The Starlight Bowl, 1955

The Hollywood Bowl is a familiar venue, with its distinctive Art Deco concentric circle design. Above is an image from 1954, showing the design iteration from Allied Architects Association, which was a colation of LA-based talent who designed public buildings. This design lasted until 2003. Below is a 1955 shot of the Starlight Bowl, located in San Diego’s Balboa Park. While the design is obviously more angular, one can’t help but come to the conclusion that it was inspired by its northern Hollywood neighbor.



Here’s the Starlight Bowl’s history from the Save Starlight website, which does prove a connection for its acoustic design with the Hollywood Bowl:

The Starlight Bowl was built in 1935 for the 1935-36 California International Pacific Exposition in Balboa Park. Designed by architect Richard S. Requa, who was the lead architect of the 1935 Expo. The bowl’s acoustical engineering was by Vern D. Knudsen, who also helped design Hollywood Bowl.



Originally called The Ford Bowl the amphitheater was built in tandem with the Ford Building (now the San Diego Air & Space Museum) as a showcase for Ford vehicles. Symphony concerts were held out of the bowl, and broadcast live from coast to cost. This was considered the artistic peak of the exposition.



After the expo closed, the symphony continued to perform regularly in the Ford Bowl along with various other events and vaudeville performances. In the late 1940’s after the Navy had taken over the park during World War II, the city renamed the facility the “Balboa Bowl” In 1946, a group of local operetta fans incorporated as the San Diego Civic Light Opera and using the title “Star-Light” they had begun performing light opera and musical comedy. The Bowl was always very popular during this time in the 40’s and 50’s, as the place to be and be seen in San Diego.



In 1955, the shows presented at the Balboa Bowl were The Mikado, Wonderful Town, Brigadoon, Kiss Me Kate, Song of Norway, and South Pacific (sorry, couldn't find a program for that one!).



Back to Save Starlight:

In 1984 “Starlight Bowl” became the official name of the facility and, the following year a major addition was designed by architect Gerald Garapich for $2 million including a stage house for proper handling of scenery (“the green box”). Soon thereafter, though, the company began a long slide away from prosperity and into deficit. Productions were cancelled and entire seasons followed. Occasional revivals faded away until September 2010, when the last scheduled show was presented. Therefore the bowl fell into neglect. 

The neglect can be seen in the below photos I shot back in 2017:



That 1984 Green Box really spoiled the architectural beauty of the Bowl:



One of the main reasons the Bowl lost popularity were the loud planes that flew directly overhead, either forcing pauses in plays or drowning out whatever was going on at the time.



The commemorative sign that was placed outside the Bowl:



Recently, Save Starlight had some good news to report:

Save Starlight now holds exclusive negotiating rights with the City of San Diego to secure a long-term lease for the Starlight Bowl. This is a monumental milestone that brings us significantly closer to making renovations and full-scale programming a reality. That said, the process of securing the lease and starting physical renovations will still take several more months. In the meantime, we continue to incur operating expenses—everything from planning and legal fees to outreach, grant writing, and administrative costs.

Can it be saved? Will the already financially strapped City invest money in a venue that is located directly in the flight path of the airport? All will be revealed, as the saying goes.

In the video below, you can see a clip of the Rolling Stones playing at the Starlight in 1964. Edited from the description:

This News 8 archive footage unearthed in 2021 features the Rolling Stones arriving in San Diego for their first show in America's Finest City. The concert was part of the Stones' second tour in the United States and they played at the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park on Nov. 1, 1964. At the time, it was called the Balboa Park Bowl. This pristine vintage video is mostly silent but captures the enthusiasm of the crowds gathered to greet Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. We do get to hear the screams of the adoring fans at the show around 00:40 and even catch a few notes of their performance of the blues cover, “Walking the Dog” starting at 00:45. At the time, drummer Charlie Watts was age 23. Mick Jagger was age 21.



See more San Diego Balboa Park photos at my main website.

Comin' At Ya, August 1957!

Take your Dramamine this morning, readers, as this trio of Genuine FauxD© images from August 1957 could get your stomach going. The Kalamazoo Handcar is on display at the Main Street Train Station, and the population reads 5 million. Below, I combined the left and right images to get a slightly wider view for you. Now you can see a portion of the Storybook Land attraction poster at right:



In Town Square, the Horse-Drawn Fire/Chemical Wagon is ready to take on a few guests for a trip to the Castle. Only 10¢!



The wider view below:



Last one from this trio shows the Suwannee Lady at the dock of the Jungle Cruise attraction:



The wider view shows…well, not much more other than the last two letters of the name of the boat:



See more Disneyland photos at my main website.

Alexander at the Silhouette Shop

In my collection, I have a vintage silhouette cut at the Disneyland Main Street Silhouette Studio. You can see where it is located in this August 1956 shot, just a few months after it had opened in January (originally it was the short-lived Grandma’s Baby Shop):



…and how it looked when I shot it in 2015:



Zooming into the printed signature on the silhouette, we see the name Alex, with a pair of scissors cleverly standing in for the letter “A”:



Who was Alex? In the June 1956 edition of the Disneyland News, we can see a shot of him inside the newsprint pages.



Below, Main Street Silhouette Studio artist Alex DeGonslar presents singer/actress Jane Powell with a portrait he had just cut of her:



As fate would have it, I was contacted by his granddaughter who happened to stumble upon my blog. How cool is that? She was kind enough to share these family photos of Alexander at work, beginning with this image from 1956:



The next two photos show Alexander in the window of the shop:





The below shot is from September 1960. And in case you’re new to this blog or vintage Disneyland photos, let me inform you just how rare interior shots of shops/stores/attractions are.



From August 1961:



So fun to look at the detailed pictures on the wall. I wonder who the people in the photos are? I am guessing they were celebrities or dignitaries of some kind.



This 1962 image is labeled as being shot at Disney; since the background doesn’t seem like Disneyland, I am going to guess that it might have been shot at the Studio in Burbank. I believe the man that Alexander is cutting is actor/comedian Cliff Arquette, better known as Charlie Weaver.



What an unexpected treasure trove! Thanks so much to Alexander’s granddaughter for furnishing these. If you were a reader of Highlights Magazine as a tot, you might remember Goofus and Gallant. She is a true Gallant!



Just today, I was contacted by Goofus:

I kinda upset that you didn't do enough reach search on every silhouette artist that worked there.. on main. Street.. because my grandfather [name removed to protect the rude], was silhouette artist. For over 37 years.

Instead of supplying info or photos, they dumped their bad attitude on me. A true Goofus. This makes me all the more appreciative of the DeGonslar family!

See more Disneyland Silhouette Shop photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley's Hula Gets Cut!

In the 1936 film, “Captain January,” Shirley Temple is typically seen wearing a sailor outfit, as this Italian Booklet of the era shows. In the behind-the-scenes still shot below though, an outfit that didn’t make it into the final film was deleted for being too racy! In the first version of this outfit, Shirley wears a black bra for the hula dance she was to perform in the film:



The scene was reshot with a more modest outfit. Below is a behind-the-scenes shot showing the set on a 20th Century-Fox soundstage:



Zooming in, you can see Shirley and co-star Buddy Ebsen:



This detailed view shows where the dance was performed:



This time around, Shirley wore an undershirt beneath the combo seaweed skirt and bra/lei:



This publicity still shows the exterior of the lighthouse as it appeared in the movie. This scene was not cut, as Shirley is appropriately clothed!



 See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

70 Years Ago: Disneyland, August 4, 1955

One of my longtime readers VERY generously supplied these rare images that they recently acquired showing a visit to Disneyland on August 4, 1955. How do we know the date? Read the back of the photo (and note the Kodak Velox Paper watermark!):



I have assembled these in the order that one would take as they journey to the Park from front to back. I let out a yelp at this one, which is an extremely rare shot of the Disneyland Police Department, which once resided to the left of City Hall:



It was also for Lost Children; wonder if the two tots sitting on the steps were lost or just looking for playmates?



City Hall:



Closing in, we can see a very different type of Disneyland AND the guests that once frequented it. In August 1955, people took time to enjoy life. They dressed up for a special occasion and cherished the friends and family that they were with.



The Bob Gurr designed Carnation Truck shown below. As he recalled years later:

An early sponsor at Disneyland was the Carnation Milk Company. They wanted to have an antique delivery truck parked on Main Street right in front of their Carnation Ice Cream parlor. Walt had me design an antique looking truck which Carnation built right in their own truck maintenance shop in Glendale.  I based the antique design on a “modern” 1931 Model A Ford chassis. A friend made a custom radiator emblem for it naming the truck.....Gurrmobile. I used to get a kick out of 'know-it-all' guests who would tell others how they remember the old Gurrmobiles that were built in Los Angeles long ago. For years it served as a photo-op prop in front of the ice cream parlor. When folks would take each other’s photo seated in the cab, behind them would appear the words 'Carnation Milk'…clever publicity.



Strolling down further our August 1955 guest focuses on the Penny Arcade:



On the opposite side of the street is the Swift Market House. Who was the slob who blocked this shot?!?



Another yelp of excitement when I saw this shot of the Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, taken BEFORE the hotly contested red/white alternating bulbs were installed:



Look Ma - no light bulbs at the entrance!



This appears to be a ho-hum shot of the Horse-Drawn Streetcar in Central Plaza:



…but when you zoom in, you can see the short-lived Central Plaza Bandstand in the background:



A shot of the Sleeping Beauty Castle was a requirement for all guests (not really, but it seems like it):



The second shot was an occasion for a third yell:



While the uncomfortable siblings holding their Disneyland popcorn containers are fun, the exciting part of the shot is this detailed view of two Disneyland News Boys, hawking their wares:



Guests could have their names imprinted on the Disneyland News for a very fun personalized souvenir:



The Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant was still being finished up one month after the Park opened, as you can see by the surrounding scaffolding:



Over in Frontierland, the name Davy Crockett was a huge draw:



The Mark Twain yielded excitement from our August 1955 photographer:



Written on the back:

Steam Boat, Disneyland, August 4, 1955. We all took a ride in it - Harris, Harold, and I, John and Sherylann.



Tom Sawyer Island had not been constructed yet, but the land could already boast a waterfall feature:



From the Twain, our guests could see a Disneyland Train leaving the Frontierland Depot as it passed around Fowler’s Harbor:



Over in Tomorrowland, the Flags of the Nations were placed in a star formation in front of the TWA Moonliner:



HUGE shout out to the donor who provided this amazing glimpse of Disneyland from seventy years ago!

See more vintage Disneyland photos at my main website.