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.
Did they supply any photos? Any information? No. Instead, they dumped their bad attitude on me. A true Goofus. This makes me all the more appreciated of the DeGonslar family!
See more Disneyland Silhouette Shop photos at my main website.
4 comments:
Fantastic dive into the under hyped silhouette studio. Fascinating stuff! There are millions of Goofs in the world, let us not be upset when one appears. Thanks for this post, Dave! -Adam from LA
Not enough people understand the importance of reach search.
So much with today's post. First of all, if the granddaughter of Alex DeGonslar is here reading this, THANK YOU for the pictures and the story. It is appreciated. I'm not sure if Alex was starting cast/vendors from '55 but it seems likely and implied. Such amazing details of the shop interiors not to mention a few in color. That's almost unheard of for that time. I'd love to know more about how Alex learned this talent since it's not something you see anymore, a legacy talent that disappeared around the turn of the century. How did Alex come to Disneyland? Did he contact them, did they contact him?
You could be right about that shot with "Charlie Weaver". The only reason I'm still thinking it could be the park is that booth. First, you're probably right because that booth is something I've seen in Fantasyland, but the red/white makes it seem like Main Street, the trees are more Frontierland, and that (incomplete?) structure in the background is too pointy to be anything other than the tiki room which is still two years away. Maybe Tahitiian Terrace? That octagonal kiosk looks like the same size as the one that was in Fantasyland on the west side, closer to the Mickey Mouse club. The only thing that confuses me ( if that were true ) is that the sign on that kiosk had somethin glike four items on it in four rows, not one row for a single $.40 item.
Some readers of your blog must assume you sit around researching stuff all day like an unemployed infulencer doing loose research for quick views on a monetized channel. I guess they don't understand you post the things you come across, or in this case the things people bring to you. When someone accuses you of not doing enough research, it smacks of people trying to argue their point for some topic by saying "You should look into it" then expecting you to research their contrary point for them. No, it doesn't work that way. You do the research first, viewer.
Mike Judge was fairly depressed at how his movie Idiocracy was supposed to be a comedy, but almost 20 years later things are leaning hard in that direction. I'll leave that there. The people who were smart enough to understand that, will.
Also, 12th picture, famous silhouettes:
Top: Vessey Walker
Right: JFK
Left: ...Hamilton? Maybe?
@ Fifthrider-
Yes, Alex DeGonslar was an original lessee (actually a sub-lessee), as Jack Schrecengost, who ran the Pen Shop sub-leased a small section of the space to DeGonslar. In six months, Grandma's Baby Shop closed and Walt offered to lease the front room to DeGonslar as his own studio.
Dave-
Thanks for sharing these terrific images, especially the images from inside the shop-! Truly a unique set. And if that isn't Cliff Arquette, he's one hellava look-alike.
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