New York City, 1950's

New York, New York. It's a hell of a town. And while there seems to be some sort of weird rivalry between NYC and L.A. (or NYC and everywhere else), I like it! 

Both of today's photos are from the 1950's. I have no idea where this first picture was snapped from, but I love the way the buildings just get more and more massive until you have the crown jewel… the Empire State Building. It hardly looks real. Notice the remains of some older raised roadway, along with the newer version just beyond it.

In 1952, the headquarters for the United Nations was built along the East River. The design was a combination of concepts by architects Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier. I can't help thinking of Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 film, "North by Northwest", in which Cary Grant is frame for MOIDER! There has been talk of moving the headquarter elsewhere (either to another location in New York City, or to another country altogether), although there are also plans to renovate and expand this iconic site.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to New York!

Monorail & Matterhorn, August 1962

HEADLINE: STUPID BLOGGER ACCIDENTALLY DELETES COMMENTS!

Hey GDB readers (and commenters), I was going through my Blogspot account, intending to delete  100 spam comments. BUT I selected the wrong thing and clicked "delete" on PUBLISHED comments. SO DUMB. I apologize to all of you who have commented over the past few weeks. Fortunately I stopped it as soon as I realized my horrible blunder, so I didn't delete all 8 years of comments, but only the last few weeks. Still, I am upset about it. Sorry, everyone. ANYWAY, on with today's post….

Wowee, you gets yer Yacht Bar, Monorail (the blue one), Skyway, and Matterhorn, all for one low low price! Maybe I should charge more. Let it be known that from this day forward, prices to view this blog have doubled. It's nothing personal, just business.

Every night the cleaning crew had to scrub the Matterhorn from top to base with a specially-formulated "Matterhorn Cleanser" created by Amway*. They used 10,000 gallons of the stuff! It had a nice piney smell, so that was a bonus.

*This is a lie.

Random Knott's, 1950's!

Here are two random photos of Knott's Berry Farm from the glorious 1950's (when everything was perfect and nothing bad ever happened).

I like this shot of the original berry stand, or at least a recreation of it. In the earliest days, Walter Knott and family sold boysenberries and other produce at their roadside stand. Eventually, Cordelia Knott started serving wildly popular chicken dinners; so popular that the wait to get in could be over 3 hours! Walter started building his Ghost Town as a way to keep customers entertained, which was pretty cool.

Inside the Saloon, two of the regular street characters that populated the Ghost Town. The old fella looks like a retired sheriff… a little slow on the draw, these days. But darn it, he still wants his town to be orderly! The lady (seen in another photo here) appears to be of considerable social standing, though I'll bet she's not above a bit of wicked gossip. 

These folks have been gone for many many years, but don't you wish you could hear some of their stories?

Color Snapshots, early 1970's

I just scanned ALL of my vintage snapshots from various years - some 79 of them. Those should last for a while! Today's selection is from a lot that I believe is from the early 1970's, though it could be late 1960's; I particularly like them.

That square format is somehow reassuring; the appealing nostalgia factor makes this style so popular on Instagram. The sun is on its way down, leaving the Tomorrowland entrance flower beds in shadow while the Matterhorn glows with warm light. I feel like yodeling! The tent-roofed souvenir stand is over where the old House of the Future used to be.

Aw, Pinocchio, I am always happy to see him! He seems to have recovered from that donkey thing quite nicely. Pinoke is posing with a friend in the castle courtyard, right near the passageway/shortcut to Frontierland. The kid with the feathered hat is my favorite detail.

Over at the Plaza Inn, folks sit down for an early dinner (or is it a late lunch?); they appear to be unencumbered by children. The presence of sweaters, and the bare trees to the right seem to indicate that it is what passes for Winter in Southern California. Brrrrrr! I love the yellow and white-striped umbrellas in the background, so cheerful and bright.

There are more from this lot, coming up!

Beautiful Tomorrowland!

It's time for another "best of…" installment here on GDB. I always love an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful Tomorrowland of the past (wha?). And speaking of the past, here's a late 19th-century steam locomotive chugging past the freeway of the Autopia… the freeway of the future. Those yellow passenger cars might not have been so great from the inside, but they sure look great from the outside. The color in this photo is really great! Thanks, Kodachrome. (Hey, howsabout that Richfield sign?)

And this is a super fantabulous look at the TWA Moonliner, that manages to look like it's soaring even when firmly on the ground. This slide took some fixin' in Photoshop, but it was worth it, because I basically love everything about it. To our left is one of the "Hobbyland" booths with plastic models for sale (I loved building models - particularly airplanes of WWII - when I was a kid). 

Wigwasigamig, August 1960

It's kind of surprising how few photos I have from inside the Indian Village (not counting the Dance Circle, that is), considering how many hundreds of other Frontierland images are in my collection. 

This twilight shot shows the crowds milling about the birch bark "Wigwasigamig". (See a photo of the nearby sign HERE). The Ojibwe people built these sapling and bark domed structures, where several families would live. Europeans mispronounced the word wigwasigamig as "wigwam".

That guy to the left looks like he stepped in bison poo. "Gee whiz, why is it always ME?".

While movies of the 1950's frequently portrayed Native Americans as bloodthirsty savages, Walt Disney took a fairly progressive view and showed what life might be like in a peaceful village. Food is being prepared, clothing is being made, hides scraped, and a young boy and his dog watch with curiosity as we pass in our steamboat.

Black and White Snapshots, 1962

I have a small group of black and white snapshots to share with you. From nineteen sixty foo!

These all seem to be taken from a low vantage point, which makes me wonder if a child took the pictures. My own first camera was a Kodak Instamatic, and my mom and dad were cool with letting us use black and white film because it was pretty cheap to develop. Anyway, I like this dramatic upshot of the Matterhorn.

Again, the camera appears to be lower than the edge of the teacup. Maybe somebody (grandma) was in a wheelchair? The cast member to the right is superstitious about ever touching the ground.

Well, this isn't much of a picture, but I figured I'd include it anyway. Extra value for your blogging dollar!

Say, lookit those kids, they got the good seats on the upper level of the Omnibus. I love the posters on the side… if only I had some of those!

There are four more from this batch coming up!

Soap Box Derby, August 1967

As far as I know, "soapbox car racing" is a uniquely all-American competition. In 1933, an impromptu race for 19 boys attracted so much interest that a later, bigger race (with cash prizes!) in Dayton Ohio  resulted in 362 contestants showing up in home made cars constructed from all kinds of available materials (including… "orange crates, sheet tin, wagon and baby-buggy wheels…."). 

Today's photos are from an unknown location, although the "WCAW" might indicate an AM station in Charleston, West Virginia. Those verdant hills sure look like WV to me! I love the way the judges in the stands and the guys up on the catwalk are watching the action with such intensity. This is serious business. Notice the sign that says "Photo Finish"; there appears to be a gentleman with a camera pointed straight down. No "electronic eyes" necessary! 

Look at those streamlined cars, silent except for the sound of the friction of the wheels and the wind whooshing past. Timmy Brznski has quite a lead over Walter Frunk. 

Douglas Moon Rocket, October 1962

Today I have some nice Tomorrowland views to share, both from the days when the moon liner bore its "DOUGLAS" paint scheme. 

This first one is really wonderful! There's the Astro Jets, the mast that held the sign for Submarine Voyage, the Flight Circle, and of course the Rocket to the Moon... 

… in this closeup we can see the golden thimble above the "Thimble Drome" Flight Circle, and we just get a glimpse of the Flying Saucers. Way in the distance (just to the right of the rocket) is the Disneyland sign!

A second view, taken from the Monorail platform, is also super nice. I love the Skyway buckets overhead.

NOTE: I will be out of town for the weekend, so I will only be able to respond to comments occasionally. But keep checking in for new posts!

Pirate Ship and Mark Twain, 1956 (?)

Here's a nice early look at the Chicken of the Sea pirate ship; Fantasyland looks so barren and raw! Today's slides were among a bunch marked "1956", but these particular images are unmarked - there's a part of me that wonders if they couldn't be from 1955. Hard to say for sure. In the background you can just see Casey Junior about to cross a bridge that looks like wood pilings; I believe that these bridges were decorated to look like stone quite early on. Don't you love the way the sails on the pirate ship look when they've caught the wind? You can almost believe that it's going to start moving.

Not too far away, the Mark Twain glides by the riverfront bandstand. The Twain looks remarkably empty. Note that there are chairs on the top level, you sure don't see those anymore.