This glorious image from August 1958 shows the colorful attraction posters and Mickey Mouse entrance floral just as the E. P. Ripley is pulling into the Disneyland Main Street Train Station.
In Town Square, Vesey Walker is conducting the Disneyland Band as guests relax on the surrounding benches. Below, White Wing Trinidad Ruiz pushes his cart down Main Street, collecting the horse puckey from the Horse Drawn Streetcars.
Last image for today is a shot of the Monsanto House of the Future, perched atop its concrete foundation off Central Plaza.
I’m glad plastic homes never caught on, aren’t you?
See more Disneyland photos from my collection at my main website.
The House of the Future at Disneyland has always fascinated me, because it is so UN-Disneyland! Sponsored by Monsanto, it greeted guests at the entrance to Tomorrowland, but also bordering on Fantasyland. These two images are from August 1960. I’m not sure if designers Marvin Goody and Richard Clancy intended a nod to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, but it would certainly appear that way when you see this mini-waterfall feature underneath the home made of plastic.
The House of the Future was removed to make way for…the future, so it barely lasted ten years. Even after its removal, once could see traces of it. Below, you can see that when the area was changed to Alpine Gardens (tying it into the nearby Matterhorn), the fountains from Monsanto remained.
The signage for Alpine Gardens:
These two images are from late 1964 and show guests lounging (?) on the mod sculptures that resided outside the House of the Future.
I wonder what happened to them? The sculptures…not the guests!
To give you an idea of where the House was located, here’s a fantastic aerial view taken from the Skyway, circa March 1965:
More gems from August 1960 to come!
See more Disneyland House of the Future photos at my main website.
This shot of the white swans in the Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle moat from approximately 1957 yields some interesting info. When zooming in, you can see the banner promoting the Richfield Autopia Fantasyland Autopia. Yes, the myths are true. There were once multiple Autopia attractions at Disneyland!
Don’t believe me? Just take a look at this December 1956 image:
I’ve always wondered if that Eagle “landed” anywhere?
Back to the first image…if you shifted your camera to the right, you would see the Monsanto House of the Future, as long as it was June 1957. I am guessing the swan shot was taken before construction on the HOF had begun.
This panorama from December 1956 gives you an idea of what the area surrounding the moat looked like at that time.
No Matterhorn…no Snow White Wishing Well…no House of the Future. Just a mound of dirt and some trees, “themed” as Holiday Hill, Lookout Mountain, Snow Hill, and unofficially “Lover’s Lane.”
Snow White’s Wishing Well joined the landscape here in 1961:
So many tangents from one image.
See more vintage & contemporary Disneyland photos at my main website.
Today’s images show a trio of ladies from the 1960’s that I am going to dub The Golden Girls. Two of them are admiring the landscaping outside the House of the Future. I am loving the gloves, visible here in this closeup. If you try to grab those attraction tickets out of her hands, she will cause serious damage to your cranium with that purse.
How do I know these ladies were at the Monsanto House of the Future? Because I recognize the edge of the sculpted chair and the display panels nearby, visible in this previously posted 1963 shot. The House of the Future seemed to attract those Golden Gals; notice the two on the left wearing a white sweater? That’s the standard uniform for that generation. It’s true.
Here are all three Golden Girls departing the Submarine attraction; one dared to remove her gloves. I’m sure she will be shunned by the other two.
Our adventurous gals took a ride on the Skyway during the golden hour of sunset. How about this gorgeous shot of Skull Rock Cove?
it’s a small world appears to be in operation, and the House of the Future is still around, so I’m going to guess that these images are from 1966.
I know somewhere in my collection I have a better shot of that toy train contraption seen on the right side of this detailed view, but I’m too lazy to dig it up. Anyone? Anyone? [UPDATE BELOW]
The Matterhorn appears to be down for the count:
A pickup truck can be seen on the left and the water has been drained from the attraction:
UPDATE: this photos may be much later than what I thought...or could be part of different batches. I found two April 1977 shots of the toy train outside of small world:
See more vintage and contemporary Disneyland photos at my main website.
Too early for Christmas photos? Too bad, as today celebrates the upcoming holiday as it looked back in December 1963. The tree in town square is HUUUUUUGE! But not big enough to distract me from that fantabulous feathered hat worn by the festive Mom wearing a Christmas corsage to boot!
The Horse-Drawn Streetcar is the perfect way to get to the Castle and get a nice leisurely glimpse of the sights along Main Street, U.S.A.
This shot was probably earlier in the day, before the hats were purchased.
Over at the Matterhorn, the Christmas Star is in position.
I wonder if it receives UHF signals? Anyone remember UHF? The Matterhorn Christmas Star probably helped boost the TV signal inside the House of the Future at its base.
Final one for today shows the original round Skyway buckets floating through the Matterhorn:
See more Disneyland Matterhorn photos at my main website.
Through one of those serendipitous twists of the Universe, I virtually met Jason Petros from EarzUp Podcast. I have been a guest on their show twice, and had a blast both times. The first episode was a lot of loose chat about the Disneyland resort and my vintage collection of shots. My second visit centered around the vintage attraction The House of the Future. After my portion of the podcast, the rest of the show was a discussion about “5 Disneyland Details We Love (and 5 we hate!).” It’s always interesting to me to hear the opinion of others about the Park. I thought it would be fun to illustrate the EarzUp quartet’s comments with photos from my collection. I will begin with the areas that they hated need some help (trying to put a positive spin on it!), and follow up with those that elicited feelings of love. There were a total of 17 areas that the EarzUp team thought needed help, and I have to say I agree with every one of them.
1. Defunct attractions that are never funct! Carousel of Progress became America Sings which became…nothing...then Innoventions...then Star Wars Launch Bay... The Disney Corporation keeps putting something in the Carousel building just to fill the space, but not something people actually want to go to. Something of substance should be put there instead!
2. U.S. Mail Boxes: Love that they have them, but hate dislike that they don't sell stamps at the Park or postmark the letters from Disneyland anymore. What's the point of having them? Without the Disneyland postmark, they have lost their magic.
3. The blocked off Court of Angels in New Orleans Square: which is now the waiting room for Club 33, proving once again that the wealthy will always take from the common folk! A class warfare kind of thing. But… it is fun when you're on the other side!
4. Star Wars in multiple places. Star Wars has an entire area, but still has overflow in other lands. “The joy of Star Wars is the unknown of Star Wars. We don’t want it rubbed in our faces.”
5. Pixie Hollow: For us vintage Disneyland geeks, this one is extremely painful, since the House of the Future was once located here (seen below in this November 1959 image):
Pixie Hollow is the worst…you stand in line, go to different sections, and take photos with the “fairies”; it’s shady, but still sunny, and it’s just plain dumb.
6. The small world attraction ceiling: it’s just painted black and you can see the air vents, HVAC tubing...why not put up a false ceiling or a drapery to hide and help the immersion?
Want to “see” the unedited podcast and get a sneak peek of the rest of the show? Here you go…
The first view from today shows Central Plaza in 1956. Yes, the kids are adorable, but I love that “Be A Fireman” sign!
This shot of the Omnibus at the base of Snow Hill (which would eventually become The Matterhorn) also shows the House of the Future. I believe this shot is from December 1957. Construction of the House of the Future didn’t start until January 1957, and the other shots from this batch show Christmas decor.
Two gents survey Disneyland from Snow Hill...without the Snow.
Look at the crowd of folks near the House of the Future! And of course the little boy in the Tom Sawyer hat.
From the same batch as the previous photo we move over to Tomorrowland to see the ever popular Clock of the World.
Now a closer look (as always):
Besides the nuns, check out the Noel decor on front of the Hall of Chemistry and the Kaiser Aluminum sign. This is the first time I’d noticed that sign; checking my collection though, I realized I have a color shot of it!
See more Disneyland Tomorrowland photos at my main website.
