After showing the various shops and souvenir stands that sold hats, I thought it was time to show one of the hats that was probably sold at one of the stands. This is a great kids straw adventurer Adventureland hat. The front badge piece on leather is the neat old Adventureland logo as seen on the Disneyland TV show. I believe this hat to be from approximately 1955. The inside is just a shoelace to cushion and suspend the hat while on the kids head.
Taking inspiration from Gorillas Don't Blog post of June 27, here are four different images of Fowlers Harbor. The first three are 1955 or early 1956 with not much growth or scenery surrounding the harbor. One of the photos is actually captioned Shantytown on the river. Fowlers Harbor was named after the Construction Manager and later Operations Director Admiral Joe Fowler. During construction the story goes that Admiral Joe convinced Walt he would need a harbor to work on the Mark Twain. Walt was not happy about the added construction cost but did listen to his employees and built the harbor, naming it after Admiral Joe. The harbor is one of those places that most people do not even notice or think about. The last image is from approximately 1960. It is interesting to see the changes especially in landscaping from the top images to the bottom image.
Dan Goodsell sent me this scan to show five views. This one appears to be late 1957 or early 1958 as the Columbia is being built. The background on this is great showing the Disneyland and Santa Fe Railroad tunnel and the tunnel to the Indian Village. Thanks Dan for sharing the image!
On the Gorillas Don't Blog yesterday was an image of Fowlers Harbor with construction in the background. I believe the construction is for this tunnel to Indian Village. The tunnel was created to allow for the construction of the Haunted Mansion and moving of Indian Village to the location where it stood for years. The location is basically now Bear Country (can't quite get used to calling it Critter Country!) I like the tunnel sign, the petroglyphs on the rock, the light on the right hand side of the photo and the guest's great Hawaiian shirt. And the other guest is carrying an Art Corner bag.
A picture of a place that we may not ever see again, the inside of Fort Wilderness. Great image showing the Regimental Headquarters inside the fort. I have very vivid memories of running around Tom Sawyers Island, running across the stockades, shooting the guns, and using the escape tunnel. Now the fort has been closed for many years and just sits there as the worlds best home for termites.
One of the stores that did not last very long was Coles of California. Coles was a designer and manufacturer of swim suits and other beach wear during the 1950s and 1960s. This of course was a little incongruous in the setting of Main Street, to shop for swim trunks, bathing suits and bathing caps at a theme park. The store was located where the north entrance to the Candy Palace and seating for Coca Cola now exists. I do like the Mermaids in the window display that look like they came from the Peter Pan ride.
Nice photograph of the stage that sat by the waters edge in Frontierland. The Strawhatters band played at this stage with the times shown on the sign. The Strawhatters were a Dixieland band in the style of Kid Ory, Firehouse 5 plus 2 and others during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Disneyland records even released a 45 rpm single with picture sleeve for the band. The early amplification of a PA system is really neat and in the background can be seen the Plantation House restaurant. I also like the colorful umbrellas.
For a character who was so popular, I do not find many photos showing this store. And of course no photos of the interior. I do like the sign and the half wagon wheel architectural details around the sign as well as the deer horns and mounts. I also like the Bonekraft shop next door. Definitely more rustic than the current Frontierland and no pin cart to disrupt the theming.
Although technically not something that was sold, this was a great souvenir for the drummer in the Disneyland Band. I am sure everyone has watched the Disneyland band at least one time during a trip to Disneyland and this is the iconic drum head. I believe this drum head is from the late 1960s from the style of painting and the nice outlining of the letters. The later drum heads are not as finely painted. I have had this for approximately 10 years, buying it at the Santa Monica Swap Meet from a dealer selling linens. I actually purchased two of these and was told by the seller that the drummer took them home as a souvenir of his job. I do know it looks great hanging on the wall.
Inspired by Daveland's image of yesterday, here is an unusual angle view of the Main Street Railroad Station. In the middle of the image is a very rare poster, the Satellite View of America. It appears the screen for Space Station X-1 was cut and the title replaced with Satellite View of America. Here is a close up shot of the poster:
Complementing yesterdays image is the west side (or left hand side) news stand. A similar structure still exists to this day selling souvenirs for those people leaving the park. This one is filled with some of the same items: Hats (as usual), frame tray puzzles, shopping bags, 1957 guidebooks, the posters, postcards, but also Kodak film and some oversize postcards. And this one is definitely more busy and looks like it needs to be restocked. I do like the clothing the guests are wearing and the really nice Mexico straw bag maybe purchased from the El Zocala market in Frontierland?
There were two of these news stands, one by the east entrance tunnel (or right entrance tunnel) and one by the west entrance tunnel (or left entrance tunnel.) In its place is now the stroller rental area. But at this time, it was a grand souvenir stand selling hats (and I have already gone on about hats, how there should be more hats in collections because every souvenir stand sold hats), puzzles, postcards, shopping bags, joke wanted posters and 1957 guidebooks. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I show the West Side Disneyland News Stand.
Another request for a close up. Here are the wanted and other joke posters. These were sold for many years up to the 1970s.
Another request is for a close up of the frame tray puzzles. The puzzles shown is the Main Street gazebo, Frontierland with the tipis, Fantasyland Train and two Mickey Mouse Club ones- one with a circus theme and the other with a farm scene.
Another view of the Rainbow Ridge mining town seen at the loading area of Natures Wonderland and recreated for Big Thunder. This photograph shows the Rainbow Ridge Clarion Newspaper building along with the Last Chance Saloon with the Dentist on the second floor. Once again a great example of detailing to create the illusion of reality to allow guest to suspend belief and to acheive the mood to believe the ride is real including cactus in the shape of things, mis-timed geysers and Rainbow caverns. No other theme park ever created such immersive environments and even today at Disneyland there is not as much of a concentration of immersive environments. The last effective ride has been Indiana Jones with theming and environment. That is one of the reasons that California Adventure fails. One can hope that new rides are designed with better themed environments.
In the collection I have been showing are some great images of the structures in Indian Village from Frontierland. I believe they are from the second incarnation of the village which was located basically where Bear Country (Critter Country for you young 'uns) is located now. This structure I felt was appropriate for Father's Day, the Chiefs Tipi. I like the sign explaining each structure painted on a shield. So to all you Chiefs of clans (Dads) Happy Fathers Day.
For Major Pepperidge of the blog Gorilla's Don't Blog, here is a close up of the sign. Unfortunately not as readable as I wanted, but still somewhat.
View of a popcorn outdoor vending wagon sitting along the Rivers of America. Tom Sawyers Island in the background is very sparse. And if I look closeley, it almost looks as if the employee has a mohawk hair cut. The cost of popcorn at 15 cents was pretty expensive at this time. This was probably the source of many of the popcorn containers now sitting in collections.
I love souvenirs and other items that are obscure and unusual. This souvenir ranks right at the top. A play on words, the card reads You will whistle with Glee when you see Disneyland, attached to the mailing tag is a leather bag holding a small whistle. The only manufacturing mark is for Eastman Tag of Los Angeles. Postally used with a Los Angeles Terminal postmark for July 8, 1957 this is one cute souvenir. So remember that when you see Disneyland, whistle with Glee!
Today I am showing various pictures of the bazaar that was located in front of Casa De Fritos, the Zocalo Market. Filled with the best stuff from Mexico and other Latin America countries. Similar in concept to the Adventureland Bazaar, various lessees would sell their stuff including the Guatamalen Weavers, the Mexican Shop and others. Some wonderful souvenirs came from here including a great sombrero ashtray marked with this name and a wonderful serape with a nice tag. The photographer must have spent a fairly long time here documenting the Zocalo. By the way, Zocalo means town square and was based on the Zorro TV series.
Today is the 47th Birthday of the Tomorrowland construction of 1959. The construction added the Motor Boat Cruise, Submarine Voyage, Monorails and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. And as you can tell, the Matterhorn Bobsleds is my favorite ride. Many firsts were acheived as the ride is the first tubular steel roller coaster. And the track was designed such that all of the compressed air and controls run through the track rather than beside it or under it. The bobsleds was the first real thrill ride to be added to Disneyland and is still one of the most fun coasters to ride as the theming is still outstanding. Even the addition of Harold the Abominable Snowman does nothing to stop the thrill of speeding down a curving bobsled run on snow and ice. So Happy Birthday Matterhorn. For another post showing a great Press Pass for the opening day ceremonies, check out todays post on Tikiranch.
An early morning photograph of the entrance tunnel you would ride under to go out to Natures Wonderland while riding the mine train. I like the mine shaft in the right hand upper corner, quite a cool little detail. Now that I live in Colorado, I can see all these old mines with similar structures. I visited an actual mine last weekend and rode a similar train through part of the mine. It was quite an experience. You can definitely tell that the imagineers did their homework when designing this ride as the experience was similar to my memories of riding this ride.
Since everyone else started to show off their Motorboat Cruise images, I decided to show off mine. This is a very early shot as the ride was only a few months old at this time. And doesn't it look like fun? I do miss this cruise as it was a quirky little ride but well worth the respite from the crowds. Besides you saw some very different views of the Monorail, Autopia and Submarine Voyage. Anything in there would be better than the large parcel of park just sitting empty.
Photograph taken overlooking the old Tom Sawyers Island Raft load and unload area showing some river traffic. On the left hand side in the foreground is the patio area for the Chicken Plantation restaurant and in the back can be seen Fowlers Harbor. Running on the river is the Mark Twain and one of the Keel Boats. The image probably shows the first Keel Boats that were used in filming Davey Crockett and the River Pirates.
I want to point out a new blog from a good friend of mine. He is showing some great advertising and other ephemeral items. Check out his blog: Tikiranch. I promise it will not disappoint.
View of the Sunkist House that used to be on Main Street. This storefront lasted many years and was the home of some of the most refreshing drinks at the park. Sunkist also sponsored a juice stand in Adventureland. And they also fielded the best intra-Disneyland sports teams in Softball and Basketball. The reason was the manager hand picked his employees based upon their athletic prowess. Getting back to the photo, I like the window displays with the white shipping boxes with the Disneyland castle logos, very nice.
This is one of my favorite ceramic souvenirs, a candy dish made approximately 1967. I love the bright colors and images of the various attractions for the 6 lands. A very nice Japanese made piece with the classic Disneyland souvenir logo on the bottom of the candy dish. I wish I could find the original art for the logos. This goes well with any mid century modern decor.
Two great views of the Hills Brother Coffee House and the accompanying Patio. A lot of people's memories involve around either getting a hot chocolate here while their parents drank coffee early in the morning or late in the evening before hitting the road. I am glad to say that the building and the Garden still exist. Now if Disneyland would only make it back into a coffee house. I am sure Starbucks would pony up the cash to sponsor such a place. And then all the Starbucks addicted folks would be able to get their fix. They should be able to make their money off of all the Orange County teens who have annual passports!
Lovely early morning photograph of Tom Sawyers Island before it was destroyed by the addition of the stage and lighting for Fantasmic. The image is unusual in that it shows the old route of the rafts, from basically where New Orleans Square starts to the dock right by the Old Mill. Also seen is the old fishing dock where guests could fish in the Rivers of America and actually catch a catfish. The stories go that it was shut down as too many guests who caught the fish were leaving them around the park...and you can imagine the smell!
And check out the new blog of vintage slides- he has already posted some great images. The blog is Davelandblog.
Once upon a time there were individual tickets for each ride and each ride had its own ticket booth. This is the one that was in Indian Village where one could purchase tickets for the Indian War Canoe (paddle your own vehicle) and for the Tom Sawyer Island Rafts. I really miss ticket booths and ticket books. I believe they spread the crowd out to more rides as they received smaller tickets for smaller rides. If ticket books were still available, rides such as the Horse Drawn Trolley, Keel Boats, Snow Whites Scary Adventure and even Motor Boat Cruise would have more ridership. And the expectation of the guests for every new ride to be an amazing E Ticket ride that is on the cutting edge would not be there. I actually appreciate the Winnie the Pooh ride for what it is, along with the Monsters Inc ride. These rides are C or even D ticket rides with wonderful theming and maybe not the best ride experience (3-D, speed, thrills, etc.) but still enjoyable. Ah, I am sounding like an old curmedgeon yelling about progress. By the way, I like the kid jumping up and down in joy.
Another before the park opened photograph, this time of the Flower Market on Main Street. The Flower Market sold fake plastic flowers advertised as the most realistic looking plastic flowers. And the flowers do look pretty real in this shot. The graphics and text style in this time period is wonderful, especially the flower market greenhouse sign in the rear with great little dots on the letters. This is where the current Carnation Cafe stands as an homage to not only the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor which was next door, but also to the flower market.
Front door view of one of the Main Street displays, this of an 1890s market house and butcher shop. The scene of many a checkers game around the pot bellied stove. Some of the original drawings by Ken Anderson about Disneylandia center around the pot bellied stove. The windows seen in the second floor are still there. And it appears that Trinidad was visiting with his sanitation cart sitting out front.
This is what a visitor would have seen when exiting the World Famous Jungle River Cruise in the early 1960s. The architecture of the load building was a lot more open than now and the second floor observation dock was also a great touch. I like the theming of the barrels and the large fish trap. I am assuming the bright red sign with the number 7 on it means there were 7 boats out on the ride. Even though the current theming is nice, I think the vintage theming is a bit more authentic and with more depth than now. There is a whole theory about theming and immersive environments that allow suspension of disbelief and increases the believability of the unbelievable. The Jungle Cruise at this time was one of the shining examples of this theory.
For this week's souvenir Friday, I am showing one of a series of very unusual postcards that were sold in 1955. The postcards are normal views from the first photographic views published by Disneyland, but are done as puzzles. The guests would buy the postcards which are in a plastic bag and then send the postcard via the mail. The recipient would then open the bag and make the puzzle to see the image. I can see kids wanting their parents to purchase the postcards, but not many were succesful as these are very scarce postcards. I do have the original bag for this but I only show the postcard and the header card with the information. It is things like this that keep us collectors on the prowl.
