Disneyland 1956, Main Street & Central Plaza

We cruise up Main Street, leaving yesterday’s Town Square area of 1956, past East Center Street & The Swift Market House. We have finally made our way up to Central Plaza; kudos to Progressland for identifying photo #2 as the Plaza Gardens area.



Here’s a nice view of Plaza Pavillion, currently under renovation. Naturally the signage geek in me calls for a closeup.





And now, as most do for the first time, we pause in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.



Zooming in a little, we catch the details; a lady checking out the time (“Is it too early for a turkey leg?”), and some cast members changing out the banners along the drawbridge. To the left, our gal who tried to steel the Horse-Drawn Streetcar’s hat is posing next to the Fantasyland map.





Another Castle pic:



In this detail shot, the workers are still going at it, and if those swans know what’s good for them, they’ll swim as fast as they can to get away from our gal...she appears to be eyeing one for the pond in her backyard.



To see more vintage & current Sleeping Beauty Castle photos, visit my website.

1970’s Disneyland Entertainment

Picture this...September, 1978...you’re walking toward the castle and you hear live jazz coming from the Plaza Gardens. You reach the bandstand area and it’s Count Basie! How cool is that? Just check him out on the ivories, while Freddie Greene plays guitar. The Count and his orchestra played from 8:30pm until after midnight; time to get the other half and go dancing at Disneyland.



Here’s the brochure that tells you what other entertainment is going on at the park at the same time:





Going back in time another three years, we could have seen Stan Kenton in the same location, May 1975:



Stan should have fired the publicity agent that let this photo get out; even in these pre-photoshop days, there were plenty of things that could have been done to make Stan look less like an escapee from the Haunted Mansion cemetery:



Here’s the entertainment brochure from May 1975; be sure to check out this lineup, including the legendary Sara Vaughan. Does Disneyland have this caliber of entertainment play inside the park anymore?





More vintage and current Disneyland photos at my main website.