Fantasyland Benches

A lovely portrait of a painted bench in Fantasyland. It appears this fancy bench sits in front of the Peter Pan attraction. I love the different colors that are painted on the bench.

Nature's Wonderland

A great view of the Nature's Wonderland attraction in Frontierland. This is another photo I would love to step in to and enjoy the attraction one more time.

Sunshine On Teacups

A lovely image of the Teacups in dappled sunlight. Taken from the Skyway, the picture is very arty with the sparkling sunlight and the psychedelic design of the ride's surface. Note the Teacups do not have doors but just a chain to keep the guests in the ride.

Blue Peoplemovers

On a chilly Southern California day all the Peoplemover vehicles have turned blue. The sky is a gorgeous blue with light clouds but the crowd is non-existant. The entrance features the soaring spires of both the Monsanto and Bell Telephone attractions. I just want to step into this photograph and ride the Peoplemover one more time.

One More Night Image of Main Street

One of my favorite food spots on Main Street was the Sunkist Citrus House. A great spot to get some juice and a doughnut in the morning, or a nice lemonade in the afternoon. The sign had a nice visual effect with the lights changing from on and off to simulate movement.

Souvenir Friday- Sea World Hawaiian Punch Drink Card

Many years ago Hawaiian Punch sponsored a pavilion and restaurant in Sea World in San Diego. One of the highlights of this pavilion were the drinks made with Hawaiian Punch. The pavilion was themed tropical and featured a classic tiki exterior and interior. Note the great background featuring tikis framing the drinks. The back of the postcard features a nice image of the pavilion and its lovely tropical theming. Also I love the tag line Add Gin, Rum or Vodka and serve as cocktails, too. Now to find some yellow base...

Monsanto Exterior Tomorrowland 1967 Style

The design of Tomorrowland 1967 was spectacular with the entrance featuring soaring silver colored towers and great planters filled with plants that looked from the future. This is a nice view showing the height of the tower and design and also the great planter. The design emphasizes the Monsanto sign for the Adventure Through Inner Space attraction.

Adventure Through Inner Space- Miniaturization Control

A rare interior view from the Adventure Through Inner Space featuring the Miniaturization Control graphic. The graphics developed for this ride are some of the best Mid-Century Modern scientific designs with great representations of water molecules, ice molecules and down to the atoms.

Hills Bros Coffee Garden Sign at Night

When Starbucks opened in Disneyland, many fans were very vocal in their complaints of commercialism, sell out and Walt would have never put Starbucks in his park. Yet, there had been a coffee shop for many years in Disneyland. Hills Brothers was one of the largest and best known coffee manufacturers in the 1900s until today. The brand sponsored a lovely coffee garden where adults could get their morning, noon or evening cup of joe. This great night time image features the taster which was created 1906 and pays homage to the Ethiopian origin of the coffee.

The Crystal Arcade Sign At Night

A nice night time image of the lovely sign on Main Street for the Crystal Arcade. Enjoy this rare night photograph.

Souvenir Friday- September 1955 Issue of Coca Cola Refresher

The Coca Cola Refresher was the in house magazine for employees of Coca Cola. In September of 1955, the magazine featured Disneyland and the Coke Corner located on Main Street. Not only did the magazine tout the fantastic corner, it also promoted Disneyland. One of the more interesting photographs in the article is of Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Walt Disney on opening day. Over at Daveland was a post featuring s similar photograph of the same trio. Eddie Fisher was sponsored by Coke on the radio at the time with his program Coke Time. I have scanned just the article that features Disneyland.

Skyway and Pele

Two different Disneyland trips by the same family yield two nice images. First up is a nice view from the Matterhorn side of the Submarine Voyage lagoon featuring the Monorail, Skyway and in the background the Carousel of Progress. The photographer also managed to capture one of the submarines coming head on and one at the dock. I am sure most of you miss the Skyway as much as I do.

The second image is one of my favorite set pieces in the Enchanted Tiki garden outside of the Tiki room, Pele. The photographer was kind enough to get the sign in the image.

Heritage Sguare

In 1957, a group of investors in Denver became convinced that a theme park would increase tourism and be a financial boon. The group contacted Marco Engineering, a company run by C.V. Wood. Mr. Wood advertised himself as the man who built Disneyland. Marco engineering employed Dick Kelsey from Disney and Wade Rubottom from MGM as well as other Disney artists to design the park. The park was constructed on a site outside of Golden Colorado. The western front of the park was built with plans to finish the park in later years. Due to financial difficulties the park was not completed and the park closed in 1960. Many of the rides that were there ended up at Six Flags Over Texas. The buildings that had been constructed remained and re-opened as an arts district named Heritage Square. In addition, a local theater company started producing Melodramas in the Opera House. One of the shops was the first year round Christmas shop. The end of this story is that Heritage Square will be closing at the end of 2015 with the fate of the buildings still undetermined. Based upon the closing, I took a trip about a month ago to snap some images of the architecture. It is sad that this part of theme park history is being lost. Here are some of my images, and for those who want to look at all the images, you can see them here: Heritage Square Images

Phantom of the Opera Meets a Fan

Universal monsters have been a big draw for many years. The Phantom of the Opera was best portrayed by Lon Chaney in 1924. This image is taken on the back lot, it may be at the Psycho House. I like the fan is a very dapper man and it appears the person in blue is a cowboy extra.

Two Disneyland Buildings

Two different photographs of buildings and attractions at Disneyland. One is from Fantasyland being a view of it's a small world building from the Monorail (or maybe the Peoplemover, but I do not think so...) The facade still holds up many years later as a wonderful introduction to the happiest cruise to sail.

The second image is of a parked Mine Train at the town of Rainbow Ridge. This is a postcard worthy photograph with lots of color and interesting details. I wish I could just step into this image and take another ride on the Mine Train.

Souvenir Friday- Sleeping Beauty Castle Cuff Links

Today's souvenirs are a nice set of cuff links featuring the Sleeping Beauty Castle and marked Disneyland. The flash photograph kind of washed out the color as the cuff links are a bit more gold in color. For many years, cuff links were out of fashion, but with the hipster rediscovery of vintage style, cuff links have made a come back.

Two Carousels

Two different carousels with both showing off their different looks and the great carved horses. The first image is marked for Holland, Michigan and was taken in the early 1970s. It appears to be a very fancy carousel, but not in a building. I believe this carousel is a traveling carousel that was placed in the park for the annual Tulip Festival.

The second carousel is not marked for location. The carousel appears to be located in a park or maybe a zoo. This has a more modern 1930s look rather than the fancy carousel look. I like the streamline design to the benches and the central pylon decorations. This photograph was taken in the late 1950s.

Final Set of Fuzzy Freedomland

The last two out of focus fuzzy pictures of Freedomland (well at least this set of snapshots.) First up is a nice view from the Ore Buckets of the circle of Conestoga wagons, the Stage Coach, an Ore Bucket and in the distance is the Borden Farm. This is where you could meet Elsie and her calves.

Next up is an image of the Indian Village with teepees in the background and war canoes in the foreground. A note on the back of the photograph states this was taken from the steam ship.

More Fuzzy Images of Freedomland

Two more snapshots that are just out of focus featuring Freedomland. First up is a shot of their Stagecoach in a rather barren landscape filled with rocks and sage brush. I believe this photograph was taken from the Ore buckets, which was Freedomland's version of the Skyway.

The second image is of the building that could be set on fire in Old Chicago. Note the burn marks on the building on the left hand side. The location was well placed allowing the water to run off into the Great Lakes of Freedomland.

Note that the image of the Pikes Peak racer should have been posted on my 20th Century image blog, Corner Cafe Images. If you enjoyed that photograph, check it out.

Pikes Peak Hill Climb- Getting Ready to Race

Freedomland in a Soft Focus

Let's take a trip to the New York City area to visit Freedomland. First up is an overhead view of Old Chicago with quite a crowd on this day. They may be waiting for the theatrical show of the burning of Old Chicago.

A really badly focused image is this one of the steamship and a tugboat on the Great Lakes. I wish there was a focus button in Photoshop.

Souvenir Friday- Paul Hartley Illustrations

Straying a bit from the Disneyland souvenirs is this post about interesting Paul Hartley illustrations for a Los Angeles Sheriffs booklet about the problem of youth drug use- Darkness On Your Doorstep. The booklet was published in 1963 and then reprinted in 1969. This is the 1969 reprint. Paul Hartley was the art director for the Mickey Mouse magazine in the 1950s, as well as the book Our Friend the Atom and several attraction posters. Some interesting quick illustrations to make points about drug use and abuse in Los Angeles. First up is the cover illustration.

Inside front cover illustration.

A full page illustration.

Inside the back cover.

Back page with credits to Paul Hartley of Walt Disney Productions.

For more information and more illustration, check out Kevin Kidney's blog post. I have posted only the Paul Hartley illustrations, the book is filled with information about drugs and also some posed photographic images including one representing an LSD trip.

Two Leftovers

Or as Major Pepperidge states, leftuglies. But,neither of these images are ugly, but not worthy of a post on their own. First up is a nice landscape photo of it's a small world as seen from the Peoplemover. The image shows the great Mary Blair designed facade for the show building.

The second image is of a nice Frontier town street. I thought it was a small amusement park, but in reality it is the street scene from the Hotel Last Frontier in Las Vegas, Nevada. The image is a rare view showing the entire street as most images I have are of people posing in front of the cars and wagons. I do like the Ripleys sign on the left hand side and way in the back is a Conestoga Wagon with the Hotel Last Frontier sign on the canvas.

Matterhorn Mountain 1970

Two nice views of the Matterhorn at Disneyland in 1970. First up is a view at the entrance of Tomorrowland with the Alpine Gardens in the foreground. There are some fun touches including the top of the head of one of the Dwarves, and characters on the right hand side. The juxtaposition of the palm trees with a snow covered mountain in the background is great.

The next image shows one of the Skyway buckets entering the Matterhorn. I will always miss the Skyway and the wonderful views of Disneyland.

Mary Blair In Tomorrowland 1970

Two great views of the South mural at the entrance to Tomorrowland. This mural features energy in it's many forms. The building that housed the mural was the Adventure Through Inner Space show building. This mural was replaced with a mural featuring StarSpeeders. The first image is from the interior of a Peoplemover car.

The photographer liked the image of the sun and snapped this shot of the mural. Note the Mary Blair children playing in the sun.

My only wish was that these snapshots were in color.