New York, New York

Who loves New York? I do. I wish I could be one of those cool people that knows the city like the back of my hand. Instead I wander the streets like a hayseed. "Golly, pa! Do you think alla them tall buildings have indoor outhouses?". "Not so loud, son, you're scaring the mule". I have three vintage images for you, although two are not quite "top shelf" views.

Say, maybe you knowledgeable types can assist with this one! It is dated 1947 (71 years ago, wowee) and is labeled "toward Wall Street". Even with that theoretically-helpful label, I couldn't place exactly where this photo was snapped. Do any of the buildings look familiar to you? Help a brother out! 

In spite of my considerable lack of knowledge, I still love this image. It's safe to say that, wherever this was, it looks completely different today.

I included this one (dated "April, 1959") showing a nighttime photo of the Roosevelt Field Shopping Center. For a time this was the largest shopping mall in the world. Sorry, no "Hot Topic" yet, Nanook. Probably not even a "Hot Dog on a Stick".

I could try to tell you a little about this place, but I strongly recommend reading the excellent article that can be found at the wonderful "Pleasant Family Shopping" blog. Check it out HERE! If you're like me, you'll easily lose an hour or so browsing the site before you realize that your tuna-noodle casserole is burning in the oven.

Next is this slightly blurred photo looking eastward along 42nd Street (from a photo dated October 1958). There's the Chrysler Building in the distance; along with the beautiful old-fashioned buildings, it is hard to ignore those brilliantly-lit cinema marquees. The "Selwyn" is showing "The Black Swan", starring Errol Flynn and Maureen O'Hara. 

Next to that is the "Apollo" (obviously not the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem) - I can only see part of the titles of the movies being shown there, but I believe that one is "Poor But Beautiful" (an Italian flick), and "The One That Got Away" (a British film about a WWII German prisoner who escapes back to the Fatherland). Beyond that, the "Victory" theatre, showing "The Life and Times of Major Pepperidge" - winner of every Academy Award.

Here's a Google street view showing the same area (more or less) as it appeared fairly recently. It's SO CRAZY how much it has changed. The Selwyn is now the "American Airlines Theatre". 

Slides 9-1-1

It's time for another adventure in slide restoration - bringing vintage (July, 1961), terribly faded images back to their original glory (or something close to it, at least), through a mixture of sorcery, psychokinesis, and jazzercise (with leg warmers).  

Here's a pinky-brownish-orange shot, taken from the Skyway, looking down on the Matterhorn Chalet. If you've ever had pink eye, this is how everything appears.

After some color-correction, things look a little bit better. As I've mentioned in the past, one of the challenges with these particular slides is that many of them were taken as the sun was setting; which means they were already warm and rosy to begin with. I didn't want to overdo the correction and get rid of all of the warmth.

Anyway, I love the glimpse of the Motor Boat Cruise, along with the 4-car red Monorail, and even the rustic appearance of Anaheim in the distance.

Does this photo of Sleeping Beauty Castle make you want to tilt your head to the right? 

This one does too, but at least there are some blues, greens, yellows, and other colors. The procession of guests looks like the world's worst parade (they are marching to "Baroque Hoedown" played at 3X speed, in reverse). Nice shorts, gramps! At least he doesn't have knee-high black socks. 

Fantasyland Pix, 1961

Today's scans are from some slightly-oversized color transparencies (not 35mm) from 1961.

This first example is one of my favorites! All by itself it doesn't appear to be anything that interesting, but it is a nice detail from the old Skyway Chalet in Fantasyland. In the upper right we can see the Skyway cables heading out into the blue, along with some elaborately carved and polychromed decor that guests might otherwise never notice. Then, just to make things homey, there's a row of colorful pots with bright blossoms set along that little shelf. Are the flower plastic? Possibly taken straight from Main Street's Flower Market? We'll never know!

Nearby, a nice lady hunkers down inside the car reserved for monkeys. Come on in, there's room for at least 10 more people! I'm sure that lettering overhead was done by hand, and isn't it nice? We can admire some of the gold-leafed filigree applied to the sides of this particular car, and even observe some of the wear caused by the passing of many thousands of feet on the little threshold. 

Kennedy Space Center

Today I have some fun scans, shared by Warren Nielsen (we've seen photos from him on several occasions). These are from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, circa 1976. By then, the Apollo moon launches were over (the last one in December of 1972), although other programs such as Skylab and Apollo/Soyuz kept the dream alive for us space-crazy kids. 

Warren says: These are from the same Sept. 1976 trip, and we are doing a 'mostly bus ride tour' of Kennedy Space Center. As I recall, the bus would stop for photo opportunities, but the people in charge wouldn't let you stray more than 30 feet from the bus for the most part. 

The display rockets are neat, but I can't help looking at those launch towers in the distance!

Warren continues: We couldn't get too close to much of anything, except for right outside the 'visitor center' and at one of the early blockhouses. I am going to guess that some of your other readers will know or research more information on the various pieces of hardware seen here. I have other shots, but these I think are the best representation of what we saw then.

The signs tell us that the original Mercury 7 astronauts (Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, and Gordon Cooper) launched from this pad. Cool!

Say, you can read that sign all by yourselves! Especially if you are hooked on phonics, like me.

Check out those scary missiles, including the "Polaris", designed to carry nuclear warheads. Wheee!

Rocket engines are just cool. Looking up the G-38 engines, they were used on Navaho ICBMs. "The intercontinental-range Navaho G-38 was the ultimate development of the German A-9/A-10 concept. At the time the Navaho program was cancelled on 13 July 1957 missiles were in fabrication with first flight test planned by the end of 1958".

I don't know anything about this rocket, but it looks like a giant toy.

 For this next photo, Warren says: I am somewhat amused by the juxtaposition of the lighthouse and the nearby rocketry. Very similar shape, similar size in some cases, but very different purposes and centuries of difference in technology.

And finally, here are some very impressive and huge rocket engines; I'm not sure if they are the Rocketdyne F-1 engines used on the Saturn V rockets, perhaps one of you will know. Chuck? (No pressure!).

Many thanks to Warren Nielsen for sharing these fun photos!

More Devlin Scans!

Today I am happy to present more Devlin family photos! Tom Devlin was nice enough to share these with all of us, and he gave me a little background on who the man in the pictures is:

The gentleman in the photos is my wife's father, Dick Bechelli.  Dick along with his brother, Joe, owned Bechelli Belts which was based in San Francisco.  The story goes that the Bechelli brothers were contacted by Disney to produce a souvenir Disneyland belt.  It appears that part of the meeting included a visit to the park.  (Apparently on a very slow and uncrowded day.)  

There's Dick Bechelli, standing at the rail of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, looking like a real go-getter!

Tom continues: As you can see the slides have no date but I'm pretty sure this is no more than a year or two years after the park opened. I've tried to find out what the belt looked like but nobody on the Bechelli side of the family can tell me.  I'm sure it would be quite the collector's item now.

If anybody out there is familiar with this rare souvenir belt, please chime in!

Tom shared some additional photos of his father in-law on the wonderful Daveland blog... see some of them HERE, and some more HERE.

Many thanks to Tom Devlin and his wife for sharing these fun family photos!

Instamatics! July 1970

It's a "repeat Monday" today; both of these have appeared on the blog before, although I only had little 4" X 4" photo prints... now I have the original Instamatic ("126" format) slides.  HERE is how it looked before... compare to the scan below. I love this shot of a bright yellow Horseless Carriage on Main Street. 

I am almost certain (say, 98%) that I have posted this image before, but for some reason I am unable to find the previous instance on GDB. Let the games begin! If I didn't know better, I would think that this was scanned from an unfaded Pana-Vue slide because it looks so good. The sub is moving through the warm turquoise water, having just visited Atlantis, gone beneath the polar ice caps, past erupting volcanos, and down in the most extreme depths where dark and fearsome creatures live.

Dumbo, April 1969

Remember that scene in "Dumbo" in which you meet all of Dumbo's identical clones, created by the military for some top-secret project? Of course, it was 1941, so we can only guess at the ways flying elephants were to be used to smash the Axis. Don't rule out poop (I never do). 

Perhaps some of you don't know that in several early pieces of conceptual art, the flying elephants were going to be pink. I guess I understand the reluctance to bring the specter of drunkenness into Disneyland, and yet... I kind of wish it had happened anyway.  

Timothy, the sadistic ringmaster, whips the Dumbi with ever-increasing fury! (I feel bad even saying that as a joke, since Timothy is one of my all-time favorite Disney characters. I apologize, Timothy). 

'Round and 'round they go. Similar machines were used to test the nerves of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts.

Century 21 Expo

Back in 1962, Seattle hosted a World's Fair - the "Century 21 Expo" - the first Fair in the U.S. since the 1939/40 New York World's Fair. Though not as gigantic as the 1964 Fair (which was an "unofficial" World's Fair - not sanctioned by the Bureau of International Expositions), it still looks like it would have been inspiring and a ton of fun.

There's that crazy Space Needle - still one of the coolest structures ever. Paging George Jetson... the Needle is 184 meters tall. That's 605 feet. (Am I the only person that wishes that the U.S. had just switched to the metric system back in the 1970's like the rest of the world? Let's get angry about it!). Love that "re-entry red" paint.

Here's a bunch of men, relaxing on the Fairliner Tram. Notice the little ticket booth in the background, as well as the souvenir stand and the sign for the food concession. We even get a glimpse of another form of Fair transportation, the "Electricab".

Here's a view looking out the window (yes, windows for Rainy Seattle) of a Skyride vehicle, looking down on the "Gayway" amusement area. Beneath the purple gondola is the "Flight to Mars" dark ride - man do I wish I could see that for myself!

There's just something about a marching band, especially when they are dressed in white; it's like they just arrived from heaven! The girls at the booth selling Danish pastries only have eyes for the Sousaphone players.

I hope you liked these, because there are more to come!

House of the Future and Moonliner

It's time for some classic Tomorrowland images (circa 1958) for you on this Friday! 

We'll start with this nice shot of the Monsanto House of the Future. If you'd ever wondered what it would be like to live in a giant plastic mushroom (like some sort of Future Elf), this was your chance. As it turns out, it would have been pretty sweet. Microwave ovens! Huge televisions! Picture phones! Ultrasonic dishwashers! Irradiated Foods! They've thought of everything.

And here I am stuck in 2018 like a chump. 

And what view of Tomorrowland would be complete without a look at the graceful Moonliner? I love the way it is streamlined and modern, but it still has a touch of "Buck Rogers" to it. 

How many of you watched the inspiring launch of SpaceX's "Falcon Heavy" rocket? I did - several times - and I couldn't help thinking of the old Moonliner's retractable legs as two of the Falcon Heavy's boosters landed next to each other, like something out of a movie!

If you want to skip to the actual launch, go to 21:30 - to see the boosters land, skip to, oh, maybe 29:00 in. Incredible!

The Spirit of Pocahontas

Today I have more photos from Irene and her brother Bruce, featuring a nice bit of Disneyland history - a live theatrical/musical presentation called "The Spirit of Pocahontas". This production debuted in the Fantasyland Theatre on June 23, 1995 - the same day that "Pocahontas" debuted in movie theaters. 

In this first shot, a banner over Main Street makes sure that everyone knows about this new show!

I'm not sure exactly where this tableau was; possibly near the queue entrance. A stylized waterfall is surrounded by ferns, flowers, vines, and a sculpt of one of Pocahontas' friends, "Flit" the hummingbird. I remember feeling that "Pocahontas", while beautifully made, seemed to not be the greatest fit for an animated feature - it "wanted" to be live action. Scene after scene of people talking and singing to each other. The addition of the cute sidekicks such a Flit, Percy, and Meeko, and a few fantasy elements, felt a little shoehorned in to give the movie a reason to be animated. Please post angry disagreements below!

Oh jeez, we're almost there! I hope that guy with the shades doesn't zap me with his neuralyzer. (Possible "Twin Alert" for Melissa - the two kids with pink hats to the left! Or maybe they just liked the same souvenir hat).

Since I never saw "The Spirit of Pocahontas", I had to rely on the wisdom of the Internet - specifically Werner Weiss' awesome "Yesterland" website, which you all presumably know about already - if you don't, you should. In fact, I would recommend clicking on the link in the previous sentence and reading his excellent article. Then go read all of his other articles.

Below... dancing and singing! The stage design resembles some of the background designs in the film, evoking an ancient forest in hues of blue and teal. Notice the "Grandmother Willow" tree to our right, which (at the proper time) formed a talking face to give Pocahontas wise council.

There's the lovely Pocahontas herself; it looks like Disney made a real effort to cast genuine Native Americans in this production - no guys from Sicily in makeup. Colorful pink and teal leaves appear to be falling, perhaps Pocahontas is singing "Colors of The Wind".

Obviously I didn't know the proper order in which to post these photos, but this is clearly the moment where John Smith first sees Pocahontas. Don't shoot! After reading the "Yesterland" article, I am pretty sure that the man crouching by the rocks is the storyteller Werowance - we see the tale through his point of view.

I was wondering why the Indians appeared to be wearing masks. "Yesterland" helpfully tells us that "To represent the English settlers, members of the tribe don silver ceremonial masks".

Take a bow, everybody! "The Spirit of Pocahontas" ran for over two years, a fairly long run for a theme park show devoted to an animated feature. Because I only watch things with computer generated robots and exploding spaceships, I tend to avoid the stage shows at Disneyland, but this one looks like it was pretty good.

Many thanks (as always) to Irene and Bruce!