New Orleans vs. New Orleans Square

One of my favorite cities in the U.S. is New Orleans; my favorite section of Disneyland is New Orleans Square. Although I love both of them due to some similarities, they are definitely different beasts.

The first thing I like about both is the architecture. Walt himself loved the real city, and his designers did a wonderful job of capturing the look of the buildings, the balconies, and to some extent, the atmosphere. One is kept clean; the other not so much. Interestingly enough, New Orleans is designed (for the most part) on a grid with squares, including its most famous, Jackson Square.

At Disneyland, there is no square in New Orleans Square. Instead, the pathways curve around and make you think the area is larger than it actually is. Brilliant design!

The nooks and crannies of both places draw me in as well. At Disneyland, the now inaccessible Court of Angels was a favorite haunt of mine.

New Orleans is full of these little courtyards; they’re just not maintained quite as well, which is probably preferable to me. Something about that Great Expectations decay really gets me!

Both places are full of life, people, and creative activity.

New Orleans is just a lot more edgy and unexpected. I like that, too.

Lots of great music to be enjoyed; Disneyland’s is scheduled:

…and New Orleans’ is typically random and not quite as polished. Again…totally fine by me.

More on this topic tomorrow! See more REAL New Orleans photos at my main website and New Orleans Square.

Temple Tuesday: Where's My Ornament?

This 1940’s image shows Shirley Temple at her Brentwood home, touring around the driveway for the publicity cameras in the miniature gas-powered Dreyer Racer car that was gifted to her by her beloved costar and dance partner, Bill Robinson. That tight smile tells you she was really wanting to hit the gas and race down the street!

Zooming in, you can see that the hood ornament was missing. Was it broken? Removed for safekeeping?

This shot found on the justacarguy blog shows Shirley and Bill driving around the Fox Studio lot when she first received the car (hood ornament visible!). Bill is holding on for dear life, as according to all accounts, Shirley was built for speed when behind the wheel of this car!

From the Museum of American Speed website comes this information on Floyd Dreyer, the man behind the racing car:

Floyd “Pop” Dreyer, a major race car builder throughout the 1930s, began building “Dreyer Racers” which were miniature race cars for children in 1933. The cars were powered by various small 4-cycle engines and used parts off production cars as well. At first, he was building them just for his own children but, as word got out, people starting coming to Floyd to build cars for their children as well. These cars became very popular and soon Floyd realized he had another revenue stream for his business. The price for a Dreyer Junior Racer was $150.00, but Floyd rarely sold one for that much. He sold one to a man with no legs, which he used as a motorized wheel chair. Child actress, Shirley Temple, bought one of the small cars and it appeared in an ad which Temple did for Quaker Oats.

Years later, Floyd was watching the Academy Awards Show on Television when a special Oscar was given to Shirley Temple. During Temple’s introduction, film footage of Temple at home as a child, driving her Dreyer Junior Racer was shown. That was quite a pleasant surprise for Floyd!

When the car was auctioned off in 2015 by Theriault’s, this was the photo used in their catalog:

From the catalog description:

SHIRLEY TEMPLE'S CHILD-SIZED GAS-POWERED TETHER RACING CAR

The metal racing car with painted white enamel finish with Shirley Temple's name on each side, red leather upholstered seat, hood ornament, horn, brake handle, and a unique round license plate from Fox Studios at the front. Excellent condition with restoration to finish. Ranking at the top of Shirley's childhood possessions - and memories - was her model racing car, a gift to her in 1936 from "Uncle Billy Robinson" (Bojangles). In her 1988 autobiography Child Star, Shirley wrote "painted pure white with a red leather seat and chrome hood ornament of a leaping antelope, it was powered by a one-cylinder unmuffled lawn-mower motor...On my first solo run of studio grounds, Uncle Billy crouched on the back, showed me how to start, and we leaped forward. Veering into a nearby Fox publicist, I snagged a long tear in his trousers. My first traffic accident." Eventually the studio ordered the car removed to her own home where Shirley was "restricted to racing a circle around her own driveway, and soon lost interest".

Realized Price: $34,000 Presale Estimate: 10,000+

How the car looked when I saw it in person in Santa Monica:

WITH the hood ornament!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Monday with a Crocodile

The Crocodile from Peter Pan is not a character you see frequently walking around the Park. This recently acquired September 1962 shot shows Captain’s arch nemesis hanging around Fantasyland near the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant.

Digging back through the archives I also found this shot from July 1962 which includes Peter Pan:

The Crocodile was also part of the show “Fantasmic!” on the Rivers of America:

I captured this daylight shot of the croc awaiting the night to fall:

While looking through my collection I came across this previously posted March 1968 gem of Mr. Smee:

The highlight for me though is the lady with towering bouffant hairdo in the background and the nails for days!

See more Disneyland Character photos at my main website.

Motor Boats and The Viewliner

This undated 1950’s image of Disneyland was taken from the dock of the Motor Boat Cruise attraction and affords a rare view of the Fantasyland Viewliner station. Why so rare, you ask? Because the Viewliner barely lasted a year before it was removed.



To give you an idea of where the photo was taken, here’s a May 1958 view from the Skyway, showing both the Motor Boat and Viewliner attractions:



A detailed shot of the Fantasyland Viewliner station, with (appropriately) the Blue Fantasyland Viewliner parked at the station.



Another view of the same area from the ground:



A detailed view of the station:



…and the Motor Boat Cruise dock, as well as the regular Disneyland Railroad Fantasyland Depot:



For Motor Boat Cruise fans, here’s an August 1958 shot:



I can just here the little girl now. “I don’t see mom and dad, Tommy. Full speed ahead!”



I believe the track seen in this portion of the photo belongs to the Viewliner:



Got enough to last you for the weekend? I sure hope so!

See more vintage Disneyland Viewliner photos at my main website.

Snow in San Diego!

Yes, it’s true. Snow can be found in San Diego! Or at least the nearby hiking trails of Stonewall Peak in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, located just outside the quaint little town of Julian. Apparently, the Sunshine Tax that San Diego residents pay for living here doesn’t cover this part of town. No complaints here; it was a beautiful change of pace.

The trees provided some Tim Burton-esque scenery.

Once up at the top, the temperature changed greatly along with very gusty winds.

The steep climb up the staircase was a little unnerving; I put a lot of blind faith on the rail as I held onto it for dear life!

The views were stupendous, though. Definitely worth it.

Had to borrow the hat when it came time for my photo.

On the way down I encountered this screaming tree. Very creepy…very cool. Probably a refugee from Snow White’s (formerly) Scary Adventures.

Did we get pie while in Julian? The road was completely log-jammed with tourists who had been going stir-crazy, so the pie had to wait until I got home and I purchased one from the frozen section of the local grocery store. It still tasted delicious!

See more Stonewall Peak photos at my main website.

Bubble Crazy

Call me crazy, but I do love that bubble at the top of the old Monorail! This September 1962 is a postcard-perfect view of it, along with the Matterhorn and the Skyway overhead.

BTW: I'm also crazy about the original round buckets, too.

I have to give equal time to Monorail Red’s bubble; this one is also from the 1960’s: 

The bubble was only located on one side of the Monorail, even though they traveled both ways, as you can see from this 1960’s image shot from the parking lot.

See more Disneyland Monorail photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Revisiting That Hagen Girl

“That Hagen Girl” (1947) came to my attention when I saw Shirley Temple and Ronald Reagan together on the cover of the 1978 book, “The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.” Back in those days, ANYTHING that had Shirley on it found its way into my collection. Even as a fourteen-year old, I found this satirical book by Randy Dreyfuss and brothers Michael and Harry Medved to be hilarious.



There were very few films on this list that I had personally seen at the time, so I took their truly funny (albeit bitchy) text to be the gospel. These films must have really sucked! It wasn’t until about a year ago when I first watched “That Hagen Girl” for myself that I began to form my own opinion. While many regard it unfavorably, the truth is the film actually earned a modest profit when it was released. It is definitely not the box-office bomb that legend purports it to be. The story is about Mary Hagen (Temple), a teenager who is the subject of gossip in the little town of Jordan, where it is believed that she is the illegitimate child of Tom Bates (Reagan). What went wrong with this film that caused it to have a poor reputation? Let’s focus on what went RIGHT first, starting with the production team.