The original attraction posters from Disneyland are a prized possession for vintage Disneyland geeks! The bold colors and simple stylized graphics are timeless. Today’s post will center on the ones for the Disneyland Railroad. The first image shown here is probably unfamiliar to most; while not truly a Disneyland attraction poster, it could be found at the Main Street Train Station, as seen in this image below from August 1958:
Most likely it was supplied by Santa Fe (an original sponsor) and was from their vintage collection. There is another poster that once hung at the station in the early days (shown below) that I have yet to find the original inspiration for or a larger more visible version. One day!
Here is the iconic original poster that promoted the three stations/depots at Disneyland:
This image from the summer of 1955 shows that attraction posters were not part of the entrance experience:
The other interesting thing that it DOES show is that originally, two trains could run side-by-side from Main Street to Frontierland:
By September 1956, attraction posters graced the front entrance along the wall on either side of the Mickey Floral:
From October 1956:
In this shot you can see the Main Street Station poster towards the left of the photo. Though stamped January 1959, this image is most likely from December 1958, since the Christmas bunting is still up.
When the Grand Canyon Diorama was introduced to the Park in March 1958, it got its own attraction poster:
You can see it at the entrance in this June 1959 image, behind the woman in the gray sweater:
1966 saw the addition of the Primeval World diorama:
This October 1966 image shows the poster next to one of the Disneyland Mail Boxes:
Frontierland/New Orleans Square eventually received its own railroad poster, but it was many years later and the style had radically changed, so I cannot include it with this group of classics!
See more Disneyland Railroad photos at my main website.
The posters were one of the many clever ideas brought to life in the Park. And still revered based upon the prices you find them at auction these days. KS
ReplyDeleteIn the 9th image, I wonder what that odd arrangement of yellow and green benches along with stanchions/ropes is all about - almost like some sort of maze.
ReplyDeleteAs for the date when the attraction posters first appeared, an image over on GDB showing the wooden backer boards for future AP's is verifiably-dated as being from June 13-15, 1956 - so make of that date what you will. One assumes [at the most] within the next few weeks, the first series of posters premiered.
What a great series of images.
Nanook - I was wondering if those benches had something to do with crowds coming in for the Christmas Bowl or another early holiday celebration. They are the same color scheme as tables and chairs from Casa de Fritos.
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