Anatomy of a Picture-Disneyland 1950s

Some of the fun when choosing photographs and scanning them into the computer are the little details. In most cases, I scan the image at a larger size to see the background. In this case a nice image of the Horse Drawn Fire Wagon in front of the Bekins Van Lines. The family has posed all the girls on the engine with the boys watching.

A closer look reveals Dad is carrying one of the son's souvenir spear from the Indian Village. And the younger son is finding something really entertaining or just practicing his Indian war whoop call.

The location which would later feature two large attraction posters has unique art showing the Mark Twain, Can Can dancers, and more from Frontierland. Also the driver is wearing a Disneyland fire helmet.

Knott's Beary Tales August 21, 1982

One of the best rides from the Knott's Berry Farm Roaring 20's development was the Rolly Crump designed Knott's Beary Tales. A simple story of trying to get pies to a county fair without having them stolen by the pie thief is set in a fantastic dark ride. The captions are self explanatory. Photograph #1 is Characters making Knotts Berry Farm jellies & jam,s on Knott's Berry tale ride.

Photograph #2 Some of the Knotts Berry Tale characters.

Photograph #3 Coyote Pie Thief on Knotts Berry Tale Ride.

Photograph #4 Mystical madame as part of Knotts Berry Tale.

Photograph #5 Pie Thief of Knotts Berry Tales.

Photograph #6 Character from Knotts Berry Tale.

Photograph #7 Characters in Tree on Knotts Berry Tale Ride.

Photograph #8 Balloon ride for some Knotts Berry Farm spectators at Berry Tales country fair.

Photograph #9 Poor pie thief in jail on Knotts Berry Tale characters.

I hope you enjoyed the ride.

Souvenir Friday- Disneyland Pre-Opening Lessee Information and America On Parade

Another item from a grouping I purchased many years ago is this mimeographed sheet sent to all the original Disneyland Lessee's specifying the opening day expectations. The sheet is dated July 12th and has intriguing information about what is planned for opening day on July 17th.

In celebration of July 4th, and keeping with the souvenir theme are these 4 images from a commercial set of slides. These are not the usual Pana Vue slides, but are put into cardboard mounts and unmarked as far as manufacturer.

Bob at Freedomland 1960

Well as I said in the previous post, Bob was quite the traveler and he did enjoy amusement parks. In October 1960, he visited the newly opened Freedomland in the Bronx, New York. The first image is of the famous Chicago Fire and you can see the guests working the fire pump to put out the fire.

The next image is of the train station located in the San Francisco area. It sure appears to be a cold day, probably one of the last days of the season that Freedomland was operating.

The final image is from the ore buckets in the sky showing the Southwest section of the park. I like the mule ride here and the cow skull on the tunnel.

Bob at Coney Island

Bob was a great traveler and he enjoyed going to amusement parks. He visited the worlds most famous and iconic amusement park Coney Island. At this time of the year I think of Coney Island and Nathan's Hot Dog stand for the famous Hot Dog eating contest on July 4th. Unfortunately there is not an image of Nathan's, but he did take this photograph of the sign for George C. Tilyou's Steeplechase Park featuring the smiling Coney Island man.

He also managed to take a picture of the Cyclone Racer in it's glory.

Not content to just take a static image, Bob boarded the roller coaster and snapped an image of the cars heading up the first lift hill. Bob was quite brave sitting at the second row of seats.

Tomorrow another New York theme park.

Bob Visits Knott's Berry Farm

Taking a side trip with Bob on the same day to Knott's Berry Farm. I believe that after this photo and the photo of him by the Horse Drawn Fire Wagon, his wife was never allowed to take his picture. Here Bob is in his Wimbledon best by the Old Miner. Caption reads "The old gold miner Knotts Berry Farm"

The second image is of his wife standing in front of the Blacksmith shop. I like the details of the person playing the banjo while sitting in the wagon and the nice breakfast sign. Caption on this image is "The Blacksmith store at Knotts Berry Farm"

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.