A Trip to Disneyland 1958

A series of snapshots taken by a young family on their trip in 1958. It appears the boys, like all boys, were obsessed with cars and driving cars. The dad was a good photographer and took some nice unusual shots. The first is of the Jr. Autopia over in Fantasyland. The striped tent queue is very nice with the cartoon lettering for Jr. Autopia on the side. The boy is just so happy!

The second shot is also of the young boy in a Midget Autopia car. He sure enjoyed driving the cars.

The final shot is of both brothers starting an Autopia car in Tomorrowland. The driver is listening intently (and probably gunning the engine) while the passenger is happy to ride his third small automobile of the day.

Staying in Tomorrowland are shots of the Skyway with the great sign and the desk chairs on the right hand side. The other image is of the TWA Rocket, but the photographer managed to get a picture of the ticket booth sign. (For all of you signage fanatics, I have added a close up of the sign.)

The next image is of Trader Sam on the Jungle Rivers. It appears his offer of two for one is still being held. (That is two of his heads for your head!)

The final image is of the stately Mark Twain Riverboat (as described in the brochures) from the Chicken Plantation patio. It looks like the perfect way to end an exciting day at Disneyland, watching the boat and dining on fresh fried chicken with all the fixings.

Yale Lock Shop Main Street 1960s

Another image from the long series of photos taken of Main Street Stores. This time it is the Yale Lock shop that featured a giant key outside. This style of advertising is a well known and highly collected category folk art called trade simulators. The folk art consists of giant representations of the merchandise or tools used by the proprieter. Some of the classic examples are giant teeth for dentists and giant glasses for an optician. The Yale Lock shop featured a display of locks and keys from ancient times to modern times. Additionaly a guest could get a souvenir key with the Disneyland castle on one side and Yale logo on the reverse. Yale is still at Disneyland as all the doors use Yale and Towne locksets.

A close up of the window on the second floor of the building to the right.

These two windows represent Disney attorneys. Gunther Lessing was one of the studio's first attorneys, representing them in a case for profits for the Skeleton Dance. Younger and Leopold were both partners in the firm Youngman, Hungate and Leopold who represented Disneyland in early contract negotiations. (Information comes from Laughing Place List of Windows on Main Street.)

Living It Up at the Disneyland Hotel 1961

I love these shots showing two boys and stylish mom standing in the parking lot of the Disneyland Hotel showing off their bottles of Soft Drinks as if they were expensive wine. The family is quite stylish with the suspenders on the youngest and a button up sweater on the older. The top photo does show the old Disneyland Hotel Tram with its great 1950s World's Fair Styling in the background. The new trams are nice but not quite as stylish as the old trams. The final shot shows the family waving to the brave Monorail Pilot as he rounds the corner. Life was so much easier back in the early 1960s!

Kidding Around at Disneyland

These pictures prove that everyone is a kid at Disneyland. It looks like they had fun at the Magic Shop and the Mad Hatter. I think I like the lady sitting there non-chalantly the best.

SOP Saturday- Retlaw History of the Viewliner

Although technically not a SOP, this is a wonderful document on the beloved Viewliner train. Produced by Retlaw (Walt's own company that was started to run the railroads at Disneyland) in 1965, the document details the ride including operating requiremnts. Although only lasting for a little over a year, this train was the blueprint for the more ambitious Monorail. So for all those train fanatics:

Souvenir Friday- Frito Kid Mug from Frito House

I think I have written before about how my family would always eat at Casa De Fritos, or in later years when the name had changed to Casa Mexicana, for lunch every trip to Disneyland. Based upon these memories some of my favorite things are souvenirs from Casa De Fritos. This one is rather nice a drinking mug with the Frito Kid on the front and a decal on the back stating from the Frito House in Disneyland. I believe this may be from when Casa De Fritos was on the other side Frontierland next to Aunt Jemima's. That location eventually became the Silver Banjo Barbeque restaurant. I have only seen one other in a friends collection. By the way, the family ate at Rancho Del Zocala last time I was at Disneyland and have to say the food has improved from when the restaurant first opened.

Golden Horseshoe Revue 1955

Before Betty Taylor took the role of Slue Foot Sue, Judy Marsh was the singing and dancing saloon owner. This is a nice early image in color of Judy and the Golden Horseshoe Girls dancing the Can Can on stage. The early program lists the girls as Shirley Towers, Gloria Watson, Glenda Guilfoyle and Susan Reed. All of the box seats are filled, even the ones on the second story that are now closed. If you look closely at the tables you will see the card tent menus which featured Pepsi and Frito Lay chips. Also all the cups are marked Pepsi. This image came from the collection of the stage manager Ralph Adams.

Carnation Ice Cream Parlor and Flower Mart

Nice view of the side street and entrance to the old Carnation Ice Cream shop and restaurant. The street is there but is now an outdoor restaurant called appropriately enough the Carnation Cafe. Although if you ask cast members will tell you it was named after the flower and not the previous tenant (copyright issues and such.) I do like the Flowers on display and the cart used to sell flowers. Now a similar cart is used to sell water, soft drinks and fruit on the other side of the street. It takes away the illusion of small town life in the 1890s to see modern plastic soda bottles and overpriced fruit. For those who like the window painting, here is a close up of the window for Niagara Magic Lantern Slides. I believe this window still exists, anybody want to check it out and let me know next time you stop by the park?

Coke Corner Disneyland 1960s

Just a nice shot of the Coke Corner at Main Street in Disneyland in the 1960s. The restaurant has not changed much since this photo was shot. Some things at Disneyland should be like that.

Swifts Market House Side View

This is a nice side view of the Swifts Market showing the windows filled with Swifts Premium products and displays of the time period. You can clearly see tins of lard as well as other products. Above the display windows are a series of other windows, the famous Windows on Main Street. For those interested (and who among you are not interested?), I have posted close ups of the window. The information on each honoree can be found on the Laughing Place Website.

Robert Washo is the same person as Robert Wiskey (as the window reads now.) Robert was head of the Staff Shop that created most of the plastering and concrete work.

Bob Mattey was head of Disney's Underwater Special Effects department and later worked on Jaws. His window is not on the list and I assume no longer on Main Street.

All three of these individuals, Ivan Martin, Jack Rorex and Cash Shockey, worked on the construction of Disneyland. Jack Rorex was construction manager for the Walt Disney Studio in the 1940s and 1950s. He was the one in charge of building the large tank for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

For Bee Keepers, unfortunately the name cannot be seen or was never painted in honor of a person.

George Whitney was a member of the original Disneyland team and once owned an amusement park in San Francisco called Whitneys-at-the-Beach. George was in charge of Fantasyland.

This window is not on the list either and I cannot find any Larry Smith involved in Disneyland. Anyone out there know of a Larry Smith who would have been involved in Disneyland?

Views of Insurance Company of North America Disneyland

More views of Main Street in the early 1960s. The Insurance Company of North America was one of the main sponsors of Disneyland, holding this site from 1956 until 1982. One of the reasons most people remember the company at Disneyland is that they sponsored the give away guide books you would receive when you entered the park. They also published some of the most colorful images on their series of ads in Life and Look in the late 1950s. Their strongest tradition at Disneyland was to have visitors sign a book for each state the visitor came from. The books had millions of signatures.

For those who love signage and the Windows on Main Street, here is a close up post for the Plaza School of Art honoring Herbert Ryman, John Hench and Peter Ellenshaw.

Two Views of Main Street 1960s

Busy weekend so I will not be able to scan an SOP. I promise to start back up next week. To keep all of you occupied are a couple views of Main Street, the Fire House with Walt's apartment above. Unlike Major Pepperidges view, I do not think Walt was in the apartment when this was snapped. It is a nice early morning shot. The next image is my favorite store on Main Street, the Emporium. Think of all the souvenirs that sat on those shelves over the years and were purchased by excited guests (and are now purchased by excited collectors!)

Souvenir Friday- Theme Park Pennants

Pennants have been one of the mainstays of amusement and theme park souvenirs since the early 1900s. They have been sold by the millions and decorated many a kids room. At the swap meets I still see stacks for other tourist attractions and always go through the stack to see if there is an amusement park pennant hiding in the there. Disneyland still sells pennants as do other theme parks. Today most of them appear to be like thick paper and very brightly printed, not the cool old felt style with vibrant printing and even on some of them are flocked letters. The true oldies have sewn on letters spelling out the attraction. Here is a nice selection of pennants from mainly Southern California amusement and theme parks, with one very nice Story Land pennant thrown in.