Friday, January 25, 2008

March 1956: Movin’ Up Main Street


Finally: the horses have gotten some energy and they are now pulling us up Main Street. In shot one, 2 Horse-Drawn Streetcars pass each other, right outside of GallenKamp’s Blue Bird Shoes for Children Shop. Looks mighty tight, but the Chemical Wagon is trying to squeeze by on the right. Shot #2 is a nice side view of the Bob Gurr Carnation Truck on Center Street:



Just to be fair, our photographer caught the other side of Center Street, and boy does that popcorn look tasty! Gibson Greeting Cards is the shop behind the cart.



A little further up the street brings us to Central Plaza, where we get our first good opportunity to photograph Sleeping Beauty’s Castle; looks like a White Wing on the left near this particular popcorn cart.



Our photographer seems to be tailing the Chemical Wagon as it makes its rounds of Central Plaza; in the detail shot, you can see that the bandstand in the background has yet to move to Magnolia Park in Adventureland.





Final one for today is still in Central Plaza; the Horse-Drawn Streetcar is resting, and a glimpse of Tomorrowland is visible in the background, with The Monsanto Hall of Chemistry on the right.



Many more to come from this March 1956 extravaganza! See more vintage Disneyland Main Street images on my main website.

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4 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Crazy, these are too good to be true. Love that Blue Bird Shoes picture...let's buy some shoes as long as we're at Disneyland!.

Unknown said...

Nothing says Magic Kingdom-style park to me more than a bright red popcorn stand!

I can smell it now. Do we have time to stop and grab a box?

Please!!!!

CoxPilot said...

This is the Disneyland that I knew. The simple clarity of the park, the way the people dressed was the world I grew up in, all gave one a feeling that everything was right with the world and that it was only going to get better. When I see these, my eyes always ten to well up a bit. The 50's were a sweet time, and Disneyland was THE Disneyland. Dave; it's not just a blog, but a quest. Thank you.

Daveland said...

Major - It surely does seem wacky to buy shoes on Main Street, but I do love the fact that Main Street used to be a real Main Street; not an abundance of stores that all sell the same merchandise. George - there's ALWAYS time for popcorn at the park. And Cox - thanks for the nice compliments, and truly glad that these posts are bringing back so many good memories. Wish I could personally thank this photographer. I was just at the park yesterday, and after looking at these slides and how people got dressed up at the park, it was somewhat depressing to see all the slobs that go there now.