They just had pictures of themselves taken outside every attraction in California to show the folks back home. Of course, nobody believed them after they told that story about what a great picnic lunch they took in with them.
TM! Vintage people and their vintage cell phones reminds me of a field trip back in high school. They used to haul us into the big city once a year to sketch at the art museum. One year I was working on a sketch of a medieval statue of a monk reading a small book, and in what I only recognize decades later as an attempt at flirtation, a boy from another school came up to me and said, “That guy looks like he’s about to eat a Hershey bar.” No doubt there’s some teenager there right now joking about the monk looking at his smartphone.
Bu, I just watched that episode of The Partridge Family last week. It IS a small world after all!
TokyoMagic!, the black and white curb was proven to make people spend money. I don’t understand it, but it’s very scientific. You could bring in a fried chicken as long as you wore it on your head. Speaking of hundreds of thousands of illuminated icicles… I recently saw the nighttime Christmas light show, and it was pretty lame. I literally walked away after two minutes.
Nanook, I love those drug commercials, an attractive couple is preparing dinner, while the kids play with the dog. “Ask your doctor if you need to take Blurisol”. WHAT DOES IT TREAT? I’ll never know. Thank you for not making me pay you-know-who another $50. I thought the sign might have said something about Pat Buttram.
Sue… I will forgive you because I like you! Yes, those are two Mouseketeers, Sven and Greta. “Far right extremists”, ha ha!
Sue, I knew it was you!
TokyoMagic!, I’m sure people tripped all the time, but they liked it back then. Unlike today’s snowflakes. I’ve literally seen people at the park run into other people because they can’t tear their eyes away from their phones. Darn snowflakes!
JB, I see that you saw what Nanook solved (for free) for that sign. I think it’s a little odd that they put that sign on the trashcan, but nobody asked me. Gosh, how could I omit the date of these photos? You could be right about it being 1960, I probably would have hedged my bets and said “late 1950s”. (Wait, looking at the first one, I indicated that it is from 1956). I think the poster to the extreme left is the Art Corner example, and hmmm, to the right I’m seeing the Astrojets, Storybook Land, and… maybe another Art Corner? I think there’s one to the right of that that I can’t ID. Also… who fries a whole chicken??
Sue, you are such a night owl, I can’t believe you left a comment at that time!!
TokyoMagic!, man, I wish I was a great-grandmother, they get all the cool perks. Also, switchblades are cool.
Nanook, whoa, I am not sure I would have been able to ID the Tom Sawyer Island poster! Good job!
Mike Cozart, OK, OK, I get it, everyone is cooler than me. There, are you happy? ;-) I agree with you, the placement of that tram sign is a little odd. Oh gosh, I did not even look over there just to the left of the “No Picnic Lunches” sign. I do see the Space Station X-1, though it is hard to identify. I remember a blogger sharing a scan of an early Art Corner catalog, you could buy the whole set of 18 posters, mailed to you in a striped tube, for an insanely low price. Adjusted for inflation I think it was something like the equivalent of $75. TIME MACHINE PLEASE. I have seen the “Streets of Oxnard” version of the Art Corner poster, but never the “Streets of Yonkers” version!! It seems weird to have a school on a space station, but that’s what the future will be like I guess.
Bu, yes, I think even as a young child I liked Karen Valentine instinctually. I was always sad that she didn’t go on to a lot of bigger and better things. A feminist! Why they all hate men!! (Joking, but you know, that’s what dummies say). It must have been fun to talk shop with your friend. If you give any attraction posters away, please contact me! They are wonderful, I’m thrilled to have the ones I have, though there is always the desire to get those examples that I could never get. I remember when they put copies up for “Saving Mr. Banks” (a film I could not get through), it was fun. I particularly love the posters for odd things like the Red Wagon Inn and Casa de Fritos, and yes, the Art Corner. No need to shout and picnickers, just use a firehose and they will go away. I’m not sure when they started making guidebooks for foreign visitors, it’s a fun idea, though my interests tend to lean toward the first two decades). I appreciate that the Japanese tourists went to the effort to try to pick up some phrases. Glad you liked these!
Dean Finder, that’s NUTS!!
JG, I can too… in fact I heard it very recently. VERY recently! Do you still have your Rosetta Stone placemat? Sounds useful, but aren’t there books for that sort of thing? “Let me get out my placemat”, ha ha!
Nanook, oh, were the posters in that movie two-sided?? I used to live next to Lloyd Kunkel. He wasn’t famous, but I thought you might want to know.
Chuck, I see the poster that you mean, but it can’t be the Matterhorn (even though it really does look like it). To be honest I can’t quite determine what we are seeing there. A strange pile of mashed potatoes that makes me want to drive to Wyoming? I don’t know what “My Favorite Husband” is/was, did it star Jean-Claude Van Damme?
Nanook, so… where was the picnic area anyway? The attendant would say, “The picnic area is about 30 miles from here, go on, get out of here before I murdalize you!”.
Nanook, do you ever feel like you don’t know what other people are talking about?
Melissa, those ladies were the original influencers! Like the young ladies who have their photos taken holding a delicious Frappuccino for a photo, and then they throw it right in the trash. Because influencers need to be thin, see? When you say “the big city”, do you mean New York City? From what I understand, they have a few OK museums. But not a Spam museum, like in Austin, Minnesota. Tough luck, New York City! Maybe that monk was reading a small book AND eating a Hershey bar. I don’t know much about medieval times, I admit.
It was Buffalo, not NYC. They say Buffalo has more in common with Chicago than NYC (the whole Great Lakes/Rust Belt thing), but I've never been past the airport in Chicago, so what do I know and why did I even bring it up? Is that museum in Minnesota where all that unsolicited email is coming from? Those expletive deleteds!
Nanook, how on Major's Urf did you figure out the identity of those two posters??
Mike, you wouldn't happen to have the very rare "Walt Disney presents The Enchanted Bath Room" poster, would you? I'd be glad to take it off your hands!
Major, "...who fries a whole chicken??" The same guys (it's always guys) who fry a whole turkey in one of those big medieval-looking pots of oil. They always seem to overflow and catch fire.
Major-
"... do you ever feel like you don’t know what other people are talking about?" Most every day, as it turns out-!
We're just 'protecting you' from troubling thoughts. My Favorite Husband is often considered the radio 'precursor' to a certain [very, very famous] 1950's TV sitcom, starring another rather famous 'redhead comedienne...'
@ JB-
Having a pretty good idea what most of the AP's look like, enlarging the image - although often futile - and having very good reference materials standing-by. OH - and did I mention other images from around the same time period more-clearly identifying sections of ALL the posters-! (You see - I'm not as smart as I look - even with that jaunty feather in my hat-!! - although I was able to ID the Tom Sawyer AP unaided).
Major, knowing me, I probably still have the placemat, it’s the sort of “in the moment” souvenir that appeals to me. I suppose a phrase book would be better, but I didn’t have one and the placemat was free, flat, and fit in my shirt pocket.
I’ve figured out the dodge if TM’s grandmother got busted with the chicken dinner. The sign says very clearly “No Picnic Lunches”. Not a word about a dinner, so you’re good. And here’s proof:
On my last trip to the Park, there was a big family very obviously sharing a multi-course home-made meal complete with condiments. They didn’t even have the courtesy to buy Disney drinks, and they were using napkins & plastic flatware from the Bengal BBQ. I get that Disney food is expensive and only average quality, but lugging all that burden around all day just to stick it to the Mouse is it’s own kind of challenge.
JG
I don’t see a Matterhorn attraction poster on display neither in reflection. MATTERHORN and Submarine Voyage got front gate billing during their existence.
In image one : left to right :
01)Art Corner
02)Mark Twain
03)20k exhibit
04) 3-D Jamboree
05) Dumbo
06) Rocket to Moon
07) Jungle River
08) Astro Jet
09) Storybook
10) Art Corner #2
11) Mark Twain #2
12) Space Station X-1
13) Dumbo #2
14) Rocket to the Moon #2
Image two
From left to right :
01) Astro jet
02) storybook
03) Art Corner
04) 20k exhibit
05) DL & Santa Fe RR
06) Dr. Scholls Medicated Theater
07) Peter Pan
08) Storybook #2
09) Tom Sawyer
I think I’ve mention this before but WED called these “ride posters” . Disneyland sign shop called them “ Gate posters” and marketing called them ……. : “ marketing posters”
By the late 70’s WED was calling then attraction posters and ride posters . In the 1980’s some collectors called them ride posters
and others attraction posters …. But now they are officially called ATTRACTION POSTERS.
Dr. Scholls Medicated Theater was a great place to rest your aching feet.
Melissa : I snuck that in to see if people were paying attention. You were paying attention!! Lol!
Melissa & Mike, it was the carpeting that was medicated, so guests were encouraged to kick off their shoes.
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