Two consecutive images that were dated July 1960 show a family getting ready to board the cars of the Disneyland Railroad at the Main Street station. A detailed view shows the Disneyland Hotel sign in the background, a ticket book in the woman’s hand (gasp! tickets!), and a brochure/guidebook held by the boy with a crew cut.
This appears to be the guidebook he is holding, which makes me think the date was written/stamped incorrectly or that this roll of slide film sat in the camera for awhile.
The next slide shows how many people had visited Disneyland at this time:
Based on this image commemorating the 10 millionth Disneyland Railroad passenger from August 1960, that would mean 4 million people went to Disneyland in one month to bump the attendance number up to 22,000,000. I know the Park was popular, but I kind of doubt it was THAT popular!
Most likely the two shots I have were from late 1958/early 1959 instead. They’re still fabulous, so there!
See more Disneyland Railroad Main Street Station photos at my main website.
Wow, that last picture. I really had to zoom in on that one to enjoy it. Walt wearing a train engineer cap standing out next to the train with a band. Amazing. Yeah that alone should have brought in 4 million people within one month. Kidding, but I think you're right about the dates being off. I suspect you're right about the film just being processed years later.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm fascinated with the background on the first two shots...that being of the Disneyland Hotel and the Richfield(?) gas station in full view. KS
ReplyDeleteIf those photos were taken in late '58 or early '59, the excursion cars the family is standing next to were almost brand new, having been introduced in March of '58. I bet they still had that "new train smell."
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