Bonnie, August 1961

I have a fun one for you on this Thanksgiving Friday! It all begins with this humble photo print, hand-dated "August 1961" on the back, with the name "Bonnie" helpfully included. She looks nice! Bonnie is a Cast Member (I presume) who worked at the news/souvenir stand that was just outside the East tunnel into the park. Is she wearing sneakers? I started to try to see what sort of items were for sale, and got carried away. Of course there are some that I never could ID, but it was an entertaining exercise anyway.

Here's a key for the items on the left side of the photo that I managed to identify:

#1 - This was a bit tricky, but I recognized the shape of those awesome little travel totes that had the wonderful Monorail graphics on the side. These came in a variety of colors (the webbing on the handle and between the vinyl panels, I mean), and are very popular collectibles today (as I'm writing this, there's one on eBay for an $888.00 "buy it now"). Notice the price tag hanging down in the Bonnie photo, just like the one in the hand of the kid below.

#2 - Coloring books, paper dolls, and other "activity books" were produced by Whitman Publishing in huge quantities back in those days; this is a coloring book with a pretty portrait of Annette on the cover.

#3 - This one was surprisingly hard to find, considering how large the actual book is; it must be at least two feet tall. It's another activity book from Whitman, with various Disney characters on each page. Punch them out and stand them up in your rumpus room! Then knock them down with a dart gun. That's what I would do, anyway.

#4 - Pana Vue must have sold zillions of these slide packets over the years - they changed as time wore on, and one unfortunate change is that they almost always faded to various shades of red - because they are from GAF and use their crummy film. These are the bane of Disneyland slide collectors. 

#5 - I'd never seen these attractive paper parasols until a few showed up in some well-publicized auctions. They were offered in a variety of colors. The first one or two auctions fetched pretty high prices, but I could have bought one more recently. I just didn't want to have to store a big item like this.

#6 - Of course the souvenir stand would offer the wonderful guidebooks. This 1961 example has a particularly bold cover design. I believe that one of these would cost 25 (or possibly 50) cents back in those days. A bargain!

# 7 & 8 - Dell sold Disney comics from 1940 to 1962. It took me a while to figure out the two specific issues on the newsstand, but here they are!

#9 - This one puzzled me a bit; of course Walt Disney had a smash hit with his Davy Crockett miniseries in 1954-55. And Crockett star Fess Parker eventually portrayed Daniel Boone on NBC from 1964 to 1970 (a pretty good run!). But this Daniel Boone coloring book is from years before the NBC show. What I did not know is that Walt had produced a four-part Daniel Boone TV series for "Walt Disney Presents" in 1960, starring Dewey Martin (who was also in "The Thing From Another World", as well as episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits").

Here's the key for the items on the right side of the photo:

#10 - One Hundred and One Dalmations was a smash hit when it was released in January of 1961; it became the eighth highest-grossing movie of the year, though "The Parent Trap" and "The Absent Minded Professor" were #4 and #5 - Walt had a great 1961! Here's a Whitman coloring book.

#11 - Here's another coloring book, not from Whitman Publishing. I could only find two images of similar books; believe it or not, this was the best example.

#12 - Oh boy, the iconic and wonderful souvenir wall maps, drawn by Legend Sam McKim! You can tell that this is the 1961 version by the pink border, and also by the addition of the Flying Saucers.

#13 - The humble and popular felt pennants - I don't happen to collect these at all, which is just as well, since there are MANY varieties. I like them, I just don't want them!

#14 - Years ago I shared a photo of my Disneyland "Magic Pencils", on their original card. Purchased in Owatanna, Minnesota! In Bonnie's photo, we can see similar pencils, offered individually. I no longer have my set, having sold them on eBay. Oh well!

As an avid collector of vintage Disneyland postcards, I was very interested in that display rack on the counter. Here's a quick look at the cards I recognized:

How much time did I spend on today's post? DON'T ASK. Still, as I said before, it was kind of fun.

That's it for now, I'm still out of town, but I look forward to reading your comments!