Welcome to the Disneyland Hotel, circa 1964. The signage says "Hotel Disneyland," only because it was an afterthought and the letters fit better that way.
This was back in the day when guests could be trusted enough to use a balcony without being a danger to themselves.
A closeup of the pool area, which considering the recent high temperatures here in San Diego looks real good.
Now that you've checked in, let's take the tram over to the park.
What? Signage advertising a competitor for tourist dollars? Say it isn't so. This MUST be a vintage image.
For all you signage geeks out there, a closeup of the plethora of signs in this October 1964 photo.
The grand finale is a beautiful night shot of all the neon and lit signage. Almost like being in Vegas!
Pay a photographic visit to the Disneyland Hotel at my main website and see more photos of the Monorail at Disneyland.
6 comments:
My grandparents would stay at the Disneyland Hotel while on vacation and I remember standing on the balcony watching the outside elevator going to the top. That and the Dancing Waters show. A great memory rekindled.
Thank You.
These great photos remind me that I'm one of those grumps who wishes Disneyland was as cool as it used to be!
I remember there being balconies that opened up to the hotel hallways (near one of the stairways, I think). We would go up in the elevator and go out onto the balcony to try and get an aerial view of the park, and we weren't even staying at the Disneyland Hotel! This was in the eighties. I'm guessing that they started locking the doors to those balconies at some point prior to getting rid of the them altogether?
That Movieland sign is amazing. I wonder if they allowed it because Movieland wasn't such a big threat to Disney. Would they have allowed a Knott's Berry Farm sign to be placed in front of the hotel back then? I've always thought it was funny how for decades now, Disney has paid for a billboard advertisement right at the base of the hill when you exit Universal Studios.
As I recall, those "balconies" from the rooms were no more than a couple of inches deep, really just a railing to keep you from falling out of the sliding door in the outside wall of the room.
That's pretty much it. My grandfather always moved a chair to the balcony and just watched the world go by (and the fireworks)
Back around 1969 Dad would take us four sub-teen kids to see the Disneyland nightly fireworks for FREE in the summer. He would park the station wagon across the street where parking was free. We would all walk over past the koi ponds into the hotel lobby and into the glass elevator. As we rode to the top we could look out at the grounds and 'climb' the incredibly tall palm trees until we were looking down at the tops of the palms getting smaller and smaller beneath us. When we arrived at the top we'd all walk out into the hall and turn around and sit down on the carpet and watch the fireworks start at the park. For free. :)
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