Bras and Buena Vista Trolley

Happy Friday! This image of Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. is most likely July/August 1955. The Ruggles Glass Shop AND Hollywood Maxwell’s Intimate Apparel (aka “The Wizard of Bras”) along with the patriotic bunting help clarify the time period. The poor White Wing at right has a full shovel, and he obviously needs to make another trip to pick up the remaining piles of horse poo from the horse-drawn streetcar. Zooming in to the front of those two shops also reveals a young man with his shirt completely unbuttoned. This is a bit of slobbery you would not typically see at Disneyland circa 1955!



At the Main Street Cinema, Gloria Swanson is on the marquee.



Shifting gears, I was saddened beyond belief to see the recent KTLA news article on the DCA Red Car Trolley on Buena Vista Street:

The Red Car Trolley attraction at Disney California Adventure will be discontinued in early 2025 due to an expansion of the Avengers Campus. Due to the anticipated construction, some backstage locations in the area will be impacted, including the backstage Red Car Trolley barn. “We will discontinue operation of the attraction in early 2025 and will share a specific date later this winter.” Disneyland officials told KTLA.



The Red Car was one of the most exciting additions to the Buena Vista Street project that opened in the summer of 2012. It added a sense of motion and purpose to DCA that was previously missing. Guests could take the journey on the Red Car from the DCA entrance all the way to the Tower of Terror attraction.



From the Disneyland website when they originally debuted:

Roll down Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land from inside a vintage street car on the Red Car Trolley. Watch as the fabulous sights and sounds of Disney California Adventure Park pass by as you sit back and relax in stylish comfort. It's a whole new way to experience the park!



Stops: The Red Car Trolley offers 4 convenient stops. You can board or disembark at any of the following locations: • Buena Vista Street near the Main Entrance • Carthay Circle across from Carthay Circle Theatre • Hollywood Boulevard near the Disney Animation building • Sunset Boulevard next to The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror The Cars: Inspired by the Pacific Electric Railway trolleys from the 1920's, the 2 cars are slightly different, including paint schemes that reflect different eras. Similar to the original "Hollywood Car" trolleys, the new cars are entirely powered by electricity and are emissions-free vehicles. However, unlike the original trolleys, the Red Car Trolley vehicles run via batteries. The overhead wires are just for show!



Be sure to check out the amazing details both outside and inside — there are even retro-styled advertisements for the businesses on Buena Vista Street. History: A vast network of electrical trolleys operated in Southern California from 1887 until 1961. By 1925, the Pacific Electric Railway was built by tycoon Henry Huntington into one of the largest electrical railways anywhere in the world with over 1,000 miles of active track. This incredible transportation network gave way to the automobile, but electrical trolleys are back and rolling down the street once again at Disney California Adventure Park!

Disney has yet to reveal their fate; I guess they could pop up someplace else, but nothing has been stated yet.



Am I surprised about this? Not really. Once the Tower of Terror became Guardians of the Galaxy and was removed from the 1920s/30s Buena Vista theme, I realized that any hope of Hollywoodland being revitalized and expanded was gone.



Just one less reason for me to return to DCA, as the Avengers are of zero interest to me. The Disney Corporation moves closer to a demographic that I no longer relate to.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Bryan for sharing this excellent video with me. Former Disney Imagineer makes an extremely compelling case of why The Red Car Trolley needs to be saved. Unfortunately, it does come down to money, care, and creativity, so I have little faith that the Disney Corporation will take action on his plea.



See more Disney California Adventure photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Cobb, Coat, and Commisssary

The above image is a recent acquisition, showing Shirley Temple accepting her special miniature Oscar from author and humorist Irvin S. Cobb. The February 27, 1935 event was held in the Biltmore Bowl at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel, seen in the vintage postcard below.



Doesn’t Shirley look adorable?



The previous year, Shirley sat next to Cobb in what I believe to be the Fox Commissary, wearing the same jacket seen in “Stand Up And Cheer” (1934).



Shirley and Warner Baxter in the previously mentioned film:



That coat sure got a lot of publicity use. In this still, Shirley wears a monogrammed hat to complete the look. Note the Scottie dog pin on her lapel, also visible in the Cobb photo.



The same ensemble can be seen at another Fox luncheon where Shirley sat between actresses Iris Foster and Drue Leyton. Writers Elizabeth Wilson (Silver Screen), Muriel Babcock (Universal Service), and Grace Mack (Ladies Home Journal) also joined Shirley.



You can see the Scottie pin in this detailed view:



The room where the ladies ate is still at the 20th Century-Fox studio, and is known as The Shirley Room:



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Traces of Gold Gulch

So often, the most interesting things in life are right under our noses but we aren’t even aware of them. That was the case when I discovered my newest obsession thanks to Ken of Stack’s Liberty Ranch a few weeks ago. The two of us were catching up over lunch in Balboa Park. Before departing, Ken said he wanted to check out the trail to Gold Gulch. The trail to what? He told me that during the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition held in Balboa Park that one of the attractions was a Ghost Town called Gold Gulch. Once the Expo was over in 1936, it was removed. I stared at him in total disbelief. How had I never heard of this? As we walked over to the area now known as Zoro Garden, he told me that guests could ride a stagecoach along the path that spilled out onto the very vibrant Ghost Town of Gold Gulch. While it may not have been the yellow brick road, to me, it was the next best thing.



It was easy to imagine myself riding in a stagecoach, passing the oak trees and other sites along the way. According to Ken, there was also a replica of the Mark Twain cabin where the author spent the winter and wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Below is a vintage shot of the “original” replica, located in Sonora, California.



Can’t you just picture it nestled right here?



All I could keep thinking was, “How do we get this attraction back?” I purchased a souvenir guide for the 1935 Expo, hoping to glean more information.



Inside was a photo of Gold Gulch. Ken told me that both Walts, Knott and Disney, visited this attraction and were inspired when they built their own theme parks. Anyone who has been to Ghost Town at Knott’s Berry Farm can see the living proof of this.



The guide book gave this description of Gold Gulch:

Admission free although area contains pay shows
Gold Gulch—down a ravine into 21 acres of raw Western mining town country. Stage-coaches rumbling down the narrow roads. All the thrill and excitement of the rip-roarin’ days of ‘49!. Aside from the fun of it, it’s a faithful “movified” version of the pioneering period by a Hollywood motion picture art director. Ten cents for a burro ride, down past the Shooting Gallery, Blacsmith Shop, Horse-shoe ring punctuated with hitching posts and whiskered miners. Visit the old Stamp mill, assay office, the Pioneer Dance Hall and old-time bar-room. The Old Mill, with a flume of wter to turn the wooden wheel, presses out the best cider you eer drank! And coffee out of a tin cup tastes grand at the Gulch Chuck Wagon—not to mention steam beer by the scupper. The cigar shop has the inevitable Wood Indian out front. The mighty smithy-at-his-forge turns out rings and medals from horse-shoe nails that delight the youngsters. Step right up, gals, and have your pitcher took, at the tin-type gallery! The boy-friend can be photoed with whiskers, six shooter revolver and ten gallon hat—and be leaning against a burron, if necessary. Gold Gulch isn’t just a show. It’s real. It savors of the days of Mark Twain, Bret Hart and John Sutter. You rub shoulders with such characters as Liminatin Lem, Gopher Joe, Screw Bean Benny and the “spattenest tabeccer spatter” in town which you probably remember in Oliver’s “Dessert Rough Cuts.” The heathen chinee and the strange characters from the four corners of the wold will be there—just as in ’49. And you? Well you’ll be one o’ ‘em, stranger.

I also acquired a Five Nugget souvenir bill from the Expo:



Love the artwork on this!



I immediately called my Mother to see if she had any recollection of Expo. She would have been three at the time, so my hope was that HER Mother had either taken her there or talked about it in her later years. By the next morning, I had a photo of a souvenir bracelet that she still had in her possession from the Expo. She wasn’t sure if her Mother had taken her or if the souvenir was a gift from someone else who attended.



And the final “duh” moment for me came when I realized that hanging on my living room wall was another souvenir from the 1935 Expo that had once belonged to my Grandmother. Chock full of images, including a Miner panning for Gold.



I returned a week later to make a video (definitely not ready for Sundance!) to document the pathway that guests once took to view Gold Gulch.



If you want to learn more about Gold Gulch, Ken of Stack’s Liberty Ranch put a great primer on his Facebook Page. Check it out!

Anyone else out there ever heard of this marvel?

See more 1935 California Exposition & Gold Gulch photos at my main website.

Rudolph Valentino Anniversary

Ninety-eight years ago today, Silent Screen actor Rudolph Valentino died in New York City at the age of thirty-one. While the TikTok crowd probably doesn’t know of him, approximately 100,000 fans lined the streets of Manhattan for his funeral at Campbell’s Funeral Home (also where Judy Garland’s service was held). An art deco statue titled “Aspiration” was erected in 1930 in DeLongpre Park, Hollywood.  Roger Noble Burnham, who also created USC’s mascot, The Trojan, was the sculptor. While the fans loved Valentino, City Commissioners required that the tribute honor but not resemble the dead matinee idol.



Still there today!



And this not-so-stellar bust of the actor is there, too.



For many years, a mysterious woman in black would arrive at the Hollywood Forever mausoleum where Valentino was buried, deliver a single red rose, and disappear. Others have taken over the duty as the years have gone by. When I went in 2014, Hollywood Forever Cemetery tour guide Karie Bible was filling in for that role.





See more of my caricatures at my main website.

Thursday at the Bazaar

This undated 1950s image shows the outdoor seating area for the Adventureland Tropical “Saloon” and Cantina, which would eventually become the I  Presume Sunkist beverage and snack area, and then Bengal Barbecue. I see an interesting selection of gifts from the Bazaar on the shelves; the writing on the wall on the right of the detailed image seems to say something about “stuff from south seas.” I want to know what that flyer is on the right.



In this detailed view you can see a healthy selection of the Jumbo postcards; that would most likely put this image around 1956.



For an inside peek at the Bazaar, here’s a genuine FauxD© image from the 1960s:



See more Disneyland Adventureland Bazaar photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Edgar & Shirley

As probably the most famous person of the 1930s, actress Shirley Temple made a number of interesting acquaintances and friends. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations was one. The first time she met him was when he visited her at her 20th Century-Fox studio bungalow/cottage in September 1937. From Shirley’s autobiography Child Star:

Nine men had appeared at our cottage gate, each wearing a snap-brim hat and with eyes slitted and stern. J. Edgar Hoover entered alone, a suddenly smiling man with dark wavy hair, while the others remained outside. “I know about you,” I said approvingly, “from ‘Gangbusters’ on radio.” Hoover looked pleased. “And I’ve heard about your police department.” “Do you have a pistol?” I asked. “No, but I brought you this.” He opened a finger-sized leather bag. “A Minox camera, just like G-men use to take secret pictures.” “You should have brought me a tommy gun,” I replied. “Instead I’ve come to get your fingerprints,” he said, laying out a card and ink pad on the tabletop. “Get up on my lap.” During the early 1930s big-time white-collar crime was minor, drug traffic tiny, and both blackmail and brothels regarded as local problems. Brutal kidnappings, however, had multiplied into an epidemic and bank robberies flourished like weeds. Into this freewheeling maze of crime and corruption stepped Hoover, fresh from cleaning out the politicized and demoralized old Investigative Bureau of the U.S. Department of Justice. Now he had become the single-minded personification of the new Federal Bureau of Investigation, his job and his vanity.…As he inked and rolled my thumb in its allotted square, I asked, “Are you married?” “No, I live with my mother,” he replied. “Then I’ll kiss you,” which I did—the start of a long, close friendship.

Shirley saw Hoover again during her Cross Country vacation in the summer of 1938. Below are shots of her and Hoover as he took her around the Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 24.



Shirley peers intently at the display case that Hoover is showing her. On the wall, it is interesting to see photos of potential kidnapping victims, the Sesvel Twins and the Dionne Quintuplets.





The Temple family called on Hoover over the years for help, as in this story that Shirley told in Child Star about the attack on Pearl Harbor:

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor descended with unanticipated suddenness. Brother George was stationed with the Marines at Ewa Plantation, a target of Japanese air onslaught, and for days afterwards we hard nothing from or about him. In desperation, Father finally turned directly to FBI Director Hoover, who passed word to George to call home. We then learned his entire company had been invited to a Japanese wedding the evening before the surprise attack. Exuberant on sake and reeling homeward, George had finally fallen asleep on the grassy parade ground before his barracks and under a canopy of tropical stars. With dawn came Japanese dive bombers screaming down to stafe the buildings, and setting his mess hall afire. George had watched the horrifying spectacle from mid-field, propped up on his elbow.

On January 20, 1949, Hoover gifted Shirley a very “special” item. The occasion of this gift was the inaugural parade for President Harry S. Truman. As Shirley later recalled:

He opened my purse and dropped in a tear-gas gun disguised as a black fountain pen. Not a toy and not available to the general public, he warned, and cautioned me on its use, his face stern and inro-jawed. Under no circumstances reveal where I had obtained it, and never point it unless ready to fire. It was the first time I had walked around with a loaded gun of any sort, and I relished the feeling.

Below is a shot of Shirley at Truman’s Inaugural Ball; the dress she wore that night was auctioned off by Theriault’s in 2015 and sold for $950.



From the catalog description:

Of very heavy weight silver satin with interwoven grey and white brocade design, the floor-length gown was designed to be worn strapless or with the detachable straps. The fitted bodice has unusual seaming to accentuate the woven flowers, and the flared skirt falls in deep folds to the floor. Included with gown are two vintage photographs, one being a color transparency. The dress was clearly a favorite of Shirley Temple for various social and publicity occasions. Most notably, in January 1949, Shirley wore the gown to the inaugural ball of Harry S. Truman. On September 23, 1949 a photograph of Shirley in this gown was featured on the cover of Cine Review magazine, and in a May 1949 issue of Movie Life she is shown gaily dancing a Mexican folk dance at a party for Errol Flynn.

When Shirley was dating Charles Black, the man who would become her second husband, she was still leery from her first marriage. She called on Hoover to do a background check to make sure everything on Charles was above board. All checked out and the two wed on December 26, 1950, remaining together until his death in 2005.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Back at the Ambassador

This vintage shot of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles is from 1938.



Jay Whidden & His Orchestra are on the marquee. On the r2ok! website, I found these references to the Cocoanut Grove:

In May 1934 he made his first appearance at Sweets Ballroom in Oakland, as Jay Whidden and his Mark Hopkins Hotel Orchestra and then moved on throughout California.…He also managed to fit in a number of appearances at the famous Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove Ballroom in Los Angeles.…Jay [made] his first appearance in the new year on January 29, 1938 at the Cocoanut Grove for the Annual President’s Birthday Ball which featured Shirley Temple, Tyrone Power, and Henry Fonda. In the spring of 1938 Jay was back in Hollywood appearing with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in the MGM musical, “Sweethearts,”as usual unbilled.

Want to hear what the band sounded like? I found this clip on Youtube:



While I regret the loss of the architecturally interesting Garden of Allah Hotel on Sunset Boulevard, I can’t say I mourn the loss of the Ambassador. The boxy structure with the tower at the top resembles a prison facility. I am sure the inside was a different story, with the exotic Cocoanut Grove nightclub. THAT is a tragic loss.



At first, I wasn’t sure that this vintage photo of a pool was truly L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel. Sure enough, the Lido Club belonged to the same property! This façade piqued my interest, and even included a sandy beach area for those too lazy to drive to the coast.



I zoomed in to see what was written on the top of the building. Feminine Conditioning? Sounds like a mind control program; I assume it was some special kind of gymnasium for women.



See more Ambassador Hotel photos at my main website.

Changes at the Depot

The above image shows one of my favorite Disneyland structures, the Frontierland Depot, circa July 1959. The below June 1963 image shows what guests saw once they exited the Depot and stood on the platform waiting for the train.



By September 1964, the Depot was moved across the tracks, becoming inaccessible to guests.



August 1966 marked the debut of New Orleans Square, and the scenery around the Depot reflected the addition. None of the buildings you see were accessible to guests, but they sure did add to the immersive experience of feeling like you were in New Orleans.



On the second floor balcony of The New Orleans Trading Company building, you can see this trio of flags representing France, The United States, and Spain. These flags spoke to New Orleans being founded by French Colonists in 1718, transferred to Spain in 1763, and finally becoming part of the U.S. with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.



In this July 1968 shot, the flags are gone. What happened?



The flag holder is still there, as is the rest of the decor.



August 1971, the flag holder is still empty:



November 1978:



A little more decor/clutter on the balcony (how about that birdcage?) and some maturing landscaping, but the flags do not appear to have returned.



Flash forward to January 2006 (yes, I do have gaps in my collection!) and holder is not only empty, but you can see the cascading rust trail on the light pink paint:



A miracle occurred at some point between the previous photo and this January 2007 shot; the flags returned! Barrels must have been on sale, as there are plenty to be found now at the Trading Company.



May 2007:



May 2011:



An evening shot from October 2011 for variety:





Sadly, by March 2012 they had been removed again.



Just the holder, some rust stains, and those durn barrels.



June 2013:



May 2015, which is the last shot I took of this area before my final visit in December 2016:



No flags.



If anyone has background info on the flag removal, let me know! Just another detail at Disneyland that I’m sure has gone unnoticed by most over the years.

See more Disneyland Railroad Frontierland Depot photos at my main website.