I recently scanned some batches of slides that had some real beauties in them, and I look forward to sharing them with you over the next few months! We'll begin with this pretty 1972 view taken from the Parking Lot, looking along the Monorail beam with the Disneyland Hotel in the distance. We are in lot J, that's J for... uh... "Jiminy Cricket"? "J. Worthington Foulfellow"? Sorry, there is no "Jafar" or "Jasmine" yet. I love those gorgeous October clouds.
Next, a very nice picture of the ticket booths - not the tiny original booths, but the later examples, some of which still survive here and there (note: NOPE! They were torn down). Since these slides were hand-dated "October 19th, 1972", I can refer to Jason's Disneyland Almanac for some data: it was a Thursday, the park was open from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM (only eight hours??), and the high temperature was a mild 71ยบ.
FYI, I will be heading out of town tomorrow morning, and will be gone for five days. That's longer than my usual trips abroad! I won't have much time to futz around on my iPad (or I might leave it at home), so just assume that you won't hear from me until I return. As usual there will be new posts for you every day. I look forward to talking to you all soon!
Major-
ReplyDeleteThe Parking Lot THE first attraction-!
A nice display of attraction posters: Haunted Mansion; America the Beautiful; Autopia; Columbia; Carousel of Progress; Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse; and Tom Sawyer Island.
Yes sir... with your Vintage Fashion Award-Winning plaid flare pants-! (Even I wouldn't have been caught wearing those-!)
Thanks, Major.
It IS a nice photo! As you noted, I think the beautiful sky may have been the reason our photographer took this picture. Other than the sky, there's not a lot going on here. No Monorail gliding by on the beamway. We can't see any of the Park itself. No family members posing for us... Yes, it must have been the sky.
ReplyDeleteLots of seventies fashions here. The slurry looks awfully dark and shiny. I wonder if it rained earlier? We can see Tootsie, dressed in magenta with red shoes, adjusting her hair. The Station clock says it's almost noon. If Jason's Almanac is correct, these people only have about six hours in the Park!
Pleasant looking photos, Major. Thanks. Don't stay away too long, we might get rowdy and tear the place up! :-p
I do love the clouds in these two photos. It feels weird not to see the Bonita Tower in that first pic, but it was still 6 years away from being built.
ReplyDeleteAnd I looked really hard, but I guess we are too far away from the Hotel grounds to see the hot dog Ferris wheel, gosh darn it! ;-)
Thanks, Major! I hope you have a safe trip!
It's mind blowing thinking about what this area looks like now. Not worse, in my estimation, just...a totally different place. It's a shame those last ticket booths got taken down. Why? I don't really know. I just liked them.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Nanook, 'the first attraction', though never labeled as such on the map for some reason. Today, that photo of the 'J' would have been to remember your place in the parking lot.
ReplyDeleteI was there one month later in November of '72. I don't remember where I parked. But I did find the car.
Agree, beautiful sky that day.
Thanks, Major
Zach
Wow, look at that straightaway monorail beam! I’d love to sit in the bubble and open up the throttle on that stretch… wooooo! What a fun job that would be.
ReplyDeleteI’m kind of glad we can’t see the ticket prices in photo 2 as it would just grit our teeth. If the photo is taken at noon, and the Park closed at six, that explains the lack of crowds. Imagine this today, the only people visiting for six hours or less are pass holders.
70’s people apparently did not care if they dressed like circus clowns. What a strange, strange time. We went into a very 70’s building yesterday and the same questions arise; what were people thinking?
Thanks Major! Have a good time touring the Continent, or cruising the Nile etc.
JG
Nanook, yeah that really is a nice selection of posters, and thanks to Mr. X’s gift of the America the Beautiful poster, I have an example of each! Somehow those plaid flares don’t look so bad on a girl.
ReplyDeleteJB, I admit that it is a bit of a mystery why that first photo was taken, as you said, there’s no Monorail zipping by. You’d think that one would have come along in only a minute or so. I wonder if that slurry is new? It really does look particularly shiny and unworn. Tootsie is looking good! My upcoming trip is one of obligation, but I hope it turns out to be fun anyway.
TokyoMagic!, the absence of the Bonita Tower is like seeing a photo of a person with a missing tooth. Maybe California Adventure can build a hotdog Ferris wheel, in which YOU are the hotdog?
Stu29573, not terribly long ago I was visiting Downtown Disney for a nearby book signing, and had to go take a look at Main Street Station through the gates. It’s still nice, though we didn’t have those amazing skies! I don’t know if I’ll really miss those ticket booths, and admit that I never paid that much attention while waiting in line to get in.
zach, I really wonder how often guests completely forgot where they parked? I’m sure most had a team of people to help remember, but I’ll bet it happened more than we think.
JG, piloting the Monorail does sound like one of the cooler jobs at Disneyland. Cooler than flipping burgers, at least (though I thank those burger flippers for their service). I didn’t think of zooming in to see if we could discern the ticket prices, they might have been legible on the high-res image. But, as you said, it would have just been aggravating. I sort of miss the 70s style, even though it was (for the most part) not very pretty.
In the mid 80’s there were not many of us Disneyland collectors … but most of us knew each other and kept in contact … often thru letter writing and phone calls. There were people collecting attraction posters … but they were mostly hard to get then …. The majority of us called them ATTRACTION POSTERS … some RIDE POSTERS … a few old timers , GATE POSTERS …. ( the DL sign shop storage cabinets labeled them “ GATE POSTERS”) and some people called them PYLON POSTERS : and in today’s image you can see why!!
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the attraction posters stored in the sign shop: the older posters from 1956-1972 were mostly stored rolled in wood vertical cabinets- almost like lockers and labeled GATE POSTERS. The newer - smaller ( 1976- 1990’s) posters where kept in drawing flat files in the “film” room ( film being the printing positives for screenprinting ) and some were files were labled GATE POSTERS and some ATTRACTION POSTERS . Decorating also kept some attraction poster in storage and were mostly ones mounted to Masonite or aluminum that had already been displayed and had been removed permanently or temporarily. The current active posters had very little stock at hand to use as the majority of new posters were kept inventoried at WED/WDI and they would send some to the parks as needed.
In 1987 when Disneyland’s Disney Gallery began selling the original vintage attraction posters they used what the sign shop had left in storage . Each - no matter its quantity or rarity was priced at $300.00 each . From costuming came original cast costume concept sketches framed for 85.00 each. Those were the days!!
The way I remember the Lot best. And I think the Monorails then went faster down the straightaway than today. Just a squeaky clean blue sky day...and we didn't have as many in the early 70s. A blue sky was worth a picture. It makes me think only a couple years earlier of Yippee Day when I was stuck in traffic watching the protestors run past followed by Anaheim's finest. KS
ReplyDeleteI believe since the DL Hotel extension the straightaway approach to the hotel across the parking lot has always been limited to the Monorail’s fasted speed of 35 mph. The vehicles themselves are capable of much higher speeds but the have always been governed during park operations.
ReplyDeleteFasted = fastest
ReplyDeleteMike Cozart, I don’t think I became aware that owning a Disneyland attraction poster was even possible until the early or mid-1990s. I remember looking at a Howard Lowery auction catalog, I had only just discovered his Burbank gallery. And there were several posters in that auction, represented by little black and white photos. But I remembered the posters from the tunnels under the RR, and instantly wanted to own at least one or two! It was quite a surprise to see some in person, the colors of the 20K poster were so different than what I imagined based on the B&W pictures. I eventually went to one of Howard’s auctions and won a Matterhorn and Primeval World poster! Right after I won those, a guy came up to me and said, “Here’s my number if you are interested in buying more posters” (I guess I won’t mention his name, just in case), but thanks to him I got some of my rarest, including the Mickey Mouse Club 3D Jamboree and the Stouffer’s Tiki Room. Part of me wished I’d gotten into the hobby earlier, but there was no way I could have, without any connections. Better “late” than never!
ReplyDeleteKS, I know what you mean, there was just something about the “drama” of arriving in the parking lot, taking a tram to the gates, etc. And on a day like the one in today’s pictures, wowee! It’s memories like those that give me the “warm fuzzies”.
Mike Cozart, it would be quite a thing to be on a Disneyland Monorail going, say, 50 or 60 mph! Not possible on that track, sadly.
Mike Cozart, I knew what you meant!
MAJOR: I bought many of my attraction posters from the same guy you mentioned ….he saved so many from destruction and the trash!! Back in the early 90’s as castmembers visiting Florida I had friends who worked WDW monorails …. We’d ride them after they had been cleared of guests and the monorail crew would do a sweep of the line before heading to the “roundhouse” … and often we would race another monorail on the other line …and they went pretty fast … and before the next resort a red warning light would come on and the pilots would have to quickly slam in the brakes . Today that would be completely impossible with all the speed limiters and dead rails between trains and report and monitoring over the past few decades.
ReplyDelete