Here are more "perfectly OK" photos, nothing amazing, but good enough that they could theoretically be used in a brochure or booklet.
There's the Moonliner, no longer sponsored by TWA. In just a year or so, Douglas will begin their three-year sponsorship... one of those subtle changes that really showed the evolution of Tomorrowland as it shed its 1950s past. Of course, by the end of 1966, the entire land was drastically altered, in the best possible way, with the New Tomorrowland opening in the summer of 1967.
I love the old gray submarines, and the sight of them gliding through the beautiful blue lagoon.
Major-
ReplyDeleteGee, during the downtime when the Moonliner was sponsor-less, Disney should've written in cursive along the fuselage: Your Name Here. Just think how handsome Nanook would've looked-!
That submarine image perfectly explains how the attraction will be so missed when it is finally 86'd...
Thanks, Major.
Dang! This would've been a PERFECT picture if the photographer had just aimed his camera a little more downward. That way he would have captured the entire Moonliner, from the tippity top to the base of the landing gear. As is, it's still a very nice photo, better than 90% of the other Moonliner photos. Those olives on swizzle sticks really take this picture to a higher level.
ReplyDeleteWas the Sub pic taken from a Skyway bucket (probably)? Or from a Bobsled (probably not)? I love how the crystal clear water looks turquoise blue near the edge and ultramarine blue in the deeper part of the Lagoon. Really nice photo!
I'd say these photos are a little more than "perfectly OK", they're better than most! Thanks, Major.
Behind the Moonliner is the “ROCky raccOON” ride, I think.
ReplyDelete:op
Love the beautiful lagoon water…pretty blues. (Nanook, bite your tongue!!)
Thanks, Major.
@ JB-
ReplyDelete"This would've been a PERFECT picture if the photographer had just aimed his camera a little more downward".
No kidding-! But I'm willing to bet the less-than-perfect centering was probably due to parallax from the viewfinder that was common on cameras without a reflex viewfinder.
It is weird to see the Moonliner without "TWA" or "Douglas" on it's side. They could have just put "USSF Lillian" on it as a temporary placeholder. After all, wasn't Walt often overheard saying, "TO THE MOON, LILLIAN!!!!"
ReplyDeleteThere's one of those little trees on the edge of the Sub Lagoon (and we can see just the trunk of another one, too). I do wonder how long those were there before having to be removed. I first noticed them just recently, in the GDB post from 9-6-26.
Thank you, Major!
Points for a Honeymooners reference. I just noticed Disneyland USA on the side of the subs, in case you forgot where you were.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Major!
Zach
This almost strikes me as "time travel" - a "vertical photo" (which I normally loathe and consider the bane of my desktop computer photo viewing, despite the fact that it's actually "appropriate" for this subject) shot in 1962? Was this cropped? I didn't think the dreaded "vertical photo" was a thing before smartphones came along!
ReplyDeleteThey should have put the Moonliner name on in yellow cursive to mimic your name sewed into your Mickey Ears.
ReplyDeleteThe sub pic is wonderful. Ethan Allen is off to deliver a load of nuclear-tipped dining chairs.
Just beautiful photos today, Major. Thank you!
JG
Nanook, I don’t think they could fit “Major Pepperidge” on that rocket, which is why I have tears running down my cheeks this very moment.
ReplyDeleteJB, I know, it’s always frustrating to not get the whole rocket. Sort of like when the spires of the castle are cropped off, too. But the photographer wasn’t thinking like that 50 or 60 years ago. It’s kind of amazing how very blue that lagoon water looks, as if they added a lot of dye. But I think it’s just physics! And psychics (long story).
Lou and Sue, raccoons are scary, I don’t want to go on a raccoon ride.
Nanook, it is certainly possible that parallax is the culprit, but I’m not sure they would have gotten the entire rocket even if there wasn’t that “empty” bit at the top of the photo.
TokyoMagic!, oh boy, the Honeymooners is another one of those old shows that people love, and that has always left me cold. Just like that OTHER show. I’ve seen many photos of the sub lagoon with those trees, but I never really paid attention to when they might have been removed.
zach, uh oh, see my comment to TokyoMagic!. It does seem unnecessary to have “Disneyland USA” on the subs, but I still like it.
Mike, you have to admit, for something like that rocket, a vertical photo might work better than a “landscape” mode. And while horizontal photos are the norm, you definitely do see vertical pix from the old days. Maybe folks just wanted to mix things up?
JG, I like your idea about the yellow stitched lettering, though I don’t know how they would embroider a rocket. Those cast members were pretty skilled though. Nuclear-tipped dining chairs were the last resort!
(to the tune of "Blue Moon")
ReplyDeleteBlue lagoon,
You saw me floating alone
(I wasn't really floating,
But you could barely see the track).
Blue lagoon,
I was a Disneyland sub.
My nose was lonely and snub;
I couldn't fit in a tub.
And then there suddenly appeared before me
A rocket far too tall for landscape view.
Someone whispered, "Won't you please spon-sore me?"
And when I looked, Tomorrowland was New.
Blue lagoon,
Around and round I will go,
Tomorrow's dream in my heart;
They'll never paint me yel-low.
@Mike, in old movies when paparazzi are rapidly snapping pictures of people, I sometimes see them turning their cameras 90 degrees, so I think it must have existed, even if it wasn't very common.
@ Melissa-
ReplyDeleteYou just know Lorenz Hart is kvelling knowing these lost verses to Blue Moon have finally been unearthed-! (I just checked through my original copy of "The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart" and these yummy lyrics are nowhere to be found). Such verve and zing.
But seriously Melissa - another treasure from GDB's own mistress of versification-!
While it wasn’t 1962…. I was in college during 1986-1990. …. I had a photography class at San Diego State that was just for architectural , interior design and landscaping students … PHOTOGRAPHY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN. Back then we had to photograph our models and artwork and concept art for documentation , portfolios and to create slide presentations … we were taught all kinds of tricks and techniques - especialy regarding lighting of our scale models etc. but depending on the subject obviously a portrait or landscape view would really depend on what we were trying to focus or highlight. Incidentally in the days before digital and computer editing we had to make the subject look pretty damn perfect with a single shot because there was really no time to edit photos after … we had to pick the best version from maybe 2-6 “bracketed” shots . And then there was the cost …. We almost used tungsten film to photograph architectural renderings and scale models - especially models with atmospheric or dramatic lighting …and that film was EXPENSIVE!!!! And it had to be developed at a professional photo lab -also expensive !! But looking back at past design projects and vintage Disneyland /WED/WDI projects I see just as many vertical composition photos as landscape .
ReplyDeleteIncidentally a big professional photo lab that was in San Diego that would photograph our artwork in what was called “the 8x10 studio” ( they made printing transparencies bigger than 8”x10”) used to make the Haunted Mansion changing portrait projection transparencies for Disneyland !! Why they had to use a vendor all the way in San Diego - I don’t know.
Correction: “we almost ALWAYS used tungesten film”
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I can only sing songs to the tune of “Surrey With The Fringe On Top” or “Erie Canal”. So I must read your lyrics as a poem with my deep voice and British accent. For some reason I picture a Will Vinton-style claymation submarine singing your song. I’ll bet Weegee never took a photo in “portrait mode”!
ReplyDeleteNanook, you should buy a copy of Lorenz Hart’s “Complete Knock-Knock Jokes”.
Mike Cozart, to this day I regret that I have never taken a photography class of any kind. I wish I had a better grasp of lenses, apertures, etc. But it would have come in handy years ago, less so now. Taking photographs of models sounds kind of interesting, I’m sure there is a real trick to doing it well. Was the goal to always make it feel as if the model was a real building in sunlight? I’m wondering why tungsten film was used, you’d think that any film could work if the photographer had the knowledge. No idea! Maybe that vendor in San Diego gave the best price?
Major-
ReplyDelete"I’m wondering why tungsten film was used, you’d think that any film could work if the photographer had the knowledge".
Regrettably, I never took a film class either (and maybe Mike can elucidate) but you may find this factoid of interest: When Eastman Kodak first introduced its first professional fine grain 35mm monopack color negative film (5247), it was color-balanced for Daylight. When Eastman 5248 was introduced in 1952, it was color-balanced for Tungsten - as were many subsequent iterations of their fine grain color negative films up thru [at least] 1983. It may have to do with the vast majority of Hollywood and TV shows being shot on sound stages [with mostly] tungsten lighting. Also, if you shoot tungsten-balanced film outdoors in daylight, the blue channel is merely overexposed, which color-negative latitude handles beautifully. Using an 85 or 85B filter when shooting 'outdoors' will correct the color mis-balance.
Don't know how [if] any of this info applies to still photography.
Melissa, thanks for your rendition of Blue Moon (Lagoon). One of my favorite melodies. I was singing along with you, as I'm sure the rest of the Jr.Gs were, also. (except Major, apparently) :-p
ReplyDeleteBlue Moon Lagoon…I love it! Great job, Melissa! (Yes, JB, I was singing along, too.)
ReplyDeleteWe rarely took model photos outside …we needed more control - especially with nite or dramatically lit models. We would insert pen lights into some models and have colored bulb party lights we could create dramatic sunset and nitelighting effects … using simple - cheap supplies . But tungsten film was used because it created crisp sharp details even with very low light levels. This was importatant because the artwork or scale models would likely be used in publications or enlarged presentation panels … .but we did also use special equipment … we had special pin hole lenses by a German company called FRICKO … these pin hole lenses allowed for scale street level views of models that even regular camera apertures couldn’t do. A regular manual camera could maybe get a clear center focus but the surrounding area would appear blurry. The FRICKO-pin hole lense allowed great minute detail and kept the whole image clear and crisp. Years ago in a WDI model shop parts room I saw things being stored in old FRICKO boxes - so WED/WDI must have used those very same lenses .
ReplyDelete"TokyoMagic!, oh boy, the Honeymooners is another one of those old shows that people love, and that has always left me cold. Just like that OTHER show."
ReplyDeleteMajor, yay! We agree on that one! I think I have only sat through one episode of The Honeymooners, all the way through. I've seen lots of scenes over the years when just clicking past it, and I really don't get it! Maybe it's just that it doesn't hold up well, like that other wonderful 50s sitcom! ;-) I just happen to know the main character's catchphrase, because it became a part of the American lexicon, just like when Fonzie would say, "Whatchu talkin' about, Willis?" or when Gary Coleman would say, "Kiss mah grits!"
We also had a large adjustable table on wheels … I think is was called a Pattinson table . We could clamp a model onto the table surface and there was a dial guide … we could adjust the table surface to angles that recreated any time of the day … photographed against a fixed light source ( representing the sun) this allowed to show the structure at differ times of the day or really show what kinds of shaddows the structures would cast onto other buildings or surroundings.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Futurama episode where they went on the amusement park ride that got the history of the moon landing all wrong, and got it mixed up with the "Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon!" line from The Honeymooners.
ReplyDelete"That's not an astronaut, it's a TV comedian! And he was just using space travel as a metaphor for beating his wife!"