Round 2 on the December 1959 Christmas Parade at Disneyland. Here's another batch of consecutively numbered images, starting with a batch of trumpeters.
Walt Disney himself is in the carriage crossing over the bridge.
The girl sitting next to him is Dawn DeFore. Unable to get his own grandkids in the Parade, the children of Silver Banjo Restaurant owner Don DeFore substituted very nicely.
Here are two previously posted shots from the DeFore family showing both Dawn and Ron in the carriage with Walt.
Back to the Parade. Plenty of live animals, including horses:
and what appear to be llamas!
Note the security man posted on the bridge:
I wonder if the gal on the left got her jacket in the Frontierland Pendleton Shop?
This group looks like they got lost on the way to The Sound of Music:
Any ideas what this group with the tridents is supposed to be?
Looks like a Marching Band is on the way:
A closer look at the flag/banner for Nationalist China:
Zooming in on the left, you can see the Rooster signage from the Plantation House restaurant:
I was right; here comes the Marching Band!
Another interesting Asian-themed float:
Note the Gnome on the left:
A closer look at the group featured in this photo:
A Knight and his Dragon?
This Dragon seems to have wings, too. Trailing behind appear to be two cast members.
A group of Dickens-style Carolers:
A pig's head for the feast. No vegan choices here!
A German group:
Don't believe me? Just zoom in for a better look at the banner!
Santa can be seen at the back of this shot:
Last one of this batch shows a group of children; no doubt the inspiration for it's a small world!
More vintage and current Disneyland Christmas photos at my main website.
8 comments:
Dave, these last couple of days' photos have been really neat, showing an earlier, less-flashy style of Disneyland Christmas parade. I particularly like the fact that today's grouping captures Walt himself.
I'm a bit confused on the parade route. Yesterday's photos seem to indicate a route that came up Main Street, through the stockade gates of Frontierland, then turned left along the waterfront, which is roughly analogous to the parade route at WDW's Magic Kingdom and seems to jibe with what I recall reading about early parade routes. Today's photos indicate a parade route from the Plaza through Adventureland. Now I'm all confused (which, admittedly, is a fairly frequent occurrence).
Were these photos from different photographers? They seem to show different performances of the same parade. Either that, or there was a huge traffic pile-up in front of the Chicken Plantation.
The photos were taken beyond the old foot bridge that used to connect the Rivers of America with the Jungle Cruise river -- roughly where New Orleans Square now resides, looking toward Frontierland. That explains the Chicken Plantation sign on the left.
You're exactly right about the parade route. It did follow the same route as the Walt Disney World parades -- through Frontierland, to the Hub and down Main Street. Occasionally, it would continue through the Hub past Snow Mountain and end where It's a Small World now resides.
This really is an amazing set of photos you've been sharing with us the last couple of days. I love the fact that it's not all Disney-ized to death and feels like a real parade where people from the local community were actually involved. I so miss that today at Disneyland. Thanks, Dave.
I missed yesterday's photos so it was fun to catch all of them today. What a parade! Regarding the comments from yesterday how wonderful that someone actually knows people that were in the parade and the film from the parade setting off from backstage is amazing! And to actually see Walt in a parade is just the tree topper :) So glad you found these and shared them with us!
Fantastic series of shots from long ago Dave. It was a different era back then that can never be recreated. Also noted the TSI signage in the background of a couple of the shots. KS
Yes, by all means check yesterday's comments for a link to a lovely bit of home movie footage. And in no big surprise "fröliche Weinachten" is German for Merry Christmas.
Tome the biggest treasure is all this footage of that old bridge that no longer exists. One or two pics would be nice but with all these you can really get a sense of how it was. Also, those three horned things were most likely Krampus. ....or Krampuses. I'm not sure what the plural of Krampus is. Based on behaviour in the park today, I'd say Krampus should be a regular character from now on.
Interesting how the parade viewers were provided chairs to sit on. Would be nice to act civilized like that again...
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