Bob Visits Disneyland 1959

A small collection of four slides of a fellow named Bob and his visit to Disneyland in 1959. The first rather dark image is captioned "Bob and the old fire engine on Main Street"

Luckily for us, Bob boarded the old bucket style Skyway and started to take some pictures. The first is captioned "Matterhorn, Monorail, Skyway of Disneyland" Notice the double decker omnibus driving around the Matterhorn with a banner on the side of the vehicle.

Bob then managed to take the next photograph which is just filled with color and attractions. Notice the submarine and also the Omnibus as well as one of the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The caption on this slide is "Skyway view of Disneyland Submarine below"

The final image is of the wonderful colorful world of Fantasyland. Caption on this amazing image is "View of Disneyland Fantasyland June '59"

My thanks to Bob for taking such nice images in 1959.

Sea World 1973

This post is for the Sea World fans. A great theme park located on Mission Bay in San Diego. The park is famous for Shamu, but my fondest memories are of this show in the sea stadium. I loved the South Seas theme, the Volcano and the Pirates.

The park had amazing expansively landscaped and well manicured lawns. Also there were always lots of flamingos at the front entrance.

Being a theme park there were costumed mascots. I forget the name of the Walrus but the costume is very cute. The nose is amazing and I like the touch that he is dressed in an Admiral's uniform.

The holy grail of images for Sea World is the Hawaiian Punch Village. This was Sea World's Tahitian Terrace with great tikis and Hawaiian decor along with good food and non-alcoholic fruit drinks. I believe most of the poles and the shields were purchased from Oceanic Arts.

Of course all of this is gone now and the park has lost its theming and many of the animal shows. This post is dedicated to Chris who is a major Sea World fan.

Unusual Views of Disneyland

The photographer of the Chicken of the Sea images I put up on Thursday also took some other unusual perspective images. The first is one of the skulls from the front entrance to Adventureland. I believe the skulls were removed fairly early as being too gruesome. The title written on the slide by the photographer is a kind of poetry- Adventureland Skull Pole.

The second slide is marked Adventureland Mill Pond. The image is of an early structure on Tom Sawyers Island with the Old Mill Stream flowing down. This is before the full theming of the island.

Souvenir Friday- Opening Day Parade Sequence

This is for Jason who will appreciate the list and sequence of Disneyland's opening day parade. Very interesting reading. I know of at least one collector who has items from the one of the square dancers. Now you can answer the trivia questions of who was riding in the autopia cars!

Chicken of the Sea Pirate Galleon Seen From Skyway

The photographer of these images was definitely into some unusual views. The first is the set of sails with the large Jolly Roger flag from the Chicken of the Sea Pirate ship. The yellow and red colors of the sails add quite a dash of brightness to the ship.

The second image is where the title of the post came from as that is what is written on the slide. You can see the vending machines that were once on deck as well as the tables. I am surprised by the amount of rigging that is just laying around. The yellow and red color reminds me of early McDonalds.

Stagecoaches and Indians

The first image is one of the Yellowstone Coaches used for a short period on the Disneyland Stagecoach lines. The bright yellow color and great graphic lettering along with an interior open air ride appears to be much nicer than the usual Stagecoach ride. I would believe the use of these coaches was stopped due to their minimal capacity.

For comparison is this image of the Knott's Berry Farm Stagecoach with multiple riders on top. The ride on top I am sure is a much more thrilling ride than in the Yellowstone coach.

Of course in every theme park there was a villain to the ride just to make it more entertaining. From Knott's Berry Farm are two of the Indians who would attack the stagecoach.

Themed Trashcans

One of the best parts of Disneyland is the themed trashcans. Rather than just stick an ugly plain color trashcan in the location, the art directors themed the trashcans to the location. Here are several examples. Guess the location of each one.

Souvenir Friday- Creole Cafe Menu 1968

For those who have read my blog for some time you know I love Disneyland Restaurant Menus. This is one of my favorites, the Creole Cafe in New Orleans Square. The restaurant is currently known as Cafe Orleans. The menu for the Creole and Cafe Orleans in the 1970s was very much the same. The menu has some great food to order. The menu is stitched together from several scans as it did not fit my scanner.

Jimmy MacDonald Sound Effects Wizard 1937

A nice image of soundman Jimmy MacDonald from the Golden Age of animation. Publicity tear sheet states: Hollywood Hails a New Motion Picture Milestone. Sound effects engineers began work to perfect sounds for th film. They discovered old Auto brake drums reproduced perfectly the "bongs' of a grandfather clock. Jimmy was hand picked by Walt Disney to supply the voice of Mickey Mouse when Walt retired from recording the voice.

Dumbo Ticket Booth

This ticket booth still survives to this day, it just has been redesigned and now holds the calliope organ located next to Dumbo. In this configuration, it is a pretty little ticket booth. The signs on the front are wonderful with Dumbo costing 25 cents to ride him. I would love to find one of the signs, but I think everyone else would as well. The souvenir hats are also on full display. I bet the son convinced dad to buy that feathered job. Finally I don't know about you, but I think Walt would have been upset to see his employee leaning on the rail like that. He really should get back to work!

Disneyland Steamship Company

A very rare view of the Mark Twain dock with the ticket booth out front. I have never seen the sign posted at the top of the booth with Disneyland Steamship Co. and the nice painting of the Mark Twain. I would guess that in 1958 the sign was changed with the addition of the Columbia docking at the same location. The costume the employee is wearing is very nice with a Captains hat badge. The kid in front is the stereotypical red headed child of the 1950s. Daveland avert your eyes from the right part of the image as there is a stroller approaching and I don't want to scare you too much.

Since I like each and every one of my readers, here is a close up image of the sign.

Back View of Souvenir Stand

Another souvenir stand image this time from the back. The stand was located across from Storybook Canal boats. The guide book is the 1957 version, but also the 1958 maps are stacked on the counter (even the envelope is stacked there.) The employee is wearing a I Like Disneyland Mickey Mouse flasher button.

Fantasyland Souvenir Stand From the Air

A very interesting image of one of the Fantasyland Souvenir Stands from the Skyway. Also in the image is the Mickey Mouse Club Theater in Fantasyland with Jed's attraction poster for the 3-D Jamboree and the rare Fantasyland Art Corner shop. Yes they sold animation cels, the Art Corner postcards and Art Corner souvenirs same as the Tomorrowland Art Corner. Some peaks over the hill include the Holidayland tent and the Chicken Plantation restaurant in Frontierlnad. Note, I have left the image in a large size so you can see all the lovely details.

New York World's Fair Dinoland, Auto Ride and Ford Car Parts Orchestra

Yesterday I found a collection of snapshots from the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. In the collection are many images of the Sinclair DinoLand. However, they are on Polaroid stock and quite scratched. These images are also part of the collection and it appears the camera was broken as all the images have a "ghost" image of the next photo. The photo's themselves are of some great scenes. The first two are of the Sinclair Oil exhibit.

The next image is of the antique car ride sponsored by Avis.

The final image is of the Ford Pavilions Car Parts Band.

Walt Disney and Unknown Person Holding a Duckster

An unusual photograph of Walt Disney in a suit and an unknown gentleman in a tux. Walt is holding the Academy Award Oscar for The Alaskan Eskimo which war released in 1953. Behind that Oscar is another Oscar on the shelf along with a Charlotte Clark Minnie Mouse and a Donald Duck stuffed animal. Up on the wall are cel set ups featuring Mickey as a Cowboy and a set up from Ben and Me. The mystery is who is the other gentleman? Did he receive a Duckster or was he just admiring it? The photograph is unmarked and does not even have a date code written on the back.

Souvenir Friday- Disneyland is Ducky Flasher Pin

In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Disneyland sold a series of flasher pins. The most common featured Mickey Mouse and then would flash to I Like Disneyland. The next most common is Goofy with I'm Goofy About Disneyland, the third is Tinkerbell with I Tink Its Great and the most scarce is Donald Duck with Disneyland is Ducky. The image below is of the Disneyland is Ducky button. It has seen lots of love as evidenced by the wear to the front. The back features the Disneyland logo. I tried to get my scanner to show the Donald Duck part but it just would not happen.

Back when I first started collecting and pin back buttons were the hot commodity, this button would routinely sell for $150 or more, now it is more like $45 and selling to a Disneyland collector as the button collectors have moved onto pins, or whatever else the newest collectible may be.

Some More Images from the Same Photos As Yesterday

I took a closer look at the slides that yesterday's image was from and the slides have different dates when they were at Knott's Berry Farm. Here is the other slide with the same date stamp.

Here are a couple of other slides but have different date stamps. I really like the last one of old engine 40 pulling through up the tracks.

Knott's Berry Farm?

This slide came in a group of Knott's Berry Farm images. I do not remember a boat ride, but maybe one of the Knott's experts out there knows the answer.

Summer and the Living Is Fine (and the Lines are Long!)

Summer is here and you know what that means....long, long, long, long lines at Disneyland. Here is a shot of the lines in the Summer of 1970. Get ready for that wait for Toy Story Midway Mania.

With this image came several other Tomorrowland images. I have posted the first one, but I am re posting so you can play find the yellow People Mover cars. (And I really like the colored People Mover rather than the white ones at the end of the attraction's life.)