Storybook Land Scenes

Two snapshots featuring scenes along the bank of the canal through Storybook Land. The attraction reflected Walt's love of miniature and also Ken Anderson's hobby of miniatures. Instead of building just one doll house, Walt and Ken created a whole land featuring doll houses from the animated cartoons in the company's library. The first picture today shows the castle where Cinderella attended the ball and met the man of her dreams. Halfway down the mountain, her carriage was changed back to the pumpkin. Surrounding the high castle is the town which Cinderella is not allowed to visit by her wicked stepmother.

The second photo shows the forest cottage that is the home to the Seven Dwarves. This is the house Snow White finds after fleeing the huntsman and finds a home.

Flying Elephants and Teacups

Once upon a time there was a magical ride that went from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland over the lands. And from this magical ride, many a great photograph was snapped. The ride was the Skyway and these two images show two attractions from Fantasyland. First up is Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Lucky riders are having fun using their magical feather to fly through the air.

The second picture is of the tea cups where riders who do not suffer from vertigo go around and around very fast. This moment is when the teacups are being loaded with everyone picking their favorite color.

Trains At Disneyland

One of the Walt Disney Company's tagline is remember that it all started with a mouse. For Disneyland, the park started with a train. Walt's love of trains is well documented with several full length books written on the subject. When Disneyland was just an idea, Walt wanted a train to encircle the park. Most people believe Walt just wanted a full size railroad to run. With Disneyland, the train is one of the most visible attractions at the entrance and every visit to the park is not complete without a train ride. This is true for this family as they waited in line at the Main Street station and snapped photographs of the C.K. Holliday, Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad engine number 1.

The engine was pulling the freight train combination with the boxcars. The circular sign with the castle on the boxcar is a nice touch based upon similar signs placed on boxcars on regular railroads. I believe at this time the railroads were still being run with the freight operating and loading and unloading at Frontierland Station and the passenger train loading and unloading at Main Street station.

Indian Village Dancing

In the early years of Disneyland, the Indian Village was a very popular attraction. One of the main draws was the dancing demonstrations on the main stage. Most photo collections of the time period have some images of Indian Village and most are of the dancers. These two photographs do capture the crowd watching the Native American dancer. In the background there is a camera bug taking photos with his expensive camera and also a poor dad holding two Mickey Mouse balloons.

And a note, I stated the restaurant yesterday was the Red Wagon Inn, but rather it is the sister restaurant the Plaza Pavilion. The Pavillion (as called in the early years) was a buffet restaurant and had two dining areas, the Victorian theming on Main Street and tropical on the Adventureland side. Thanks to K. Martinez for pointing this out. I should know better than to rely on my brain early in the morning to remember the details....

Movie and a Lunch

Two pictures of attractions on Main Street. First up is a poster for a Rudolph Valentino movie at the Main Street Cinema. The Main Street Cinema once showed classic silent cinema, unlike the Mickey Mouse only shorts seen today. I am sure many kids first saw the classic Phantom of the Opera for the first time after using their A ticket to enter.

Next up is the lunch spot in the early days of Disneyland, the Red Wagon Inn. Outfitted with fantastic furnishings from a local Los Angeles Mansion, the restaurant served Swift's quality meats exclusively. This was the high end dining spot with a lounge for sponsors.

Characters on Main Street

One of the earliest characters on Main Street was Trinidad the White Wing of the Disneyland Sanitation Department. This snapshot is of Trinidad by the Gibson card shop heading onto Main Street, pushing his cart. I like the feather in his cap. He appeared on his own early Disneyland postcard.

The next image is of a very young ice cream vendor. The vendor also made it onto one of the earliest postcards. I was hoping that the vendor would be wearing one of the early ID badges, but he is not. I do think that everyone would look dashing in his belted outfit.

Entering Disneyland April 1957

The family after checking into the Disneyland Hotel rode the tram over to Disneyland. First up is the obligatory photograph of Main Street Station and the Mickey Mouse Floral.

The boy is holding the 1957 guidebook.

Walking under the left side tunnel, the family explored firefighting in the early 1900s by visiting the fire house. The horse drawn fire engine appears to be parked for the day.