Three from 1956!

Some folks say that this photo shows the empty Storybook Land canal, empty because construction was still being done. There were NO charming miniature scenes of homes and villages from your favorite Disney animated features and Silly Symphonies (oh, and at least one "featurette"). Only dirt. The happiest dirt on earth, they say! But I know the REAL story... Monstro the whale drank the canal dry with one tremendous gulp! He swallowed at least 3 children, and if you listen closely, you can still hear their mournful cries.


"Honey, we need an organ. And everyone knows that the best name in organs is 'Wurlitzer'. Let's head on down to Disneyland and buy one today!". This scenario was probably repeated countless times through the years. If there's one thing I want to do when I go to Disneyland, it's shop for organs.


When I go to the movies, I arrive early in the day, buy one ticket, and then sneak into an additional five movies. I get home at about 1:30 a.m! The Main Street Cinema gave me the idea, only they did it one better by having six movies showing in one room. BRILLIANT! There's no scary Mr. Hyde or Phantom lurking outside the theater this day, but there is a scary little girl.


Best wishes to my co-worker and friend Ronnie Pirovino, who is in Jamaica getting married today.

Three from July 1960

If I was a bear, I would want to live in Disneyland's "Bear Country". It looks pretty sweet, with plenty of trees to scratch against, a stream full of trout, and no pesky hunters. I am always amazed at the convincing effect the designers achieved; I love that stream cascading down the hillside to the left. There are is a beaver dam (or is it two dams?) creating a nice pond before the water spills down into the main body of water.


Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed. I had a neighbor who liked to dress like a giant chipmunk, but that's another story for another blog. Anyway, this is one of the nicer Indian Dance photos that I have... that little girl to the right looks like my sister!


Once again, a photographer came down with a case of the Blurries. Who's that by the moat in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle? Why, it's Alice and the White Rabbit. Right after this photo was snapped, the rabbit pushed Alice into the water. He was tired of playing second banana to this crazy girl!

Two More from 1955

We return once again to 1955, and the first few weeks of Disneyland's opening. Starting with this shot of the Carrousel; there is a large generator to our left, I'm guessing it was used to help provide light for the workmen working on the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship behind us. As you'll see in a future post, it has a way to go before it is ready for its closeup. So to speak. The Carrousel itself is sort of lost in the shadows, but I still enjoy a bit of "people watching". It wouldn't be long before ladies stopped wearing skirts everywhere and switched over to capri pants and pedal-pushers.


It must be an optical illusion, Frontierland looks surprisingly vast in this photo! I guess it's due to our angle looking back at the bend in the river. You can see that expanse of green lawn near Aunt Jemima's and the Silver Banjo BBQ... I'm not sure how long that remained there, or even what replaced it. Was it simply paved over to make room for lots of pounding, sneakered feet? Judging by the stippled surface of the river, there was a nice breeze to help take the edge off of the summer heat.

New York World's Fair

Once upon a time there was a magical fair in New York City. A fair in which there was still a hopeful vision of the future, in spite of some tumultuous current events.

Walt Disney had certainly done his part to bring the idea of Monorails to a large audience, but I don't know if they were ever taken seriously as a cure for gridlock. Instead they seemed to exist more as amusement park curiosities (with a few exceptions). The AMF Monorail at the Fair consisted of 7 two-car trains with a maximum capacity of 80 passengers each. They cruised 40 feet above the fair, and inspired a very cool toy. There was even a Monorail song!


Want a closer look? It's not as sleek or cool as the Disneyland version, but it's still very nice!


This one has nothing to do with the Monorail, but I thought I'd include it as an added bonus. And no additional cost to you! I know, it's kind of dark. Favorite detail: The sign stuck to that arch encouraging folks to go and see James Bond's car! "Goldfinger" was released in September of that year. According to Wikipedia, the movie grossed roughly $125 million dollars; the "inflation adjusted total boxoffice" is over $860 million!

Knott's Fun-pak!

Raise your hand if you want to see some vintage photos of Knott's Berry Farm! You're not raising your hand, you're just sitting there. What gives?

I love this strangely-colored photo of one of the big, shiny locomotives at the berry farm. This is the "Gold Nugget", it got its name because it was actually carved from a single giant gold nugget. The engineer (?) is adjusting the flux capacitor, if I know anything about trains. The yellow passenger cars are bigger cousins to Disneyland's! I still have vivid memories of boarding them, and being just a bit nervous when the train was "robbed", and the thief looked right at me! But he must have figured that I probably didn't have much cash on me, because he walked right past.


How many amusement parks let you pan for a few specks of real gold? This great photo shows the setup in nice detail; there are plenty of extra pans, a few old coffee cans (wonder what those were for?), a towel (self explanatory), and a walrus. Ha ha, made you look! My primary memory of this attraction was that, just as I felt like I was getting the hang of panning for gold, swirling the water and the dirt just so, one of the prospectors would take the pan from you and finish the job. I guess most kids would spend all day there without a little help! Notice the little girl, interested in the water as it pours down into the trough.


In case you wanted to get the "lay of the land", here you go!

Double Vision, 1965

For the second day in a row, you might feel that you are needing glasses (or if you already have them, a new prescription), but never fear! Your eye bones need no adjustment. Today's offering is a double (or triple?) exposure.

It looks like our photographer was on board the Disneyland Railroad, taking a nice photo of Tomorrowland (I believe that the overhang is Tomorrowland Station). You can see the Astro Jets, and part of the Autopia, and if you look carefully, the Skyway station is to the left.

But there are also Jungle Cruise boats with their striped awnings, and plenty of jungle foliage that doesn't belong in Tomorrowland. I'm not sure where that bright light is from!


(Major Pepperidge fully acknowledges that this post is LAME!)

1955 Fuzzy Frolics

I have a number of photos from Disneyland's opening month, which is ordinarily a great thing. But these are BLURRY. Arg! Oh well, I figured I might as well post them, stand a few feet from your computer and you can hardly tell that there's anything wrong with these. This is how the world looks to me when I'm not wearing my glasses, anyway!

Vesey Walker looks striking in his red coat and black pants; it seems that the bandleader's costumes lightened up as the years went by until he often wore all white (this is known as "Colonel Sanders Syndrome"). Anyway, he's stylin' here! And he's having a great time, waving to the crowd and looking like the King of Main Street. The band looks less circusy and more military in their black uniforms - - I think it's a pretty sharp look. (It's killin' me that these are blurry, ladies and gents). Hey look, real tubas, not sousaphones!


The Tomorrowland Spaceman seems to be a bit disoriented (Space Madness!), he's somehow wandered out of the Land of Tomorrow and is standing waaaay out in the hub. Don't worry, after his shift he was led out back and beaten for his transgression.


Did I mention that these are blurry?

Two from July 1958

Happy August and happy friday! Like the "subject" line says, here are two from nineteen hundred and fifty eight. A.D.

Howsabout this nice Skyway view of a busy classic Tomorrowland? Some of the colorful shapes that grace the Skyway's decorative pylon and those shades over at the Space Bar seem to have some Eames influence (plus it makes me seem smart mentioning stuff like "Eames influence"! My glasses do the job too). Anyway, there's lots to see here, you don't need MY help.


Also from July '58 is this nice shot of Town Square... if it wasn't so perfect, I could almost believe that this was a photo from some actual small town!


Have a great weekend, everybody!

Fantasyland, June 1969

We've been spending a lot of time in the 1950's on this blog. But today we jump to June, 1969, for a couple of views of Fantasyland.

The Skyway's buckets are now rectangular and more roomy (although perhaps a little lacking in the charm?). I've often wondered if there was any consideration to making the flat, industrial roof of the castle something a bit more interesting? They probably figured (correctly) that if one side was more interesting than the other, the guests would'nt waste their time looking at the lesser view. Behind the Pirate Ship you can just make out the sandy shore that had some treasure chests and other


Now our feet are back on terra firma, and we get yet another nice shot of that darn tuna boat. You'd think that there was a law saying that you HAD to take a picture of it!

Two from '57

Boy howdy, I'll bet you all are sick of my photos from 1956. Sick, I say! So here's a radical and outrageous change... two from 1957! In 1957, Wham-o produced the first Frisbee, "The Cat in the Hat" was published, and John Lennon met Paul McCartney. So it was a pretty good year!

As we look at this view of the Jungle Cruise's loading dock, I am mostly impressed with the castmember costumes! The Jungle Cruise must have set some kind of record with the number and frequency of changes in costumes. These guys look more like surfers who've come into town for some Mexican food than brave and trustworthy river pilots! Or maybe they look like they are going to start singing folks songs. All I know is that they won't be of much help when an angry rhinoceros starts chewing on your leg.


A flying herd of Dumbi are under the angry control of Timothy and his cruel whip. What happened to you Timothy? You used to be cool, but now your just one of them. YOU know who I mean. In spite of the animal abuse, this is a fun snapshot of a classic ride. And where's the line??