Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Mansion & Streetcar, March 1966

Continuing a very small batch from 1966, we'll take a quick photo-op outside the beautiful Haunted Mansion - still years away from opening. I wonder if the façade was lit at night? Or did they let it go dark so that it didn't draw guests to it like moths to a flame? Mom looks relaxed, but I can tell that Junior has a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.


You sure don't see many photos of Disneyland in which guests are dressed for cold weather. Notice the coats and even a few hats - not the colorful souvenir hats either, but headgear to keep noggins warm. The clock on Main Street says that it's not even 3 o'clock yet, but you can tell that night is on its way.


18 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Not certain that's "Grandma"; it could be Mom. Either way, there's no mistaking those 'matching' noses.

Thanks, Major.

Nanook said...

... What I meant to say was... That could be Grandma.

K. Martinez said...

Ah! The long gone INA Carefree Corner. I remember going in there from time to time and seeing three backlit photos high up on the wall behind the counter. They featured Walt Disney World's Cinderella Castle, Space Mountain and Contemporary Resort Hotel. That wet my appetite for my first trip there in 1978.

Those little INA Disneyland Guide booklets were my favorite for graphics and layout. Now it's just a folded pamphlet guide. Nice set today. Thanks, Major.

Chuck said...

Ken, you nailed it. While relatively simple, the graphics were amazing at getting across a lot of information clearly in a small space, and the uncluttered design - white page backgrounds (except a few special light blue ones to make them easy to find) - is something I think any theme park or museum could benefit from re-adopting in their disposable guide maps.

The INA guides were one of many, many little things that, when added up, made Disneyland that much more special than its contemporaries. Plus they fueled many an idle hour of daydreaming back home in the years before I finally got my own Sam McKim souvenir map.

Although all of our examples are lost now of 40 years of moves, storage, and midnight pixie raids, the fact that I can still remember the color of each land on the map - yellow for Main Street, orange for NOS, brown for Frontierland, pink for Fantasyland, and light blue for Tomorrowland - and the individualized graphics for most of the attractions is a testament to the effectiveness of their design.

Unknown said...

Goodness, Chuck, please tell me that Adventureland was green!

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I still vote “mom”, it seems like people aged faster back then. I just saw a documentary about Bing Crosby, and was stunned that he was only 73 when he died. He looked much older.

K. Martinez, I am sure I never went into the Carefree Corner, unfortunately. Didn’t they also have a giant map of the park? Or was that someplace else? I loved those booklets!

Chuck, I remember actually copying the little maps in the booklets, which is über nerdy! My original copies are falling apart, but I have collected them since then, attempting to get all of them through the mid-1970s. It’s tough, because the early ones aren’t clearly labeled, I think I am missing ONE. But it’s hard to tell. Anyway, I clearly loved those things a lot.

Patrick, it WAS green!

Anonymous said...

Major, the lady looks very much like the woman in the Calico picture with the giant laundry tub.

You remember the picture, on GDB about five or six years back.

Could these be the same people, or is it an all new batch of pics.

Thanks, these are great.

JG

Anonymous said...

The Vintage Disneyland Tickets blog used to have some of the those little guidebooks available to download as PDF's.

I got a couple of them for my collection.

Happy to share, if I can find them. Might check over there to see if they are still on-line. Some of his links were still live as of last year.

JG

Chuck said...

Patrick - I can't believe I forgot Adventureland!

I just looked at several of the early-to-mid 70's guidebooks that Vintage Disneyland Tickets has posted (thanks for the reminder, JG!), and my memory was slightly off - Bear Country was yellow, while Main Street was a lighter shade of orange than NOS. Here's a reference point for those who don't have a frame of reference for the discussion: http://vintagedisneylandtickets.blogspot.com/2008/02/spring-1976-disneyland-guide-book.html

Additionally, I found a 1965 guidebook he had posted that I'd never seen before. While the graphics are the same, the booklet's dimensions are different. It's also only printed in three colors (black, brown, and cyan), which makes the colors of the individual lands (except Tomorrowland) completely different.

Here's the link: http://vintagedisneylandtickets.blogspot.com/2007/12/1965-ina-guide-book-complete-post.html

K. Martinez said...

Major - I think there was a giant map in there, but I more strongly remember a giant aerial photographic map of Disneyland at the old Global Van Lines storage locker facility on Town Square. It also was on a wall behind the counter. I'd stare at it, trying to memorize the layout details while leaving my items purchased for the day at the locker.

I think one of the reasons I explored Main Street so much as a youngster was I'd get low on tickets and it was free to explore all those shops and exhibits on Main Street as well as other "lands". That's what happened when you didn't have additional money for more tickets. You'd check out everything else to be occupied.

Chuck - I still have several of my INA Guide booklets from visits including a 1965 one. You were pretty right on about the colors.

Anonymous said...

@Chuck, I just checked VDT site and he has taken down his website, so all the download links to the PDFs in his blog are dead.

The blog images are still live and can be downloaded. I grabbed the whole 1976 brochure, but these are all *.jpeg.

If anyone wants this compiled into a PDF, just post back. I am going to do it for my own enjoyment and I will share if anyone wants it.

JG

Chuck said...

JG - If you're going to do it anyway, yes, I'd love a PDF copy.

Anonymous said...

@Chuck, and everyone else in this thread, I have PDF'd the Disney Guide. It can be downloaded at this link for one week and then I will delete it.

https://app.box.com/s/2wbmn87puv5vxtj18jg8vvt8qz2qkbec

Also included are some other PDF Disney goodies, scan credit to Tim of old Vintage Tickets blog.

These are fun on an iPad.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, you are right, the lady does resemble the Calico woman, but they are different people. I think I DO have some other photos featuring the Calico lady, though!

JG again, if I could get my act together, there is no reason why I couldn't scan my own INA brochures… maybe pick an unusual year (not sure what that would be). We'll see!

Chuck, I wonder if your memories (besides the Adventureland omission) were of the guides before Bear Country was added? I'll have to dig my guides out and check. The 1965 book you mentioned has been referred to as the "black cover" guides. There are examples of these from '66 and '67 as well.

K. Martinez, I think it must be the Global Van Lines map that I was thinking of. I probably had less time to explore the park when I was a kid, because we would often go on "Navy Night", which meant that we only had the evenings. Of course we went other times, but… I don't know, we always seemed to be rushing around to do everything.

JG… thanks for providing those PDF files! I'm sure you're like me and miss the regular posts of the old "Vintage Disneyland Tickets" blog.

Chuck said...

These are awesome, JG. Many thanks!

Anonymous said...

@Chuck, you are very welcome. I have more stuff, but not on-line where I was yesterday.

If I can get access to a large-format scanner, I found a really cool thing that everyone would like. Problem is getting it scanned. I'm working on that.

@Major. Yes, I miss VDT a lot, I'm glad I saved some of the downloads. He has some of the "black cover" guides still up as .jpegs. Should we PDF those too?

I like the idea of seeing more of your collections. I vote for anything from '67-'77 since those were "peak Disney" for me.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, wow, I am intrigued by the "cool thing" you mentioned. What can it be? I've tried to contact Mr. VDT a few times, and I guess he has just moved on to other things. Bummer. As for the PDF's, it's a lot of work for you, so it's up to you. I'm sure people would like to see them, though.

I'll have to dig through my stuff, so much of what I have has been posted by others. Maybe that doesn't matter?

Anonymous said...

Greetings all. I have added a PDF of the 1965 Disney Guide (Black Cover) to the folder posted earlier.

Go get it if you care to. It should be visible under the link already provided.

It's very similar to the later edition but less color. Interesting to see the old shops and restaurants.

JG