Beautiful 50s Views
While I love looking at photos of Disneyland from all eras (and especially the "Walt era"), I particularly love to see the park in those early days, when it felt smaller and more intimate, and there were still some rough edges that they hadn't had time to deal with.
Both of today's slides are undated, but I'm sure that they are no later than the holiday season of 1956, and could be from late 1955. In this first one, a proud father poses while holding his daughter, with the EXIT gate (no turnstiles!) to our left, and Main Street Station looking grand. Simple Christmas garlands adorn the station. Notice that there are no attraction posters on display yet.
Next is this very nice look at the Horse-Drawn Firetruck, or "Chemical Wagon", looking shiny and new. It's pulled by two small milk-white horses. If you look at Town Square behind the wagon, it looks pretty empty! Once again, simple garlands are about the only sign that it was Christmas, though there were painted plywood scenes of children singing carols (and so on) mounted to a few Main Street buildings. Based on a bit of research, my guess is that these pix are from December of 1955.
12 comments:
Major-
Since there is a dearth of attraction posters, these images must be from the 1955-56 holiday season. And with so many great things to come-!
Thanks, Major.
I'm sort of marveling at the clarity and color of these early photos. Almost 70 years ago! Maybe there are no attraction posters because Disneyland didn't have any attractions yet... well, maybe not.
Man, those horsies are little! Like Shetland ponies. Or the little "horse of a different color" from The Wizard Of Oz. The driver seems to be wondering, "Now, where was it I was supposed to go?"
Really nice vintage photos, Major.
Major I concur with your date. The first 36”x54” attraction posters as we know them first appear in June of 1956. There were 18 different posters in the first set. There were of course several attempts of attraction posters that were used prior to this … of various sizes and art styles to help guests understand what these new Disneyland attractions were. The attraction posters added color and excitement to early Disneyland but were important tools educating guests to this new form of entertainment ( we all grew up knowing already) it’s funny when you hear the responses of the children who first ran across the drawbridge on opening day …. ( I worked with one of them
… Alice Ross) she said they all looked around and saw only the carousel and thought “is this all there is!?? “ then realized there rides and attractions hidden behind the facades. Or the frightened guests who really thought the Moonliner would actually lift off from Tomorrowland!! Years later guests would stand around the tiki room and watch the Jose Barker Bird preshow then walk away … the guests were so impressed but thought THAT was the show!! Decades later in Florida the same thing happened … guests thought Space Mountain was going to be a scenic leisure tour of space … so a rocket sled with astronaut passengers spiraling downwards had to be installed out front!
The planter in front of the train station looks a bit like the banks of the "Canal Boats of the World"!
Thanks for the first-year DL pics, Major!
The Kalamazoo handcar doesn't seem to be in its favorite location in front of Main Street Station--the earliest known photo seeming to show it in place by early 1956, if that helps. And what I wouldn't give to see what the hat badges of the "firemen" look like!
Photo 1 has one of the original drinking fountains, no style or theme at all, right out of the parts catalog. And the plain green trash can up on the train platform. I like the proud Dad and the little girl, great pic.
Photo 2 has those nifty chrome tanks. I checked to see if the photographer left a “hubcap selfie”, but the image is blurred. We can see City Hall pretty well though, and possibly a trash can. I think a sliver of another can is visible in the far right corner, pale green original catalog model as in photo 1.
The Christmas garlands across the streets resemble the ones my hometown used to string up, simple and modest, but gets the point across.
Major, thanks for posting these rare early photos!
JG
I wonder if the Depot Disneyland sign is listing the population at this point. We know there were one million visitors from opening day to the end of summer '55.
The Fire Wagon costs 10 cents, the same as Main Street vehicles 26 years later. There could be a pun on change here; but what will Disneyland prices be 26 years from today?
Nanook, even with the “great things” that weren’t there yet, I’d sure love to have seen the park in those earliest days!
JB, yes, somebody had a nice camera - now that I’ve looked at so many slides, you can really tell when a camera had nice lenses. The difference is very noticeable! I wonder if there’s a name for those small horses? I’m sure there is - maybe just “ponies”??
Mike Cozart, I know I’ve seen one of those rare Art Corner catalogs, advertising the attraction posters. You could get the whole set of 18 sent to you in a candy-cane striped tube! It was cheap, though it surely seemed expensive to people in those days, I wonder how many they sold? Funny about the kids who didn’t understand that so many of the rides were behind facades. Imagine seeing those crude early dark rides! Lots of hand-painted plywood “flats”, but still wonderful. Gosh, you’d think that an adult would realize that the rocket didn’t actually lift off! Though I could understand that a child might not realize it. Hard to believe that people thought that the Barker Bird was the entire Tiki Room show! It really demonstrates how new the whole Disney idea of entertainment was.
TokyoMagic!, you’re right, they both have that “just planted” bare look!
Steve DeGaetano, I’ll have to ask a collector friend of mine if he has one of the firemen’s badges. He has some other very rare examples! “Brakeman” for instance.
JG, not only do we see that drinking fountain, but if you look closely near the exit gate you can see the blacklight used for hand-stamps for people who might want to come back. When I was a kid we’d always get our hand stamped even if we weren’t going to return, it was like a little souvenir. It was always a bit sad when it finally completely washed off. I looked for the photographer’s “selfie” too! I love those early, simple garlands because they really feel like the sort of thing you would have seen on any real Main Street around the midwest.
Stefano, Davelandblog did a whole study of the Main Street Station population signs a few months ago, though I don’t know if he had a photo from as early as 1955. I’m glad that they didn’t change the “10 cents” signs over the years, can you imagine if they now said “$5”? That would really destroy any illusion of it being the 1910s (or whenever Main Street is supposed to be).
Major...your comment brings back memories of me doing the same thing with the hand stamp. I recall Dad telling me to get one on the way out. Not sure if they did it too the first time. After that I always did it on my own...a tangible reminder of my visit. The feeling of sadness as it faded away, no matter how I tried to keep the soap away, is still palpable. It would be adsorbed by the skin eventually. On another note, the sheer simplicity of the era...no turnstiles to be seen in that shot. That was the first thing that jumped out to me. KS
I’ll take 500 tubes of attraction poster sets please! MAJOR …I’ve seen signage for attraction posters for sale at The Tomorrowland Art Corner for $1.50 each!! “Our Big Disneyland travel posters are Perfect for your den or rumpus room!!” In 1972 they sold the full-size COUNTRY BEAR JAMOREE attraction poster in Bear County for 5.00 rolled. In 1987 they sold vintage attraction posters for 300.00 at The Disney Gallery in New Orleans Square.
In the late 1990’s Walt Disney World sold their used attraction posters at The Kings Gallery in Fantasyland ( Disneyanna was being remodeled at the time) framed posters were 150.00 and unframed were 100.00! And with a 35% employee discount … you could but an original Florida poster for as little as 65.00!
Imagine starting work at Walt Disney World in the late 1990s and having some time traveler appear and tell you to buy an AP with every paycheck to fund your retirement or kids' college tuition.
I wonder what we should be buying now for unbelievable profits a decade or two from now.
^ Crypto currency. And, of course, Beanie Babies. Although, Major seems to have already cornered the market on that one.
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