The Dumbii
I have two 1956-ish slide scans for you - not the most exciting things ever. But you have to love the classic Dumbo ride (I mean attraction) from the early days, before everyone had one in their driveway. You DO have one in your driveway, don't you?? It's pretty clear that a parent was trying to capture their daughter as she circled around in her flying elephant. You have to have a steady hand, and a quick shutter finger! This first one is just a fraction of a second too late, but you can still see the red sweater and pony tail.
Ah, that one is a bit better, and the composition is a little more dynamic as well. I've pointed this detail out before, but you can always tell when a photo of the Casey Jr. ride (in the background) is early, because the track is just sort of "out there", without the attractive "stone work" added later.
7 comments:
Major-
Ahhhh.... Dumbo - pre-plastic surgery on his ears.
Thanks, Major.
Major, I agree with everything you said about these Dumbii photos. So my work here is done! See you tomorrow! ;-p
Seriously though, the composition of the second photo is so much better! Like you said; dynamic. Plus, Red Sweater girl is looking at the camera in the second image.
So weird to see the Casey Jr. track floating in mid-air. It looks like our model train track did, when we were kids, and added an elevated section for a figure-8 design. We never gave much thought to supporting it properly. And most of the time, when the heavy engine went over the poorly supported part, it caused the track to sag, and sometimes the engine would tip over and fall off the track. I hope that didn't happen here!
“Now there’s something you don’t see everyday, Chauncey…”
“What’s that, Edgar?”
"Flying elephants."
Thanks for the flying elephants, Major.
…… maybe it’s because the Dumbos have a much wider space between each elephant, but the support arms look uncomfortably high …..
Hey - where’s Harry Truman? Red Sweater Girl appears to be the only person riding the Dumbii. If so, why are there multiple empty elephants at maximum elevation? Isn’t the altitude controlled by the rider? Could the other pachyderms be occupied and operated by [gulp] g-g-g-ghosts?
Call me a degenerate, but I always get a kick out of seeing Casey’s naked trestles.
The Dumbli before Timothy Mouse arrived on the scene and cracked his whip.
Dumbo the Flying Elephant is the only attraction that's in every Disney castle park. At one time Buzz Lightyear was in every castle park until Disney converted the one in Hong Kong into The Antman & The Wasp: Nano Battle! While there's a carousel in every castle park, they carry different themes and names.
Thanks, Major.
Nanook, this is also before Dumbo got those collagen injections in his lips!
JB, there was yet another photo from this series, but it was so blurry it didn’t even qualify as a “Blurzle”. I assume that the Casey Jr. track was always supposed to be clad in “stone”, but they needed to get the ride open before they could make it pretty? Not knowing much about model railroading, I am not sure how you would support a track that was elevated. Mom’s cookbook?
Mike Cozart, oh yeah, I do remember that they added more Dumbos. In 1983? I think they squeezed in another four.
Chuck, I ask myself where Harry Truman is ALL the time. I go up to strangers and tug on their sleeves. Interesting question about the empty vehicles at “full elevation”, maybe the default was to go “up”?
K. Martinez, interesting, I did not even think about the fact that Timothy isn’t there, cracking his cruel whip! An “Antman and the Wasp” ride, no thank you. That was not a very good movie.
The best thing about taking a picture of your kid on Dumbo is that you get chance...after chance...after chance...
Chuck, that g-g-g-ghost from yesterday is probably in one of those Dumbi! Spooooooooky! Maybe when they finally finished the Haunted Mansion, they all moved in there.
All of my Dumbo shots of my kid (and grandkids) are from the trailing Dumbo, because why in the world should the kid get all the fun?
Cheers!
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