Scholarly Saturdays: Encyclopaedia Britannica & Main Street Pt. 3

Susie and Bobby are still hanging around in Town Square, trying out just about every cotton pickin' vehicle available to them. First up is the Horse-Drawn Streetcar, back in the day when the poor horse had to wear a crazy hat. Talk about animal cruelty.

They look thoroughly bored, even though they are riding in the very latest 1905 technology.



Poor little Susie; you can just see it on her face. "Please daddy...I don’t want to ride another vehicle around Main Street! I want to go on the attractions!" I’ll bet dad bribed her with that cute little red purse sitting in her lap. Note the Orange County Register sign in front of City Hall.



The kids seem to have perked up for the Chemical Wagon; at least there’s a bell to ring for a little excitement!



See more Encyclopaedia Britannica photos at my website.

Freaky Fridays @ The Haunted Mansion: Widow Patecleaver

Here’s the 3rd in a series of 4: the stretch-portraits (originals by Marc Davis) from the HM elevator.



This recent acquisition is, alas, undated...but judging from the slide mount, it appears to be a 70’s vintage. It definitely shows that the stretch portraits in the mansion have changed significantly over the years. Compare with this present day shot of the Widow Patecleaver:



They don’t seem to have as much of the Marc Davis humor anymore.

Daveland reader Luke sent in this comment:

Notice the right and left sides of the stretching portrait frame. The older one was temporarily fitted with a foam frame, to see how long the foam would last through the constant shifting of the portrait. The newer picture of the portrait has a painted canvas frame, telling us that the foam frame test didn't go so well. Keep in mind that during the "foam frame" testing, it was only the portrait of the Widow that had the foam molding, not the others.

See more Disneyland Haunted Mansion photos at my website.

Tell-No-Tales Thursdays: Pirates in Jail

In what is probably the most famous scene of the ride comes this image: the pirates in jail.

Here’s the famous scene we all know (and hopefully) love. The classic image of the pirates attempting to coax the dog to give them the keys to free themselves. This shot is from a vintage publicity slide.



This shot is a publicity photo from 1967, when POTC was just open. How about that vintage popcorn box?!?



And as it looks today:



NO FLASH!



Here’s a closeup of the prisoner’s nemesis; that teasing canine wonder.



You can even see some of his inner workings if you look into his ear.



This guy is fast; one minute he's smoking a pipe, then next minute, he’s holding a bone for the pooch in the local jail.



Great use of the same mold.



See more Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean photos at my website.

Wednesday WOW: More Aunt Jemima

From the same batch as last week’s cast member group shot comes these exterior and interior shots. A Mark Twain special (4 buckwheat pancakes) sounds purty darn good this morning, doesn’t it? How about we zoom in for a closeup, hm?



As we journey inside the restaurant, we see that it really is a beautiful seating area. Light, airy, and full of southern charm. Reminds me of the Court of Two Sisters in New Orleans.





As the Riverbelle Terrace today, the restaurant has undergone a number of changes, but the overall decor is still faithful to what guests experienced back in the 1960’s.











See more Disneyland Aunt Jemima restaurant photos at my website.

July 1961 Batch

Can’t quite get out of the 1960’s yet, so here’s another batch...this time from July 1961. On Main Street U.S.A., Buster Keaton is starring in “Allez Oop” at the Main Street Cinema. Is that a smart looking family posing in front or what?

Our family from 1961 stopped at the castle for a portrait, but should have moved to the left a little to get the whole castle in. Maybe they were just being considerate of the other guests trying to cross the drawbridge!



This is my earliest shot of the Snow White Wishing Well area, which was only about 3 months old when this photo was snapped.



Once over in Fantasyland, the little wise-guy is getting fresh with Chip (or is that Dale?). Either way, you know there will be revenge once the costume comes off at the end of the shift.



Stay tuned for part 2, coming soon to a location near you! See more Disneyland photos at my website.

A Daveland Fave Decade: The 1960’s, Pt. 5

Anyone up for a little Frontierland adventure, circa 1967? Today is the last day of this particular batch, so get ready for a feast of colorful images, starting out with two of the Columbia.



Meanwhile, it looks like the Mark Twain is out of commission while it gets a little TLC from the maintenance crew:





This shot, normally taken from the Twain or the Columbia, appears to have been taken from a speeding train on the Disneyland Railroad. As always, I’ve included the gruesome closeup:





By this point, New Orleans Square was open; here are two views of the newest section of Disneyland:





As we draw closer to the big finish, here are two grab bag shots of small world, looking out from the attraction itself (but most likely taken from the Disneyland Railroad); eagle-eyes will spot the skyway buckets as well as the Richfield Autopia eagle.





Our closing view is a super-duper shot of the red Monorail:



Hope you enjoyed this batch of 1960’s fun! See more Disneyland photos at my website.

Sailing Through Sundays on The Jungle Cruise: Elephant Pool, October 1966

This shot is from May 1959, and it appears that two cast members have taken their motorboat out to the Ancient Shrine to do some repair work.



On another note…I was just sent a few interesting pictures documenting the changes/growth of Tinker Bell from conception to present day. Check it out!













You can see Tinker Bell’s new movie on Blu-ray/DVD beginning this Tuesday.

See more Disneyland Jungle Cruise photos at my website.

Scholarly Saturdays: Encyclopaedia Britannica & Main Street Pt. 2

Today’s Main Street frames focus on Town Square; our camera pans across The Wurlitzer Shop and Maxwell House (the Starbucks of its day!).

Vesey Walker can be seen leading the band in image #2:



The flag ceremonies still continue today.



And finally, we meet the two stars of the series; I’ll just call them Susie and Bobby. Hope you like them, cause you’re going to be seeing quite a bit of them every Saturday! A box of popcorn sure sounds good right about now—and that 20¢ price makes it sound even better! If you look in the background on the right-hand side, you'll see that the doors to the fire department are uncharacteristically shut.



See more Encyclopaedia Britannica photos at my website.