Sunday, January 15, 2012

Flower Mart & Matterhorn, September 1959

The Flower Mart on West Center Street would not have enticed me at all, as pretty as it was. But there were bathrooms at the end, and those would have enticed me. Mr. Handyman is in the foreground, complete with his high school wood shop toolbox, his spirit level, and a handful of stakes (for vampires!).


Here's Christopher D. Miller's window; he was Walt Disney's grandson (born in 1954), and Walt was obviously pleased as punch. I'm guessing that he had visions of his grandson playing little league baseball and Pop Warner football, which made the gym an appropriate location for the tribute. I want my name on the massage parlor! How can I make that happen?


A daring climber can be seen at the peak of the Matterhorn; I am reminded of the Grinch lurking atop Mt. Crumpit. The structure in the foreground hid the boat storage area for Storybook Land; since this view was visible from the Disneyland Railroad, I am surprised that the powers-that-be seemed OK with the jumble of ladders and scaffolding.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seeing the climber on the Matterhorn gives it some scale that I'm not used to - definitely makes it look smaller! Didn't they have climbers that scaled the peak daily? Seems like it would make the wait for the bobsleds less boring if we could watch somebody clamber around while we shuffled along...

Thanks for the pics!!

Bill in Denver

Connie Moreno said...

I got out my magnifying glass...

First photo - the bathrooms have been switched since then! Also, look at that little sign on the lampost. Is it for the Skyway???? And the Carnation Cafe! You can barely see the tiny outside dining area. Man, I can hardly wait for the expansion!

Nancy said...

i love those pictures today...so bright and sunny. i have always wanted to eat at the Carnation Cafe, maybe next time!!

the picture of the backstage area is cool, i love how colorful it is!

i think the only time i saw anyone scaling the Matterhorn would have been on July 17, 2005, but i dont honestly remember. we didnt really see the festivities in the forecourt b/c it was so crowded and mostly we were riding and shopping!

another nice set today for me who is freezing here with 25 degrees temps!! ;)

PsySocDisney said...

Contrarily, I would have been enticed by the Flower Mart... I"m not a huge romantic but I am a sucker for flowers. I once had an ex-boyfriend buy me a fake rose at Disneyland... It lit up pink and was scented! I wonder what happened to it...

JG said...

My Mom loved the Flower Mart. Every trip, we had to go through in detail. She bought several arrangements from here over the years, also from the candle shop in the building to the south. Great memories of this place are all that remain now.

Thank you Major, if anyone deserves their name on the massage parlor windows, it would be you.

That is a very old picture of the Matterhorn, with the DLRR route so close in. I don't recall that colorful building for Storybook land at all. I'm not sure why, but I think there has been a loose attitude to equipment in these backstage areas, since the areas behind Small World (with potted topiary on rotation out of the front garden) and what is now Big Thunder Ranch have always been a little rough. The tunnel north out of Frontierland is still a culvert, for example, not even fake rocks to hide it.

The climbers on Matterhorn used to be a daily phenom. Not so much these days. I have mixed feelings, they are fun to watch, but destroy the scale of the modeling.

Very cool pics.

JG

Dave said...

Learn something new everyday,I use levels quite frequently in my line of work, never heard the term "spirit level" before though. Of course I've never been dressed so immaculately leaving (or going to) a jobsite either.