Snoozles From March, 1961
Unlike a box of chocolates, you pretty much know what to expect from Snoozles™. Bad pictures!
I understand that guests aboard a Skyway gondola had limited mobility and not a lot of control of their view inside that tiny bucket, but having a photo perfectly bisected by one of the gondola's supports is pretty bad. It's too bad, otherwise it would be a decent picture.
From the same batch comes this photo taken from a Storybook Land canal boat; maybe our photographer liked the passing Casey Jr. Circus Train? Or the Matterhorn looming in the distance? Or gramps' hat? Whatever the case, this is a C- photo.
23 comments:
Major-
"... but having a photo perfectly bisected by one of the gondola's supports is pretty bad".
Well, looking on the bright side - at least the support wasn't protruding out of someone's head-!
Thanks, Major.
Pic #1: Ha!
Pic #2: My guess is the contrail or the leaning sickly palm.
Thanks, Major. I think. ;o)
Nanook: Ha!
Hmm, well I guess we should give the photographer credit for taking the photo at the precise time to perfectly bisect his photo. In a way, it gives us that "you are there" vibe; as a passenger, these bucket bars are gonna be in our line of sight almost everywhere we look.
Ha! I was going to ask, "What the heck is that Hawaiian lei thing draped over that gray boulder?" on the right. But it finally occurred to me; it's a little old gray-haired granny wearing some sort of tiara-hat thingy. Now I can sleep tonight. We can see only one Skyway bucket, and it's a yeller one. (Or white?) Looks like someone painted a huge cross on the Matterhorn to ward off vampires.
Sue, I was wondering about those contrails too. They criss-cross. Plus there are those two 'loopy' contrails, or clouds, on the left. I'm sure this is a bad omen!
Thanks for the fun fotos, Major.
JB, I think I see a flash of red — by that yellow/white bucket. IF that’s a bobsled, it offsets that bad omen, so no worries.
Sue, Hmm, I see the "flash of red", but I can't tell for sure what it is. Best to gird our loins for the worst!
The interiors of the round Skyway gondolas should have rotated!
Funny, I didn't notice the sickly palm until Sue pointed it out. I think Skull Rock Cove would have been just months old at this point.....and maybe even newer if the photographer waited a while to develop their film. So maybe that palm had been transplanted not too long ago and still hadn't recovered completely.
"JB, I think I see a flash of red — by that yellow/white bucket. IF that’s a bobsled, it offsets that bad omen....."
Sue, that's just leftover blood from JB's vampires.
Thanks for the Snoozles, Major!
"....Best to gird our loins for the worst!"
JB, How about if I just drape a Hawaiian lei over my head?
"Sue, that's just leftover blood from JB's vampires."
TM! WHAT vampires??
TM! WHAT vampires??
Sue, the ones that were warded off by the huge cross on the side of the Matterhorn. I blame Darren McGavin.
Here's the quote from JB's first comment, "Looks like someone painted a huge cross on the Matterhorn to ward off vampires."
I blame Darren McGavin.
Or maybe it was "Audio-Animatronic Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."
^ Gotcha, TM! (Thank you!)
Forget about that Skyway bucket support post in the middle of the first shot - that stupid castle is blocking J. Nartubez’ view of the Parking Lot Power Lines!
Despite the bifurcating blockage, the first photo does bring out a detail I’d never noticed before - the Mickey Mouse
Club “drumhead” logo suspended out in front of the marquee of the Fantasyland Theater.
TM!, I’ve always thought that the omission of a wheel to spin the original Skyway buckets was a missed opportunity. Rapidly spinning rides suspended above crowds are a brilliant idea. Disney should invest in a heavily-themed Gerstlauer spinning coaster and call it “Big Chunder Mountain.”
That view of the power lines triggered HG Wells to write War of the Worlds right after he perfected his Time Machine. Facts!
You forget that they did try the spinning buckets but Lillian hurled too much lessening the experience of those below.
Pic one was snapped just before he moved the camera to the right and got a good photo of the castle.
Thanks Major for the nice photos disguised as Snoozles.
Zach
That is a remarkable photo, I almost like it as-is. As Chuck points out, there are good details. I wonder if some AI couldn’t remove the brace.
The Palm Springs Tramway revised their buckets and now they do spin. They are fully enclosed with windows so the spinning isn’t too wild, but it’s definitely a thing.
I like photo 2 mostly because of Casey and the Matterhorn.
Thanks for these pics, Major. They won’t interrupt my afternoon nap today.
JG
These may be Snoozles™, but they've got good composition. I like how cutting the back of the Skyway bucket off makes it look like a theater box. Our couple could be Statler and Waldorf, fifteen years before their time.
"The Mad Tea Party? What are they so mad about?"
"Because instead of a cup with buns and oolong, they're in a cup that's spun for too long! AHAHAHA!"
And in the second shot, it's cool how the airplane trail (I don't know the technical term; I'm not an off-the-groud machine flying guy) creates a diagonal line that's echoed by the side of the mountain leading down to the Casey, Jr. sign, and again by the crooked palm tree. And Grandma and grandpa and they gray, lumpy son between them are riffing on the whole scene for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Nanook, “at least the support wasn’t protruding out of someone’s head!”. Well, I guess that IS a bright side!
Lou and Sue, I do love taking pictures of sickly leaning palms. And contrails, or “chemtrails” as I like to call them.
JB, I always wonder if the photographer’s brain self-edited that support out? Why didn’t they lean forward to eliminate it from the picture entirely? WHY?? I think that “hat thingy” is something I’ve seen before, sort of like a babushka crossed with a pot holder. It took me a second to see the cross on the Matterhorn. Did somebody design it that way on purpose so that it appeared when the sun was at a certain angle? Like the eagle on Eagle Rock. Could be.
Lou and Sue, why am I not seeing that “flash of red”?
JB, there will be no girding of loins on this family blog!
TokyoMagic!, not only should they have rotated, but they should have rotated at 200 rpm. I forget when Skull Rock Cove opened, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but it was within the year, so those palms didn’t have much time to fill out. That one really does look pretty sickly. I wonder if it had been removed from the path of a freeway that was being built? We all know that Disneyland is full of vampires, I’ve been saying it for years.
Lou and Sue, I feel weird commenting on what is basically a conversation between people. What do I say??
TokyoMagic!, I wonder if Darren McGavin ever went to Disneyland, with his pork pie hat?
TokyoMagic!, oh man, that movie about Lincoln and vampires was terrible.
Lou and Sue, it is always polite to say thank you.
Chuck, I’m sure you’ve seen that “drumhead” sign on the Mickey Mouse Club Theater before, we’ve had much better photos of it, up close. But now that I think about it, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a good image of the sign. I actually do think it would have been fun to be able to spin the gondolas if you so desired. Or don’t do it if you don’t want to!
zach, I think HG Wells should have stuck to writing teen romances, the finest books ever written. Who cares about science fiction?? Ha, poor Lillian. I sometimes wonder if she liked Disneyland, or did she tolerate it as one of Walt’s many obsessions? I’d like to think that she enjoyed a nighttime ride on the Mark Twain.
JG, I’m sure AI could remove that brace, thought it might not know exactly how the peak of the Carrousel tent terminated. Aren’t the Palm Springs Tramway cars big? Do they really spin now? Seems like an odd feature to add, but I guess they have to keep things fresh for returning customers.
The fancy term for that kind of hat is bandeau (rhymes with banjo, but with the stress on the second syllable). I inherited my own Grandma's - one off-white for weddings and one black for funerals. Not many people remember the lost verse from Stephen Foster's "Oh, Susanna!"
"Oh, I come from Alabama, with my bandeau on my head.
I'm goin' to Louisiana, where true love has a shed."
In an unrelated coincidence, my Grandma was born in Camptown, where the races were. But I never heard her sing "Doo-dah, doo-dah."
And I see I should have read other comments more carefully before writing mine. I would have learned the name for those lines in the sky. Contrails? Chemtrails? COINTELPRO???
"'I blame Darren McGavin.
Or maybe it was 'Audio-Animatronic Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.'"
If they put Animatronic Janos Skorzeny in the park, I'm going back to Disneyland!
"TM!, I’ve always thought that the omission of a wheel to spin the original Skyway buckets was a missed opportunity."
Chuck, maybe when they bring back the Skyway (Yeah, right!), guest will be able to spin the gondolas violently, like Major suggested......200 rpm!
"You forget that they did try the spinning buckets but Lillian hurled too much lessening the experience of those below."
Zach, she shouldn't have eaten so much of Walt's canned chili prior to riding!
Major, as JG mentioned, the Palm Springs Tramway gondolas do rotate now. I rode on them when they were more rectangular-shaped and static. But some years ago, they got new gondolas that are round and slowly rotate so riders can view the scenery on both sides. And I never saw the Abe Lincoln Vampire movie, but I heard that it wasn't good!
"If they put Animatronic Janos Skorzeny in the park, I'm going back to Disneyland!"
Melissa, I had to look up Janos Skorzeny. I didn't remember that that was the name of the vampire that Darren McGavin was hunting down! Now I wish that they had put an animatronic Janos Skorzeny in the Opera House instead of the Walt A.A. He could have talked about his brother, Count Dracula, and how he was always envious of him and his job at the blood bank.
Those airplane contrails were a common site around Orange County … but ever since the El Toro Air Force Base was decommissioned you don’t really see them like you used to. I’m sure that they didn’t show up very often in peoples photographs because there were strict airspace rules over Disneyland..
I should specify JETS not aeroplanes create the contrails.
In my work life, I had to work around many many many constraints of architecture and construction....why oh why was there a pole or a column EXACTLY in the wrong spot....or a fire alam thing...or outlets in the center of walls....??? Dealing with "legacy buildings" you run into this all of the time...and my MO was to "ignore it...and don't point your finger at it...and the people won't notice either"....so...I DID NOT even notice the pole until I read the description...but it was a well placed distraction...and I do like a vintage Fantasyland...even better now with the "NEW" Fantasyland circa 1983...now 43 years old. Wow. Amazing. Kind of makes me want to spill my cookies...but back on topic: when the Matterhorn is more spartan with snow, it actually looks taller and has a bit more scale...I'm liking it...and I've actually never seen this view with the back side of Casey...and that is probably for GDB AFTER DARK.....what ever you do, don't let em see you sweat...or was it your bottom? ...or as my grandmother said "your BTM". Advice: Don't show sweat or BTM. Thanks Major.
Mike, any aircraft that exhausts enough water vapor into the air at a cold enough external temperature (typically around -40 F) will create contrails, not just jets. The typical altitude where this happens is 28,000-30,000 feet. The reason we younger folks tend to think of them only being caused by jets is that most modern piston-driven aircraft are light aviation airplanes that can’t reach much above 12,000 feet, so we only see jets trailing contrails today. WW II photos of massed bomber formations show lots of contrails, but those airplanes (like these B-17s) all had piston engines.
^ Interesting. I also just assumed it was jets that left condensation trails. Now that you' forced' me to think about it, it makes sense. Thanks, Sirloin (Chuck). :-D
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