Welcome to Disneyland, 1970s-Style

It’s June 1970, and our park guest captured the entrance sign (if only they had shifted the camera more to the right!!) which is touting the recently opened (August 1969) Haunted Mansion…and 1000 hotel guest rooms at the Disneyland Hotel.



This shot of Harbor Boulevard perfectly illustrates why Walt went to such great lengths to do a secretive land grab in Orlando.



Look at that cacophony of hotels, motels, and restaurants! I wonder what Mecca was like?



How the ticket booth/entrance area looked circa January 1970.



Hard to believe this parking lot area is what would eventually become the plaza between Disneyland and DCA.



This March 1973 shot shows a slightly better composition!



Ready for Spring Fling? Still touting those 1000 guest rooms.



For all you vintage auto nuts, here’s a closeup of the pileup of cars waiting to enter the Park.



See more Disneyland entrance photos at my main website.

Paramount on Location, Pt. 1

“Back in the day,” most films were shot at the studio; even exteriors were re-created inside the cavernous soundstages to avoid costly delays caused by the elements/lighting. These vintage production photos from Paramount Studio are rare records of when the movie crew chose to use a real-life outdoor setting. Released October 11, 1935, “The Last Outpost” starred Cary Grant and Claude Rains and was based on the short story “The Drum” by F. Britten Austin in Red Book Magazine (September 1923). These photos show the now demolished Hotel Del Tahquitz in Palm Springs. How about that vintage Automobile Club sign in the detailed view below?



Symposis of the film from TCM.com:

In Turkistan, during World War I, British Army officer Michael Andrews is saved from death under the Kurds by British Secret Service agent John Stevenson. The two men then save the Balkari tribe by leading them, along with their livestock, across mountains.



The Hotel Del Tahquitz opened in 1928 and was located at 316 South Palm Canyon Drive, right on the main drag of Palm Springs. It had tennis, badminton courts, a “Alice in Wonderland School and Playhouse,” The Saddle Bar X, and a rooftop solarium for nude sun bathing. Scandalous! If you’re unfamiliar with what a European Plan is, it means you are paying for room only, and food and beverage are extra. Makes it sound fancier, doesn’t it? An LA Times tidbit about the film from October 13, 1935:

“The Last Outpost” is doing surprisingly well at the Paramount. Greatly aided by lavish use of clips from African films it achieves topical appeal which relates it to the Italo-Ethiopian conflict and patronage consequently is heavy. Excellent performances are contributed by Claude Rains, Gertrude Michael and Cary Grant, but their acting is subordinated to the pursuit of tribesmen and stampeding hippopotami.



An LA Times blurb from October 17, 1935 focused on Cary Grant:

“I want to be hated. I’m fed up with well-mannered drawing-room roles,” exclaimed Cary Grant during the making of “The Last Outpost,” successor to “Lives of a Bengal Lancer,” which opens today at the Paramount Theater. “These namby-pamby heroes don’t get me anywhere,” said Cary. “In ‘The Last Outpost’ I’m going to show how tough a tough egg really can be.” Grant is cast as a British captain on the Arabian front. He fails in love with the wife of a brother officer, and the trio work out their fate under threat of momentary death.

If Grant was concerned about a namby-pamby image, he probably shouldn’t have been posing for photos with “roommate” Randolph Scott in somewhat sexually ambiguous shots. But I digress…



Back to the Tahquitz and some vintage autos parked in front:



I’m not sure who the three gents up top are. Maybe they are getting ready to check out the solarium?



I LOVE the Cordoba travel poster on the wall.



I attempted to find it through google; while I found similarly-styled ones, I could not find the exact one. It can be mentally painful to be so detail-oriented. Close, but as the saying goes, “no cigar.” The art for this one was by Joaquin y Rafael Diaz-jara.



What’s at the location of the demolished hotel now? Based on google maps, it would appear that the parking lot between the The Palm Springs Architecture & Design Center and The Grocery Outlet is the answer. The final Paramount production still for today is from the comedy “She Made Her Bed,” 1934, filmed in Victorville, California, where the location below showing an auto park was captured:



Starring Richard Arlen, Sally Eilers, and Robert Armstrong, the film was based on the short story “Baby in the Ice-Box” by James M. Cain in American Mercury (January 1933). Synopsis edited from the TCM website:

Duke and Lura Gordon have been married four years and run an auto park and coffee shop in San Benito, California. Duke considers himself a "he-man" and runs a small side show on the lot with wildcats. He is also a continual philanderer, and when the 1932 Pomona County Fair brings customers to the auto park, he has an affair with a seductive redhead, Eve McGillicuddy.

More production shots to come in the future! See more Classic Film photos at my main website.

Monday at Morning Call

Need that jolt of joe to get your morning going? If you were in New Orleans circa July 1960 (that’s almost 63 years ago for those of you who don't have a calculator), you would probably be at Morning Call, which was New Orleans’ Most Famous Coffee Drinking Place. Or so says the slogan. Forget the coffee, I’m more interested in the vintage T-Bird!



Just as an FYI, Morning Call is not the same as Café du Monde, which is in the same area but about a block away. If you look on the left of this shot, you can see Morning Call in the background.



And it looks like both places are still in biz. I’m not a huge coffee guy, so I typically go to du Monde for the beignets.



See more New Orleans photos at my main website.

Vintage Savannah: Wright Square

For this vintage 1950’s image of Savannah, Georgia, the photographer was facing Wright Square, standing on Bull Street. In the background is the steeple of the Lutheran Church of the Ascension (as seen below in 2007):



…and 2013 (below). Built in 1843, the building was occupied by Union soldiers during the Civil War.



The building that was on the right of the photographer is U.S. Post Office and Court House, as seen in this 2009 shot below. It is now referred to as the Tomochichi Federal Building and U.S. Court House. Built between 1894 and 1899, it was enlarged in 1932.



I believe all of the businesses have changed since then. Let’s take a look at what was there:



Charles Hairdressers, Dr. M. Butler (Dentist), Ray Mixson Jewelers, Sports C_____ (billiards, sports results, and lunches!), and Photocraft.

See more Wright Square in Savannah photos at my main website.

July 1955 in 3D, Pt. 1

This set of 3D images may or may not be from opening day, July 18, 1955. In order not to be crucified by the nitpickers who overlook the coolness and decide to focus on the veracity of the date, let's just say they’re from July 1955, okurrrrr? These photos are presented in genuine FauxD©.

The camera on top of the temporary tower would let us know that these shots are either from that historical PUBLIC opening day of July 18 or shortly thereafter. And how about those vintage cars in the Parking Lot?



The Colorado Rockies Passenger Car awaits you at the Main Street Train Station:



This barren landscape is the entrance to Frontierland, complete with tree stumps. Sleeping Beauty Castle is quite a contrast!



The crane in the background is most likely part of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship construction which was still going on when the Park opened.



A nice closeup of the Castle:



…and a detail shot of the onlookers on the drawbridge. Check out that tiny stroller! How did people get by without the huge monstrosities that they bring to the Park now?



More to come from this amazing set!

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

Sunset and Beverly, 1960

It almost sounds like a line from “Singin' in the Rain,” but no…I’m referring to this January 1960 shot of Sunset Boulevard and Beverly Drive with the Beverly Hills Hotel in the background. The vintage autos are the cherry on the sundae in this gorgeous photo! This guy looks like the cat that ate the canary; I wonder if he was staying at the hotel or just being a tourist?

Here’s my shot of the same location, circa June 2012:



And one from last November, where I showed a little more creativity with the angles:



See more Beverly Hills photos at my main website.

Disneyland Entrance, September 1964

No April Fools here; just a vintage September 1964 shot of the entrance area to Disneyland. I love being able to stretch one image into at least three. My first inclination was to zero in on the gorgeous Red Monorail, which was only five years old at the time. And that classic auto - what a beauty! I also noticed a blurry sign being looked at carefully by a guest. What was it?



Cropping into a different area of the image I was able to see that it was an information board. I still can't entirely read the durn thing, but at least I know what it is! Can you imagine being able to drive your car this close to the entrance?



As a bonus, here’s an October 1966 shot of a family looking slightly bored at the entrance. You can just hear them saying, “Dad, put the camera away! We want to go to Disneyland!"



But wait folks, that’s not all! Here’s ANOTHER 1960s shot of the entrance, this one hailing from 1963. These two ladies do not look happy that their entrance to the Park has been halted by a photographer. Seems to be a theme here.



Forget about them. Let’s zero in on the attraction posters and the barricade, shall we:



See more Disneyland entrance photos at my main website.

The Disneyland Hotel, 1956

This batch of images from 1956 shows some amazingly rare interior shots of the Disneyland Hotel. Let's see what the exterior looks like first, shall we? This closeup shows the signage as well as a few vintage autos.



A few shots of our group walking the grounds of the Hotel.





Zooming in, we see that this couple have found an orange. Free food on a Disney property? It must be the past!



I am digging these lobby shots with the fireplace!



Just in case you want a closeup of the lovely ladies in the photo:





Looks like even back in the 50s, there was a love for all things Tiki:



The last one for today gives another view of the Hotel's pool:



...with the obligatory closeup to show off the details. I am guessing that the gent in the back was part of this group.



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