Too early for Christmas photos? Too bad, as today celebrates the upcoming holiday as it looked back in December 1963. The tree in town square is HUUUUUUGE! But not big enough to distract me from that fantabulous feathered hat worn by the festive Mom wearing a Christmas corsage to boot!
The Horse-Drawn Streetcar is the perfect way to get to the Castle and get a nice leisurely glimpse of the sights along Main Street, U.S.A.
This shot was probably earlier in the day, before the hats were purchased.
Over at the Matterhorn, the Christmas Star is in position.
I wonder if it receives UHF signals? Anyone remember UHF? The Matterhorn Christmas Star probably helped boost the TV signal inside the House of the Future at its base.
Final one for today shows the original round Skyway buckets floating through the Matterhorn:
See more Disneyland Matterhorn photos at my main website.
9 comments:
That Christmas star... Never mind how do they get it up there ( helicopter if memory serves ) but where do you store it? I'm assuming the main street flag is at half mast due to Kennedy's passing on Nov 22nd.
I remember UHF channels! Even had a different antenna for it. Looks to be early December 1963, and the national gloom following the death of JFK. A sparse opening crowd. Never tire of seeing the Belgian horses. A timeless picture. Always preferred the 'real' tree over that used today. A charming simplicity which still seemed plenty festive at the time. Sometimes, less is more. KS
Oh...and the star was stored in a warehouse out back. KS
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Nice photos, Dave!
Just a few months back, Major Pepperidge posted some photos - and one of his readers, JB, noticed the Matterhorn Christmas star was hiding in the background storage area. See the first photo in THIS POST from 'Gorillas Don't Blog' 7/31/22. The star is sort-of hiding in the back of Cinderella Castle...see the lower left area behind the miniature castle.
On a side note, I stumbled on a photo that my dad (Lou) took from before this style Christmas star ever appeared on the Matterhorn. If I recall correctly, it was taken several months before Christmas - and some of us "Disneyland fans" deduced that it was possibly a test star (made out of wood?), before this one was made and put to use. Maybe they needed a pattern to follow for size, etc.?? Someone out there may know some more details...
Sue
Good grief, talk about Eagle-Eye! If you hadn't mentioned it was in that pic I would have spent hours playing "Where's Waldo" trying to find what was hidden in it. Yes, I see it now. It's sitting on the southwest corner of Owen and Dolly Pope's ranch, or the houses that were converted into their ranch about that time. That thing's easily twice the height of the red/white truck in the parking lot below it. Unless it breaks apart for storage ( doubt it ) that thing would be a storage nightmare.
It's also cool to see that the star turned, at least at one time, as seen in the 3rd frame on the Gorillas Don't Blog 8/27/12 post - CLICK HERE!
Sue
I remember stringing wires and coat hangers all over the room to get certain UHF stations.
Thanks for the name-drop, Sue. :-) I still have an old analog TV that has a loop UHF antenna connected to it. Of course, all the channels now are digital so it pick up anything. I think I have one of those converter boxes that they gave out for free back-in-the-day when TV stations all switched to digital. Never used it though. Once in a blue moon, I use that old TV as a monitor whenever I fire up my old Atari 8-bit computer. My avatar is a video game character that I created on that machine.
Oops, no avatars here. You'll just have to take my word for it. (Or visit Gorillas Don't Blog) ;-)
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