Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Disneyland in Living Color, August 27, 1965



The photographer who shot this Tencennial series definitely put the "A" in anal; and I am lovin' him for that! All his slides contain the date, a description, as well as the settings his camera was on when he shot each one. Amazing. And now YOU can share in his fantastic creations. This has to be one of the best sets I’ve stumbled onto. I know...I say that a lot. Anyway, back to to the topic at hand. Shot #1 is an interior shot of the Main Street Emporium, with Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty, dancing with Prince Phillip. This next shot is a closeup of the Chemical Wagon sitting in the Fire Department on Town Square.



Looks like the day is just beginning on Main Street; a cast member stands outside the Carnation Ice Cream Parlour, waiting for the first guest to come in and order a sundae.



Last stop on our first day’s journey is The Sleeping Beauty Castle:



Come back tomorrow for a swingin’ look at the music playing at Disneyland! See more vintage and current Main Street photos at my website.

2 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

Nice shot of the Chemical Wagon! The quality of construction shows that it as definitely not built "on the cheap". I keep thinking of the stage coach from those slides I posted from Six Gun City, it looks silly compared to the beautiful Disneyland version.

Katella Gate said...

I agree Major, the detail pops out at Vintage Disneyland like it does no where else. I am sure 95% of that is the fact that Walt himself was actually a model builder, and so the Disneyland "stage props" had to pass a more critical examination than other places, where a passing imitation would suffice.

I also find it remarkable to compare the hobbies of Walt, and Ward, and Mark D. to today's TDA members. These men had hobbies where you actually had specific skills/interests like model building, professional music skills, or a comprehensive primitive art collection (each man's hobby respectively).

All of these are fairly brainy skills you needed to apply yourself to for years before you get good at it, and when you do master it, it's not easily talked about, it needs to be demonstrated.

From what I know of the TDA crew, their hobbies tends to be athletic stuff, and moreover, the kind of thing you can brag about at a cocktail party.

I think that this has contributed to the slackening of standards at the park... in the 1950's leisure time was an endeavor, today it's simply gratification.