More "Meh" Photos from August 1969

I am STILL going through my lot of August 1969 slides, trying to use up the dross and dreck, leaving behind only sparkling gems! 

This first one shows a lot of stuff (Tom Sawyer Island, the Mark Twain, one of Huck Finn's rafts, the Matterhorn, and so on), though it is all seen poorly. Notice the enormous crowds along the shore, waiting to see the new "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction!

A canoe glides by, almost completely silently, before vanishing behind the trees.

Cascade Peak's waterfall was a lovely sight; it was fun to pass beneath (in a Mine Train), and fun to scoot past in a canoe (close enough to feel the spray). Rainbow Ridge can just be seen through the foliage.

In the Rivers of America, things are pretty calm, except for where these rocks are… that's where the rapids are! Waves as high as one inch can buffet the side of the Mark Twain or Columbia. Nobody said that Nature was nice!

Vintage Peeps!

Digging through a box of vintage slides is an interesting experience. You can see hundreds and hundreds of family photos, and most are pretty dull, but occasionally one will stand out from the rest. Like today's examples!

I love this one, with two ladies out for an evening of fun (with their husbands, presumably). The woman to the right went the extra mile with her sparkly ensemble and white gloves! But what I really like is that they are at a tiki-themed establishment (A bar? Nightclub? Restaurant?), and are risking having their hands bitten off by that ferocious fellow. I wonder if he was purchased from "Oceanic Arts" in Whittier? The slide was undated, but is probably from the early 60's, and is possibly from Southern California.

Here's another SoCal scene (in fact, all of today's are from California, which was completely unintentional) - this time from 1958. Which is cool, because it shows pool party (very "Mad Men in Los Angeles") with a couple using Hula Hoops. 1958 happens to be the first year that Hula Hoops were a real craze, selling over 25 million hoops in less than four months!

And finally, I like this one with a pretty mom and her adorable daughter, and their boneless cat. It reminds me of photos from the boxes out in my parent's garage, showing a time when houses with big green lawns was almost a "given" for most folks. Pink oleander flowers are a familiar sight in SoCal.

Main Street in the Morning, September 1969

Technically this is a "leftuggies" post, but these are some pretty nice photos, if I do say so myself. 

Man oh man, do I love this picture! Our photographer must have been the first person to enter the park. There's not a soul to be seen! Long shadows stretch across Main Street on a perfect, sunny morning. Sleeping Beauty Castle appears to be so far away, partly due to the soft cool colors that were used (just for that very purpose), and partly because of the atmosphere. I choose to believe that it is just morning mist and not smog! Don't you wish you were there?

Zooming in a bit toward West Center Street we can see that the Carnation truck is still covered by it's bedtime blanket. Just behind one triangular banner we can see what appears to be a Disneyland Railroad employee (a conductor?) walking toward us (so there is ONE soul to be seen). The patriotic decor suggest that this photo was probably actually taken around July, even though the date stamp says September. You know how that goes.

Now we will leap back 10 years to October, 1959, for this view from the Autopia load area. Overpasses and Monorail tracks and landscaped hills all make for a neat photo, and as always I enjoy a bit of vintage people-watching. My favorite is the girl to the extreme left, behind the wheel of her  Autopia car, wearing her feathered souvenir hat!

Oranges and Flowers, August 1960

Today's first image is probably not very interesting to most Disneyland fans. You have to be a super Disneyland nerd like your old pal Major Pepperidge! As you can see, a stylish (dapper?) blond lady is posing next to a fruit-laden orange tree - presumably one of the trees left over from when the property was a thriving orchard. If only some of those trees still survived. They could graft scions to some sturdy root stock and sell actual Disneyland orange trees to weirdos like me.

In the background is the Red Wagon Inn. I'd like to sit on the porch and enjoy my meal as the sun set and the lights of Main Street (and nearby Tomorrowland) are lit.

Earlier in the day, our photographer took this nice picture in the Hub, right where the "Partners" statue stands today. There are more flowers than you can shake a stick at, and Sleeping Beauty Castle, to boot. It sure is purdy!

Better take another one just in case.

Storybook Land and Alice, March 13 1958

Here are two more interesting pictures from a series of photos from March of 1958. 

One of the things I like about this lot is that the sky is so dark and dramatic, while the foreground is bathed in warm sunlight. Theatrical! We're looking down upon the Storybook Land (or is it "Story Book Land"?) Canal Boats and the Casey Jr. Circus Train, with shiny Monstro eating canal boats like Pringles potato chips. Notice the little ticket booth in the lower right. Also of interest, at the very bottom of the image we can see just a bit of the construction for the "Alice in Wonderland" dark ride.

I'm always fascinated by the area outside the berm, in this case a lot of warehouses and steel sheds, along with the white-fenced pony farm where the various horses and mules lived (and frolicked!). I presume that this is all Disney-owned stuff, but if it's not, please let me know.

This next photo is unfortunately not super clear (it was taken from one of the Casey Jr. trains), but it has enough interesting stuff to be worth posting anyway. In Geppetto's village, you can see several workmen sprucing things up - in broad daylight while guests could see. Which is odd. In the upper right, we get a different view of the "Alice" construction, while in the upper left is Holiday Hill/Snow Mountain with the giant metal support towers for the Skyway, pre-Matterhorn.

The World-Famous Jungle Cruise, July 1967

I just scanned a batch of slides from July 1967, and the first seven pictures were of the Jungle Cruise. Why not put them all together into a single "super post"?!

The Sacred Elephant Bathing Pool really caught the photographer's fancy; the main focus here is a mama elephant hovering protectively over her baby. He was known as "Little Squirt", and we can see him teasing a crocodile.

Just a bit further on we see more happy pachyderms. I'm impressed with the way these critters are caricatures, and yet they also feel remarkably realistic.

All of these scenes were originally sketched by animator/Imagineer Marc Davis, and they exhibit his trademark sense of humor. As a kid I always thought that this elephant found the best place to be!

What's more dangerous than an enraged bull elephant? His mother in-law. You just don't hear mother in-law jokes any more! They sure were a staple of comics and TV shows years ago.

Next we pass the scene known as the "African Veldt". All of the animals watch as a pride of lions eats their zebra buddy. I call him Stripey. They'll miss him, but "Better him than me", as the saying goes.

The lions eat the zebras, the buzzards clean up the bones, and then the zebras eat the buzzards. It's the circle of life! I learn a lot from watching "The Discovery Channel".

I am wondering if this tilted composition was an accident, or an artistic choice? Because it's weird. It makes me feel like all of the animals are going to slide to the lower right of the picture. This is the famous "Lost Safari" scene. If I am ever chased by a hungry rhinoceros I don't know what I'll do, but I know I won't climb a tree trunk.

The next pics from this bunch will take us to Frontierland.

Frontierland 1956

Here are some more images from a set of slides that were found by Kevin and Amber! 

This is a nice view of the south end of Tom Sawyer Island, with the old mill endlessly turning. Notice Tom Sawyer's Shack, where you could rent a fishing pole and catch yourself a trout. Just below that, there is a father carefully snapping a photo of his wife and son (or are they both kids? Hard to tell). In the background to the extreme right you can just see a Stage Coach.

This view looks so moody and misty. On the far shore, a Conestoga Wagon and a Stage Coach follow the trail into the wilderness. I think this picture must have been taken from the balcony of the Golden Horseshoe; what do you think?

Frontierland, August 1960

Looking up at the Columbia from this low angle makes the ship feel especially tall. And I have always liked the figurehead of the lovely "Columbia", the feminine and poetic personification of the United States of America. However, I must remain faithful to my Chicken of the Sea mermaid!

There's nothing as cozy as a little log cabin and a blazing fire!

Then & Now, Around the USA

I always enjoy doing a little bit of sleuthing on Google Maps, trying to match of vintage views with Google's "Street Views". Hopefully you enjoy it too!

Let's start in Detroit, Michigan. Back in the 1950's, it was a vibrant city buoyed by the booming automobile industry. Those were the days. I like this shot looking south from Grand River Avenue down Washington Boulevard toward the Detroit Free Press building, along with a few nice signs for Cadillac and Firestone. 

Now Washington Boulevard has a tree-lined boulevard down the middle, which I would ordinarily approve of - except that it messes up my Googling! So this is about as good as I could do. The Free Press building is now abandoned. To our left, you can see St. Aloysius (also visible in the first photo)

Next we head for Columbia, California; a former boom-town from the 1850's (GOLD!) in Tuolemne County. That's near Yosemite National Park! This building (at the corner of Fulton and Main Street) was built by a man named Matthew Brady (not that Matthew Brady) in 1899. It now belongs to the State of California, and a series of concessionaires have leased the building. Notice the sign on the car encouraging folks to visit Mercer Caverns (in Calaveras County).

Google Maps was not terribly useful for this remote town (though I could find 360 degree panorama). So I went to Flickr and found this image that matched up nicely!

Most old slides are unlabeled, so part of the process involves looking for clues. In this case, the large "Foley's" building was the key. We're in Houston, Texas, looking west on Lamar Street near the corner of Main. Foley's was a chain of departments stores, headquartered in Houston. It fell on hard times in the 1980's, and ownership changed several times. Many Foley's stores were converted to Macy's, but in 2005, it was announced that the Houston store would close.

Google's Street View is a thing of mystery - just a few weeks ago I nabbed this screen grab looking up Lamar Street. There's the old Foley's to our left.

When I went back to double-check on the street name, I was startled to see that there is now a big hole in the ground where Foley's/Macy's used to be! Turns out it was actually demolished about a year ago. Goodbye, Foley's!

Red Wagon and Pavillion, November 1958

Today's photos were taken on a gray November day, but the images are so nice and vintage-y that I felt they were worthy of a Friday post.

Many of you know about the Red Wagon Inn restaurant, though not all of you know that there really was a red wagon. And here it is! For many years it could be found over on the east side of the Plaza; I'm not sure if it was ever hooked up to a team of horses, but there is something tickling my brain telling that I've seen a photo of that. Maybe not. Anyway, I think this is a pretty cool picture, in spite of the grayness.

Now the nice lady from picture #1 is on the other side of the Plaza, in front of the Plaza Pavillion. Look at all of that gingerbread detail! It's like an old-fashioned lace valentine. Even in November the flower beds were full of bright blossoms.