The 1960 Disney live-action classic, “Pollyanna” first brought the charms of Hayley Mills to audiences in the U.S. when it premiered in New York City on May 19, 1960.
In one of the sequences, Pollyanna and the townspeople hold a charity bazaar to help build a new orphanage for the town of Harrington.
Notice anything in these screenshots?
In this vintage shot of the Blue Bayou Restaurant at Disneyland, you can see the very same style of Japanese Lanterns hanging overhead.
The Blue Bayou opened six years after the release of “Pollyanna”; is it possible that Disney re-used these beautiful lanterns that still hang overhead today?
I checked with a source at the Disney Archives who responded:
They very well could have been sourced from the same manufacturer or inspired the look/design of the lanterns used in the restaurant since it was only about seven years from film production to the construction of the restaurant space.
You can guess which way I want the answer to go.
In another screenshot from the film, you can see a variety of shapes:
The Bayou only has one style hanging overhead.
Even if they aren’t the same, where the heck can I get something like this for MY backyard?
See more Disneyland Blue Bayou restaurant photos at my main website.
3 comments:
For me, the question remains is why use Japanese style lanterns in a New Orleans style restaurant?
…which would point to an economical re-use of a film prop that was just wasting away in storage.
I'm with you both. Many years back I had a friend visit, an attorney from Savannah. One of his bucket list items was dining at the Blue Bayou. He said it had a good, general vibe for Louisiana but why the paper lanterns? I had no answer. He said the more southern thing to do would have been bulbs in glass jelly jars on a string. Anyhow, the paper lanterns look okay, those were prominent in the post-war pro-tiki society.
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