This July 1970 slide was labeled as being shot from the Cosmic Age Hotel. What?!? Never heard of the place! Before we deal with that, let’s zoom in to the parking lot area that would eventually become Disney California Adventure. Those orange cones were a cosmic hint of the Cozy Cone Motel that would be installed in 2012! Nanook - I expect you to ID all those cars for us.
A quick check on ebay found these post cards for the Cosmic Age Lodge, located at 1717 S. Harbor Boulevard. GROOVY!!
It was part of the Stovall family collection that surrounded the park. From the Best Western website:
The Stovall’s family of hotels have surrounded the magic of the Disneyland Park since 1964. Hotel owner and operator Al Stovall wanted an out of this world experience for hotel guests coming to Disneyland, and he delivered! With flying saucers, spacemen and aliens adorning the hotel lobby, to a rocket van that would pick up guests from the airport, no detail was overlooked.…The sixties were coming to life! America was just entering the space race, skirts were getting shorter and shorter, and in a small town called Anaheim Walt Disney’s masterpiece was coming to life! Each hotel had its own space age feel and name! There was the fabulous “Inn of Tomorrow” (now Stovall’s Inn), the amazing “Space Age Lodge,” (now Pavilions Hotel), the “Cosmic Age Hotel,” “The Galaxy Hotel” and the “Apollo Inn.”
“…with all the convenience of the Space Age…” the back of the post card touts. What exactly does that include?
The lobby - wow! The tourists would flock to this place today.
“Acclaimed by thousands…”; can I see the source of that statistic, please?
A typical room. Are those plastic grapes over the bed? And check out that TV!
I’ll take two space bubble room dividers, please.
The pool; what do you think the chances are that the model lower right actually caught the ball?
Only 8¢ for postage? No wonder little Frances didn’t feel the need to write very much!
Based on Mr. Google, this place looks like it fell victim to the wrecking ball.
See more Disneyland Parking Lot photos at my main website.
6 comments:
Oh boy, a lot to unpack here. My grandfather owned a couple of Best Westerns. We were friends with Jack Stovall, and despite these sources all claiming his name was Al, it was Jack. I hate to say it but the Best Western official website got it wrong. I met Jack Stovall and it was definitely Jack. (https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/azcentral/name/jack-stovall-obituary?id=27533480 ) I suspect one source got it wrong as "Al" long ago and now all other sources quote from that.
I stayed in the Cosmic Age hotel in the mid-80's by which time it had a Lunar Lander arcade cabinet in the lobby. At least they kept up with the times. For the longest time, Stovall's 4 space themed properties were more Tomorrowland than Tomorrowland was. I have no idea what the chances were that the model in that pic actually caught the ball, but by the 1980's there was a high chance that the pool caught all the leaves that were in the wind for the last 3 years and refused to let them go.
Stovall is the guy that made me raise an eyebrow when I heard it said Walt didn't like the "seedy" motels around his park. The Stovall properties always gave it 110% whether space aged or the one hotel ( I forget the name ) that was famous for all the topiaries out front. Also, by the 1980s the same basic lobby and room theme was in place but traded out the blue/green/grey theme for oranges, reds and purples.
I'll never forget Jack and my grandfather having a conversation in the lobby "Why do they always pee on the carpet? There's a perfectly good toilet 12 feet away?!" Oh, the problems of the economy hotelier....
As a boomer kid I remember unfolding the souvenir map on the floor and carefully studying the details, like the mysterious unbuilt attractions (Edison Square). Also perused the AAA magazines and travel guides, which had listings and ads for the Disneyland-area hotels, plus a map showing exactly where they were in relation to the park. As a young adult I actually did stay at the Cosmic Age once, and later the Jolly Roger, the latter having a station wagon connecting to the then-tiny Anaheim Amtrak station.
Walt and certainly Roy were frustrated that the motels and other businesses were making big money on fraction of the investment they put into Disneyland itself -- and without the huge risks the brothers took. Many affected Disneyesque themes -- space, fairy tales, pirates, etc. -- but did so on a real-world sensible scale (that rocket shuttle looked to be a VW van with a folk-art missile on the roof; think it was gone by the time I stayed there). Decor that would have been a roadside attraction on Route 66 must have looked beyond minimal to filmmaker Walt.
Now Disneyland is surrounded by more upscale stuff, but proximity to Disneyland is still the main selling point. Disney now designates some as "Good Neighbor" hotels, which suggests they've managed to get something from these non-owned lodgings.
This lesson shaped Disney World, where they bought sufficient land to place attractions deep within their property lines. Only Disney-owned hotels could build close enough to boast walking distance to Magic Kingdom or Epcot, and most are themed beyond what Best Western could ever afford (even the "budget" accommodations). The ongoing strategy, especially in the Eisner years, was to discourage tourists from leaving the property for anything. More hotels, more theme parks, private transit to subtly discourage bringing a car to drive to Universal, and on-property answers to almost every off-property lure short of strip clubs.
For another similarly themed Best Western, check out (Google) the Best Western Space Age lodge in Gila Bend, Arizona.
"Nanook - I expect you to ID all those cars for us". If only-! Thanks.
I'm still pondering just what exactly is Moon Level Luxury. Clearly, the copy on these post cards is long on hyperbole-! Only to be outdone by Frances' unique cursive style of writing. (She appears to have missed all the days the Palmer Method was being taught-!)
"Moon level luxury" = Waiting on the moon for 8 months to see if Boeing can fix the issue.
@ Fifthrider-
I definitely think there's a spot for you in the Boeing Marketing Department-! Yes, 'lemonade from lemons...' lots of 'em-!
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