Main Street, August 1968
I've said this before, but when I was a kid, Main Street was just a nice place to walk through on the way to the stuff that I really wanted to see at Disneyland. Oh sure, we might stop to watch "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln", but otherwise I dreamed of other lands. But now, I am older and wiser, and my appreciation for Main Street, especially vintage Main Street, has grown considerably.
This first picture is really great, lit by the morning sun (I admit that the warm tone gives it a more "afternoon" feel); the variety of details and shapes on all of the buildings is top-notch, and I love the tasteful-yet-still-colorful hues. The family to the right has mom, dad, and four kids - two girls dressed alike, and two boys with identical shirts. It's probably a bit early for an orange juice bar from the Sunkist shop, but man does that sound good right now. The man in the middle of the picture looks like he could be management. He's upset because everyone laughed at his "Broccoli Mountain" suggestion. If you look closely, a single tear is running down his cheek.
This next one appears to have been taken at around the same time, but it looks so much brighter, it must have been cleaned with Windex. Clippety-clop... that's the sound I make wearing my big wooden shoes. The horse pulling the Streetcar gives me a knowing wink. Another Streetcar heads toward the castle, after the two passed each other at that... uh, what do you call that part of the track anyway? The passy-thingy? Anyway, it's the most exciting part of the ride, and I always like to high-five the people going the other direction.
18 comments:
Major-
"...after the two passed each other at that... uh, what do you call that part of the track anyway?" I believe that's called the passing siding - but I like your name better-!
Thanks, Major.
That manager is upset because his heel is stuck in the tracks.
Major, like you, I couldn't wait to get to "The Rides" and largely ignored Main Street. I did manage to see Mr. Lincoln and spend about 20 minutes each in both, the Penny Arcade and the Main Street Cinema. Oh, and I bought a bit of candy from the Candy Palace. Other than that... it was on to the Matterhorn Pirates, Haunted Mansion, etc.
"Broccoli Mountain". How could Disney turn down a sure fire concept like that? We gotta make this happen!
If you look closely, the Streetcar coming toward us has a slight blue tint to it. While the Streetcar going away from us has a slight red tint. Thus demonstrating the concept of Doppler Effect. The color change is hard to see here because the Streetcars are only going about 87% light speed. I count five trashcans in this pic. Maybe six if that's another one just to the left of the farther Streetcar.
Tokyo!, the heel-stuck manager should be thankful he's not wearing a Christmas Tree costume. How embarrassing THAT would be!
Bright, crisp photos today. Thanks, Major.
Tokyo!, the heel-stuck manager should be thankful he's not wearing a Christmas Tree costume.
JB, he should also be thankful that a herd of dancing reindeer and Santa's sleigh, aren't on a collision course with him!
^ Referencing that 1950s sci-fi holiday classic, "When Christmas Icons Collide"
Broccoli is almost never good in any form as far as I am concerned...be in a mountain or on a plate. I know it's a super food, and is good for me...and I can tolerate it...but it must be made very specifically and cooked very specifically. It should be "Goldilocksed"...which means not undercooked, not overcooked, must be very fresh, and very green and cut into the perfect size for eating..."just right". If it isn't...I will leave it on my plate. It doesn't get wasted...the wildlife seems to enjoy it a lot...Just FYI: if as an employee you wanted to get where you were going quickly...you HAD to put your head down, or you would never get to your destination...where someone is waiting with a stop watch to make sure you are EXACTLY on time....if someone got eye contact with you...it generally was not a "where is the bathroom" question...and more involved, trying to help someone who does not speak English wanting to know where Bear Country was when standing in Town Square...or "Pee-raw-tay".....which is kind of easy to tell a more frequent visitor...."go down to the hub...go through Adventureland...at the end of Adventureland it will be on your left...." however....."what's a hub? What's Adventureland? What is the "end" of Adventureland? Will there be a boat? What does the boat look like?.....soooo....as "not guest friendly" as it was....if you wanted to be on time: "head down" "no eye contact". If you were crossing Town Square...and the retreat ceremony was gathering...that was "RUN!"....as if the retreat ceremony starts...of course...you stand and wait until it's over, with eyes on the flag, with no talking, moving, and preferably right hand over heart. If guests were moving about you had to politely telegraph through eye signals and subtle hand motions that they needed to stop and zip it: not their trousers, their mouths. I understand it might seem horribly unpatriotic to "get out" of such a ceremony...but the time is the time....and those on the other side didn't particularly care if you got caught in the retreat ceremony or not. At the time, Disneyland ran on a stop watch: literally. Seconds count. 10 seconds late: 12 minutes docked from your pay. I also ran through Main Street "to get to the good stuff", but if the Omnibus was in Town Square, that was a cheap A ticket thrill ride if you rode on the top. At night: if you still had an A ticket left: of course the horsies were the last ride of the day, as you prepared for you walk into the Parking Lot. That particular "tired" feeling...."Disneyland tired" is a much different feeling than "been working all day"....when you have little left, and you ride the street car...and no one is talking to each other as you recount the memories: just listening to clipity clop and the sounds of Main Street....what a nice memory that is. Thanks Major.
As a kid, I just accepted Main Street as a fact of Disneyland. Later I began to wonder why it was necessary to walk all this way before getting to the good stuff. Now, I think it’s somewhat brilliant. I’m sure that the modern Cattle Call of “rope drop” was not envisioned in the original idea. Even so, Main Street enjoyment was always an end of the day thing for us. I appreciate Bu’s notion of an evening streetcar ride, and have done that occasionally on recent trips, but in youth, we usually walked down the west side of street, through the shops and this is what I remember most fondly.
The CM in the middle of the street (for surely he must be) is nattily turned out today, silk rep tie, the short sleeved shirt of the technocrat, two-toned Oxford shoes (bench-made?), wristwatch, and signet ring. The watch and ring can be combined to create a poison dart projector to fend off aggressive swans or Park guests. Three trash cans in this scene.
JB beat me to the count of five cans in photo 2, and the streetcars are undoubtedly just short of light speed here. I’ll probably want broccoli all day now.
Thanks Major!
JG
This has to be the best color scheme of Main Street, especially the pale orange on the Sunkist building.
Could you actually high five people on the other streetcar? That's the best part of racing roller coasters like Kennywood's Racer and Cedar Point's Gemini. :-)
My favorite guest question is "Excuse me, where's the exit?"
"Turn around, take approximately twenty steps, and you will find THE EXIT."
Nanook, “passing siding” is so clinical, so dry! I prefer the poetry of “passy thingy”!
TokyoMagic!, it has happened to all of us.
JB, the last time I was at the park, I needed to rest my feet, and found comfy padded benches just outside the doors of the Lincoln theater (right next to the big model of the US Capitol), I felt very guilty not going in to watch the “Great Moments” show. I mean, I was already sitting, why not just go in? I’m not sure why I didn’t. I’ve still never set foot in the Candy Palace! It sure smells good from the outside though. I can’t wait to hear the lame back story they will come up for “Broccoli Mountain”. Don’t they know that broccoli sells itself? Good note on the doppler effect, I always enjoy a good red shift. Blue shift? Not so much.
TokyoMagic!, I’m going to borrow that situation for my next Blumhouse horror movie!
TokyoMagic!, was that the one with Robby the Robot in a Santa costume?
Bu, oh man, I actually like broccoli quite a bit. Steam it, then enjoy it either with a little lemon juice, salt, and pepper, or go extra-fancy and put some brown butter on it. It might be my favorite vegetable. But I do understand that many people don’t care for it. I prefer it to be green and a bit “al dente”, but my mom likes it overcooked, so I try to split the difference when I make it for her. I have a friend who has a few chickens, those little dinosaurs will eat just about anything. I would never have dreamt of stopping some random guy with a tie at Disneyland. He’s not wearing a name tag or Mickey pin or anything. It’s a different story if I see an obvious CM wearing a costume. He’s working for ME! And he has to listen to my life story, including when I had a bad dream when I was four. And he’d better be sympathetic! Or I’ll complain at City Hall. I do enjoy tales of the dumb questions that employees can be subjected to. “There are no dumb questions, Major!”. If you say so. Timing employees with a stopwatch, and docking them harshly if they are a tiny bit late, that seems pretty crummy. Things happen. I had a friend who drove a truck for a while, and they would dock him if he was late, no matter if there was a huge pileup on the highway, or terrible fog, or whatever. It was very unfair. Can’t a cast member take backstage paths to avoid big crowds? Maybe only partway depending on where they were headed. I like the idea of taking the Omnibus from the Plaza to the other end, but I don’t believe that they run the vehicles that late anymore. In fact, do they run them after dark?
I was a lot like you guys growing up. Had to blow through Main Street to get to the good stuff!
I must have been 12 or 13 when my parents first allowed me to go off exploring the park on my own for an hour or two, and that's when it happened: Late in the afternoon on a mid-August day, I bought a Coke at Coke Corner, and was sitting near a window facing Main Street, the white lace curtains just high enough that I could see over them.
Sitting there, drinking my Coke and looking out at the hustle-and bustle of pedestrian on the sidewalk, I caught the faint "clop-clop" of a horse, and to my left, heading toward Main Street Station, was a horse drawn streetcar. As it glided past, I got it! I was instantly transported, as if in a time machine, back to August 1895! It all became so real to me. The architecture, the details, the sounds and even the tastes and smells!
I finally got it.
That's when Walt Disney's true genius first manifested itself to me.
In the following years, "Main Streets," both Disney and the real thing, have sort of become a hobby for me.
JG, now that you mention it, I wonder when the “rope drop” idea began? I think they might have done it for opening day, but after that, I don’t think that crowds merited a rope drop. I also tend to do my Main Street shopping on the way out, by then I’ve done all the rides and other things, and enjoy taking my time. That being said, the announcement said that the shops would be open for one additional hour for shopping but many were already closing up shop. Oh well! I guess I don’t have an eye for sartorial splendor, that guy looked perfectly OK to me, but I was not impressed! I guess I need to get a signet ring now. “Here is my decree (melts sealing wax””. I’m glad to hear that you are not a broccoli hater!
Andrew, I agree, the colors on Main Street look so good. Soft greens and yellows, brick reds, slate blues, cream white… colorful, but appropriate.
Steve DeGaetano, I don’t know if this is *always* the case, but I generally find that folks who go to the park more often allow themselves to have time to relax and enjoy Main Street. I really was always in such a hurry to do as many rides as I could, and that meant that Main Street was a blur as I sped to wherever I needed to be. Your memories of your afternoon at the Coke Corner sound wonderful, and at the age of 12 or 13 you were already picking up on so many details that most people (me) didn’t appreciate until much later.
I've bloviated before about the glories of the Main Street Cinema, showing silent films when it wasn't that easy for a kid to see them. So won't repeat my lengthy recollections ... unless you all insist.
^ DBenson, I insist. You're talking to Jr. Gorillas, here, and we never tire of details and recollections.
And now I'll also repeat myself:
When I asked my dad what he loved to photograph most at Disneyland, he said, with no hesitation, "Main Street!"
Steve D., I do remember your Main Street recollection -- and LOVE it. Is your love of trains due to Disneyland trips, too?
Bu, thanks for sharing that information about the employees looking down, and walking like on a serious mission. That all makes sense. I bet you do that now, when necessary.
Major, I never miss the candy shop, though it's missing some of its original charm -- now that lots of the candy is pre-made and pre-packaged elsewhere. I also miss the GIANT suckers...I haven't seen those in years.
Thanks, Major and Jr. Gorillas, for a nice relaxing Main Street day.
MAJOR: they do indeed operate the Main Street vehicles in the evening … about a week ago we rode the Omnibus a few trips around 7/8 pm the horseless carriages were also running. I sent some images to other junior gorillas as well as some images about a month ago in the afternoon that ALL motorized Main Street vehicles were running including BOTH omnibus’s !!
I’m not 100% sure when “rope drop” became official at Disneyland , but there is a 1976 Jack Wagoner DL rope drop ceremony recording and a very elaborate one from 1980 for Disneyland’s 25th anniversary. I remember them as standard in the late 80’s and 90’s. WDW had a rope drop ceremony that used the clock chimes of Cinderella Castle to announce beyond Main Street was open - this was done as early as 1973…. And was the subject of a popular Coca Cola commercial that ran around 1977 featuring a family and large crowds awaiting the castle chimes and rope drop with the magic kingdom crowds running in slow motion to their first destination - no doubt because they all had energy ( from drinking Coca Cola for breakfast !???)
I distinctly recall the Disneyland rope drops having Jack wagoner request “that you please walk slowly to your first destination” later rope drop ceremony’s used the costume characters pretending to be trimming trees and painting buildings getting the park ready for guests …. And WDW has done a ceremony with guests kept outside the entry tunnels and using the WDW RR train arrival with 1900’s garbed passengers in an opening musical show.
Thanks Lou and Sue! My fascination with trains precedes my memory. But Main Street definitely influenced my love of trains from the Victorian era!
I guess I’m a little weird, because I’ve always loved Main Street. Some of my earliest Disneyland memories – from when I was 2 1/2 – are from Main Street. I distinctly remember sitting on the curb next to the Carnation Café, eating a cookie, and drinking milk from a straw out of a carnation milk carton while watching the Disneyland band March by. I also remember late in the day riding the horse-drawn streetcar down Main Street back towards the entrance after dark. My final memory from that visit was getting a Mickey-eared balloon in front of the Opera House.
One of Mrs. Chuck‘s earliest magic Kingdom memories is writing the streetcar and her Mickey eared hat blowing off. Some random guest picked it up and chased down the street car to hand it to her as she rode along.
The first rope drop I remember was in October 1976. I think before that, we were staying at campgrounds far enough away from the Park that we were never able to get there quite so early.
Loving everyone’s memories (as always). Thank you all!
DBenson, feel free to bloviate whenever the mood strikes!!
Lou and Sue, it’s true, we like the details. Why did Lou like Main Street so much? Do you have any specific reasons? I would bet money that the Disneyland trains led to Steve D’s general love of locomotives. I still like my version of the employee crying because nobody liked Broccoli Mountain, but Bu’s account is good too. Giant suckers: they look fun, but I’d bet most people are tired of them after about 10 minutes!
Mike Cozart, I’m glad to hear that they continue to run at least some of the Main Street vehicles into the night. I assume that the horses go to bed earlier, but I just couldn’t remember if I had to stay out of the way of an Omnibus or Horseless Carriage at night the last few times I’ve been to the park. An evening Omnibus ride sounds like a future “must do”. Thanks also for the info about the rope drop; perhaps the event was needed during the busiest seasons, or of course on holidays. You’d think that the days before insane crowds, a rope drop wouldn’t be necessary. On the other hand, for the people who showed up at opening, it would have been a fun extra goodie to add to the excitement! I’ll bet that Coke commercial is on YouTube (along with everything else)! Huh, I sure don’t remember ever hearing about that deal with the characters pretending to prepare the park for opening, I’d love to see photos of that.
Steve DeGaetano, did you have an electric train set when you were a very young child?
Chuck, there’s nothing weird about loving Main Street when you were young - if anything, I consider it a black mark on my own behavior! I do have a number of special Main Street memories, like kneeling to tie my shoe, only to discover that I’d managed to kneel on the one piece of discarded gum on the whole street. Disgusting! What a way to start the day. The balloon vendors were always fun, even if you weren’t buying a balloon. Just seeing those huge bouquets of colorful Mickey-eared balloons was so “Disneyland”! I love the story of Mrs. Chuck losing her Mouse Ears and getting them back. Mike also mentioned 1976 rope drop, so perhaps that’s when the practice started regularly?
Major, my dad loved taking pictures of Main Street because there was so much to photograph—with the ‘scenery’ always changing (parades and bands marching past, characters walking around, vehicles in motion, etc.). Seasonal decoration changes made for nice pictures, too.
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