My Favorite Spaceman

This Spring 1957 image shows the Tomorrowland Spaceman posing with a cute little girl (also featured in yesterday's photo). I wish I could identify what is in this little girl's hand!



Although I can't verify that this particular Spaceman was the most popular, he is definitely the one featured the most in the Daveland archives.



His time at the Park seems to be 1956-1958.











More vintage Disneyland Space People at my main website.

The Spica

I could make a very bad pun about "spica my language," but instead, I will refrain and show this glorious shot of the Spica jet from the Disneyland Astrojet attraction, circa Spring 1957. The slide was labeled Mary Ellen and M.M.; could the shy brunette lady be Marilyn Monroe in disguise? I'll let you decide.



More vintage and current Astrojet/Astro Orbiter photos at my main website.

The Art Institute in Chicago

The Art Institute in Chicago has always been one of my favorite museums, so obviously it was at the top of my list to see on my recent visit to the Windy City.



The treasures that await at the top of the stair...my heart was pounding!



Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebatte:



Two Sisters, by Pierre-August Renoir:



A new favorite for me, Portrait of a Woman by Jean-Leon Gerome:



The Song of the Lark by Jules-Adolphe Breton. The power of this painting cannot be captured in a photograph. The bright sun fairly leaps off the canvas.



Le Silence by August Prebuilt:



At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:



This is my favorite Lautrec painting; the woman's green face is everything to me. LOVE it!



Vincent van Gogh's self-portrait, showing that gingers have artistic talent!



James McNeill Whistler by Walter Greaves:



Andy Warhol's take on Elizabeth Taylor:



At first glance, this untitled Robert Gober installation just looked like a dress surrounded by wallpaper.



A closer look at the wallpaper reveals startling imagery, especially with all that is going on in the States today.



Back to cotton candy territory with a David Hockney:



I'm a sucker for art deco, especially this Paul Manship piece called Dancer and Gazelles:



Ceres by John Bradley Storrs, 1928:



This is a smaller version of the art deco figure Storrs designed for the top of the Chicago Board of Trade Building:



For inspiration, Storrs used the Classical subject of Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain, alluding to the Board’s activity as the world’s biggest grain exchange.



Back to the museum with American Gothic by Grant Wood:



This creepy yet cool painting by Ivan Albright was used in the 1945 MGM movie "Picture of Dorian Gray." It was the only instance of Technicolor used in an otherwise black and white film.



I will leave you with one of my favorite paintings at the Institute, Nighthawks by Edward Hopper:



Closing in to the main group at the diner, this painting says so much.



More Chicago Art Institute photos at my main website.

Hondo Hattie Overhead, 1965

In celebration of Disneyland in Anaheim's 61st anniversary of when it was open to the general public (aka average Joe Schmoe), here is an overhead shot of the Jungle Cruise attraction from June 1965. Here's the accompanying publicity blurb:

TWELVE BUSLOADS of Oregonian Junior Dealers are scheduled to arrive in Disneyland this month during a five-day vacation which also includes visits to Mainland, Pacific Ocean Park and a big league baseball game. The boys are selling subscriptions now to earn the trip. Photo shows Disneyland launch navigating past menacing crocodiles toward a tottering archway.

A closeup of the crocodiles and the Hondo Hattie:



Hattie is still in operation; at least it was when I shot this one in 2007:



I'm surprised Honda hasn't taken over sponsorship of this attraction; then they could rename the boat Honda Hattie.

More vintage and current Disneyland Jungle Cruise photos at my main website.

Wright in Chicago: The Robie House

More Chicago Frank Lloyd Wright as we slide into the weekend. Completed in 1910, the Frederick C. Robie home was probably Wright's very favorite Prairie house that he designed. My tour began in the garage area; I kept thinking...get me in here!



Finally we traveled up and around the house, which is still in the middle of a much-needed restoration.



While the interiors are not as slick and revitalized as Wright's home and studio, you can still see the amazing bones of Wright's horizontal design.







The chairs that are currently there give a taste of what a Wright-designed dining area might look like.



How about that shower?



I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of the Robie House. I learned that the owner was only able to live there for a year before financial hardship forced him and his family to move. I can only imagine how heartbreaking that must have been.

Wright can also be found in downtown Chicago. The Rookery, an 1888 Chicago skyscraper was designed by the architectural firm of Burnham and Root. In 1905, seeking to modernize the interior public spaces of The Rookery, Edward C. Waller, the building’s manager, hired Wright.







Jaw drops and hits the floor.



The Rookery is also the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright trust.



More Frank Lloyd Wright at my main website.