Friday, August 05, 2022

Melinda Goes To Disneyland, Pt. 1!



Just when you thought Melinda didn’t make it to Disneyland, here comes the series showcasing her collection of FABULOUS images from 1980 (the Park’s 25th Anniversary), the era that is sorely missing from my website. THANK YOU MELINDA! The first shot is a total wow; all you Disneyland newbies may find it hard to believe that at one time you could park your car near the front gate. No Disney California Adventure, no security guard lines, just one big parking lot! From Melinda:

I wondered if our visit to Disneyland had anything to do with it being the 25th birthday, but I suspect it was the lure of all of the roller coasters in the small area to ride with the recent opening of Thunder Mountain (September 1979). My parents were big fans of roller coasters and liked to ride them whenever they could - even nature's variety, aka river rafting. My sister and I watched Wonderful World of Disney every week; I had the records with story books that I listened to over and over, and we grew up with and have always loved Disney so we would not have objected to learning we were going on vacation there even if it meant days of driving there and back. We lived in eastern Washington state at the time. I was pleased to find recordings of the 25th anniversary commercial advertising the celebration with its catchy song on YouTube in my research. Music has always been a huge part of life and my sister and I could sing every TV jingle from the commercials growing up. I'm sure we would have known the Disney one and sung along whenever it came on.



A view of Main Street:



Let’s zoom in to see all of the non-Disney shops; Polaroid was the sponsor of choice for the Camera Center. Notice the large clock, too, and the name “Elgin” on it:



…which makes sense when you see that the Clock Shop across the street is sponsored by Elgin! A burst of vitamin C from the Citrus House would be a good idea on a hot Anaheim day.



The plastic Flower Market was still in business, outside the Hallmark Communication Center:



A closer look at the souvenir bag AND the realistic plastic rose:



Melinda and her sister loved meeting Tigger:



America on Parade was expanded to incorporate the 25th Anniversary, as seen in this publicity still:



The Parade in full color, as experienced by Melinda and her family. The Can-Can dancers from the Golden Horseshoe:



The Country Bear Jamboree!



This float seems to be Tahitian Terrace themed:



Another vantage point from my collection:



The approach of Cinderella outside the Carefree Corner (I could use that corner right now!):



Cinderella in her coach:



What parade would be complete without a balloon release?



The Disneyland Band received new costumes to commemorate the Anniversary:



More Melinda at Disneyland to come! See more Disneyland photos at my main website.

7 comments:

Melissa said...

What a lovely bunch of photos! Thanks to Melinda and Dave. We could all use a little more carefree in our corners at the moment!

Daveland said...

Ain't that the truth?!?

Fifthrider said...

Those are great pics, thanks to Melinda for sharing. Although the 55-66 era will always be the golden era for the park, I've noticed 67-83 really coming into the spotlight a bit lately. For some reason I'm drawn to the weirdest of details, namely in that second shot. The backs of those little white sheds. What are those? They're not ticket booths, they don't have the same outline as a ticket booth. They truly look like generic tool sheds. What's that about?

Chuck said...

Neat to see the then-brand-new (and now gone) brick-paved and tree-lined entrance mall. You also have some photos of this area under construction in February of 1980 (https://www.davelandweb.com/entrance/images/billh/Main_Gate_reconstruction_0280a.jpg). Interesting to see how fast that went up.

Fifthrider, I think those actually are the backs of the new ticket booths that were installed in 1980. Dave also has a pretty good photo of several under construction in February of 1980 (https://www.davelandweb.com/entrance/images/billh/Main_Gate_reconstruction_0280e.jpg) that lets us compare the new booths with the old ones. I think they were added to deal with the anticipated crowds for the 25th birthday celebration.

Melinda said...

Yes, those are the brand new ticket booths there. They had air conditioning evidently and didn't just rely on the large overhangs to keep the occupants shaded and hopefully cool - obviously I wouldn't remember myself LOL. They used them for 20 years before they were replaced with the latest generation of the ticket booths that are there now. Yesterland says there are a still a few of them in use in other places. Two are at the Southern California Railway Museum.
https://www.yesterland.com/ticketbooths.html

My Dad and Mom took most of these photos with a Pentax or Canon SLR - with slide film - probably Fuji or Kodak brand. There are only a couple of pictures I took with my Kodak 110 camera in this set. Thankfully my parents were much better photographers than myself at the time LOL

My guess is that the 80s era photos are coming into the light more now because people my age are getting the boxes of family photos from their parents and taking the time/expense to convert them to a shareable digital format. My dad was the big family photographer and he passed many years ago now. My mom lives close by me and doesn't have a problem with me borrowing whatever boxes and albums of photos I want for however long I want. I'm a big scrapbooker and I'm working on an album with these photos so that is why I've digitized them and am able to share them.

Fifthrider said...

Wow, such amazing feedback. At first glance I thought they were landscaping supply sheds. They certainly didn't fit what was in the first picture but that all makes sense. Thank you.

Love those old photos, digitized. I've got some 8MM films and old slides I need to digitize. Given the volume I'm debating just buying my own machine. It would cost less than the fee to have someone else do it.

Anonymous said...

Always great to get the perspective of guests enjoying the Park as it was back then. Some of those experiences will not be repeated with the slower paced and the spontaneous fun replaced by the overly scheduled agenda, and constant crowds, of today. Nice pictures! Thank you. KS