Since today's photos are "nice but not very exciting", I am sharing three images today. All for the same low, low price. The slides are date-stamped "January 1964", but they sure don't look very wintery.
Only three hu-mans are visible in this shot looking toward the Matterhorn from the northwest end of Main Street (and four inches from the Plaza, officially). Whenever these photos were taken, THAT was the time to be there! Look at that clear blue sky, the bright sun.
It appears to be a bit later in the day, and the yellow Mark II Monorail has tiny heads in each window (well, the heads are regular-size, they just look small because they are far away. I'd explain it but it is very technical). So now there are up to 75 guests in the park. Sometimes we might have to wait in lines for as long as two minutes.
Is it crazy that I still love photos like this, in spite of seeing so many similar examples? Part of me still gets that thrill that I got when I was eight years old, when the sight of the Submarines and the Matterhorn, the Monorail and the Skyway, made me so happy. Bobsled sighting! You will have good luck for the rest of the day.
Major-
ReplyDelete'A Bobsled sighting' and a Kodak Picture Spot-! Good luck is in our future, indeed.
Thanks, Major.
Perfect lighting in the first photo. Unfortunately, this was still in the days when the Park leaned 5 degrees to the southeast. It wasn't until 1966 that Disney loosened up its coin purse to get the place leveled out. It really is a nice picture of the Matterhorn. The umbrellas are like mushrooms growing in an alpine meadow at the foot of the mountain... an alpine meadow with pavement and trolley tracks.
ReplyDeleteI like the motion blur of the Monorail gliding over the lagoon. Is that the Autopia track in the background? And what is that guy doing on the track? It looks like he has a couple of red gas cans.
Ooh! I like the last photo best; I'm keepin' it! I think we can see one of Fudgie's tail flukes behind the waterfall.
Thanks for the picturesque photos, Major.
These are all lovely, but the Monorail and Submarines are particularly postcardworthy. Full of Vitamin V for Vroom! Shrunken heads and all. I never tired of these views either. A good view bears repeating.
ReplyDeleteAny discussion of small vs. far away makes me think of Father Ted.
Look at how empty that first photo is! Do you think anyone would notice if I took one of those garbage cans home with me? I promise I’ll dispose of the trash responsibly, probably in the first top-down convertible I find in the parking lot.
ReplyDeleteNote the now-blocked hole in the Matterhorn at the top of the lift hill that gave that gorgeous view towards Main Street. Did they block that to reduce light on the lift hill so the snowflake effects would work?
The Monorail people look flat, like they are pictures pasted to the window (if that center panel were in place). Reminds me of the passengers in Lionel passenger cars.
The last two photos feature two Skyway gondolas suspended in space. I know I’ve commented on this before, but whenever I see that, I think of the levitating sentry pods in the opening credits of Jonny Quest.
JB, that guy is dynamite fishing.
Benches must of been in rehab. Although I enjoy the openness of a no-fence m'lady and a no bench m'lady it's just kind of mysterious with just umbrellas in which to gain refuge from the hot So.Cal. sun whilst hovering underneath. You can barely see the House of the Future there hovering behind a big olive or pepper tree. I'm sure that was very purposeful to maintain the scale of the Matterhorn. And as we all very well know, trees have no scale. This view is a familiar photo view and if it wasn't a picture spot, it was a default picture spot for millions of photographers including myself. A more authentic Main Street would have been a dirt/gravel street and I am wondering if that was ever considered. I like seeing old photos from the turn of the last century of New York with dirt roads. There still are places near me with dirt roads, and they are quite charming- even in developed Long Island there are still one or two near my in-laws. I suppose in Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom dirt was "no bueno" as were flies/rats/mice/and grape soda. Wait...was it soda at Welches, or juice? or both? I think cross branding with Knotts wouldn't have been so terrible or "faux pas"...why not have another sponsor? "Boysenberry Island Bar" Presented by Knott's Berry Farm. Didn't Walt and Walter converse prior to the opening of Disneyland? Did anyone ever have the speech about how both these guys names were Walter? Was Walter Pidgeon also in the mix? Or maybe Walt Whitman? Is that where Walt Whitman Chocolates came from? Room 222 is the best room at Walt Whitman High. Why was Walt Whitman eating so many candies? I always thought Mrs. Knott's name was Walteria, but that is a place in So. Cal. Walt and Walteria Knott. Has a ring. Thanks for the morning wake ups Major! To prove you are not a robot, select all the photos of a Walt.
ReplyDeleteBu, there is still one brave red brick-paved road hanging on for dear life in our town.
ReplyDeleteBu, and how is this for mind-blowing.....Walteria had it's own little amusement park from the late fifties to the early seventies. It was called Rideland.....a name lacking in creativity, but I guess it served it's purpose. My family went there quite a few times, when we lived in the South Bay area. I've posted a couple pics from that park in the past. I have about a half dozen more that I need to post, but of course it will mean more "white ovals."
ReplyDeleteI guess Walter Knott should be given credit for naming the boysenberry after the person he got the plants from, and not calling it the Knottberry or the Walterberry. I know, I know.....the "berry talk" was yesterday, but hey, Bu started it! I just realized something. There is such a thing as a Buberry, just with a different spelling, and the flavor is only found in a General Mills cereal.
I do love the view in that first pic, today. Major, I know you posted one from that same spot, not too long ago. I tried looking for it, but couldn't find it. I think it was before the holidays, but not sure. As we know, that's a common spot for people to stop and take a pic in that direction.
Bu, meant to comment on the umbrellas but forgot. I was puzzling over the ”umbrellas sans benches” thing, too, when I realized these are all along the parade route. I’m wondering if the intent was shade for parade watchers.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, my Ohio hometown still has one short brick street and one short brick alley. Main Street was still paved with brick under the asphalt at least until the early ‘90s; I remember them doing roadwork in the middle of town and not only could you see the bricks, but you could also see the old trolley right-of-way down the middle of the street. For the size (population about 4,000 from 1900-1935) and location (rural county seat) of the town, they were well-served by rail: two trolley lines that crossed downtown at Main & Wooster, plus a B&O station a few blocks west of that and a Big Four/New York Central station a few blocks east.
Nanook, is there such thing as TOO much good luck??
ReplyDeleteJB, did they shim up the low side of the park? Or did they dig under the high side of the park? Or both? Yes, that’s the Autopia track; I’ve seen plenty of photos where CMs can be seen along the track, but I’m not sure they are usually on one of those bridges above the lagoon. There is something red, but it might be a package of Ritz crackers. I thought Fudgie was more to the left? But it’s been so long since we’ve had a good look at him that I’ve kind of forgotten.
Melissa, I do like all the heads looking in our direction in the Monorail! I thought “Father Ted” was a murder mystery show, but obviously I am confusing it with something else.
Chuck, you’d be surprised what you can get away with if you wear white coveralls and a hardhat, and a clipboard doesn’t hurt either (though it would make it hard to carry the trashcan). If anybody stops you and asks what you are doing, just say “Mitch told me to bring this one in”. There are people who know every inch of the Matterhorn’s track (both of them) and know the changes that have happened over the years. I am not one of those people. I only just noticed that “Welcome Back Kotter” was apparently cancelled. I wonder if anybody has mooned Disneyland guests from the Matterhorn? One can dream. Funny that you mentioned Jonny Quest, I was literally reading about that show just a few days ago!
Bu, these photos are right from the brief period when all of the benches were having “magic fingers” installed. It turned out to be a bad idea, even worse than the Mickey Mouse Club Circus. I wish we had a House of the Future still, they could paint it purple and gold and then everybody would be happy. While I can’t guarantee that the first photo was taken from a Picture Spot, there were actually a couple of those spots nearby in the Plaza. I can’t imagine there was ever any serious consideration to have dirt on Main Street; can you imagine the dust and filth that would be kicked up every day? Sure, I love filth, but most people don’t. All those nice 1950s ladies in their floofy dresses and white shoes would be mortified. If only Walt Disney and Walter Knott both had mothers named “Martha”, we’d really have something to talk about. Meanwhile, why didn’t either one of them go by “Wally”?
Melissa, I like going to NYC and finding the occasional brick-paved roads (maybe in SoHo?), I wonder how many of those are left?
TokyoMagic!, I love the name “Rideland”, it’s the best. If only Walt Disney had thought of it first. I would have built one of my supermarkets (“Foodstore”) right near Rideland. So what were boysenberries called before Walter Knott gave them that name? Rudoph Boysen called them “Mucousberries”, and could never understand why they weren’t more popular. You are right that the first view is common; I’m not sure when it was seen most recently, but about a year ago I posted something HERE.
Chuck, your “shade for parade watchers” theory sounds credible. I was recently watching some YouTube videos by a woman who was motorcycling her way through Ecuador, and was amazed at the number of small towns that had brick streets. I think there are still some old side streets in Pasadena that have bricks instead of asphalt, assuming they haven’t been replaced in the last three or four years.
Major...now you have the feel of what the place was like when it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. An absolute delight to walk through and worth the price of admission...if they ever thought of charging for tours of the park when it was closed. Just think of the profit margin when nothing is operating! In that first photo, I felt that mysterious person is a maintenance CM working on the bridge. The Fan Autopia was only open during busy periods and this day certainly wasn't on that list! KS
ReplyDelete"I wonder if anybody has mooned Disneyland guests from the Matterhorn?"
ReplyDeleteBefore they flashed you on Splash Mountain, they mooned you over the Matterhorn.
They had the olive-on-a-toothpick lampposts in Tomorrowland and these big, empty umbrellas... I can only assume they were planning to assemble a round of giant cocktails.
I still want an old school Kodak Picture Spot sign.
ReplyDeleteThere are several streets in Los Angeles with worn away asphalt and exposed brick …. San Diego too. San Diego got brick streets late in life … infact San Diego had a cable car line on market street - built before it had brick/paved streets. I don’t understand how this worked … the channel with the wood and brick battens housing the cable and grip line must have become choked with mud when it did rain. In the 1870’s and 1880’s San Diego had some torrential rains after a long drought lasting from the 1820’s to the 1870’s came to a close. ( yes california had droughts long before the current one … despite what current college children think)
ReplyDeleteWhen Hong Kong Disneyland opened its Main Street was built (with a few exceptions) to look identical to 1955 Disneyland’s Main Street . In fact for HKDL first few years its Main Street looked more like original Disneyland than the REAL Disneyland!! Anyway … the giveaway from some photos at the time was the Disneyland had bricked sidewalks and a paved street and it was opposite at Hong King Disneyland. Today more Street brick has been added to DL california.
Most of the umbrellas , Railroad passenger car valances and building awnings at Disneyland and Walt Disney World use cataloged material from SUNBRELLA company. Sometimes if a design is discontinued , Disney will change its design to accommodate a current offering. However because so many of the patterns are used by Disney in such large quantities, SUNBRELLA will manufacture patterns for Disney that are no longer offered in their current lines or to the public. A good example are many of the Main Street USA building facade awnings: many of the colors and patterns you see today have not been produced since the 1970’s and 1980’s ….. but will be made available to Disneyland & Walt Disney World because they’ve used the pattern for so long.
Other obsolete material production re-run examples for Disney includes wallpaper . The stretching room wall paper in DISNEYLAND’s HAUNTED MANSION is a historical pattern reproduction ( so is WDW’s but a different color) it’s produced by a French company… that hasn’t offered it since the late 1990’s … but they will do special production runs for Disneyland …. Disneyland orders enough for about 3 - 4 rehabs at a time.
The original 1969 - 1990’s flocked gold & green mansion wallpaper was also a historical reproduction that became popular again in the late 60’s and early 70’s. A little bit remains at DL just before you enter the seance circle. The company made rolls for Disneyland long after it was discontinued in its catalog offerings … and it was very very expensive to make. Eventually that company ceased to exist and about 1995 Disneyland had to find a replacement: the Lilly pattern used today - also a historical reproduction ( but a pattern from the early 1900’s … technically incorrect for a mansion built in the 1840’s and now abandoned in the 1860’s) ….. but it works.
Melissa, I thought of Father Ted too, hilarious. Dougal is thick as a whale omelet.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was like a Law, you had to take a picture of the Matterhorn from that pot.
The umbrellas look weird with no benches.
Wow, Jonny Quest and SUNBRELLA in the same post. WHAT ARE THE ODDS!
Mike, did Disney ever get wallpaper from Bradbury & Bradbury?
JG
A side note: almost all residential wallpapers pre-electricity used Metalic inks in their patterns … this was reflective in gaslight, oil light and candles making rooms brighter with the low light source levels. The metal inks also used arsenic in its formulations making it almost deadly …
ReplyDeleteJG: yes : several patterns have been used from them over time : including the Haunted Mansion “Lilly flower” pattern used in the foyer. Collectors be warned : if you’d like to buy some be prepared : they don’t sell it by the roll … it’s sold by the ROLLS …. Lots of them!
ReplyDeleteSo many times collectors contact these Disney suppliers … and asked to buy one or two of something and don’t understand these company’s are in business to sell wholesale or industry quantities… and often intense / passionate fans become pushy and annoying …. A good example was the Disneyland RR conductors caps … long after the cap was out of general production they were still made for Disney . As a courtesy they would sometimes sell small group orders …. But it was getting outta hand … with people wanting to buy 1 , 2 maybe 6 caps. This company manufactures them for real railroads and fleet services… and sells them In groups of 100 etc. so eventually the current company has to stop taking any non commercial inquiries.
Same with the “Disneyland” miller engineering trashcans …. Disney collectors would contact them to buy one and explode that the cost of 1 or 2 cans were about 400.00 to 500.00 a piece …. Not including freight. No that’s not how much Disney pays for them …. But they but them by in groups of 500 to 1000!!
Major, I'm not positive about Fudgie either. But I know that he's behind the waterfall, just to the left of the Matterhorn's nostrils (on the Tomorrowland side).
ReplyDeleteBu & Major, for extra, extra authenticity, they could leave all the horse-drawn carriage 'muffins' on the dusty Main Street as well!
KS, I admit that I used to dream about exploring Disneyland when it was closed, but part of me would still want to go on the rides! So maybe I’d actually like to visit on a day like the kind pictured here. Heaven!
ReplyDeleteMelissa, oh man, now I want to be flashed from the Monorail a la “Splash Mountain”!
DBenson, ME TOO!
Mike Cozart, I can’t imagine how much work it was to brick entire streets, but think of how durable those things were. Those old cable car lines must have had some sort of system to keep out mud and even just dirt. I’m surprised that you don’t know, since you know everything! ;-) Is anybody actually surprised that SoCal has had droughts before (it is a desert, after all)? I’ve never warmed to the pavers at Disneyland - I guess they feel too “Home Depot” to me, it’s not that they aren’t attractive. Plus the old asphalt and slurry just makes me think of the many MANY photos from the past. I’ve never heard of the Sunbrella (good name!) Company, sounds like they are still around, which is nice. I’ve always wondered if that famous Haunted Mansion wallpaper was flocked. Actually not so much the gold and green stuff, but the famous “faces” pattern (that might have been designed by Rolly Crump). Does anybody know? I’d think that Disney could have any wallpaper reproduced… yes, it’s pricey, but just do a whole lot of it! That’s what me and my millionaire friends do.
JG, I may have mentioned this before, but during my most recent trips to Disneyland, I’d find myself taking a photo of the Castle, and I would think, “What am I doing?”. I should have taken photos of unusual things. But I have to admit that the Castle at night was hard to resist. I find no fault with anyone taking a photo of the Matterhorn from any angle.
Mike Cozart, supposedly a lot of old books with green bindings have arsenic in them too, making them dangerous to hold.
Mike Cozart, (It’s a triple Mike Cozart day!), interesting that there has been that much demand for certain iconic products from Disneyland. You’d think that some enterprising person might actually buy a lot of 100 DLRR conductor caps. Your friends and fellow collectors would probably buy a bunch of them, and then the rest could be put up on Etsy. Or someplace like that. Wow, 500 to 1000 trashcans, that’s a lot of cans!
JB, you’d think that by now I’d know how to look for Fudgie, but he’s elusive. When he’s clearly visible, it’s like seeing Bigfoot (which I have, many times)!
Usually, the agreement between a trolley company ad a town was that the company would get an exclusive franchise in exchange for a contract to maintain the street where they laid the tracks. The trolley companies would spend a considerable amount of money to build durable roads with stone blocks to minimize the long-term maintenance.
ReplyDeleteI live in an area with a trolley line and it's not unusual for the "modern" blacktop to get dislodged exposing the stone laid over a century ago by the Traction Company. They were fairly common in NJ, but Ohio was the capital of trolley line construction at the turn of the 20th century.
The “faces” wallpaper design is by Disney for the attraction and isn’t actually wallpaper but painted/stenciled on .. in the same way most movie sets did for historical based films…..
ReplyDeleteTokyo Disneyland is currently about to do a Haunted Mansion attraction festival with all kinds of merchandise including rare type items. They will be selling actual Disney produced Haunted Mansion “faces” REAL wallpaper - the fist Disney has ever done so.
Yeah .. Disney went crazy with bricks and pavers starting in the 1990’s … imagineering lost design and decorating restraint at this time. The brick patterns compete with the detail and colors of the architecture…. WDW kept the Main Street in asphalt and the sidewalks in the traditional Walt Disney Productions “welcome red” slurry , but did East & West Center Streets in brick. The time frame all Main Street USA’s represent 1890-1910 was really when brick wasn’t no longer being used for American Street paving …. It was mostly passé by 1900.
Another reason I don’t care for the pavers is that about 2001 while In Tomorrowland ( those pavers ARE HOME DEPOT!!) I stepped on a loose paver ( between Star Tours and the first leg of the Rocket Rod support beam way …. And but it!!! In my mind I felt like I did 6 Sumer salts and two back flips …. And as friends and castmembers helped me up someone asked if they should call for a nurse…. I was really thinking “ YOU SHOULD CALL YOUR LAWYER!!!!”
BIT IT
ReplyDeleteThey had the olive-on-a-toothpick lampposts in Tomorrowland and these big, empty umbrellas... I can only assume they were planning to assemble a round of giant cocktails.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, and let us not forget the giant jigger/cocktail shaker at the entrance to Tomorrowland! ;-)
Mike, arsenic in the wallpaper? I guess that's where the phrase, "Don't lick the wallpaper!" comes from.
But TM!, the schnozzberries taste like schnozzberries!. How can I resist?
ReplyDelete