This 1957 gem shows a demure lady wearing a classic Disneyland paper hat from the early years of the park, standing in front of the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry. I am going to guess she’s visiting from Missouri, as that’s the flagpole at the Tomorrowland entrance that she chose to pose by.
In her hand is a Disneyland Guidebook. This version of the souvenir was released in 1956, but as you can see this must be an updated version since it has the year 1957 added in the upper right hand corner.
My version, from 1956:
Here’s an interior look at the colorful Hall of Chemistry, circa July 1960:
See more Disneyland photos at my main website.
Curiosity got the better of me. I looked up who invented these hats because the idea was so simple but such a good seller. ( Feels like a Marty Sklar thing even though inventing marketing products wasn't his thing. ) I didn't find an answer, but I did find closed auctions with WorthPoint and Van Eaton galleries. One claims to have sold at just $75 which is suspiciously low, but others refuse to print the price which tells me hundreds to thousands. Either way, back in the day who would have known? Congrats on having a '56 copy of that guidebook. Whatever you paid for it, it's no doubt going for a lot more than that now.
ReplyDelete