Check out the wonderful Enchanted Tiki Room poster on the Monorail pylon and the entrance to Disneyland.
A collection of images and other items from Disneyland, theme parks and other amusement parks. Also look for images and items I find interesting, amusing or both.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
It Was A Simpler Time
The following images and article appeared in the local Long Beach newspaper. If this happened today, there would be allegations of kidnapping and foul play. Here is the article: Together Again- Don Fallis, 32, at left with his sons Audie 6, and Tim, 4 are back with the rest of his family -- His wife, Eva at right and their other two children, Ricky, 6, and Donna 10. In the center is Fallis' brother-in-law, Gene Yount with his family who with Mrs. Fallis lost Mr. Fallis in Hollywood last Thursday. The Yount family includes Mrs. Imogene Yount holding 6-month old Timmy Joe besides Regina, 4. The other three (L-R) are Harold 11, Ronnie, 8 and Lourana, 9. (All Younts.) The two families were re-united in the Disneyland parking lot after Fallis drove all night from Flagstaff, Ariz. In the background is the Disneyland entrance. The park is closed Monday and Tuesday so the families will return Wednesday to tour the Magic Kingdom.
Sounds like the basis for the movie Vacation with the Griswolds. Wally World is closed? Great pics.
ReplyDeleteGreat set of photos! I would pick the Cadillac for the trip from Flagstaff, a lot smoother than that pickup truck!
ReplyDeleteDriving all that way, only to find out that the park was closed... I'll bet that happened a lot, actually.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they were allowed onto the property to take the photos.
ReplyDeleteMatterhorn, in case you don't have the date, the photo is from September 23, 1964.
ReplyDeleteKatella Gate, there is an audio recording that played at the Main Entrance on Mondays and Tuesdays (telling the people who showed up that it was closed!). My guess is that Disneyland didn't staff anybody in the Parking Lot (and didn't have a way to close it off?!). But these are press photos, and the rest of the story indicates Disneyland comped them when it reopened on Wednesday.
A longer Los Angeles Times piece includes additional "humorous" (to me!) details:
"Fallis, finding himself separated [in Hollywood], decided to go on to Disneyland. That's where the caravan had been headed. He parked in the Disneyland lot. He waited for 30 hours.
"Then he drove to Las Vegas, the next stop on the itinerary. No Younts or Fallises in Las Vegas. What was next? The Grand Canyon. On to Flagstaff. And still no luck.
"On Sunday, just as he was about to head back to Dayton, Fallis telephoned his brother, Raymond, in Columbus, O. Mrs. Fallis had also thought of this. Through Raymond Fallis the reunion was co-ordinated."
That poor Fallis family. They should have checked Disneyland hours online.
ReplyDeleteOh. Yeah.
What a bummer!
This photo really got me thinking because it had a deja vu feeling to it, so I asked my folks and, YES, we too had exactly that same problem - we took a trip to Disneyland, and discovered it was closed.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been in the mid-late 60s and my Mom remembered it vividly: We arrived at the Main Gate on Harbor and discovered there were no cars lined up and nobody at the parking lot booths .... a bad sign.
We drove up to the park ticket booths and discovered that the park was indeed closed as it was every week, so we decided to go to Knotts'. We don't recall if there was any signage directing us to Knotts, but the tone of the time was more neighborly, so it wouldn't surprise me.
We did learn from our mistakes: from then on we kept track of days open and closed, so it never happened again.