New Orleans Square Signage
GDB friend Mike Cozart sent me some scans of photos that he acquired from a former Sign Shop employee. All of today's signs are from New Orleans Square. One of my favorite squares! This is "Part One", there will be a "Part Two" eventually.
First up, a sign for The Royal Courtyard. Know what? I'm not sure what (or where) this is (was?)! Probably because the Royal family always kept me out of the loop. You know how snooty they are. This sign is elegant, and appears to be hand-painted in the finest pin-striping tradition. There are no flames, but you can't have it all.
"Le Gourmet", where they probably sold hot-air popcorn poppers and "Veg-O-Matics". For into about these photos, Mike said: At one time the Disneyland sign shop would send a photographer out approximately every 5 years and photograph EVERY sign and graphic in the park over a few days . These were from one of those “sign safaris” by the sign shop in 1973 (although some are dated 1972) the sign shop photographer always got the main signs and marquees but also managed to shoot images of flags, posters , banners, plaques , vehicle door and safety tags and even directional arrows painted on the walkways.
Hey, wait a minute! This sign is way fancier! At first I thought I saw a Pocket Fisherman in this painting, but it's just a standard scoop. This is certainly more elaborate than most of the signs we see in these pictures. Mike had more information about these photos: The images were done on slide film and photo prints were made for quick reference . These images are from those reference prints. Besides the sign shop , the graphics department at WED and the studio archives would be sent albums of these reference prints. Disneyland would also send a set to Walt Disney World’s sign shop as “this is how we did it at Disneyland“ reference.
"Le Grand Court", where you had to go for jury duty every few years. Florida in kind also sent similar albums to Disneyland. When things at Disneyland were being re-arranged in the late 90’s, the slides were sent to WDI for storage while the reference photo albums were tossed out. My set was saved by a retired WED graphic artist who started at the sign shop. Although now passed, many of my signs and posters in my collection came from his 25 years with WED and Disneyland. VERY COOL, and thank goodness Mike saved these.
And lastly (for today), Le Forgeron. Not "Le Frogeron", where you could buy frogs (unfortunately). "Forgeron" means "blacksmith", so I assume you could buy all sorts of hand-wrought iron doo-dads. Need cast iron shoes? They had them! Le Forgeron was located back near the train tracks, and apparently closed in 1974.
Stay tuned for PART TWO! Many thanks to Mike Cozart for sharing these cool photos with us.
14 comments:
Major-
What a great set of images from a favorite area of The Park.
Thanks to Mike for sharing these (and saving them-!)
The fine script on The Royal Courtyard sign is almost too fancy. It's a little hard to read; at least at first glance. From what I've heard, today's kids/teens probably couldn't read it at all because they (apparently) don't learn cursive writing in school anymore.
I like the fancy, colorful "Le Gourmet" sign. To the right of the Pocket Fisherman is the (green) Maltese Falcon.
Ooooh, really nice wrought ironwork on the Le Grand Court sign. I wonder if it's real iron or some sort of resin.
Thank you, Mike and Major.
The Royal Courtyard sign is the only one of todays sign images still in use at the park. The Le Grand Courtyard sign was still being used until not too long ago but as Le Bat En Rouge shop sign. The filigree around that one was actual wrought iron.
Very interesting collection and history, Mike! Thanks for sharing.
Thank goodness these were saved. Beautiful work and a fascinating story.
Major, the Royal Courtyard still exists, but under a different name, I think. It’s near what used to be the One of a Kind Shop. It’s not as cool as the other courtyard that was shut off to be part of Club 33.
Don’t forget Le Gourmet also sold Ginsu Knives! Mine can still cut up a beer can! I think the Pocket Fisherman had a Mickey Mouse logo too.
The Grand Court was also where concert piano players were tried. Victor Borge fought a traffic ticket there once. It was higher than the Spinet Court, which in turn, was higher than the Harpsichord Court. The Bongo Drum Court was the lowest, of course.
Le Forgeron was where you could obtain various forgeries as well. Handy if you needed a fake ID on the fly. I don’t recall this shop at all…
Thank you Mike and Major for these wonderful signs!
JG
Very cool and interesting info. I’m looking forward to Part 2 - and curious to see if the Blue Bayou sign will be included. Were there different versions of the BB sign?
JG, if The Bongo Drum Court was the lowest, then where does The Accordian Court fit in?
Thank you, Mike and Major.
Le Grand Court(yard) is now the one behind the C33 paywall, also known as the Court of Angels (or Angles, if you happen to be obtuse).
@ JG-
I believe you slighted the Autoharp Court-!
Nanook, yes, imagine if these had just gone into a bin! So glad that Mike saved them.
JB, too fancy? I suppose you think that wearing two monocles is too fancy! Some people just don’t appreciate high class. I don’t get how suddenly kids can’t supposedly read cursive, but it is apparently true. I’ve also heard that some kids don’t know how to tell time on an analog clock. Hmmm. The green Maltese Falcon is known as “the stuff that beans are made of”. They couldn’t afford real wrought iron, so they used wrought gold spray-painted black instead.
Mike Cozart, for some reason I feel like, years ago, that wrought iron could have been produced inside the park. Now of course they’d have to contract it out.
Steve DeGaetano, I need to bug Mike for “part two”!
JG, Mike said that the Royal Courtyard sign is the only one that is still in use, so I’d assume that it still goes by that name? Sure, you can cut a beer can with a Ginsu knife, but then you have to cut a paper-thin slice of tomato. It’s the law. Victor Borge, would I even know who he was if it wasn’t for PBS pledge drives? The Bongo Drum court should have been the highest! I do happen to need a fake ID, but you can’t get those at Disneyland anymore. You have to go to Knott’s.
Lou and Sue, I guess this is a spoiler, but there are no Blue Bayou signs in the batch that Mike sent me. I actually know someone who plays the accordion, he owns at least three, some fancy, one small and simple.
Stve DeGaetano, “or Angles if you happen to be obtuse”. Ha!
To the accordion-playing acquaintance of Major Pepperidge:
If you read this blog, please don’t take my previous comment to heart, considering it’s coming from someone (me) who regularly hears degrading comments about violins and orchestra music. 🙃 ….which reminds me, we haven’t heard from Andrew for a while….
Sue : over time there have been two Blue Bayou Restaurant “marque” signs … both used the original metal housing but the acrylic insets ( supposed to represent glass) had the colors and letter type ( fonts) changed a few years ago. The oval medallion signs of the Blue Bayou - seen along the pilasters of the building’s entry have had about 6 variations of the original 1967 graphics including flat green , grey and several of the blue colors . Then when the logo was changed in the 2000’s two designs have been used Thru today. Beyond the marque signs the restaurant has had many dozens of menu board signs and closed and rehab signs .
I sent Major a current photo showing the location of the ROYAL COURTYARD sign - the exact style sign in color and graphic is still used today . However the 1967 one in todays post was baked enamel - it’s not hand painted but silkscreened - like the one used today and it’s post 1967 replacements … but is no longer traditional baked enamel.
MAJOR : Disneyland definitely once had more in house fabrication capabilities, but Disneyland has always used outside vendors . All the 1967 Tomorrowland Marque signs were built in LA by a major sign & display company. All the hanging light box signs along main street USA were manufactured by a sign shop on Santa Ana , california and the descendants of that same sign shop build the new replacements of them all in the 2000’s. Lots of wood carving for signs for Adventureland and Fantasyland were done by oceanic arts fame. And sign sandblasting is usually done by local vendors as needed.
Anonymous was me … not sure why it did that …
These are awesome and I'm sorry I missed this post yesterday! Had no idea that these are from '73: the photos are so fresh and shiny. Le Forgeron...well, that is a new one...but makes sense for an authentic New Orleans. I remember the sign shop way back when...it was rather a magical place back there with the simple metal sheds...corregated roofs and whatnot...very "1954"...it smelled of fiberglass, toxic paint, melted plastic....all great smells to me!....The Company was very proud to show it off on all the employees first day, as we stopped there in the vintage Disneyland Hotel tram seen in many photos...then it became a way to transport employees back stage. Wonder where that is? Thanks Mike for the trip to '73, and of course to Mr. M!
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