Welcome to New Orleans Square, one of the few "lands" at Disneyland that guests were able to watch being built from the ground up. Naturally, I'd want to take advantage of this rare opportunity with my time machine to see the construction process from start to finish.
The next two images show before...
and the 1969 "after":
Pirates of the Caribbean exterior before:
and "after" in July 1967:
The front of Pirates under construction:
and "after" in May 1967:
Some early publicity stills celebrating the opening of New Orleans Square:
Brer Fox and Brer Bear, from "Song of the South," were part of the publicity for N.O.S.:
Two early color images:
The front of the Blue Bayou Restaurant:
One of my favorite semi-hidden areas of my favorite square is The Court of Angels:
Nothing like the Royal Street Bachelors to lend an authentic musical note:
A piano player at The Creole Café:
Two early shots of The French Market:
See more vintage & current Disneyland New Orleans Square photos on my Haunted Mansion web page.
Love the images of the pre-bridge PotC buidling and publicity stills.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos, Dave! I sure miss the original entrance to Pirates. How much of the change was due to traffic and how much due to the Indy building?
ReplyDeleteHi Mark - My understanding was that it had to do with foot traffic and Fantasmic; I could be wrong though!
ReplyDeleteHi Dave - I'm pretty sure you're correct. I heard it had to do with the foot traffic heading from Adventureland to Haunted Mansion and Bear Country.
ReplyDeleteI always thought it was built due to an anticipated increase in foot traffic when Splash Mountain would open two years later.
Really nice selection on NOS.
ReplyDeleteMy memory and recollection attributes the bridge to foot traffic and Fantasmic as well.
Wonderful pictures of the best part of Disneyland.
ReplyDeleteOddly, I like Pirates better with the bridge.
That remodeling fascinates me due to the extreme changes they created within such a fixed set of conditions. No building could be undermined, raised or lowered, yet look at the changes in the ground surface. Unbelievable.
Dave, you have a picture of Aunt Jemima's from this era on the other site. it shows the patio right at walkway grade.
Look at a modern shot and you can see that there is now an almost four foot drop from the patio to the walk in this same location. Fairly major civil engineering change and expensive in such tight quarters.
JG