Today's "Anything Goes Saturday" images were a mystery to me; we see a small, unusual-looking sternwheeler on a glassy body of water, with the name "S.S. Priscilla" visible on the life preservers on the upper level (the "hot dog deck", I believe). It turns out that this was enough of a clue - the "steamboat" was at the Great Danbury Fair, in Danbury, Connecticut, circa October, 1958. We've visited the Danbury Fair before, take a look HERE and HERE. I love the modest, charming look of this boat - it's almost a piece of folk art.
This vintage postcard was what helped me ID the two vintage slide scans!
Major-
ReplyDelete"Capt. Nick" pilots the S.S. Priscilla, I see. (The 'steamboat' almost looks as if it were constructed from a kit purchased thru Sears, Roebuck-! (I wonder if it's related to the S.S. Minnow-?)
Thanks, Major.
I wonder if this sternwheeler really was a sternwheeler, or if the paddlewheel was merely decoration and the boat got is power from a hidden engine/motor? Probably not steam. Not that it really matters. The boat looks cute as a button (whatever that means).
ReplyDeleteA lot of its appeal is due to the color scheme; bright primary colors. Plus the black trim. I suppose it comes perilously close to Knott's "Red Cliff" train engine colors. But there are enough differences to make this boat look good (Chuck will be happy!).
These pics look really good considering they're all the way from 1958. Crisp saturated colors. In the postcard pic, someone is putting their hand down into the water. I hope management didn't stock this body of water with piranhas, crocodiles, and Killer Swans!
So goes Anything Goes. Anything Goes is now Anything Went. Thanks, Major... Now that I look at it, "goes" is a weird-looking word.
Priscilla is really ‘dragging,’ in that postcard shot.
ReplyDeleteIn that first pic, the girl leaning on the bow of the boat looks bored out of her gourd! Maybe she's thinking, "I'd rather be at Disneyland!"
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the Fair had a candy store, where visitors could buy some Danbury Mints? Wah waaah!
Thanks for the fun Fair pics, Major!
@ Sue-
ReplyDelete"Priscilla is really ‘dragging,’ in that postcard shot".
It was an attempt by the 'Great' Danbury State Fair to recreate the Mark Twain on Disneyland's opening day...
I'm curious about 'portico' building, it's pretty shallow.
ReplyDeleteThe little girl isn't bored, she's studying her lines for the school play, 'Danbury Rocks!'
Thanks for the fun day at the fair!
Zach
My research grant finally came through and I was able to find that the 'portico' building was custom designed for the New England Village area of the fair to evoke the classic architecture of the Colonial houses of worship. They all fit in there since people were smaller then.
ReplyDeleteZach
What a fun little place. To mis-quote the CoP, “It’s not Disneyland but it’s here…”
ReplyDeleteI would love to ride that boat, it’s probably powered by wicked children who threw rocks at the swans, or who made fun of the prophet for being bald, or otherwise misbehaved. Something had to be done and churros weren’t invented yet.
I think the portico is built over the front of a simpler gable roof building just visible in the shadows.
Thanks for the trip to Danbury, Major!
JG
I see the building behind it now so all the people can finally exhale.
DeleteNanook, the S.S. Priscilla definitely looks like a big toy!
ReplyDeleteJB, based on the photos, that sternwheel does not seem to be doing much work. And I would bet big bucks that steam has nothing to do with anything. I think it’s kind of amazing that the Danbury Fair built that “New England Village”, fairly elaborate for what it was. As we saw in my previous Danbury Fair posts, it all came to an end in 1981, so sad for a long-lived American tradition.
Lou and Sue, it is definitely full!
TokyoMagic!, I suppose it’s hard to tell if somebody is really bored, but I admit that the little girl does not seem super “into it”. When I think of how I probably look on the Mark Twain or the Jungle Cruise, I’m probably pretty stone-faced. I also curse a lot. Danbury mints, ha ha. All the best stuff is made there.
Nanook, if only the Danbury Fair had soft asphalt so high heels could sink into it!
zach, yeah, that church (?) look almost like a facade at Universal Studios. “Danbury Rocks!”, all the songs are terrible, but at least they rhyme.
zach, folks from the 17th and 18th centuries were generally 4” thick.
JG, you aren’t kidding… whenever I lived someplace far from SoCal, I was grateful for other parks to go to. Hershey Park, for instance. They were never as good, but still fun. Were churros invented by Sir Albert Churro? As for the portico (we’ve used that word as many times as is legal today!), see zach’s previous comment!
Step right up, ladies and gents, and see The Flattest Church in New England!
ReplyDeletePut one thin dime in the collection plate, and watch it fall right back out, because there ain't room to hold a plate horizontally! Our organist, Flat Stanley, can play the Wedding March in the two seconds it takes the bride to walk down the aisle! Well, he could, if we had room for an organ, which we don't. Come see our church accordionist, Sideways Stanley, play the two-second Wedding March on the Mighty Small Wurlitzer, in The Flattest Church in New England!
Today's hymn is #1, marked down from #888, "How Flat Thou Art," in the key of A-double-flat. And remember, brothers and thinsters, as Reverend Cap'n Nick said right before he fell into the paddlewheel, you've either got to see sharp or be flat. My wife asked me just last Sunday why they're called "hymns" instead of "hers" and I said to her, I says, "Well, that's on account of they all end with 'a-men' instead of 'a-women!'" And then she told me to go sit in another pew, but there ain't room for another pew! Because this is The Flattest Church in New England!
I still remember the day Old Luther Martin nailed his 99.9 theses to the front door, and the nails came right out the back door. It took the whole alto section of Norman's Block and Tackle Choir to pry the poor gravedigger loose. Cap'n Nick had to bury him at sea. C-flat, that is, because this here is The Flattest Church in New England!
And if any of these jokes fall flat... you can clap two boards together and build a clapboard house next door to The Flattest Church in New England!
I have missed GDB and the Junior Gorillas SO MUCH.
HOORAY MELISSA IS BACK!
DeleteJG
MELISSA, IT’S WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU’RE BACK!
ReplyDelete“Break out the steaks and the cheese fondue!”” MELISSA’s BACK!!!!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back Melissa!! Please stay!
BTW: the steak / fondue quote is from
My most favorite Disney movie : SNOWBALL EXPRESS - 1972
And I thought this was just going to be an ordinary August 1st... NOT SO-! To say you've been missed here, is an understatement. Just reading your comments today, I somehow feel as though I've 'slimmed-down' (and I just finished making some Chocolate Pots de Crème) - now I can polish-off the entire recipe without gaining a single pound.
ReplyDeleteWelcome home, Melissa-!
Cue the "Welcome back, Kotter" theme: "Welcome baaaack!"
ReplyDeleteSo nice to hear from you again. Melissa! And we got treated to a very Melissa-ish comment, too!
Thanks so much for the warm welcome, everybody!
ReplyDeleteSteak and fondue AND pots de crème - we're gonna sink that steamboat for sure! I don't remember Snowball Express, but I'm sure I've seen it subliminally, which is code for "slept through it at the drive-in." I still have a bit of a crush on Dean Jones. Even on my giant monitor my rickety eyeballs aren't as sharp as Zach's, and I didn't catch the backrooms of the flat church! JB, I had a set of Welcome Back, Kotter paper dolls when I was a kid!
Melissa....yes, welcome back! And from your comment, I see you are back in full force! You have been missed very much!
ReplyDeleteMELISSA, IT’S WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU’RE BACK!
Sue, you can't see her front because she is unable to turn around.....because she is standing in the Flattest Church in........Okay, I'll leave the flat church jokes to Melissa! :-)
The little girl isn't bored, she's studying her lines for the school play, 'Danbury Rocks!'
Zach, maybe they were performing it at the Fair! Or maybe she's memorizing the poem, "Trees" which she will have to recite all alone on stage.
I'm glad I stopped by today, having Melissa back has knocked me flat!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back!
Zach
Welcome back, Melissa! So happy I can’t even think up a good pun. Well, one you haven’t already used today. Hope you can stay a while.
ReplyDeleteMelissa - WHAAAT?? Amazing! I’m so happy to hear from you! And with a classic Melissa comment too! I would have never hoped for such a thing, and yet here we are. I guess the lesson is that good things can happen when you least expect them. Or something! Is it too greedy of me to hope that this is a return to the good old days, with you checking in often (you don’t have to every day, only crazy people do that)? Wow, I’m all abuzz. We have missed you too!!
ReplyDeleteJG, Incredible!
Lou and Sue, ditto (how lazy is it to just write “ditto”?)!
Mike Cozart, hmm, steak dipped into melted cheese sounds pretty darn good! I’ve never seen Snowball Express, I’ll bet it’s not on Disney+.
Nanook, oh boy, my mom used to make chocolate pots de creme. Can you send me a ramekin? Not an empty one, either! Gosh, it feels like a holiday somehow.
JB, there is no great thing than to invoke “Welcome Back Kotter”, for ANY situation!
Melissa, I’m wondering if Snowball Express is just an icy version of “Superdad”? I’m not sure what years we’re talking about, but I personally was a fan of the Kurt Russell “Medfield College” movies. And “Million Dollar Duck”, which I know is terrible, but I still love it.
TokyoMagic!, seeing Melissa’s comment is like discovering a new Mozart symphony, or finding a lost painting by Thomas Kinkade. OK, I joke, it’s much better than finding a Kinkade painting! Fun fact, I once exchanged emails with Nicholas Kilmer, grandson of Joyce Kilmer. Yes, I will sign autographs.
zach, “knocked me flat”, ZOIKS
Chuck, wow, even you are punless. I never thought I’d see the day.
Noting that the "upper decks" are just decorative trim evoking a steamboat. Or else a totally misfired attempt at forced perspective, trying to make you think it's three stories tall when you're on the dock.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that the Danbury State Fair had such things...but we here in New England love our town fairs, and every town seems to have one. At one we went on this tilt a whirl thing where we all smashed into one cab....so: that was about 1000+ pounds of brute force twirling...I'm surprised it didn't end up on a Instagram feed...and I'm even more surprised that the whole shebang didn't go "kaboom!". The fairs are full of funnel cake, fried dough, horses, giant pumpkins...goats and lots of sketchy rides: one of which you get in a harness and fly around like Peter Pan...that one was wonderful...although probably broke a few safety laws. On a personal note: The fair grounds became a mall: the "Danbury Fair Mall" where I did some contract work for a NY clothing company...so I can safely saw: yes: I worked at the Danbury Fair....mall. And to Mellisa: "Oh my LORD AND TAYLOR"....WELCOME BACK!
ReplyDelete