I'm a bit disgruntled, because I have well over 100 scans ready to share with you folks. Usually there is a mix of the "usual stuff", with some nicer-than-average images sprinkled in. But there really aren't many extra-special views in the bunch! It's bound to happen sometimes, but still, it's aggravating. And so... here are some perfectly-nice photos from 1981 - 44 years ago. Somehow.
In spite of this one being taken in 1981, it really doesn't look that different from others taken 15 years earlier. With the exception of the people wearing shorts! All is well in Town Square, the Popcorn Vendor is waiting for business to pick up, and the Global Van Lines building has its original (and better) façade.
This one's a bit more interesting (to me, anyway), I'm assuming that it was taken from the Disneyland Railroad, as it sat at Main Street Station. Or maybe as it just got underway (to see the Grand Canyon Diorama)? I don't remember those trees partially blocking our view in any other photos. I like the details of the rectangular Skyway gondolas so relatively low to the ground (to the left), providing bright spots of color along with the Peoplemover and Autopia cars. The shrubs covered in pink blossoms add a lot of warmth and beauty to the scene.
Major-
ReplyDeleteI like the 2nd image, too; but from your description it appears you've been doing a bit more than nipping at the schnapps this Xmas... "I'm assuming that it was taken from the Disneyland Railroad, as it sat at Main Street Station". Main Street-?, not unless it was Main Street 2021-!
Thanks, Major.
"But there really aren't many extra-special views in the bunch!"
ReplyDeleteMajor, these are priceless - especially to a couple of our Jr. Gorillas. That popcorn wagon could be Bu's...and maybe he's nearby....and that could be DW in the second picture (though I don't remember if DW was still in DL in 1981??). Just sayin'.......
Never boring to us, Major. Thanks for posting these.
It may be the "usual stuff", but it's still really nice! The HDS (Horse Drawn Streetcar), which we usually see waiting at the designated stop, is actually in motion! You can tell by the horse's leg position. Or maybe the horse is break dancing. I see the popcorn wagon under the yellow umbrella, but I don't see the vendor. Maybe this was "all-you-can-eat popcorn day" and the guests just help themselves.
ReplyDeleteMajor, I'm sure you meant to say the Tomorrowland Station (not Main Street). This photo is especially bright and crisp, small and white, it looks happy to meet me. ;-) I absolutely love the bark on that tree, and how it is lit. We can see the hoodoos of Big Thunder in between the brances of the tree.
I knew others would point out Majors geographical faux pas. But I kept it in my comment anyway. Of course... Major is never wrong. So there must be another explanation, something we're overlooking.
Like Sue said, not boring at all. Thanks, Major.
JB, I see what you did there. But Major ain’t gonna ‘get it’….he never saw that movie. Though he has seen the ‘other’ Matterhorn.
ReplyDelete^ Maybe he's seen actual edelweiss, too!
ReplyDeleteI think I already pointed this out with other photos from this same batch, but.....these people must have waited a very long time to develop their film, if their prints/slides are dated August of 1981. The proof of that is the "25th" anniversary banners on the lampposts in Town Square. Those came down in November of 1980, as the Christmas decor was going up, and then never returned. In those days, management didn't feel the need to drag out the park's birthday celebrations over a period of multiple years, like they do now.
ReplyDeleteI like both of these pics! This was still a good era for the park. Thanks, Major!
On the global Van lines building ( now the national Rental Car Town Square Livery & Storage Lockers Building , you can see the one of the earlier versions of the Main Street Vehicles posters presented by National Rental Car. These posters are park specific but we’re used at both California & Florida locations with local adjustments to each.
ReplyDeleteIn 2005 when Hong Kong Disneyland opened their Main Street USA featured a duplicate of the BEACON MOVERS building ( later global Van & national car rental) in fact when it opened the Hong Kong Disneyland Main Street USA was more accurate to the original 1955 Main Street than the real Anaheim park Main Street was.
"Maybe he's seen actual edelweiss, too!"
ReplyDeleteJB, I have my doubts. Remember what he tells us about his knowledge of flowers.
Quality and content...I'm loving both of these. Especially the layers of colored vehicles zooming, flying, and driving around. Looking really hard for a bobsled, but coming up with Big Thunder hoo-doos?
ReplyDeleteMS
Both of these photos are just fine, the kind of Disneyland pics we can get our teeth into. Scenes of my homeland forever…
ReplyDeletePhoto 1. I may have mentioned this before, but the Global (Bekins) Van Lines facade features a large door in the second floor level, and there is a protruding beam overhead in the center of the gable. This beam would support a block and tackle to lift or lower heavy furniture or packing crates between the upper floor warehouse and the moving wagons or vans. These beams are common features of houses in Amsterdam where the stairs are too and steep to bring items in the conventional manner, and the detail is consistent with moving and furniture warehouses of the Main Street era.
And there is an odd green folder or binder on the roof of the horsecar, maybe Dobbin has left his resume’ up there after his interview at Knotts? Or could it be a stadium seat cushion?
Photo 2, Yes, Major, those trees (or their descendants) are still there at the north end of the station platform in Tomorrowland. We see a bullet head trash can on the Autopia load platform and obligatory fire extinguisher. I think the pink blossoms are on oleander bushes, the California freeway landscape stalwarts, very appropriate in this location. I very much like the skyway buckets launching for their trip through the Matterhorn nostrils to Fantasyland. Bright clear colors matching the PeopleMover. Peak Tomorrowland.
Thanks for this trip back, much appreciated!
JG
*too narrow and steep…*
ReplyDeleteEurgh. JG
Now that I look at photo 2 again, I see the station roof to the right, so these trees are south of the station and so aren’t quite the trees I thought they were, but there ARE still trees and a similar view at the north end of the platform today.
ReplyDeleteJG
TM! Good catch on the timeline...so now there's a better chance that DW could be in that 2nd shot. (DW, what years did you work in DL?)
ReplyDeleteJG, ditto what I told JB, earlier.
:op
Am enjoying today's trip back to DL with everyone.
JG, that green, vinyl zipper bag on the roof of the horse car is where they kept the insurance and maintenance paperwork as well as road maps. There are LA neighborhoods you don’t want to get lost in an open-sided horse car.
ReplyDeleteWhile conventional, these are perfectly cromulent photos. Thank you for posting, Major!
(By the way, the word cromulent has become so mainstream that my iPad suggested it after I typed the letters c - r - o - m. Thank you, David X. Cohen, for embiggening the English language.)
Sue- If the photos were taken earlier in the summer, I may have been there, although later in the day. Also, at that time, I would have been on the Submarine Voyage dock or in one of the submarines (the Nemo fish was nowhere to be seen...). I worked at the park from the summer of 1977 to June/July 1981.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the cool pictures today, Major.
-DW
JG, I caught your "Scenes of my homeland forever…". Thanks for continuing the meme. Hunh, I didn't notice the seat cushion(?) on the roof of the Streetcar. Weird.
ReplyDeleteWe weren’t really assigned “long term” popcorn wagons with the exception of Summer, where your “picked” Summer shift dictated which wagon you were generally scheduled at: but you’d have to go to the “garage” (behind America Sings) before your shift started to understand which wagon, and that would dictate costume. For Main St: this wagon was #1, and it was NOT a busy wagon so it was only brought out during Summer/Christmas. I spent a great deal of time at that wagon in the Summer of 81, and in “80: this had to be early…if memory serves me, this wagon opened at 11:00am…hence…no vendor feet…Thnks Major! And happy holidays to all!
ReplyDeleteJG : while the sponsors ending up being Bekins -and Global at various times … the building itself was designed as THE WED WAGON WORKS … but once a sponsor came on board it was altered …. Here and there . The building to the direct left of the emporium was the office of the wagon works … it too was altered to become The Emporium
ReplyDeleteannex.