Fabulous Fitties
I have two randos from Disneyland, 1950s-style. Won't you join me?
Who doesn't love parking lot view? I mean, I love a penthouse view too, but that's another IP. Here we are, standing on acres of blacktop, with the sun setting in the west even though it appears to be around 5:48 PM. So perhaps it's mid-March, or thereabouts. Medical Parking? Why yes, I'm a doctor. What is that green machine to our right?
While this photo is undated, we can see the posters in front, so that places it post-June 1956, I think. Hey, it's something. It surprises me to see folks showing up as the day is waning, but perhaps the park was open until midnight (if this happened to be a Saturday). There's that black and white curb, scientifically proven to lull guests into spending money.
Next is this very nice view of the Plaza, also as the sun was on its way down. The guidebook held by the woman to our left helps to date this to either 1956 or 1957. The man with the sunglasses is carrying a magic wand, don't ask why. It looks like it was another beautiful day to be in the park.
23 comments:
In the last pic, that girl in the middle of the photo looks like she's wearing a version of a poodle skirt. But is that a giraffe on it....or multiple giraffes? Melissa might know.
The guy to her left looks like he's wearing some type of beanie. Unless it's just a pair of mouse ears and we can't see the ears. I didn't think we started seeing older people wearing those, until the nineties.
And yes, that is a magic wand that guy is carrying. It lights up and changes colors, but it also shoots bubbles and lasers, and if you lick it, it tastes like a churro. They still sell them at the park, today, and they only cost $250. The good news is, for an extra $100, you get to assemble it yourself. And the extra good news is, if you pay another $50, they'll throw in a......yes, you guessed it, a Zinger®
Major-
That "green machine" is a 1950 Buick - the year with the 'elongated' portholes - possibly in Cirrus Green. And the slightly-blurred 'black machine' is a 1950 (possibly a '49 or '51) Mercury - with suicide doors-! And if it IS a 1950, that model year was used as the Pace Car for the 1950 Indianapolis 500 Race.
We can also spy a Frontierland "tri-level" AP - so sometime between June, 1956 and October, 1959 - if the staff was keeping the AP's timely.
Thanks, Major.
The "green machine" to the right? Why, it's a trashcan!... Oh, you probably meant the car, didn't you.... I have no idea. There's someone at the wheel, so it's likely that it's in motion. Are the wheel rims also green? Maybe that's just the green from the body of the car reflecting in the shiny wheels. Wow, that's a looong train! I don't remember seeing that many cars on the RR.
"There's that black and white curb, scientifically proven to lull guests into spending money." It's like Slurm, from Futurama. Mind control.
Since this is 'randos' day, I just thunk a random thought: How big is the Main Street Station clock? I'm gonna guess 4 ft. across.
That's not a magic wand, Major. It's a churro prototype (TM! almost got it right). They hadn't perfected them yet, this early in the Park's history. OK, I have no idea what it is. It has some sort of design on it. Maybe some sort of souvenir from Adventureland?
Tokyo!, the 'giraffes' look like swans to me. Which is a clever move on her part, since it's a well known fact that the killer swans in the moat don't attack their own kind.
Randos are fun, Major. Thanks.
That does kind of look like a giraffe on the girl's skirt. Or maybe a brontosaurus?
Hey, I'd visit a Green Acres-themed amusement park!
I think today's vintage fashion award goes to the lady in the yellow dress in the second picture.
JB, oh yeah! Maybe those are swans. And maybe there are seven of them, and maybe they're silver. And maybe those seven silver swans are swimming silently seaward. And maybe the girl talks just like Cindy Brady. And maybe that's Buddy Hinton behind her, and maybe he's taunting her by saying, "Baby talk, baby talk, it's a wonder you can walk!" Maybe.
Or maybe Melissa is right, and they are brontosauruses. Brontosauri?
And maybe that guy isn't holding magic wand, or a churro prototype. Maybe he's actually holding an original animation cell from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which he just purchased for .50 cents, but he is now clenching it too tight, and the paint is cracking and coming off of the sheet of celluloid. Maybe.
Guys, I think that’s actually a conductor’s baton. In the early days, to get special professional discounts, you were required to dress the part - uniforms for servicemen; clerical collars for clergy; habits for nuns; white coats, stethoscopes, and head mirrors for doctors; red noses and giant shoes for clowns; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. This guy conducted an informal jazz ensemble.
I don’t recall ever seeing a vintage picture of a guest in a wheelchair on GDB before. Did the Park rent wheelchairs back then?
No Dent, Stain, or killer swans, yet I’d still give my eye teeth (whatever those are) to be there right now. Well, maybe your eye teeth.
Happy Friday, everybody!
The big guy is holding a giant Pixie Stix. Look closely, there are faint green stripes which indicates it's lime flavored. He may look like a palooka, but Disneyland brings out the sugarpuss in him.
A nice view of the Castle; happy anniversary to New Fantasyland, which opened 40 years and one day ago. Think I'll get high on Pixie Stix; work may demand a sobriety test, but they'll never know.
My first impression was that the man was carrying a Spanker Thing, which is an all-purpose term my parents used for anything they swatted us with. Which reminded me of one of my favorite Kids in the Hall monologues, where Scott Thomson as his housewife character says, "People don't have woodsheds anymore. Which is why you see so many kids getting hit at the mall." (Or in this case, "...at Disneyland.")
Medical Parking? What’s up with that? Did doctors get preferential parking? Or were ambulances kept up front?
I’m going to date these no later than 1957 due to the two plain green trash cans, one in each pic. Keith Schad’s pics taken in 1958 showed that decorated cans were used on Main Street, the ticket area and the Plaza then, and wood-grain in Frontierland, while plain green persisted in Fantasyland.
A zinger would be ok, but it would have to be Krab.
JG
Melissa, you made me think of a cute, short video on YouTube...just Google “Every Parent at Disney” by Johnbcrist
Sue
Sue, that video is hilarious! The last line was the cherry on top.
@ JB-
"Are the wheel rims also green?"
Yes they are. As this model Buick has no S/S trim along the sides, it's clearly a more "basic" model - maybe the Special.
@ Sue-
Too funny-!
TokyoMagic!, whatever is on that girl’s skirt definitely has a long neck! But I can’t quite tell what it’s supposed to be. I was wondering what that man was wearing on his head, I thought perhaps it was a sort of an American Legion style of hat? Wow, that magic wand sounds awesome, I want 10 of them, and I don’t even have kids. Does it also make an annoying noise?
Nanook, ah, a Buick, now that you say that, I think I sort of knew that? It’s those little portholes that should have been the key. Suicide doors, I’ve never really understood why those exist. I wonder if my Honda was ever a pace car for the Indy 500? Man, those tri-level posters… I sure wish I had one!
JB, can a trashcan be considered a machine? It does have at least one moving part. Maybe that qualifies? I still drink Classic Slurm, with all of the sugar and caffeine. Delicious and green. 4 feet sounds about right for the Main Street clock - I’m sure that info is out there, in fact I may have read about it in a Disney News (or “Vacationland”) article. If that man is not carrying a magic wand, I can only assume it is a tightly-rolled piece of paper.
Melissa, I love the idea of a brontosaurus skirt! Not for me, you understand. But for somebody! Let’s go have our pictures taken with Mr. Haney!!
TokyoMagic! are those seven silver swans serene? I love that “Baby talk” rhyme and am going to use it the next time I find myself in a church.
TokyoMagic!, you should know by now that the correct term is “apatosaurus”, or the more generic “sauropod”. I wonder if they ever actually did have cells from Snow White at Disneyland??
Chuck, I like to stand on a busy street corner (sans pants) with a conductor’s baton, waving it wildly (the baton, I mean). Clergy - remember when the park used to have a discount for clergy? That didn’t seem to last long. They gots to PAY. I’m sure we’ve seen guests in wheelchairs before, but it’s true, it seems to have been less common back then. Why? I need my eye teeth, how else are my eyes supposed to chew?
Stefano, yum, I love PIxie Stix. It’s been a while! I remember at around Halloween my mouth would get sore from all of that citric acid. Wow, 40 years (and a day) for the New Fantasyland! CRAZY.
Melissa, ha ha, that guy just randomly goes around striking people with his spanker thing. It was acceptable back in the 50’s. Scott Thomson makes a good point.
JG, I was wondering about the medical parking too, presumably it was there in case there was a medical emergency inside the park. I wonder if it was added after woman suddenly went into labor and nobody was prepared? “Somebody boil some water!”. “Why?”. “I have no idea!”. If I had to guess I’d say that the first photo is from 1956, but your trashcan dating method (I can never remember what it’s called) is empirical.
Sue, I’ll have to check it out later, but assume that it shows lots of children getting hit??
Melissa, hopefully the children are hit with spanker things.
Nanook, I love that a basic model of that car was called the Special. If it had no engine it was called the Creme de la Creme!
There was always room for emergency medical parking. I just wonder back then if nurses were staffed at the Park. Had them by the time I arrived. Always got my flu shot from one when it became available during the fall of each year. A good Memorial Day everyone. KS
Major, I'll go with 1956 as a date for these. The trash can method does not contradict it.
My notes show that mid-to late 1957 is when the fancy cans start appearing. There were some reliably dated Summer 1957 GDB photos of the Main Street Opera House that had fancy cans, and D***Land photos of the same area dated 1957 with the same posters on the wall, that had the plain ones, so that's one bracket.
Then Keith Schad's photos are definitely all on one day in 1958 and they show fancy cans in the ticket plaza, Main Street, the Hub (all the green, yellow and red design) and then Frontierland (wood grained), while Fantasyland (by Dumbo at least) still had plain green.
There are some photos, including Sue's recent pic of her and her Mom that show the "hip roof" design in the SBC courtyard. These are the plain green cans with "fancy hats", and they may have been the first enhanced designs since these appear in very early photos of that area and they may have been there since 1955. I can't confirm any of this of course, and it doesn't matter.
I know TSI didn't open in 1955. I wonder if the fancy tree-stump cans were there from the beginning?
Fun to play, thank you.
JG
Perhaps "Medical Parking" was an earlier way of saying "Handicapped Parking".
KS, that’s a good question about the nurses, and one that I can’t answer, unfortunately. Cool that you could just get your flu shot at work!
JG, thank you for censoring the name of the blog-that-shall-not-be-named. No shade intended to that person and their excellent blog! I’m going to have to rely on the trashcan expertise of others, since I spend all my time doing Wordle and playing Pokemon Go (is that still a thing?). I think those tree-stump trashcans were on TSI from very early on, but it’s really just a guess, for the most part.
Anonymous, you might be right!
Major, yes...that wand also makes the loudest, most annoying noise ever!
Stefano, you just reminded me that Farrell's Ice Cream Parlors used to sell those giant Pixie Sticks (in their candy shop). I loved them. Also, don't forget that tomorrow is the 45th anniversary of the "New Matterhorn." "It Could Only Happen At Disneyland!"
A GDB guide to technical terminology:
Disneyoskubalochronology - the study of the history of Disneyland trash cans.
Disneyophotoskubalchronology - the emerging science of dating Disneyland imagery by trash can design.
Disneyophotonumeroskubalmania - the uncontrollable urge to count trash cans in Disneyland pictures.
Lucillephonophobia - the irrational fear of the very mention of I Love Lucy.
Chuck, hahaha. I'm guilty of Disneyophotonumeroskubalmania. But not always; it comes and goes.
Chuck, thanks for the glossary, I’ll copy these down this time.
I suffer from all of them except the last.
JG
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