Disneyland Comin' at Ya! Summer 1955, The Grand Finale!

We’ve covered Main Street and Fantasyland, now it’s time to see the rest of the Park circa July/August 1955 in glorious Faux©D! This view of Adventureland was taken at the entrance, looking inside the themed area. As always, the 3D version and the stitched panorama below. That little boy was thirsty!



A closeup of the Tiki's Tropical Imports souvenir stand:



A shot of the stand and its wares from March 1956:



A view of one of the Bull Elephants from the Jungle Cruise attraction:



Not as exciting without the 3D effect!



The Indian Village was once located near Adventureland, in the approximate spot that Indiana Jones would eventually take over:





Below is the New Orleans Street area of Frontierland, which now houses the River Belle Terrace Restaurant.





This location housed Casa de Fritas (opening August 11, 1955) until it moved in 1957 and was replaced by the Silver Banjo BBQ. Initially, I thought the singing group was the Gonzales Trio (with a fourth member added in for good measure), but let’s just say I’m not 100% sure on that!



The Mark Twain riverboat:





It is so jarring to see autos inside the Park in many of these early shots taken during the first few months of operation:



Last one shows the entry area to Tomorrowland, featuring tile from the Clock of the World at left and the atomic symbol on the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry at right:





And that’s all, folks! I hope you enjoyed this FauxD© look at early Disneyland!

 See more photos at my main website.

New Orleans at Disneyland

When Disneyland first opened, New Orleans Square was not part of the footprint. Instead, the fabled city in Louisiana got a street: New Orleans Street on the border of Frontierland and Adventureland. This lady and her son are sitting on the patio of New Orleans Street, circa 1955. The Casa de Fritos restaurant was located here briefly from August 1955 until July 1957 when it moved over to Frontierland.



This is the same row of buildings as it looked in October 2010. Obviously there were some changes over the years and the lovely half-circle window was lost with the expansion.



This shot from February 1956 shows a little girl in her Mousketeer hat sitting in the same area, outside the Aunt Jemima restaurant:



This July 1966 image shows the construction of New Orleans Square:



A detailed view of the ornate grillework on the balcony:



Because nothing at Disneyland is subtle anymore, a bit of gold paint shows that the grillework includes the initials for Walt and his brother Roy.



The last image for today shows the Court of Angels, July 1976;



Today, only guests of Club 33 have access to this area. Once again, subtlety at Disneyland has flown the coup:



See more Disneyland New Orleans Square photos at my main website.

Frontierland Friday: Concept Art Comparison

I love comparing concept art with the actual execution of a project. It’s interesting attempting to figure out why changes were made (budget, time constraints, change in direction) and what might have been if plans had been carried out as originally designed. In the art above, it appears that the Indian Village was planned to be located at the entrance to Frontierland. I would agree with the decision to move it behind the gates further back, as it would most likely have created a bottleneck of guests at the entrance. From July 18, 1955, the opening day of Disneyland for the normal folk:



This shot from December 26, 1955 shows the festive holiday decor at the gate:



In this detail view of the concept art, it appears that the original name was to be Frontier Country:



It’s clearly Frontierland in this October 1959 shot! I do like the addition of the flagpole at the entrance inside the “fort.” I can’t remember there ever being a flag ceremony here like the one in Town Square; anyone know about that?



For this piece of concept art facing the river with the Mark Twain in the background, Frontierland looks like your typical movie western main street, with lots of shops and services:



In this July 18, 1955, the final product had fewer shops and a lot of real estate for the miniature horse corral instead.



If you compare this detailed view of the art with photos of Disneyland’s neighbor, Knott’s Berry Farm, it looks very much like that Park’s Ghost Town:



Knott’s Ghost Town, circa May 1966:



A contemporary view of Knott’s



In this third piece of concept art, the name is Frontier Land, but spelled out as two words instead of one (same with True Life Adventure Land in the upper right).



This aerial construction view shows a somewhat similar vantage point. The Mark Twain/Columbia dock area for guests was nowhere to be found in the concept art; that was a nice addition.



Closeup of the construction for the New Orleans Street area (where River Belle Terrace is now):





A color view from October 1955:



Without mature landscaping, it was much easier in the early years to see the other lands in the distance. Still no Matterhorn or Skyway at this point; just the spires of the Castle and the Carrousel.



A 1950s view taken aboard the Mark Twain:



The flagpole or “town square” portion of Frontierland seems to have been closer to the river according to the concept art:



Here’s the flagpole and plaque as shown on Opening Day at the front gate:



The concept art also seemed to include a larger two-story building at the entrance to the Stagecoach/Wagon attraction that took guests through the “desert.” 

Value-engineering at its finest:



You can see the New Orleans inspired balconies on the building connected to the Golden Horseshoe in this detailed view. The bandstand by the river appears to be in the lower right:



The New Orleans Street bandstand on the Rivers of America as it was constructed:



Overall, not too bad as far as building what was promised!

See more Disneyland Frontierland photos at my main website.

Disneyland Gems from ’56, Pt. 3

The final installment of 1956 gems begins with a shot of the TWA Moonliner. Most interesting part of this shot to me is the phone booth, which probably goes right over the heads of the current generation. A phone...you don’t carry it around...you walk into it...you put coins (what are those?) into the slot and then dial (huh?) the person you want to talk to. Yes...you had to know the number of the friend/relative/business you wanted to talk to. No memory buttons to push. Can you imagine the brainpower one of these things required? Probably not.

Toning down the snark, here’s a shot of what was once known as New Orleans Street, before the quaint Louisiana city got a square of its own. Casa de Fritos was located in the green portion of this building:

You can see the sign for Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House below right:

Look how barren the banks of the Rivers of America look. Obviously the landscaping would take a few years to make this section look believable.

A detailed view of the dock, the Mark Twain, and the cast members:

See more vintage and contemporary Disneyland photos at my main website.