Parking Lot and Train Station, March 1958

Today's photos would ordinarily have been the kind of thing that you'd see on any other day but Sunday (the day reserved for slightly-irregular, factory-blemished photos). But... at least this first one has the unfortunate flaw of lacking a crisp sharp focus. It's not terrible, but I wish I could wave a magic wand and get rid of the slight blur. I assume that the large open avenue in front of us was there so that guests arriving at the park would have a pleasing view of Main Street Station as they approached the ticket booths. City Hall is clearly visible to the left, while the Opera House and Bank of America are visible to the right.

From the same batch is this closer (and in-focus) view of Main Street Station, with the ol' Kalamazoo Handcar parked out front, and Mickey Mouse's smiling face greeting everyone. The photographer managed to completely avoid any trace of attraction posters on the fence, though we know there were there since June of 1956. 

Saturday January 30

It's "World's Fair Saturday!". I just made it up, and it's awesome. I've delved into my big box of slides from the 1964/65 New York World's Fair for a splendiferous selection. All of these are date-stamped "September, 1965". 

Here's a nice street scene from inside the massive "Belgian Village" pavilion that was... a meticulous copy of a walled Flemish village as it might have appeared in 1800 - from the roof tiles to the costumes the villagers wear in the cobbled streets. More than 100 houses, a 15th Century church, a City Hall with a rathskeller under it, a canal and an arched stone bridge occupy nearly four acres, making this the largest international exhibit at the Fair.

If you loved puppets, the World's Fair had you covered! Sid & Marty Krofft (of "Lidsville" and "H.R. Pufnstuf" fame) created Les Poupees de Paris. What was it? The official guidebook said: This sparkling French "musical revue" by Sid and Marty Krofft, mainly for adults, has a cast of 240 puppets, some miniature, some nearly life-sized. The puppets, many of which are caricatures of famous entertainers, sing, dance and act out humorous skits. Settings include a 20-foot waterfall, an ice rink and fountains. Among the starts depicted in wood are Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Pearl Bailey (whose costume consists of $15,000 worth of chinchilla).

Löwenbräu Gardens? I prefer Schlitzland, but hey, to each their own. The brewers of Lowenbrau, a Bavarian beer, have reconstructed an open-air Bavarian-style restaurant set in a village square. The square is surrounded by five buildings, including a bell tower and gate. Three of the buildings are service areas for the restaurant. Every now and again Lowenbrau's brewery wagon, drawn by four massive horses, can be seen in the street outside, or traveling about the fairgrounds.

Bourbon Street was unique to the 1965 Fair (it was the "Louisiana" pavilion in '64 - in spite of the name change, I don't believe the area changed that much from one year to the next), and did a not-great job of evoking the Crescent City (judging by this photo). But hey, there's a monkey, so who cares! A variety of restaurants, plus sidewalk artists, Mardi Gras parades and an organ grinder with a monkey, lends atmosphere to this street. Shops feature Louisiana products such as pralines and hand-blown glass. Nightclubs offer music and dancing as well as other kinds of entertainment, and the restaurants include a French Quarter sidewalk cafe.

And no Fair post would be complete without at least one photo featuring the massive Unisphere (which still stands if you want to go lick it). High overhead (113 feet at its highest), the Swiss Sky Ride provides panoramic views for guests; the scale of this Fair is evident here.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to the New York World's Fair!

Two Beauties For Friday

I sure love nice photos of the old Motor Boat Cruise - kind of surprising considering that the ride was slow and not terribly eventful (although we see the boats desperately trying to avoid those boulders and survive the dangerous rapids). These days I would think that park guests would welcome a tranquil ride through the pretty, wooded areas of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. I hope that kid in the blue boat enjoyed his right hand, because he's about to lose it.

Next is this photo from July, 1961. It was the only Disneyland image in a box full of other slide-subjects; my guess is that the box had already been picked over. It looked bad, here's how it looked after the scanner tried to do some color adjustments. Still... pretty crummy.

I thought that there might not be enough color information left to allow for a satisfactory restoration, but am pretty happy with this result after some serious Photoshoppin'! Dad panned the camera from left to right and managed to perfectly capture his wife's sweet smile and his little boy's wonder as Dumbo swooped past at Mach II. Nice job, Dad! 

A LATE ADDITION! It only just occurred to me, but it is very possible that the charming mother in the second/third photo is the very same person as the little girl in THIS photo. I do have other pictures of that girl as she grew up, maybe even a wedding photo. So it's very possible!

Stuff From The Box

It's STUFF FROM THE BOX! You know the drill. I decided to avoid all things World's Fair related this time - to give you guys a break. Remember, this is not the original box that I started with, it's a newer (and bigger!) box.

Let's start today's selection with this nice brass badge (1.5" from top to bottom), a 1936 premium from Cream of Wheat. There's Buck Rogers himself; he has awarded us this "Chief Explorer" badge due to our "Distinguished Achievement". Maybe for most television watched after school? I'll take it! There are two other nice Buck Rogers badges, and I thought I had them both, but can only find one. Maybe I dreamed the other one.

Here's something that my mom gave me, since she knows I like oddball old pins and things like that. It shows an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, and the badge is celebrating the company's 25th anniversary, which would mean that the pin is from 1934.

Next is this swell plastic pin with the smiling portrait of Elsie the Cow, mascot for the Borden Dairy Company since 1936. Elsie has been surprisingly popular over the years; she appeared at the 1939 World's Fair, and for a while the famous cow was not on display (for reason that are unclear to me). People wore "Where's Elsie?" buttons.

Here's a small brass pin with the name "Jimmie Allen" on it. "The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen" was a very popular radio program with an aviation theme; it ran from 1933 to 1947. The show was syndicated and several companies sponsored it over the years, including "Richfield High-Octane" as seen here.

For some reason I love this cheap little plastic Kitty Cat Clock pin, complete with googly eyes. Maybe it was sold at dime stores, or was a prize in a capsule machine. If I had to guess I'd say it's from the 1940s or '50s.

And finally, here's a plastic (Bakelite?) charm of a cured ham. What woman wouldn't swoon when this was presented to her on a necklace of genuine dental floss? "Swift's Premium Ham", that pretty much says it all. It's possible that these were given out at the 1933/34 Chicago World's Fair (much like the popular Heinz pickle pins), though they could have also been given out at other events.

Well, that's it for this time! I hope you've enjoyed this old stuff. Priceless treasures, in my opinion. You can keep your Cartier watches and your Tiffany lamps! Stay tuned for more stuff from the box.

Two From June 1962

Here's a nice pair of photos from the summer of '62, starting with this portrait of two women posing in front of Main Street Station, with the Mickey flower portrait, the Kalamazoo hand car, the Fred Gurley (ol' #3) loading up with a fresh, crunchy batch of guests. I promise that I won't mention the posters, like I usually do. Especially that now-scarce Alice in Wonderland posters with the word "Fantasyland" at the bottom, I will definitely not mention that one.

Next is this Skyway view (it was strangely faded, unlike the first photo), overlooking the Sub Lagoon, with the Monorail platform to our right (people are enjoying their brief ride on the Stephens-Adamson Speedramp). At least two Matterhorn bobsleds can be seen, along with the queue area for the Fantasyland Autopia.

 

Petrified Tree & Lafitte's Anchor, 1978 (Tues Jan 5)

Here are three more photos from the Mysterious Benefactor! What, only three? I feel like I've been kind of tearing through the scans that he so graciously shared, and am about to hit a stretch that involves about 150 photos of the Mark Twain, and many more of the Columbia; I'll probably cherry-pick the best of those, but there are a lot of repeat views, and a bunch that are super dark, so I realized that it wasn't going to be long before I was through the third and fourth folders of scans. I need to make them last. You understand, don't you?! (grabs your lapels) I'm not crazy!

Some husbands will give their wives a riding lawnmower, or perhaps a bowling ball, or a nice vacuum cleaner. I have two words for those men: cubic zirconia. But Walt Disney was no ordinary man; he presented this petrified tree trunk (50 to 70 million years old, 10 feet tall, weighing in at five tons) to his wife Lillian on their anniversary. Or so the story goes; turns out that is all just a good yarn, and the fossil tree trunk was always intended to go to Disneyland. Lillian did enjoy her riding lawnmower though!

The next two photos feature another oddball landmark - "Lafitte's Anchor", which has been on display in Frontierland since 1955. I don't know if this was another one of Walt's impulse buys - the company openly admits that it might not really be an anchor from pirate Jean Lafitte's ship from the Battle of New Orleans. Those two kids don't care, the only reason they wanted to go to Disneyland was to see that hunk of iron.

The anchor is now in New Orleans Square. Looking at photos, I can't help wondering if the durn thing has been "restored"... in these photos the longest bar of the anchor appears to be made of round stock, but recent photos looks like it is from hexagonal stock. If this ever gets out, there will be riots in the streets!

See for yourself.

MANY THANKS to the Mysterious Benefactor!

Special Guest Knott's Photos!

GDB friend Mark Raymond was kind enough to share two wonderful photos of his folks at Knott's Berry Farm, including this fun image of his father and mother from the famous Pitchur Gallery. They look like they should have had their own TV show! "Leave it to Mark". They make a very cute couple, and are so happy, it's impossible to look at this and not feel some joy in your heart.

Next is this photo of Mark's mother, sitting on the lap of Handsome Brady himself (that sly dog!). Poor old Whisky Bill is all alone. Maybe he needs to buy some Irish Spring. I was wondering when these were taken (possibly the early '60s?)... Mark said, Unfortunately, no dates but the second picture has my mom's handwriting on the back. It says "My eyes are up here, cowboy." Mark's mom sounds like a fun gal!

 Thanks so much to Mark Raymond for sharing these delightful family photos!

Snoozer Sunday

How can it be January 3rd already? The year is just whooshing by. I'm already thinking about Christmas shopping.

Here's a rather gray but not terrible photo of the mighty Matterhorn, looking surprisingly massive. It's interesting to imagine what this attraction might have looked like if it had been built 20 or 30 years later. Would they have made the mountain even bigger? I'm not sure if they could have, since Disneyland's compact size would have made a larger "footprint" impractical. I think the one we got is JUST RIGHT.

I've mentioned it before, but the early Matterhorn seemed to have darker coloration in general, and I believe that at they lightened it after a few years to simulate "aerial perspective" - the effect that atmosphere has in making an object feel farther away. 

And here's a pretty unspectacular shot looking across the Submarine lagoon, but I am happy to see a few Motorboats and Autopia vehicles, and that nutty Richfield eagle.

 

Old Los Angeles

January 2nd! So far so good, am I right? I've delved into the "Vintage Los Angeles" folder for today's selection, starting with one that I probably should have shared yesterday, since it is from January 1st, 1959. It's a glorious sunny day - just the sort of thing to make folks in ice-cold parts of the country think that maybe they need to pack up and move to Southern California. Crowds of people are heading into Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena for the 45th Rose Bowl game. The Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the California Golden Bears, 38-12. 

Next is this undated photo from the corner of Sunset and Vine, looking eastward on Sunset. NBC Radio City is that fantastic Streamline Moderne building to our left. That facility had opened in 1938. ABC Studio was located just north on Vine, while CBS Studio can be seen in the distance. Some of the other famous landmarks near this intersection were Club Morocco, Mike Lyman's, the Radio Room, the Brown Derby, and Tom Breneman's. To name but a few! 

 

Two Beauties From Tomorrowland

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all your Junior Gorillas out there! I'm hoping it's a good one!

I wasn't sure what to share on this first day of the new year, and finally lamed out and went back to my scans of vintage Disneyland slides - but they are both dated from January, so they are sort of New Year-related. This first one is quite the stunner though, a beautiful closeup of the base of the TWA Moonliner (dated "January 1960"). That thing is just darned impressive - even at 1/3 (80-foot) scale. Just try to imagine how colossal it would have been at its full 240-foot height! 

In this photo the rocket is in the warm glow of the late-afternoon sun. The park is not exactly chockablock with guests! The Skyway terminal is in the distance to our right; there appears to be some scaffolding behind the Autopia sign, seen beneath the rocket's left landing strut. Any idea what that was for?

This next one is dated "January 1962", and shows a dynamic composition with the Monorail (Big Red!) heading toward us (I believe) in a graceful curve that mirrored the edge of the Submarine Lagoon. What a sight!