Sleeping Beauty Castle, August 1968

If I had a rare 1937 "3-legged" Buffalo Nickel for every slide of Sleeping Beauty Castle that I owned, I would be a happy fellow. I'm trying to figure out how to make this scenario a reality.

There it is,  the ne plus ultra of castles - at least until Cinderella Castle was built in 1970. They're both good though, working in very different conditions. I admit to being totally biased and loving Sleeping Beauty Castle more than the Florida castle, but let's not fight about it. We can disagree and still be pals!

On the other (back) side of the castle you can see that the courtyard is chockablock with guests. In spite of all that is going on at ground level, I can't help looking at the door that is on the upper level of the castle (behind the crenellations). This is where gremlins emerged at night to misbehave. Lucky gremlins!

Everybody's milling around; they don't know where to go next! I recommend the "Mr. Hippity" ride! 

"What the heck are you talking about, Major Pepperidge?"

Well, I went to Disneyland with a girl one time, and she wanted to go on "Mr. Hippity". Turns out she meant "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride". Ever since then, I like to call it "Mr. Hippity" too!

Piggies and Teacups, August 1961

You never know who you might see at Disneyland; celebrities of all stripes like to have fun, just like us mere mortals. Sure, it's nice to see somebody like Sammy Davis Jr., or Debbie Reynolds; but I like the real stars, like the two little piggies seen here. Apparently the BBW has eaten one of the pigs, and he looks mighty satisfied. Mmmm-mmmm! Smokey.

To our right is the Carrousel, I wonder if they were about  to board for a spin? In the background is a cute little ticket booth, and behind that is the neat, medieval-looking clock - a detail that I think a lot of people didn't notice.

Our photographer tried to capture a little bit of everything in this shot; the Skyway, Monstro, Skull Rock, the Pirate Ship, and the Teacups. That's a lot of stuff crammed into a relatively small space!

Main Street, November 1955

Welcome to Disneyland, circa 1955! Considering that the park was only open about 5 months of that year, images are pretty darn scarce. The "population" sign is already at 5 million, can that be right? Was that the first number placed there? If I wasn't so lazy, it would be interesting to try to keep track of the changing numbers.

I am assuming that these photos were taken on a Sunday - those folks to the right look like they just came from church. Now they need to shake off that churchy feeling and have some fun.

What do you think, would this be around 3 o'clock in the afternoon in November? It gets dark pretty early at that time of year, and the sun is clearly on its way down. Still the park is bustling with activity... I wonder how late it stayed open. 

Look at those dinky horses pulling the Surrey! City Hall is surprisingly popular; To the extreme right you can just see one of the white horses that pulled the Chemical Fire Wagon (in front of the Fire House, naturally); I'd like to think that Walt Disney was in his apartment on this day!

Castle & Grotto, August 1961

Here are some nice photos from Fantasyland, circa 1961. They're not exciting, but they are better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Trust me, I've tried it so you don't have to. 

This first one reminds me of a number of vintage postcards of the castle; those often included a busy Plaza (Or hub? Hubza?) and a Horse Drawn Streetcar. I think that we can see the roof of a Surrey as well.

The lovely Snow White Grotto is one of my favorite features at the park; it is usually relatively quiet and peaceful over there, even on crowded days. You can see the fish in the water shooting their streams of water into the air (this effect is often not working, it seems). The plants really make it feel like this is a little forgotten corner that has been there for 100 years.

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Those of you in the Disney blogosphere may know who Steve DeGaetano is; besides being one of the foremost fans of the Disney railroads, he is also an author of several wonderful books. His first book (2004) was "Welcome Aboard the Disneyland Railroad". 

I have a copy, and can honestly say that it increased my appreciation of those locomotives a lot (and I already loved them!).

Now, Steve wants to release an updated version of the book, this time with lots of color photos (contributed by me, as well as some of your other favorite bloggers).  Here's what Steve says:

"Things are well under way with the publication of the second edition of my Disneyland Railroad book. The publisher, Theme Park Press, rarely does large color books, but he wants to make an exception for this one. However, costs for color hard bound books are HUGE, so he's trying to offset the costs by running a Kickstarter campaign".

I don't know about you, but I want a bigger, better, colorful and improved second edition of Steve's book. If you do too, please consider visiting the Kickstarter Page; read the info, and if it sounds good to you, you might want to contribute. They are more than halfway to their goal! 

There are only 18 days to go, but it can happen!

Walt Disney World - Main Street Station, November 1971

(Nanook and TokyoMagic! both caught an error in which I accidentally typed the year "1972" instead of "1971". I can't explain how I managed to do that baffling typo!)

It's back to Florida we go - The Magic Kingdom, circa November 1971! The park had only been open a matter of weeks. These photos are from yet another batch of negatives that my friend "Mr. X" was going to throw away - but happily, he gave them to me. Today's examples are not the most exciting, but I am saving the better photos for later!

I haven't seen many night shots of WDW's grand Main Street Station, so in that regard these are nice. FYI, the next 40 (or so) Magic Kingdom photos that I will be posting will be nighttime pictures. The lit clock says it is only around 6 o'clock, but it is dark; winter, you know. I noticed that the "population" and "elevation" info hasn't been added to the sign yet.

Here's a slightly more dramatic angle. You can just see part of the Mickey Mouse floral portrait, and the silhouette of one of the large steam trains as it pulls into the station.

Don't worry, they keep getting better and better after this!

Random People

Since I am still lacking a working transparency scanner, I am going through random scans for my Saturday "Anything Goes" posts, which partially explains whey they are kind of... well, random.

This first picture is from the 1950's, and portrays a fun-loving couple chillin' in their crib. Grandma might look stern, but she probably gave hugs and kisses to her grandkids, and made lemon bars when they came over. Gramps is in his coat and tie, like he just came from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. 

And one can't ignore that huge and impressive "Regina Sublima" music box. Zowie! I think they had one very much like it at Knott's Berry Farm when I was a kid. My mom owns a small table-top version that belonged to my great-grandma, and it is pretty darn cool. The large steel disks are punched through from the front so that a "finger" of metal (for each hole) protrudes out the back. These fingers engage tiny spoked wheels that, in turn, pluck a tuned metal "chime". The effect is quite lovely. My mom has an old cookie tin full of different disks with songs ranging from Souza marches to spiritual tunes.

I just looked online, and a Regina Sublima that is very similar to the one in the photo is priced at over $38,000!

I like this photo of a nine lovely young ladies, in costumes from lands around the world. Walt Disney would approve! The slide is dated "September, 1965", so it isn't a Halloween portrait. I thought it might be a sorority thing, but some of those girls are much too young. So it will just have to remain a mystery! The girl with the glasses bears a startling resemblance to someone I used to know, and yet... it can't be the same person. Still, it's kind of weird, like that photo at the end of "The Shining".

Two From Tomorrowland

Today I'm sharing a few photos from Tomorrowland; technically these are "leftuggies". 

This first one is dated April, 1967, and is an awesome view of the red Mark II Monorail witting at the station. I love that we get a good look at the beam as it curves back toward Howard Johnson's (it almost looks like you could catch the Monorail at HoJo's - but you couldn't!), as well as the Autopia track.

Zooming in, we can see that the Monorail is wrapped in plastic sheeting for some reason. Probably to lock in freshness. Presumably the attraction was closed while the 5-car Mark III trains were being built - those would debut sometime in 1968. It's sort of sad to see the rust on the shiny metal trim. I am guessing that most of this Monorail was scrapped, but the front section was saved and in 1990, was converted into a road vehicle called the "Mouseorail", which toured the country. 

After that it was used in part of the "Rocket Rods" pre-show, painted blue with glowing orange outlines so that it resembled a 3D wireframe model. 

I have no idea what happened to it after the Rocket Rods closed in 2000.

Next is this nice photo taken along the Tomorrowland Autopia's roadway (no guide rail!), as we follow a pale-yellow vehicle. Above us is the Monorail, which makes me think that this is almost the same part of road that can be seen in the previous photos. You can just see part of the Submarine lagoon's rock work through the tangle of beams and ramps.

Sleeping Beauty Castle, July 1958

 Today's images aren't that exciting, but at least they're pretty. They are from a lot of 1958 photos taken by somebody who had a good "photographer's eye". I have deemed this first one to be postcard worthy. Look at how un-pink the castle is! Sure, there's a little bit, but it is very subtle.

That little fence between the flowers and the moat is just tall enough to trip over (if you're really clumsy) - which makes me wonder, has anybody ever fallen into the moat? Also, you can see to the right, there is a hill instead of a Swiss mountain. Another detail.... see those little shields on all of the cloth banners?

In this closer view (not a zoom-in on the previous slide!) you can discern that they are signs heralding the opening of the new "Alice in Wonderland" dark ride, which debuted on June 14th, 1958. I love that ride!

Mark Twain and Pal, September 1978

It's always nice to find a surprise detail in a batch of otherwise-dull photos. Like this one, from 1978. It's a fairly typical shot of the Mark Twain at the landing on an overcast day. But one can't help noticing the giant crane to the left; and what's that strange rocky outcropping??

Say, it's the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, under construction! Very cool, especially since I have so few images from the late 1970's (or even later than that). I like Big Thunder a lot, even though it replaced the beloved Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland. It opened almost a year after this photo was taken (on September 2, 1979).

Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, November 1955

Here are two more Kodachrome slides from November, 1955; the park was only 4 months old! Just imagine. 

I guess the kids are out of school for the Thanksgiving holiday (or something), it is a busy day. You can't see it, but the Teacups are just behind all of those people. Some guests are dressed for cool weather, but it must not be too cold. It won't be long before the sun sets and all the park's lights are turned on. The Pirate Ship looks amazing!

This one was taken a bit earlier... only by minutes, though. It's definitely the magical "golden hour". The little tree seems to be placed in an unfortunate position, blocking the view of the elaborate bas-relief on the stern of the ship... I'll have to look at other photos and see if it was removed at some point.