Melodyland Monday

This panoramic view of the Disneyland sign on Harbor Drive hails from July 1964. The “new” Disneyland Hotel Tower rates prime real estate on the entrance sign.



Shifting to the left, you can see the Saga Motor Hotel and the sign for the Melodyland Theatre. John Raitt is on the marquee, starring in “The Pajama Game.” The publicity shot below was captioned:

Cute Bonnie West, principal dancer in “The Pajama Game,” current Melodyland Theatre stage attraction, clowns it up with star John Raitt during a rehearsal break. The hit musical runs two weeks and will close Sunday, July 19.

Melodyland opened July 2, 1963 and was Southern California’s first theater-in-the-round, featuring top-notch entertainment such as Ray Charles, The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, and The Grateful Dead. In 1969, it became a church, retaining the name and signage out front. Demolished in 2003, it “paved” the way for Anaheim GardenWalk.



Panning a little further to the left, you can see The Lancers Restaurant, which featured lunches, dinners, and cocktails.



According to their matchbook, dinner dancing was available 7 days a week!



I wonder if Walt ever used this ashtray?



See more Disneyland entrance photos at my main website.

Disneyland Monorail Red, July 1965

In this July 1965 image, you get the Disneyland Monorail, the Disneyland Hotel sign (which looks somewhat similar to the one that was on Harbor Boulevard), AND the Disneyland Hotel. Unfortunately, zooming in the sign is too blurry to read.

Don’t worry about it; in my collection I have a 1966 image that shows the Hotel sign:

Here’s the one that was on Harbor Boulevard, circa July 1965:

This view of the Park entrance was taken from the Monorail, July 1965:

Hope you all enjoy the weekend!

See more Disneyland Monorail photos at my main website.

Coffee at the Saga

This vintage photo from September 2, 1960 shows a family sitting at the Saga Coffee Shop on Harbor Boulevard. Across the street you can see the iconic Disneyland entrance marquee.



A closeup of the Coffee Shop menus.



This previously posted 1971 shot shows the Saga Motor Hotel where the Coffee Shop was located.



This location is now the Grand Legacy at the Park Hotel and before that, The Ramada Maingate. That's a lot of names to remember - sheesh!

More vintage and current Disneyland entrance photos at my main website.

Classic Disneyland Hotel

A duet of classic 1960s images of the Disneyland Hotel for today, beginning with this August 1962 shot. The Blue Monorail is parked in front. What a fantastic image! For the closeup, I had to get a better look at the hand-crafted signage as well as the paneling on that vintage station wagon!



It may have been a cloudy day when this October 1964 photo was taken, but I still think it's pretty cool!



Riffing on the Park's iconic entrance sign, the Hotel looms in the background with the Monorail track at right and a ton of cool vintage autos in the parking lot!



Check-in for more Disneyland Hotel photos at my main website.

Anaheim Grows, June 1966

It's June 1966 and our vintage photographer captured the iconic Disneyland entrance sign, which heralds 616 new guest rooms and the park hours of 10am-Midnight. In addition though, this photograph captures the surrounding growth in Anaheim spurred on by Disneyland's success.

Panning left, we can see that Frankie Avalon is in town:



Panning right, we see the Anaheim Convention Center under construction. It would open in July 1967. That sign for Chalet Pancakes & Steaks makes me hungry for some flapjacks!



How the Convention Center looks now:



See more Disneyland entrance photos over the decades on my main website.

The Saga Motel, Spring 1971

This spring 1971 image shows not only the iconic Harbor Boulevard Disneyland entrance sign...



but to the right, it features the Saga Motor Hotel.



The address of the Saga was 1650 Harbor Boulevard, which means it is now the Ramada Anaheim Maingate. This explains the tile artwork that could be seen on the back wall of one of the buildings there. The Saga had 100 rooms, a coffee shop, restaurant, cocktail lounge, gift shop, and travel service.

See more Daveland Disneyland Entrance photos at my main website.

Mr. Lincoln goes to New York

In an attempt to introduce the East Coast to Disneyland, Walt Disney put together a number of showstoppers for the 1964/65 New York World's Fair, including "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln." In this publicity photo, Walt and Victor Greene (WED Project Art Director) take a look at a miniature version of the set for this dramatic tribute to this country's 16th President.

Here you see what the show building exterior looked like, snapped in October 1965, the very same month the NY World's Fair closed down.



A vintage publicity shot of the Lincoln animatronic:



And how dear Abe looks today:



Happy 49th Birthday today to actor, musician, Disneyland fan, and eternal heartthrob John Stamos.



How many Disneyland fans can say that they own this sign?



I think I'll have some greek yogurt in his honor.

See more Daveland Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln photos at my main website.

Better After Dark

Disneyland is known as a magical place, but never so much as when the sun goes down...and the lights go up. When it comes to great lighting, Disneyland has it in spades, and nowhere is that more evident than this vintage 1960s photo of the entrance sign. You can just see the tip of the Denny's sign on Harbor Boulevard to the right of this image.

Visitors today miss out on the thrill of a grand entrance, as this pitiful little marker just does not give off the same "you have arrived" vibe.



See more vintage & current Disneyland entrance photos on my DL Entrance web page.

An Iconic Entrance

At this point in my crazy obsession with collecting vintage Disneyland images, I am looking to improve what I have rather than amass duplicates of what I already own. This first shot has trumped my August 1959 entrance sign shot by 4 months and replaced it as the earliest image I own showing the famous Disneyland entrance sign on Harbor Boulevard. The slide was stamped March 1959, and if you look close enough, you can see the Castle in the background on the left-hand side.



One dilemma I often have has to do with the qualities of the images I buy. I am a stickler for quality, but if the image shows something rare or a view not in my collection, I'll typically get it even if it's a little blurry, poorly composed, or scratched/damaged beyond belief. You might remember this September 1956 parking lot image that I recently posted. Not the best quality, but I was till excited to get it and have a "you are there" type of viewpoint as the passenger took the photo out the window of the car.



Now, I have been able to update my collection with a full color image from August 1966. Those retro buses look so chic!



25 cents for parking? Wow.



That reminds me of a story I saw printed in the January 1957 Disneylander Newsletter:

During a recent meeting of the Disneyland, Inc. Operations Committee, this incident, involving the question of an increase in the parking lot fee took place.

The question was whether or not a fwenty-five or thirty-five cent charge should be made. During the course of discussion, each member was adding pros and cons to the issue at hand and, at times, were using the expression of "two-bits" instead of twenty-five cents. After the issue had been discussed for what Tommy Walker thought was a sufficient length of time, he asked this question which he thought would work toward a solution.

"Oh, what's the difference between "two-bits" and thirty-five cents?"

Jack Sayers, Chairman of this committee, replied rather solemnly, "ten-cents." After this the meeting broke up.

See more vintage & current Disneyland entrance photos on my entrance web page.

Plenty of Parking!

A miraculous site! Imagine a virtually empty parking lot at Disneyland. Hard to find today, but in this August 1967 shot, the original parking lot has plenty of vacant spaces. And how about those scary towers?!?

Let's zoom in to see the iconic entrance sign:



See more vintage & current Disneyland entrance photos on my Entrance web page.

Disneyland, December 1979

A few fun (albeit grainy) gems from the polyester decade. Hard to believe, but there really is no big entrance sign to the resort anymore. This sign was a welcoming beacon for many travelers back in the day.



Even if the slides weren't date stamped, you'd know it by this gent's outfit. Members Only jacket, white pants, black shirt, big shades, and a lovely disco-man-do.



I remember there were a number of years when the "flocked" trees were big during the 70's; you could buy them with the fake snow already sprayed on them. We could always tell when our dog had been messing around with the gifts under the tree as his beard was covered with "snow."



The shades come off in New Orleans Square:



Aw, matching jackets!



These two images of Big Thunder Mountain show the attraction in its infancy, as it had just opened a few months before.



Can you feel the pull of the engine as you head to the top?



See more vintage and current Disneyland photos on my Disneyland web page.

Disneyland Entrance Sign Blow-out!

With the acquisition of a "new" image of the famous Disneyland entrance sign, I decided to do a post in chronological order showing this beloved icon. First up is a September 1959 view, followed by an undated shot that I also believe is from 1959. Looking at these, I noticed that one side of the sign says "Entrance • Park & Hotel" whereas the other side says "Park & Hotel • Entrance."



From August 1962:



July 1963:



September 1964:



July 1965:



An undated 1960's shot:



September 1969:



February 1971:



Thanks to Chris Jepsen, this photo has now been dated to April 1971; apparently Roy Acuff played there on April 4th for the very first Country Jubilee. Thanks Chris!



July 1971:



October 1972:



And the tragic eyesore that replaced it:



See more vintage & current Disneyland Entrance photos on my Disneyland Entrance web page.