Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Disneyland 1956, Main Street & Central Plaza



We cruise up Main Street, leaving yesterday’s Town Square area of 1956, past East Center Street & The Swift Market House. We have finally made our way up to Central Plaza; kudos to Progressland for identifying photo #2 as the Plaza Gardens area.



Here’s a nice view of Plaza Pavillion, currently under renovation. Naturally the signage geek in me calls for a closeup.





And now, as most do for the first time, we pause in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.



Zooming in a little, we catch the details; a lady checking out the time (“Is it too early for a turkey leg?”), and some cast members changing out the banners along the drawbridge. To the left, our gal who tried to steel the Horse-Drawn Streetcar’s hat is posing next to the Fantasyland map.





Another Castle pic:



In this detail shot, the workers are still going at it, and if those swans know what’s good for them, they’ll swim as fast as they can to get away from our gal...she appears to be eyeing one for the pond in her backyard.



To see more vintage & current Sleeping Beauty Castle photos, visit my website.

5 comments:

Jason Schultz said...

These are some really interesting shots! The first photo is Carnation Plaza Gardens (you can tell from the attraction posters in the background as well as the location of the serving windows).

I've never seen a sign for The Pavillion before. I've seen it referenced that way in the Disneylander a number of times, so it's nice to have visual proof that it was called that in the Park, too.

And in that last photo... why is that man holding so many bags and boxes?

Major Pepperidge said...

I kind of wonder why the workmen had to work on the banners in front of the castle during the guest hours? The park was closed two days a week back then, and I assume that they worked all night just like they do nowadays.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

LOVE the signs, thanks! I wondered the same thing about the workers? Maybe Walt wasn't allowing any "overtime"? Those strollers we so much smaller than the SUV size one's these days!

Daveland said...

When I first saw the workers, I wondered if maybe the banners were going up for the first time, but in checking my other photos, it's obvious that they were there from day 1. And thanks for the ID Progressland!

Princess Fee said...

Some brilliant pictures - thank you for sharing!
The older pictures, in my opinion, make the Disneyland Castle look much bigger than it seems nowadays...