Tomorrowland, June 1965
I have a pair of real beauties for you today! Starting with this great view of the Clock of the World, with a balloon vendor holding a bouquet of helium balloons. At first I thought his cap had something written on it, and immediately thought of its collector potential! But... no such luck. The lady in orange has photobombed the image, but she's so cheerful that it's OK. If only this photo had been taken on a clear day (darn you, June Gloom!), bright sunshine and a blue sky would have added a lot to the picture.
I'm always happy to find any photo of the Flying Saucers, which were only 15 months away from their last invasion (it closed on September 5, 1966). Most of the guests seem to be smiling, so they were having fun in spite of the many issues that plagued this attraction. And considering the legendary low capacity, the queue is almost non-existent.
16 comments:
In the first image, "Hands-In-Pockets Guy" is doing some kind of yoga pose with his feet.....I think.
I don't ever remember seeing an "Olive & Toothpick" lamppost at the entrance of Tomorrowland....at least not on that side of the state flags.
Major-
That first one really is a beauty. Had the ballon vendor been holding the balloons just below the clock's numbers, it could easily be mistaken for a publicity shot. (I see the attraction posters are all gone). "Other" sites seem to dispute the date - possibly dating these images from a year later...
Thanks, Major.
That's an odd-looking costume for the balloon vendor. Sort of like a combination vintage aeronaut and sewer worker. At least he isn't wearing a Pinocchio-type costume [shudder].
A big bunch of billowing bobbing bouncy balloons always looks great, no matter the weather conditions.
Oh my, what happened to those graceful palm trees? They've been denuded! Stripped bare! Defoliated!
The floor of the Flying Saucers looks especially smooth and shiny here, like the surface of a swimming pool. Usually we see several of the circular vent covers scrunched down in an out-of-place position.
I thought maybe the guy in the saucer, wearing the black pants, white shirt and red hat was a CM. But none of the other CMs are wearing a red hat, so...
Tokyo!, Hands-In-Pockets Guy is practicing to be a super model, doing the 'scissor walk'.
I was also wondering what that errant lamppost was doing over there. Maybe they're alive! Aliens! They walk around late at night, and this one didn't make it back to its usual position in time.
Great photos today, Major. Thanks!
Glad they gave the balloon vendor a hard hat to protect him from being beaten unconscious from balloons continually smacking him in the noggin. Bu knows what I’m talking about.
I want that red and yellow tiki shirt in the second picture. And I don’t know why you guys are focused on an imaginary alien in the first photo when there’s a genuine bug-eye wearing a white pattern dress looking straight at the photographer in the second pic. The woman pointing at her was probably vaporized moments later for blowing the alien’s cover.
TM! & JB, Blue Steel!
I can hear Bu now....
“Untangling...always untangling....”
Thanks, Major.
—Sue
For whatever reason those hard hats were used on various early Tomorrowland costumes like Autopia , Astro Jets , Skyway and also sold as souvenirs with Disneyland markings. Fiberglass was a fairly new technology when Disneyland opened … so maybe that was part of the mystique. There’s story’s of guests being afraid to get into the fiberglass Tomorrowland Phantom Boats because they feared the plastic hills would dissolve in water. By 1965 fiberglass was commonplace …. But it looks like those hats were still lingering on despite them being so “50’s”. These same fiberglass hats were used by the parking lot tram castmembers . The complete 1967 new Tomorrowland Rocket Jet costume featured a fiberglass helmet …. Abs appears to be an off the shelf baseball batting helmet . This would make sense because the director of costuming at this time had been a sportswear buyer for a department store chain …. And this explains why most of the mid 60’s a d Tomorrowland 1967 costumes were comprised of skiwear and other high end sportswear…… even Sport equestrian accessories were used by this director… ( tour guides ) was she getting kickbacks from her old vendors??
HILLS = HULLS ( boat hulls) thank you AI!!
TokyoMagic!, maybe the hands-in-pockets guy is a ballet dancer? I never paid enough attention to the olive-and-toothpick lamps, for all I know they’ve always been right there at the entrance!
Nanook, why would the clock’s numbers have to be seen? Just curious. Good eye on the missing posters, the entrance feels diminished without them.
JB, you see those jumpsuits (?) on some of Tomorrowland CMs, I guess they seemed sort of futuristic and utilitarian at the same time? And yes, anything is an improvement over those Pinocchio outfits. I don’t think those are palm trees, I think they are Mediterranean Cypress trees that have been trimmed to NASA tolerances!
Chuck, don’t forget meteor showers. Everyone forgets meteor showers! That tiki shirt (or whatever it is!) is quite eye-popping. He looks like a lava flow. I wonder if that alien woman wanted to ride the flying saucers because she was homesick?
Sue, maybe Bu is right behind you!
Mike Cozart, I’m assuming that the “hard hats” that employees wore were considerably sturdier than the thin vacuum-formed Keppy-Kaps that crack if you stare at them too hard. I don’t see any graphics on them, it would be cool if they at least said “Disneyland”. Jeez, people were scared that plastic hulls would dissolve? And yet they were fine with exploding ducks. Now I wonder if those helmets really were just baseball helmets! In a way, why not? They provide a bit of sun protection, and protection from meteor showers (see my comment to Chuck). I always thought that the costumes that CMs wore were largely “bespoke”, made by talented park seamstresses, but now I’m thinking that you are right, many pieces were probably acquired from wholesale suppliers.
Mike Cozart, I knew what you meant!
Just can't get enough of those Flying Saucers. KS
Yeah we think of Disneyland having a fantastic costume and wardrobe department …. But that really wasn’t the case until the late 60’s. While for opening there were some elaborate things designed , Disney barely had money to open the park … let alone create the mass amounts of costumes. Rene Connely didn’t stick around long after opening … and WED imagineers were busy expanding the park and Disneyland special services were busy seeing animal skins for Frontierland and window awnings for Main Street and tiki lanai shades for Adventureland so costumes during this time were not a focus. John Hench was taking over the costume design … along with art direction of the rest of the growing park … And he didn’t have a staff to create his designs for park use. The studios helped out when they could … like fabricating the Golden Horseshoe costumes …. The ice capades people were suppling the character costumes .. vendors supplied their own costumes and lots of off the shelf ( the rack) stuff was used . A new costume director was hired to free up John Hench so he could concentrate on bigger projects… but she wasn’t a costume designer Ave was a sports wear buyer …… finally it was decided to bring in professional costume people from Western Costuming and create a stand alone costume division if they were ever gonna tackle a Disney World in Florida ..and while John Hench still had the final decision, there was now a team of profession costumers creating specifically for JUST Disneyland and soon to be Walt Disney World.
Chuck, you are so right. Being beaten unconscious by a gaggle of balloons is the third most frequent reason for hospitalization in the U.S.. Insurers won't even cover it anymore.
I just noticed your 'alien'... creepy!
Umm, "Blue Steel" just went whiffling over the top of my head.... Oh. I just googled it. A "Zoolander" (super model) reference?
Major, hmmm, Mediterranean Cypress trees, you say? Not denuded palm trees? Ok.......... nevermind.
I always appreciate the rainbow of people in Disneyland.
MS
Now I've got "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" stuck in my head.
Mike, knowing about the low costume budget, now the lack of character wigs in the early days makes more sense.
I thought the guy may have been a DOD project that Disney was doing to drop paratroopers into battle with balloons to slow the descent instead of parachutes, so they could just release them instead of collecting their 'chutes.
Tomorrowland 1955 never disappoints.
Thanks Major, sorry I’m late.
JG
KS, I feel the same way!
Mike Cozart, in a way I salute the ingenuity of taking bits and pieces of available uniforms and costumes and customizing them for Disneyland use. “Why the heck not!”, that’s my philosophy. It is kind of amazing when you really think about the sheer scale of outfitting the park (not just costumes) with all of the small details that most folks wouldn’t notice - although they might notice how chintzy the place would feel without those things. I didn’t know that John Hench was actually involved in costume design - he really could do it all. We’ve all seen those early Ice Capades (my computer doesn’t like the word “capades”) costumes, I guess they were better than nothing? Maybe? I feel like lately there’s been a few steps back in regards to costuming, but maybe I am mistaken.
JG, balloons don’t leave bruises either, so Columbo would be baffled by a balloon murder. Don’t steal my idea, Hollywood! I remember Blue Steel from “Zoolander”, but didn’t make the connection.
MS, there’s so much that we share, that it’s time we’re aware!
Melissa, that’s an OK song to have stuck in your head.
Dean Finder, the enemy would be so surprised that it would never occur to them to shoot at the balloons!
JG, it’s OK, you can be late, sometimes I’m late to my own blog.
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