1959 Monorails Publicity Photograph

A nice Disneyland press release photograph of the red and blue Monorails over the Submarine Lagoon. The posed shot is nice in that you can see the side of the Monorail and the front of the Monorail. On the back is the publicity tag reading: Transportation of omorrow is here today at Disneyland. Two trains of the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System, first passenger carrying monorail to operate continously in America, cruise silently over a concrete "highway in the sky" in Walt Disney's Tomorrowland. Part of its journey takes passengers aboard the electrically operated trains high above the coral lagoon of Disneyland's new Submarine Lagoon.

For more Monorail happiness, check out Gorillas Don't Blog and The Pickle Barrel posts for today.

Red Monorail Speeding Over the Submarine Lagoon

For comparison, here is a similar view to yesterday's post, only this time it is a red Monorail going over the lagoon. It is hard to tell if this is a four car or three car monorail due to the angle.

Yellow Monorail Speeding Over the Submarine Lagoon

I enjoyed showing a weeks worth of Disneyland Band images, that I have decided to focus on the Monorail this week. The first shot is an image of the Yellow Monorail speeding over the Submarine Voyage. I like the sensation of speed with the blurriness to the Monorail. The Imagineers, especially Bob Gurr and John Hench, were some of the most creative designers around the and the streamlined Monorail is one of their best designs.

SOP Saturday- Entertainment Division

As a wrap up to the Disneyland Band week, I present the University of Disneyland SOP and Guide for the Entertainment Division. This SOP is a later version from the late 1970s. The focus is also more global to include Walt Disney World. It is still a nice booklet filled with great images, especially the Golden Horseshoe. The design though makes it hard to view as single pages as there are a lot of splash pages and images.

Souvenir Friday- Christmas Parade Route Map

Well I was originally going to post this ad for Martin Instruments featuring the Disneyland Band, but I could not find it. So instead here is a rare piece of paper from 1957, the parade route for the Christmas Parade. Since the band is always part of the parade, I thought it appropriate. What is interesting is that the parade route ends in Frontierland so the image I showed yesterday could have been from this parade.

While looking for the Martin instrument ad, I came across this hang tag that once was buttoned on a kids shirt. I love this graphic and the travel poster featuring this is amazing, but it is nice to see it on a small size.

Disneyland Band in Frontierland October 1959

Photos of the band off of Main Street are pretty tough to find. It seems the band spent a lot of time marching up and down Main Street. But every once in a while they would make a detour and march through another land. This time it is Frontierland. The image shows a nice view of the Disneyland Band patch and the drum head. And in the background is Casa De Fritos along with a group who seem to be totally blase about the band marching through and playing music. They must not have been music lovers.

Mickey Mouse Leading the Disneyland Band 1960s

This is a slightly later photograph than the previous images of the band, probably dating from the mid 1960s. The band now has the red uniforms and the hats with large feathers and brass hat pieces. The hat pieces are pretty cool as the early ones have Disneyland and the castle logo. It appears that the Disneyland Band patch has now been removed. I do like the gold braiding on the front. If you look closely, the drum head has the Disneyland Band logo with the castle.

Flag Retreat Ceremony Town Square

Now wearing their trademark red band uniforms with the large triangular shaped (hmmm, just like Disneyland's outline) patch on the shoulder, the Disneyland band plays the flag retreat ceremony for a large crowd. I like the group of girls in the middle, one wearing a souvenir hat. All the dads and granddads are sitting down, taking a breather after a long day at the park. This is the classic Disneyland of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

I am happy to see that the band now participates in the flag retreat ceremony. For years, it was just canned music through the speakers. One of the most blatant scenes of commercialism under the Pressler/Harris management was when I watched the Popcorn seller continue to sell popcorn during the playing of the National Anthem. And the popcorn seller was right there in Town Square. I am not an ultra patriotic person, but that just seemed so wrong.

Vesey Walker Leading the Band Down Main Street

A slighter later photograph of Vesey Walker marching the Disneyland band in their blue uniforms down Main Street. The photo shows the wonder a marching band can be with a large crowd watching and also how alive Main Street once was, but not anymore. The uniforms have now acheived some of the brass buttons and filligree of a sucessful band and look very sharp in the late afternoon sun. Now if I could only see what the bag the man in the center is holding, it would be a perfect slide.

Disneyland Band Town Square Concert July 1955

After looking at Major Pepperidge's slide of the Disneyland band in blue uniforms on his blog Gorilla's Don't Blog, I searched my slides and came up with this early image of the Disneyland Band performing the flag retreat at Town Square. The band uniforms here have not acheived the brass button splendor they eventually became. I still like the simplicity of the band uniforms and the brass instruments. Unfortunately the slide is somewhat scratched, but it is still one of my favorite Disneyland Band shots. Look for more photographs of the Disneyland Band this week.

SOP Saturday- Submarine Voyage

This weeks Standard Operating Procecure (well technically Story Guide and Operations Procedure) is titled Setting Your Course on the Submarines. The booklet is dated 1966 and is filled with all the information on the Submarine Voyage in its prime. The illustrations and photographs are great.