I love comparing concept art with the actual execution of a project. It’s interesting attempting to figure out why changes were made (budget, time constraints, change in direction) and what might have been if plans had been carried out as originally designed. In the art above, it appears that the Indian Village was planned to be located at the entrance to Frontierland. I would agree with the decision to move it behind the gates further back, as it would most likely have created a bottleneck of guests at the entrance. From July 18, 1955, the opening day of Disneyland for the normal folk:
This shot from December 26, 1955 shows the festive holiday decor at the gate:
In this detail view of the concept art, it appears that the original name was to be Frontier Country:
It’s clearly Frontierland in this October 1959 shot! I do like the addition of the flagpole at the entrance inside the “fort.” I can’t remember there ever being a flag ceremony here like the one in Town Square; anyone know about that?
For this piece of concept art facing the river with the Mark Twain in the background, Frontierland looks like your typical movie western main street, with lots of shops and services:
In this July 18, 1955, the final product had fewer shops and a lot of real estate for the miniature horse corral instead.
If you compare this detailed view of the art with photos of Disneyland’s neighbor, Knott’s Berry Farm, it looks very much like that Park’s Ghost Town:
Knott’s Ghost Town, circa May 1966:
A contemporary view of Knott’s
In this third piece of concept art, the name is Frontier Land, but spelled out as two words instead of one (same with True Life Adventure Land in the upper right).
This aerial construction view shows a somewhat similar vantage point. The Mark Twain/Columbia dock area for guests was nowhere to be found in the concept art; that was a nice addition.
Closeup of the construction for the New Orleans Street area (where River Belle Terrace is now):
A color view from October 1955:
Without mature landscaping, it was much easier in the early years to see the other lands in the distance. Still no Matterhorn or Skyway at this point; just the spires of the Castle and the Carrousel.
A 1950s view taken aboard the Mark Twain:
The flagpole or “town square” portion of Frontierland seems to have been closer to the river according to the concept art:
Here’s the flagpole and plaque as shown on Opening Day at the front gate:
The concept art also seemed to include a larger two-story building at the entrance to the Stagecoach/Wagon attraction that took guests through the “desert.”
Value-engineering at its finest:
You can see the New Orleans inspired balconies on the building connected to the Golden Horseshoe in this detailed view. The bandstand by the river appears to be in the lower right:
The New Orleans Street bandstand on the Rivers of America as it was constructed:
Overall, not too bad as far as building what was promised!
See more Disneyland Frontierland photos at my main website.
4 comments:
I wonder if the idea of having the teepees out front was to provide a "wienie" for Frontierland
Darryl - it probably was; but they had to be careful about the level of it. That's why the animatronic bird was removed from outside of the Tiki Room. Too many guests blocking the path.
Makes sense about not blocking the path. Although I vaguely recall pics of video of union soldiers raising a flag in frontierland, I doubt it was ever a regular thing. The only real US flag in Disneyland is the one up front. All other flags were intentionally incorrect flags with an irregular amount of stars so that they didn't have to be raised, lowered or lit at night.
It really is amazing to see how much the final product met the initial sketches. You don't see that much today. We'll never know what they intended for that 2 story building by the Stagecoach/wagon area. Perhaps ahead of it's time, a 2-story queue that we'd later know as the Jungle Cruise building of today?
I had to do a double-take at the concept art for the flagpole by the river's edge to see one of those three "trees" was the gazebo. Meanwhile the bandstand truly looked like a bandstand.
A treasure trove of visual history today! Interesting to note the first two renderings of the entrance to Frontierland, where the Mark Twain appears to be running the opposite direction of its eventual route. KS
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