B&W, March 4, 1959

Even in a photo devoid of color, you can find some cool things to marvel at! Feast your eyes on this shot of The Rainbow Mountain Railroad with the Matterhorn under construction in the background!

The wheel of the Old Mill on Tom Sawyer’s Island just keeps turning...kind of like Ol’ Man River!



The fishing pier of Tom Sawyer’s Island has a few customers; today, I’d be afraid to eat anything that came from the Rivers of America!



The C.K. Holliday is cruising through the Frontierland Depot, waaaaay before New Orleans Square and the Haunted Mansion came into being:



See more Disneyland photos at my main website.

BW Frontierland Fun 1950's, Pt. 2

Presented in the order that they were shot, it would appear that our photographer made a beeline to the Mark Twain, hopped aboard, and documented his journey around The Rivers of America. So much to see here! Be sure to take the time to marvel over each image and detail!



Let’s zoom in and spy on the guests aboard the raft!





The REAL Indian Village; not the faux one that is encountered later on in our journey (but not photographed by this particular guest).



No landscaping to help camouflage these faux animals!



Ah...the Burning Cabin. This photographer is definitely sympatico with my tastes.



COLLECTORS: A reader sent me this photo of these glasses that she has from The Disneyland Hotel. Anyone know anything about their origin, date, etc.?



See more Disneyland Rivers of America photos at my main website.

BW Frontierland Fun, 1950's

This set of 1950’s negatives yielded a number of crystal clear shots, all focusing on Frontierland. The one odd duck was this first shot, which was an unfortunate double exposure. I was able to salvage a portion of it and to provide this closeup of a native from The Jungle Cruise.

The Mark Twain is pulling up to the dock, but most of the guests are more interested in the ducks.





As the Marx Brothers once said, “Why a duck?"





A nice juicy closeup of a vintage popcorn box—now we know what the ducks are intereted in!



See more Disneyland Rivers of America photos at my main website.

Screen Gem Saturdays: Hollywood Royalty, 1950’s Style—Jayne & Mickey

Although she never reached the level of fame that Marilyn Monroe enjoyed, Jayne Mansfield was still a top contender for the throne of 1950’s blonde bombshell. Here she is cavorting in the ocean with her bodybuilder husband, Mickey Hargitay. Their daughter, Mariska, is best known for her role of Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

Here’s Jayne flying around on Dumbo with daughter Jayne Marie, enjoying a day at Disneyland on May 11, 1957:



And just a few months later, she was back at the park in September of 1957, enjoying the paparazzi in Frontierland:







Yes, even glamorous movie stars loved the pack mules!



In this detail shot, you can see an older gentleman in a suit who was also in the shot of Jayne sitting along the Rivers of America. I am guessing he is either a Disneyland employee or a publicist. He has that "official" look about him.



See more Jayne Mansfield photos at my main website.

Keystone Kops on Opening Day

From the vintage newspaper quote that accompanied this photo:

Three year old George Long, lost but not alone, as Keystone Kops Bill Offdenkamp (left) and Elmer Talbert (right) and a wooden cigar store indian, try to find little George's parents among the 35,000 persons who attended the formal opening 7/17 of Walt Disney's $17,000,000 amusement park.

The Keystone Kops no longer roam Main Street U.S.A., but our pal the Wooden Cigar Store Indian still guards over the same territory, as seen in this September 2008 photo:



See more Disneyland photos at my main website.

Traveling Thursdays: Brandywine River Museum

97% of the time that I go home to Philly I will visit the Brandywine River Museum. Not only is it a beautiful space, it also houses one of my very favorite paintings.

Here is Mrs. DuPont, by Jefferson David Chalfant. She sure looks like a sourpuss, doesn’t she? Besides the detail which is incredible, I love the look on her face that he has captured. In this one small painting, he has captured so much of this woman’s personality. Ah, the power of the brush. Even though I didn't use a flash, the natural sunlight caused a bit of a glare on my photo. Trust me when I tell you that this work of art is much more impressive in person.



The musuem itself started life as Hoffman’s Mill, a gristmill built in 1864 that was part of the Brandywine Conservancy’s first preservation efforts in the area. Today, the museum features many design elements that pay homage to the building’s history.



Talk about personality; you can almost hear this statue squeal!



What about two birds in the hand? Is that worth 4 bushes?



The museum is mainly known for its collection of paintings by N.C., Andrew, and Jamie Wyeth. On this particular visit, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a tour being given by Jaime’s niece, Victoria. Her enthusiastic description of Jamie’s painting style made for a real special unexpected treat. Next time you are in the area, be sure to visit The Brandywine River Museum.

Hope you all have a terrific Thanksgiving! Here are two shots from a previous Thanksgiving, back when Disneyland used to host the pardoned turkey from The White House:





See more Brandywine photos at my main website.

Yippie Day in Color, Pt. 3

It’s the big finish of this set of color images shot by Andrew Midkiff, who was actually there on Yippie Day:

When I got to Tom Sawyer’s island there was plenty of weed and people were smoking, standing around talking, and playing frisbee. Someone ran up the Viet Cong flag. We left the island and the next thing I remember I was in a crowd of people and police appeared in riot gear and pushed us right out of the park. I heard a scuffle broke out but I did not see it.












To quote Abbie Hoffman: “There never were any Yippies and there never will be. it was a slogan YIPPIE! and that exclamation point was what it was all about. It was the biggest put-on of all time. If you believe Yippies existed, you are nothing but sheep.”

Hope you’ve enjoyed this "colorful" look at Yippie Day. See more Disneyland Yippie Day photos at my main website.

Yippie Day in Color, Pt. 2

Yippies not only captured Tom Sawyer Island, but with the photos in today’s post taken by Andrew Midkiff, it would appear that they also took over Captain Hook’s Chicken of the Sea Pirate ship as well. As Andrew recalls:

I have no idea what caused the police to come in. I was just having a good time when the cops appeared and I got pushed right out of the park. On Captain Hooks pirate ship something happened but I never found out what, too busy getting high. In the 4th photo, this guy was met by a load of press photographers. At the time I thought he was burning a draft card but like I said I never found out. There were lots of cameras that day and film being shot too. I hope some of it surfaces some day.























See more Disneyland Yippie Day photos at my main website.