A sign marked for the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad once used to keep guests out of backstage areas. Sign is painted onto very heavy metal. Sign is vintage 1960s and out of an estate of the cast member who was in charge of the railroad and Monorails.
The front entrance sign with the nice shield. The Fantasyland rides in the courtyard had these shield designs featuring the characters and logo in a heraldic manner.
The D Ticket sign for Snow White.
One of the ride vehicles named Grumpy. The Mine Carts were designed by WED and built by Arrow Development. There were 13 mine carts with names as follows (number in parenthesis is of how many cars bore that name) Dopey (2), Doc (2), Grumpy (2), Sneezy (1), Bashful (2), Happy (1), Sleepy (1), and Snow White (2).
A rare shot of the entrance to the ride withe Seven Dwarfs Mine sign.
The Tinker Bell toy shop used to be one of my favorite places in Disneyland. In the store was a nice selection of Matchbox cars from England and Britains Toy Soldiers. The annual tradition was to purchase a knight in armor from the colletion of Britains. Each one of the boys in the family would pick one out. We would also get to pick out a Matchbox car as well. Now, Tinker Bell is a Princess shop without fun toys for boys.
On the second photo painted on the wall is a cute little boy with the title Pegleg Pirate. I cannot read what the character on the other side of the sign is, but it looks like the Pegleg Pirates dog. The sign also has great pixie and star accents similar to the stars and pixie dust that trail behind Tinkerbell on the opening sequence of the Disneyland TV show.
The entrance and exit sign from the now closed Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough. The signs are very pretty with their crown shape and the vine design intertwined in them. The vines mimic the scene in the film where the castle is surrounded by thorns and vines put there by Malificent. And for Major, here is a close up of the mural for the Peter Pan load area. The mural shows all the characters from the film in front of a tree with the map of Never Never land to the left side.
Two wonderful images of the Peter Pan Ride front facade in 1966. Peter Pan was a D ticket ride as the second sign points out. The bottom of the sign states that money was not accepted at the ride, you had to either use one of your tickets from your ticket book or a ticket purchased. In the first photo you can see the lovely mural at the load section.
At Disneyland in 1966, guests leaving the park would come to one of these areas designated by the pictured signs to board the Parking lot tram and head out to their cars. I know everyone misses the signs and the parking lot and the old trams, same as I do. The sense of arriving has definitely changed with the new trams and new parking structure. But with the new park and new Downtown Disney, the Disneyland area has changed for the better, becoming closer to what Walt wanted to acheive in Florida...a true destination. But the loss of the Hotel Tram is pretty significant. Now if I could only find this sign for my collection.
One of the souvenirs that was sold there was this Mexican sombrero shaped ashtray. The ashtray does come in a couple of colors, having owned a yellow one in addition to this green one. All have the Mexican painting of cacti on them. The name on the brim is part of the ceramic design as is the Walt Disney Productions on the bottom. I have seen other sombrero's marked for hotels in Baja California and Mexico.
A nice view of the Tomorrowland of my youth with the Peoplemover in front of Matterhorn mountain.
The Disneyland band playing a full concert at the Town Square. The band leader does look like a person from the 1970s! In the background is the Main Street Cinema and it is playing Charlie Chaplin. Does anyone know when it switched to playing all Mickey, all the time?
A nice moody shot of Main Street from the hub. The sign in the front left is for the First Aid and Lost Children area.
My favorite image of the lot is this one for Skull Rock. I have distinct memories of eating tuna sandwiches and looking at the Skull.
And this is from one of my favorite areas in the park, Snow White's wishing well. If you have not been there, I highly recommend it. And with the new Princess area, they no longer have the Snow White meet and greet in the location. The spot has returned to a nice quiet out of the way part of Disneyland.
The second shot shows Bernard meeting a young child. I like the kid in the white pants as he is wearing an Incredible Hulk shirt.
Finally a shot of Oroville the Albatross signing autographs in the Plaza with Tomorrowland in the background.
To be honest with you, I think I have only watched this film once and never saw the sequel. The story and characters are not that appealing and during this time period when I was growing up, I was not that excited by Disney animation. Maybe I should revisit the film? I do like Orville as he appears as a fairly interesting and fun character and fondly remember Disneyland at this time.
The first image shows a very barren Frontierland with not many trees and other activities. This shot really looks as if the Mark Twain was on the mighty Mississippi River going through the wilderness. I believe this was taken in 1955 from one of the wagons in the deserts of Frontierland. I believe this was taken in the evening with the Twain parked as there is no one on board.
A nice 1960 shot of the Old Mill with the Matterhorn and Golden Horseshoe in the background. Of course this area is now undergoing its second major change in its lifetime.
And to complement shaded areas, here are two shade canopies from Tomorrowland area. I like the multi color fiberglass to give it a futuristic look (remember when the future was going to be filled with color?) Also some more of the wonderful chairs for eating in Tomorrowland. The eating establishment is the Yacht Bar located next to the Submarine Voyage.
I hope you all enjoy these obscure and esoteric images. What possessed the photographer to take these shots is a mystery to me. However, I am glad he did.
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