Disneyland Population, Part 2

The “population” (aka guest count) at Disneyland hit 18,000,000 in October 1959 (as seen in my previous post). The number for March 1960 on the Main Street Train station was still the same:



Even as late as July 1960 in this FABULOUS shot taken by a vintage photographer after my own heart. Oh, the details! 



One month later in August 1960, the number jumped to 22,000,000, as seen in this shot that features Walt Disney himself.



This photo op was to commemorate the 10 millionth passenger on the Disneyland Railroad.



Still at 22,000,000 in October 1960:





Another leap of 4,000,000 can be seen in June 1961:





Still holding tight in the new year, January 1962:



…and how about those ticket prices! Keep in mind that this was before one price allowed you to ride all the attractions, and that ticket books were necessary.



Kowabunga! In May 1962, the population umber hit 30,000,000:





From October 1962:



My photos in between are too blurry to discern the number, but this crystal clear shot from January 1964 shows a leap to 33,000,000:





The 10th anniversary of Disneyland saw the number leap to 46,000,000 as seen in this April 1965 genuine FauxD© photo:





Another jump by September 1965 to 50,000,000



A special sign hung over the regular marquee to commemorate the grand occasion, along with boxes of balloons along the tracks.



Another great detail shot from October 1966:



Holding tight as of December 1967:





Another large jump, circa January 1968 as the number hits 65,000000:



Nothing Goofy about these numbers!



My last image for the 1960s is from September 1969, showing the number to be 75,000,000:





What did the population number hit in the 1970s? Come back to find out in part three!

See more Disneyland population numbers at my main website.

Disneyland Population, Part 1

Dating vintage Disneyland slides/photos can be a bit of a process. Not all slides and photos have notations telling when they were shot. These rare images often come from estate sales then resold and split up on ebay, leaving any kind of historical context up to the buyer to figure out. Even if a slide has a month and year stamped on the back of the vintage cardboard mount, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the image was shot at that time. The film could have sat in the camera for months, sometimes even a year before the photographer took it to the store to be developed. In addition, sometimes duplicate slides were made, rendering the date stamp even more useless. In the end, the collector often has to rely on visual clues to discover exactly when these photos were shot. At the Main Street Train Station, the population number that hangs above the tracks can narrow things down a bit. The first number that shows up from a July 1955 slide in my collection is 5,000,000. I’m not sure how Walt came up with that number (especially since approximately 30,000 guests attended opening day), but it appears to have lasted until at least the summer of 1957. I have read that the 5,000000 mark wasn’t hit until October 1956.



From August 1956, still at 5,000,000:





Holding firm as of July 1957:





By July 28, 1958, the number had doubled to 10,000,000:





August 3, 1959, still at 10,000,000:





It would appear that at some point during August 1959, the number was increased to 15,000,000:





In this October 1959, the number remains at 15,000,000 while workers perform some maintenance on the station:





This slide, stamped October 1959, shows an increase to 18,000,000:





From November 1959, population still holding at 18,000,000 and would stay that way into the New Year:





…as seen in this photo stamped December 1959:





What would happen in the 1960s? Come back to find out in part two!

See more Disneyland population numbers at my main website.

Attraction Posters: The Disneyland Railroad

The original attraction posters from Disneyland are a prized possession for vintage Disneyland geeks! The bold colors and simple stylized graphics are timeless. Today’s post will center on the ones for the Disneyland Railroad. The first image shown here is probably unfamiliar to most; while not truly a Disneyland attraction poster, it could be found at the Main Street Train Station, as seen in this image below from August 1958:



Most likely it was supplied by Santa Fe (an original sponsor) and was from their vintage collection. There is another poster that once hung at the station in the early days (shown below) that I have yet to find the original inspiration for or a larger more visible version. One day!



Here is the iconic original poster that promoted the three stations/depots at Disneyland:



This image from the summer of 1955 shows that attraction posters were not part of the entrance experience:



The other interesting thing that it DOES show is that originally, two trains could run side-by-side from Main Street to Frontierland:



By September 1956, attraction posters graced the front entrance along the wall on either side of the Mickey Floral:



From October 1956:



In this shot you can see the Main Street Station poster towards the left of the photo. Though stamped January 1959, this image is most likely from December 1958, since the Christmas bunting is still up.



When the Grand Canyon Diorama was introduced to the Park in March 1958, it got its own attraction poster:



You can see it at the entrance in this June 1959 image, behind the woman in the gray sweater:



1966 saw the addition of the Primeval World diorama:



This October 1966 image shows the poster next to one of the Disneyland Mail Boxes:



Frontierland/New Orleans Square eventually received its own railroad poster, but it was many years later and the style had radically changed, so I cannot include it with this group of classics!

See more Disneyland Railroad photos at my main website.