Randos
Going through a box of slides, I found one hand-labeled, "Disneyland, August, 1964". Eureka! Hey, wait a minute... this isn't Disneyland! It's that crazy World's Fair in New York. I'm walkin' here! Perhaps the person who wrote the label held the slide up to a nearby window, saw Alice and the White Rabbit and that was enough to make an ID. But we know that this group is in front of the UNICEF/Pepsi pavilion, where "It's a Small World" drew in millions of guests (a tiny bit of the supports for the Tower of the Four Winds can barely be seen). The Schaefer Center is to the left in the background.
Next is this nice perspective (dated "October, 1959") showing the vehicle load area for the Matterhorn, with NINE bobsled's, for a cornucopia of good luck. I love the different colors on the bobsleds. I see what appears to be a black and white-striped trashcan (oil barrel?), was that the ticket stub receptacle?
I'll be out of town and away from my computer for the next few days. There will be new posts for you, as always, and I'll talk to you all when I get back!
18 comments:
I see the back of Mickey’s head in that first pic!
Safe travels, Major.
“Pepsi please.”
I’d like a sammich, too.
Major-
"Say Pepsi please"... and Schaefer beer-!
"I see what appears to be a black and white-striped trashcan (oil barrel?), was that the ticket stub receptacle?"
Based on its co-location with an ashtray in THIS 1959 IMAGE, it's quite possible that's just what it is. It seems to have disappeared in later images. Mike-?
Thanks, Major.
For my money (not that I have much of that), the little blonde girl in the bottom right corner looks more like an 'Alice' than the official character does. Slap a light blue dress with a white pinafore on her and she's ready for prime time! Oh! There is also some sort of black vermin behind the White Rabbit... a bat, maybe. :-p
My guess would be "ticket stub receptacle", mainly because an actual trashcan can be seen over to the right. I think there's another (red) Bobsled behind the three on the right. That makes TEN Bobsleds! The blue and yellow Bobsled (front left) is how I usually picture Matterhorn Bobsleds to look. Interesting how the brake pads(?), as seen between the tracks in the foreground, are covered in all sorts of Bobsled colors. Presumably due to the contact with the bottoms of the Sleds.
Sue, Ohhhh, the black vermin is Mickey?!?...... Mickey who? ;-D
Nanook, in the photo you linked to, the tough-looking guys with crew cuts look like they're probably football players. Maybe they played in the Rose Bowl that year?
Nice Randos, Major. Thanks.
Yeah, that can't be the real Alice, because the real one doesn't have short hair!
I would like to know how they use to transfer the bobsleds that weren't in use from the spur track, onto to the main track. They didn't have the current mechanism back then, which allows the spur track to just "slide" into place. Hopefully Mike knows and will chime in.
Thanks Major, and have a safe trip!
Alice has gone “mod” for the Fair. I can see how this slide could be mislabeled easily, OTOH, the Fair was sort of Disneyland East so it’s not far off.
9 bobsleds is a lotta luck. And a striped trash can! I’m satisfied.
The black and white receptacle must be the ticket bin, it is a former marker buoy used by the Swiss Navy, a relic of their historic routing of the Austrian Navy at the battle of Monte Cristo, in celebration of which, Napoleon’s chef invented the famous sandwich.
I really like this picture, thanks Major! Have fun and travel safe!
JG
I should mention that Walt bought the buoy as a present for Lillian, the year after gifting her with the Petrified Tree.
JG
In two weeks or so, this story will be published as gospel truth on five or more Disney Fan sites and YouTube videos will be made of it.
JG
Alice in the first photo looks like somebody I know through work. It's not her - I don't think she was even born yet - but it looks a lot like her. I suppose she could have used a time machine. She is very resourceful, and she was a Marine, so if nothing else she would have been a natural Disney casting choice.
TM!, you are looking at a major design flaw in the original configuration of the Matterhorn. Those cars sat unused on the spare track until the 1978 refurb.
@ JB-
"... the tough-looking guys with crew cuts look like they're probably football players. Maybe they played in the Rose Bowl that year?"
Undoubtedly, as the lovely young lady in the very front is the 1960 Rose Bowl Queen Margarethe Bertleson.
@ TM!-
"I would like to know how they use to transfer the bobsleds that weren't in use from the spur track, onto to the main track".
In THIS IMAGE you can see the [darker] area between the two, white bobsleds, somewhat-resembling an 'H' without the cross, just long-enough for one bobsled, containing the Transfer Track - although I much prefer Chuck's answer-!
(Make that Margarethe Bertelson, eventually becoming Margarethe Bertelson Knoblock).
Pre 1970 pictures of late-teen/early-twenties guys always look strange to me. The guys always look like the're either 12 or 40.
BTW "Knoblaugh" is German for Garlic.
@ Dean Finder-
"The guys always look like they're either 12 or 40".
I used to look '12' when I was '40'-!
"TM!, you are looking at a major design flaw in the original configuration of the Matterhorn. Those cars sat unused on the spare track until the 1978 refurb."
Chuck....HA, HA!!!!
Nanook, thanks for that pic! That explains it. And now I think I can see where the "slidey" thingy is in Major's pic.
TM! & Nanook, from what I've read today, the original transfer table was completely manual. In the Major's photo (as I'm sure you've surmised), it's located at that gap in the rail in front of the yellow and green bobsled on the storage track. Thanks for the overhead photo, Nanook!
@ Chuck-
I think the yellow and green bobsled is actually sitting ON the transfer track...
Tokyo : I believe they did have the spur transfer system back then. If you look and the CM standing between the two tracks … the spur behind him look at the pipe rail closely … there is a separation showing where the transfer carriage is. The empty bobsleds on the “non powered” rail can be manually moved back onto the transfer carriage to be added back to the main line. I think later the spur had a powered mechanism that allowed a loaded bobsled to be moved on or off the transfer carriage … I think it is referred to as a transfer table starting in the 70’s .
That was me above
Post a Comment