All In The Details, Pt. 1

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.

Trip to Disneyland, March 1972

For those of you who love the 70s, you get a one day reprieve! Today's post continues the polyester magic with a few images from March 1972. Other than the swans in photo #1, these two castle shots are fairly ho-hum. Definitely not the reason why I acquired this batch.



I love all Skull Rock shots, but no…this isn't why I wanted this batch.



Hair black as ebony, skin white as snow…no, I don't think this is Snow White, even though she is posing in Fantasyland.



small world topiary…very nice, but again, not impressive to me.



The Excursion car adds a nice touch, but still…not the driving factor.



The Columbia is a beautiful ship, but this shot is not really a "wow."



Finally, we come to reason number one. The Petrified Tree. Any vintage shot of this Disneyland oddity is of interest to me. Can you think of a wackier anniversary present? I'm sure Lillian couldn't.



This dark POTC exterior is interesting as documentation of how this area looked before the under/overpass was constructed.



And the best for last…an interior vintage shot that is in color AND in focus of the skeleton steering the pirate ship in the grotto scene of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction! Double wow!



I hope you're as impressed as I was!

See more Daveland Disneyland photos at my main website.

Where’s the Crest?

This uncluttered 3D image of the castle is also from July 1955; somebody please find me the lady who is snapping the photo on the drawbridge. I'm sure she got a good one of the swan! I had never noticed this before, but apparently the Disney crest was not on the castle until sometime in the 1960’s; the earliest dated view I could find on my quick search of my castle images was from 1968. Anybody know the story on this?



Here’s a shot from February 2007 showing the crest up close & personal:



Meanwhile, over at the Rivers of America, the banks are barren and it looks like some of the Disney folk are on the banks checking things out (which you can see in the close-up I have posted here:





See more vintage and current Disneyland Castle photos on my main website.

CoxPilot Collection, July 1955

CoxPilot has gone to great lengths to scan these rare images that he shot personally in July 1955. Although some are a little blurry, their rarity and subject matter more than make up for it. First is an image of the Ticket Area, showing Passenger Cars at the Main Street Train Station. Moving into the park in Town Square, we have a nice shot of Main Street, taken from the steps of the MS Train Station.



Here’s one of CoxPilot, in front of the MS Cinema, back when they used to show silent movies (Mabel Normand’s in this photo).



Taking the Horse-Drawn Trolley down Main Street, we end up at the Plaza Apartments:




And at the end of Main Street stands Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, complete with white swans.





Naturally, we go to Adventureland and board the Jungle Cruise next:



In Frontierland, we have 2 of the Mark Twain:





An overview of Fantasyland:



Welcome to Tomorrowland!



LOVE this image of the Clock of the World:



Final image for this set is the TWA Moonliner:



A HUUUUUUGE thanks to CoxPilot for allowing us to see photos from his personal collection!

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