Nice second story view of the Adventureland side of the Plaza Pavillion. This shot was taken from the second story of the Jungle Cruise loading dock building. In the foreground can be seen the Tikis store. I really like the angle of this image.
I also want to direct you to a new blog that is posting early Disneyland images as well, Gorillas Don't Blog. Check it out.
One shop that was in the center of Adventureland was called Tikis. When I first viewed these photos, I thought of all the great Polynesian Pop items that may have been sold here: tiki statues, toy monkeys, jewelry, shirts and more. And that I could not see them due to the tarps being down. However, I saw some film recently and Tikis specialized in hats and sunbonnets. Still a great name for an Adventureland store.
Adventureland was the home of several tikis even before the Enchanted Tiki Room was constructed. This is a view of the hotel which was at the very end of the Bazaar with one of the large tikis. This tiki may have been carved by Eli Hedley as he did own the Island Trade Store in the Bazaar and looks like his work. The Carnation Ice Cream sign in the background is pretty nice.
Continuing the look at the Adventureland Bazaar, this was the scene at the west end of the Bazaar. It looks like the guests are enjoying the drinks from the drink stand Sunkist, I Presume which featured great citrus based drinks. In the background can be seen some of the variety of merchandise available from the co-op vendors in the Bazaar. I like the Hawaiian shirt hanging up next to some leis. Also the windows of Adventureland can be seen in the upper left hand corner for banjo player and tattoo artist Harper Goff.
Allright I am now back. I took a business trip and assumed the hotel I was staying in would have internet access, but no such luck. So now that I am back, I will continue with views of the Adventureland Bazaar with one of my favorite shots, an ice cream outdoor vending employee in action. Disneyland today would no longer allow this employee to wear sandals, even though they fit in the theme of Adventureland. Also, he would not just throw the empty box of ice cream on the ground and then stand on it. I do like the peak into the bazaar with the good luck corner shown. I wonder if that is where the rare adventureland good luck postcard was sold?
The Bazaar in Adventureland during this time period was where one could go shopping for all the wonderful jungle, Mexico, Asia, Africa and tiki themed merchandise. It truly was a bazaar with several vendors under one roof. The Japanese lanterns give the store a nice festive touch and look at all the various hats and sunbonnets for sale. Quite an impressive display. The other details on the roof such as the tiki mask, the turtle shell and the large rice basket add touches that are sorely missing in today's Adventureland.
Two images of Walt Disney and executives from the Van Camp tuna company in the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship restaurant. How many of you remember the Chicken of the Sea tuna salad served in the little boats? I wonder if the boats had any marking or were just generic boats? Any one have one in their collection? For more images of the Chicken of the Sea ship, take a look at Dan Goodsell's blog for May 19, 2006 on A Sampler of Things.
I have always liked these early ticket flyers handed out when you drove through the parking lot gate. The simple design, usually printed on brightly colored paper, with the amazing clip art on one side showing the various rides. This one is dated 1956 and advertises the new rides of Tom Sawyer's Island, Storbybook Land, Rainbow Caverns Mine Train and the Skyway. These are also a great source of knowledge for which rides were in existence and which ticket they were (which is a source of endless debate amongst Disneyland fans.)
Before skull rock was put into place the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship was off in its own area. The area was very barren without much theming as shown by this photo of one of the shaded picnic tables. The shape of the umbrella is very cool and the angle of the photo with the Pirate Ship front coming at you subtly screened by quick growing bamboo to give a little theming is very nice.
This area of Frontierland is one of the most under photographed locations, with one of the best stores that was in Frontierland. I believe the fascination with Mineral Hall can be traced back to an early E-Ticket Magazine in which Leon wrote about Mineral Hall and showed some of the souvenirs. Mineral Hall was a classic 1950s store showing off amazing science information while still holding the theme. Also the best restaurant was right next door, Casa De Fritos. This image is made all the better by the guests, still wearing somewhat formal clothes although the gentleman in the front is wearing Mexican huarache sandals and a sports shirt jauntily untucked.
Seeing that Disney online created a wonderful model of this attraction vehicle, I thought I would show this shot of the bus getting ready to make the trip down Main Street to Town Square. I love the kids sitting on the second deck holding the large size ticket book and of course the attraction poster art on the side of the bus. And the driver is very cool wearing his dark sun glasses.
Color snapshot of the interior of Fantasyland showing what I believe is Merlins Magic Shop and King Arthurs Carrousel. I am always amazed at the fact that Disneyland guests dressed up in dresses, suits, the ladies wore pumps and the guys wore ties. The fifties was the beginning of the sports and leisure clothing industry and I expect everyone to be wearing Hawaiian style shirts and sun dresses. Maybe Disneyland could do a retro 1950s day and have everyone wear nice dresses with pumps, suits and ties, and everything else a 1950s family visiting would have worn. I am sure it would be a hit! Photograph is marked on the back Disneyland 10-30-63.
In almost all of the image collections and slides of vacation trips I have found and seen, there is one picture of the burning settlers cabin usually taken from the Mark Twain towards the interior of the island. In fact, on a home movie reel, the photographer took the view three different times! This photograph is the opposite view from the interior of the island showing the Rivers of America. The poor settler with an arrow sticking out of him was removed years ago and now the cabin does not even burn. My guess is the photographer was allowed to go through the fence that seperates the island and take this image.
This is one of my favorite souvenirs, a childs T shirt featuring Black Bart. Who was Black Bart? He was the villian in the early gunfights and action in Frontierland, cast as a card shark and typical villian in the vein of early films. Of course the Marshall would always beat him. The original Marshall was Wally Boag from the Golden Horseshoe Review, who came up with the idea of some gun fight action in Frontierland. It is amazing that a shirt was created and sold at Disneyland featuring the villian, why not the Marshall? Here is an image of Black Bart doing his evilness in Frontierland.
The wall of posters continued down the walkway and also was placed up on the berm. And the selection of posters is amazing. If you look on the right side of the wall, just past the Autopia poster, there hangs one of the most unusual and rare posters, the Casa De Fritos poster. This image is for all the attraction poster fans! Also note that the poles the posters are hanging from have shields, tiki heads and skulls to keep up the Adventureland theming.
Continuing on the path with more attraction posters on display.
In 1961 when construction was going on, Disneyland created a walkway from Adventureland to Frontierland around the back of the buildings housing Aunt Jemima's Pancake house. In order to camofluage the backside of the building, they constructed plywood walls and plastered attraction posters on the plywood. The poles do have tiki style heads at the top. This is the first part of the row, slide is marked Poster Row. Two unusual posters are in this view, the first is for the Astro Jets with the same artwork later used for the Rocket Jets and the second is the Satellite View of America in yellow lettering using the same artwork as for Space Station X-1 poster. I believe the current location of this shot is the Bengal Barbecue.
Taken from one of the Skyway buckets, the view shows Storybook Canal Boats with the large Monstro entrance and the Fantasyland Railroad Station in the background. The landscaping is so sparse, but at least there are now things to look at on the attraction. If this photograph had been taken a year or so earlier, the landscaping would have been just dirt and weeds, no Monstro, no attraction name, no rock work, not much at all. Also, photo shows how the queue position has changed over the years although the light house ticket booth is still there, now as a scenic element.
Nice shot of one of the Conestoga Wagons in the Rainbow Desert. On the right hand side can be seen the tracks for the Mine Train Through Rainbow Caverns, the predecessor to Natures Wonderland Railroad. I like the natural arch bridge over the tracks. Photo was probably taken from one of the rail cars. The Conestoga Wagons did not last long coming to a close in 1959 with the upgrade of Rainbow Caverns to Natures Wonderland. Photograph is circa 1958.
Not really a souvenir that could be purchased by visitors, but rather an item that was given to cast members who were working on July 17, 1964, Disneyland's ninth birthday. I love the Mickey Mouse with his almost demonic grin and the back instructions for placing the flower in is wonderful. Size of item is 5.5 by 4.5 inches in size, so it is pretty big not just some small tag that would hang off of the name tag.
Back in 1958 Disneyland had a couple of days celebrating their newest television hit show, Zorro. Guy Williams dressed as Zorro would ride in a parade and then take part in a stage show in Frontierland. This image is of Zorro riding under one of the advertising banners for the new Grand Canyon diorama and on the lamp post in front of the Emporium also has a sign promoting the new Grand Canyon diorama. Scarce photo of an event that only happened for a couple of days when the park was only three years old.
An image I really like, a girl in a great mod overcoat, standing in front of some of the most rare attraction posters, next to the old courtyard of flags that marked the entrance to Tomorrowland with one of the modern light fixtures in the background. Photo is dated March 1965.
Although these images are more modern than most of my collection, they do show in color the wonderful Mary Blair tile murals that were in Tomorrowland (and still there from everything I have heard, just covered up by another mural.) The top image is from the Contemporary resort in Walt Disney World.
I collect these souvenir photos which were taken on Main Street at Disneyland and was extremely happy when I received this in the mail recently. I had purchased a collection of photos for some amusement park snapshots (which are really nice, but not Disneyland) and this was attached to one of the pages of the album. I had been looking for this image for a long time. Just a wonderful image with the cartoon headhunter cannibal and the skull on the spear, and the big black pot with Disneyland on it to give this an Adventureland feel. Several years ago The E Ticket magazine did a whole article on these souvenir photos.
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