I finally tackled a batch of over 40 slides from November, 1974. And once I got them off the football field and wiped off the grass clippings, I scanned them. It's how my grandfather did it, and my father, and now me.
Sure, Mickey's floral portrait is great and everything, but what if they made the portrait out of various cured meats? I know, that's a silly idea, it should be a portrait of Walt made from cured meats. Olive loaf would bed perfect for the eyes. I have the whole thing planned out.
The shadows are getting long, but in November that means it's probably around 4 o'clock. We get this nice look at Town Square and the Emporium, with the Global Van Lines "Lost and Found". Guidebooks encouraged guests to stroll in there every 15 minutes or so and ask a Cast Member, "Found anything good?".
Look at that groovy couple! I'll bet they were wild in their younger days. The lady kind of looks like Jane Fonda in "Klute". She's puffing that Virgina Slim with real style. Her husband eschews the long hair so popular with men of that era, I think he is holding a paper cup with the Carnation logo. The Motorized Firetruck is just behind them, and to the left is the Global Van Lines truck.
Major-
ReplyDeleteGroovy-!
My sources indicate October 1st, 1974 is when the name of the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad attraction is shortened to Disneyland Railroad. So the images may be a little older than November of 1974.
Thanks, Major.
Major, not sure if you were getting your "Walt made from cured meats" portrait idea from painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, whose paintings were made up of various foods:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/giuseppe-arcimboldo-food-portraits
A giant portrait of Walt Disney made of pepperoni and salami, etc., would, alone, be worth the price of admission!
The Virginia Slims gal caught my attention too, Major. She's struttin' loud and proud with her extra-flared pants, form-fitting sweater, and big medallion. Her guy, on the other hand, looks like he just left a fifties-style party.
Thanks for the walk down Main Street, Major. We didn't get very far, but I bet we'll be seeing more in the months ahead.
I wonder where that groovy couple is today? They would probably be in their seventies now.
ReplyDeleteI hope the lady didn't flick her ashes on the baby in that stroller.
It’s a day for celebrities. In the same picture as the groovy couple, (I vote for the guy be Fonzie without his coat), there is Bob Ross in front of the emporium door
ReplyDeleteNot sure why part of that message disappeared.
ReplyDeleteBob is walking with his date for the day, cher. (Nobody tell sonny)
Jane Fonda from Klute looks great in her Virgina Slims ensemble..."you've come a long way baby!". Virginia Slims were the fancy cigarettes, but ALWAYS around the house! Trees have no scale, but I get it. I just like how "real" this makes the street become...but I suppose I want to see the buildings as well. Would they cut these trees down in Anytown, USA? Possibly if they were interfering with power lines. This is kind of a hot button for me in my community, as most of the trees on the main street were there LONG before power or telephone wires. If they would "curate" the trimming, more than slashing I guess I wouldn't be so uptight about it. It is a point of contention in the village. A meat mosaic...what do that call that? One of them thar Character Plates? I think it would get kind of smelly after a day or two...or maybe it would be more like jerky akin to what the friendly Indians are cooking up there along the Rivers of America with shiny boy? I wouldn't add cheese to the meat though....maybe some of those tiny pickles from France....and quince paste...gotta have that! Not sure why this Mickey had to go...might have been crumbling...who knows...(someone does)...current Mickey looks kind of ...well...I have no words...It's not horrible...I think the photo stand/photo op/paid thing in front of the Mickey is more horrible...I would build and disguise some sort of higher platform and integrate it into the Main Gate...so the view for ALL guests walking though the gate is without distraction...with the commercialization on photo taken obscured behind them, rather than in front....sounds like it would make a better photo anyway... My .02. I have lots of .02's ....all of which are generally expensive. It's hard to be a visionary. Thanks Major!
ReplyDeleteIs that handcar always there at the train station and I just never noticed it before? I think the Dapper Dans should ride around on it, singing “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad.”
ReplyDeleteYou could make a decent silhouette portrait out of Walt’s favorite canned chili, with one oyster cracker for an eyeball. “Character plate” - I see what you did there, Bu!
ReplyDeleteEvery now and then you'll see lists of the things that Disney finds. All sorts of crazy things. Sunglasses, cell phones, crypto. This wouldn't be a problem if everyone in the world was required to wear fanny packs and cargo pants. By the way, I'm starting a new company called Fanny Packs and Cargo Pants R Us. Completely unrelated to the topic. Just felt like mentioning it...
ReplyDeleteI love when the Matterhorn photobombs. Very sneaky. Is that a flag on top of the Matterhorn? Flying at half-mast?
ReplyDeleteSue
Yes, Melissa, that handcar has been there since around 1956.
ReplyDeleteEven though Santa Fe sponsorship had ended by this point, I suspect that it took some time to remove all vestiges of it. They had to design a new herald from the ground up (And I really love the design they came up with, BTW).
Melissa, yes that hand car has always been there at the Main Street Station in the same position as far back as I can remember. Or at least for a very very long time.
ReplyDelete1974 was a very good year for Disneyland. The main transportation attractions were still called "Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad" and "Disneyland Alweg Monorail System". Also, the "Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland" was still in operation and Bear Country with the "Country Bear Jamboree" was fairly new. Carousel of Progress was gone, but we still had a great replacement with "America Sings". 1974 at Disneyland was a very good year for sure.
Both pics are great and have a nice, muted coloring about them. Not bold and loud. Thanks, Major.
Good stuff Major.
ReplyDeleteJane looks like she has practiced that walk and gestures in the mirror, “I am Somebody”, in her high-heel boots & wardrobe right at the beginning of the Brown Era when everything was earth-toned, it’s the law.
Lots of nice details, the handcar, hitching posts, mailbox on the lamppost, Global sign blocking the second-story warehouse door because by then, no one knew what the door was for, Winnie-t-P & Mickey in the window.
I like the idea of a Salami Walt & Mickey, even more than a Partners Statue made of pancakes.
JG
Nanook, interesting point - of course date stamps only tell you when the slides were developed, and as you said, the actual photos could have been taken months earlier.
ReplyDeleteJB, I am ALWAYS talking about Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and you’ll never stop me. “Guiseppe this” and “Giuseppe that”. I love him! I’m still trying to figure out how to keep varmints away from the sculpture of Walt done in cold cuts, but I’m consulting with NASA. Lasers are one suggestion. It’s funny, the Virginia Slims boyfriend really does look like he’s from the early 60s, he reminds me of the Alvin brothers from The Blasters.
TokyoMagic!, I hope that couple is happy and healthy (stop smoking!), and enjoying Bingo at Casino Morongo. The buffet is such a deal! That dumb baby deserves to have ashes on its head, or else it shouldn’t have been there.
Budblade, remember when The Fonz wore a red windbreaker? Somehow it just wasn’t as cool as the leather jacket that we all know an love.
Budblade, as we’ve learned, Blogger comments have a mind of their own. It’s nice to see Bob Ross and Cher enjoying a day at Disneyland together!
Bu, although my dad smoked, he mostly smoked at work and only a little bit at home. And thank goodness my mom never smoked. As I’ve learned from collecting vintage slides, most cities do not cut down those old trees - there are exceptions of course, but I love to compare old images to contemporary views, and so often I can’t even see the buildings because of the mature trees. This is why everybody hates trees! I think you’re right, if they were a little bit more diligent about trimming the trees at Disneyland, they might not have to replace them as often as they do. Quince paste, never heard of that. And we even have a little ornamental quince tree. I’m with you, not crazy about the look of the current Mickey flower portrait, it’s weirdly “off” to me. You know who it is, but he looks like he’s had too much plastic surgery.
Melissa, we’ve mentioned the Kalamazoo handcar before, so I omitted the mention this time. Surely you remember the Kalamazoo handcar! ;-)
Mellissa, you could give chili-Walt a cilantro mustache. It’s my only idea. I know, pathetic.
Stu29573, I am of your way of thinking. You can’t have too many pockets on a pair of pants! I did like wearing cargo shorts to Magic Mountain, I had a nice button pocket for my keys so they wouldn’t fly out on a roller coaster, and another for my phone. It was a nice feeling of security that I have not felt since then. Will the “R” in “Fanny Packs and Cargo Pants R Us” being reversed?
Sue, I was wondering if somebody was going to mention the Matterhorn! :-) I think that flag is atop one of the Main Street buildings, but I do like the idea of a flag on top of the Swiss mountain. Not sure the flag is at half mast, though it isn’t quite all the way to the top either.
Steve, I should know better, but I thought the handcar was there from opening day! I would never argue with you about Disneyland train stuff though. And I was considering that maybe it took Disney a while to remove all of the Santa Fe references, but had no idea if that was true or not.
K. Martinez, by 1974 my family had moved to Pennsylvania, so I missed out on Disneyland at this specific period, but I sure loved it a few years earlier. As dumb as it sounds, one of the main things I was sad about when we moved is that I had no idea when my next visit to the park would be! We had Hershey Park (I think it was still two separate words back then) in Pennsylvania, and that was fun, but not the same at all.
JG, Jane definitely looks like a liberated woman who’s not going to take any nonsense! It’s really true about the “Brown Era”, I guess it made people feel as if they were more in touch with nature? Bright colors are so artificial. All the details you mentioned are the things that bring so much joy into the hearts of fans like us, and maybe they “read” subliminally to regular people too. Mmmm, I would like the Partners statue a lot more if it was made of pancakes.
Brown Era. Earth Tones. ...... "Earth Shoes". a pre-cursor to "Crocs". Both comfortable, look like jelly beans. If you have logs for feet like myself, both are the only options. Perhaps a wide Wallabee. Also brown. Standard work boots work as well. Us construction types must all have wide feet....like Mr. Flintstone. The Matterhorn flagpole is a mystery...but I think that is the one that stands in the front of Tomorrowland...and the scale kind of messes with you...with the white pole blending into the white Matterhorn. Bucket list: Zermatt. I would like to be the 4th man on the mountain.
ReplyDeleteMajor, I have seen (and you probably own) early Disneyland post cards of the train station without the handcar in front--I'm thinking an old B&W one?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to refer to the book, but I did a fairly extensive look at old Park photos and postcards and was able to narrow down when the handcar first appeared within a few months.
Also--it couldn't have been there on opening day, because the trains had to use the passing sidings at Main Street and Frontierland to pass each other.
ReplyDeleteBu, I recently saw an interview with Stephanie Hsu (from “Everything Everywhere All At Once”) and she was wearing a brown suit, she looked great. Brown is back? Maybe it just looked great on her. I’ve never worn Crocs, though I saw faux Crocs at Walmart (hey, I needed a cheap blanket) and was tempted. But not tempted enough. I’ve been to Zermatt! But it was so cloudy and rainy, we couldn’t see the Matterhorn. Then, the morning that we were going to leave, it was glorious and sunny, and there it was!
ReplyDeleteSteve DeGaetano, I do have that rare black and white postcard of the train station, but was not even thinking of the Kalamazoo hand car the last time I looked at it. I guess I always expect that it is probably parked just out of frame.
Steve DeGaetano, good point!
November 1974! The same month that The Land That Time Forgot was released! Doug McClure, we need you now…
ReplyDeleteThis entrance plaza looks much better than today’s “Botox Mickey.” Not sure whether this would be better as cold cuts or Jell-O.
Random thought - Satan Fe forced Disneyland to put their logo on both the Viewliner and the Monorail based on their licensing agreement. I don’t remember their logo on the Rainbow Mountain or Nature’s Wonderland RR equipment. Is my memory correct or am I suffering from something like Melissa’s handcar blindness? I could look it up, but I’m too tired after my evening hike.
Bu, my grandfather had size 6EEEE feet. They were nearly square. Go figure - he was a carpenter.
“Satan Fe?”
ReplyDelete[sigh]
Autocorrect makes my life a living Heel…
The Satan Fe train went straight to heck.
ReplyDeleteChuck, you might remember Doug McClure from such movies as, “Cannonball Run II” and “At the Earth’s Core”. Truly one of the greats. “Botox Mickey”, ha ha. He and Madonna go to the same guy. And I have also wondered how the Mine Trains seemed to be exempt from the requirement of having “Santa Fe” on them. Casey Jr. was also exempt. I’m glad you got in a hike, I hope it was beautiful!
ReplyDeleteChuck, ha ha! This is a family blog! Take your blasphemy to Daveland! (Just kidding, Daveland).
Melissa, I would take the Kalamazoo handcar to heck!