These images were shot during the Summer of 1956. The Park had already welcomed over 5 million guests in just one year.
Over in Town Square, you can see the Horse-Drawn Streetcar...
as well as guests gawking through the peepholes to see what was going on at International Street. Sorry folks...it never came.
Over by the Castle it appears that there was some kind of Robin Hood show going on.
A closeup of the two performers:
Previously I posted two other shots in the same vicinity and the same time period:
And back to the “new” batch that I was featuring, I end this post with a shot of the character cutouts that were located near the Red Wagon Inn. How about that Disneyland pennant?
Make sure you order your copy of “Walt Disney's Disneyland” which features photos from the collection of yours truly.
See more vintage and contemporary Disneyland photos at my main website.
I can remember those cutouts to this day! KS
ReplyDeletePoked around the net and found a blog saying that the 1952 "The Story of Robin Hood" ran as two-parter in November 1955 on "Disneyland". Maybe these fellows began appearing in the park as a result of that.
ReplyDeleteWhen it first appeared, the movie was adapted for comic books and the Sunday funnies (see Volume 1 of the "Treasury of Classic Tales" reprints). Not sure if Robin Hood lingered on in Disney comics and products, but the recent TV airing might justify presenting him as a Disney character along with Davy Crockett and Zorro.
Then again, they might have been "generic" merrie men, adding color to the castle like the space couple in Tomorrowland, the one-legged pirate on the pirate ship, and the Mr. Hyde who haunted the Main Street Cinema in some very early photos.