Disneyland, 9-15-1960 in 3D, Pt. 1

Hold onto your chairs, as my Genuine FauxD© images can cause queasiness! The first shot from September 15, 1960, shows the entrance and ticket booth area at Disneyland. The changing of the times is already in motion, as you see the two ladies dressed. up in hats and heels on the left and the more casual youth on the right in shorts. Below, I have stitched both the right and the left side of the 3D image so that you can see the full panoramic view of this shot:



This set also included the Flower Market located on Main Street between the Upjohn Pharmacy and the Carnation Ice Cream Parlour:



The full stitched view:



As a bonus,  here’s a rare interior shot of the Carnation Ice Cream Parlour from August 1968:



See more Disneyland photos at my main website.

At Home with the Presidents

In honor of Presidents’ Day, my Monday post will show the trio of homes that I have visited. I have yet to scan the 1971 negatives from my childhood trip to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, so this vintage shot will have to do. Located in Alexandra, Virginia, the Palladian style home began construction in 1734 and went through a number of expansions and remodels over the next 45 years, yielding the present structure that guests can tour today.  

The closest you can get to seeing Washington himself is in Orlando, where his animatronic performs daily in the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World:



I’ve been to Monicello twice; once in 1971 and then returned again (with my own camera!) in 2017.



Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. President, began work on his neoclassic home in 1768, with a number of expansions and revisions that continued on until his death in 1826. 



He is also represented in the Hall of Presidents:



Want to see a panorama of the Hall of Presidents? Here you go:



I’ve never been to the home of our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, but I have visited him at Disneyland’s Opera House:



…and seen his inferior counterpart in Orlando:



I also happened to catch him at the now defunct Tresor Gallery on Royal Street in New Orleans in 2015:



Jumping forward to our thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon, I visited his birthplace in 2005.



Located on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, it is a very modest dwelling, built in 1912 from a mail order construction kit by his father, Frank Nixon.



What better place for the then vice president to celebrate the christening of the Disneyland Monorail in 1959 than at the Carnation Ice Cream Parlour? He is surrounded by his wife Pat, Louise the waitress, and daughter Tricia Nixon. General Manager Mr. Knowles seem to be giving an unspecified direction to the photographer from the background.



Now I’m craving an ice cream sundae.

See more Daveland photos at my main website.

Carnation Truck Update!

Everyone who was ANY-one had their photo taken at the Carnation Truck parked on West Center Street at Disneyland. Just look at this couple from September 1959. I sure hope she didn’t drop those ice cream cones!



But what happened to that truck? A while back, I was approached by Elbridge Stuart who wrote, “You will be glad to know the truck lives in a museum at the Carnation Farms in Washington just outside of Seattle. It also still runs.”

He followed up with more great information:



“Here is a frame grab from a video of a 1950’s TV show called “Success Story” and was sponsored by Richfield Oil and Gas and documented successful companies. In this particular episode, they toured a Carnation ice cream plant. As they were about to roll the credits at the end, they showed an old truck running around the back lot of the plant. In looking at the picture, we thought it was the Disneyland truck that might have been loaned to Carnation for the shoot. It does have the same markings and says Disneyland on it. However, the Disneyland truck was a ¾ size reproduction using Model A and T parts. The truck in the video is much larger and is full size. Perhaps there were two Disneyland trucks though I don’t think so. It may be the other old truck we have which has been repainted several times.”

How about these July 1955 Disneyland Opening Day shots of Walt Disney and Elbridge’s father?



They got to drive the truck filled with gallons of ice cream to open the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street, U.S.A. This is one way to be popular with the public!



Elbridge was also kind enough to send these photos of how two of the three trucks at the museum look today:







“The one on the left is a full size Model T that we are unsure of its history. We think it is the truck seen in the frame grab, which shows the truck painted like the Disneyland truck which is on the right of these photos. The real Disneyland truck is ¾ size and was done to mirror the scale of the buildings that it was parked alongside.”

Here are a few more shots if you haven’t had enough already:





For all you gear heads out there:



Not enough you say? Eldridge also sent pages from the March/April 1956 issue of "Carnation Magazine":





About nine years ago, Elbridge also shared some of this material and additional backstory with Gorillas Don’t Blog.

Thanks to Elbridge for all these great photos and the knowledge that the Carnation Truck is still alive and running! I think I’m going to go have some ice cream to celebrate!

See more vintage Carnation Truck at Disneyland photos at my main website.

More Ice Cream for Nixon

Some of the mysteries were solved when I acquired this second batch of negatives of Vice President Richard Nixon and family at Disneyland from June 14, 1959 sharing an ice cream sundae at the Carnation Ice Cream Parlour on Main Street, U.S.A. This envelope gave the name of the waitress (Louise) and the two gentlemen in the back. At left is restaurant General Manager Mr. Knowles and standing next to him is Charles Cowling. I do not know any other information about these two (or charming Louise for that matter).



A closeup of the carnation on the menu cover:



I wonder what's in that toast from Mr. Knowles?



On the negative for this shot, the kids had an "X" through them; I guess the intention was to crop them out when the photo was published. I rectified the situation with a simple swipe of the cloth. Nixon's mother, Hannah, didn't make the frame. You can barely see the edge of her face at left.



See more Nixon at Disneyland photos at my main website.

A Sundae for Nixon

On June 14, 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon and family were invited to christen the Monorail. At some point in the day, they also enjoyed some ice cream at the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street U.S.A. His mother, Hannah Milhous Nixon, is at left, wearing the Special Guest tag in addition to the Guest Pass ribbon for the day.



Nobody seems to be paying attention to whatever it is that Vice President Nixon is talking about.



Nixon is shaking the hand of...no idea on this one. I'll give a thrill to one of my readers and let them chime in.



Whoever he is, he doesn't have the "Special Guest" designation that Mrs. Nixon has.



Tricia is not happy that her dad is the only one getting ice cream. No idea what Julie thinks, but it would appear that it is bringing some laughter to Mom and Dad.



Oh that sundae looks good.



Tricia reaches her spoon in for this one, but the rest of her is cropped out. I think I'll go see what's in the freezer. I'm hungry now.



More Nixon family at Disneyland photos at my main website.

Dude, Where's My Gurrmobile?

This post shows my earliest shot of the Carnation Gurrmobile (named for genius mechanical designer Bob Gurr) from December 1955 in its well-known position outside the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor on West Center Street.

Moving ahead 26 years, the Gurrmobile finds itself across the way further down the street outside of the Plaza Inn, circa March 1981. Previously, my latest photos of the truck were from the 1970's. Nice to know it hung around at least a decade later before it was shipped off to the state of Washington.



See more vintage & current Disneyland Plaza Inn photos on my main website.

Main Street, U.S.A.: The Proper Formula

Main Street, U.S.A. is the first thing guests see when they enter Disneyland and also the last. When it was originally created, it was an equal mixture of entertainment, education, and retail opportunities. For entertainment, the park had musical groups and characters like The Keystone Kops and The Dapper Dans.



When it came to education, many of the shops had displays that showed the function of these stores at the turn-of-the-century, while sponsors discreetly advertised their present day wares. The Upjohn Pharmacy was a great example of this edu-tainment/retail concept.



The interior was designed to look like an old-fashioned pharmacy:



Kids were able to see cool stuff like blood-sucking leeches in a jar—yuck!



The Dapper Dans stopped by occasionally to sing a melody to the guests who were there for the free samples of Upjohn vitamins.



A wide variety of retail from a diverse array of sponsors included swimwear by Cole of California:



Kodak:



and Wurlitzer:



...brought to you in FauxD©:



Interesting restaurants like the Carnation Ice Cream Parlour were more than just a place to eat a meal;



they provided food that fed the soul's need for comfort and nostalgia.



Unlike Main Streets across the country, Disneyland's version never let its façades rot away. Like the rest of the park, Main Street, U.S.A. is kept in a pristine state, as if it were just painted yesterday. The problem lies inside, where the interiors have fallen victim to a faulty formula of too much retail and not enough entertainment. With the rumored expansion of Main Street along the backside of the East side, the Disney Company could use this opportunity to shuffle a few of the shops and restore Main Street to the vibrant and fun land that it was intended to be. Tomorrow will be a look at how that could be accomplished.

See more vintage & current Disneyland Main Street, U.S.A. photos on my Main Street web pages.