Disneyland 1965

photoflight

photoflight

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks... some of the slides weren't the best, glad I can preserve 'em. The skull was part of Fantasyland near the restaurant ship "Chicken of the Sea" (in the next slide).
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
photoflight said:
More old images of Disneyland, these are from August and the Christmas season, 1965.

Full gallery is >>here<<
Click to expand...

These are fantastic pictures!

But a friendly bit of info..... many of these pictures are not from 1965. Many of these pictures look to be from the years 1958 to about 1963.

Here's some of what has tipped me off that the August or December of 1965 dates are incorrect;

Picture #16 & #17- The hemlines on all of the ladies dresses and skirts are way too long for '65, and the short hairdos on all of the same women are also way out of style for '65. The full, mid-calf skirts and the short, gamine hairdos that clearly haven't benefitted from the hairspray of the 60's date these photos to the late 1950's.

Picture #26 - The Rocket To The Moon lost its TWA sponsorship in 1962, and when Douglas picked up the sponsorship from '62 they repainted the rocket in blue with a different Douglas livery. The blue Douglas livery of 1962-66 can be seen in picture #22, which very well could be from 1965. Judging from the hairdos and fashions on display in picture #26, I would guess this photo is from the tail end of the TWA sponsorship around 1960-61.

Picture #37 - Autopia without a center rail. Autopia didn't gain its center rail until 1964, and this picture has no center rail. Judging by the four car Mark II monorail that debuted in 1961, plus the tip of the Rocket To The Moon in the TWA livery mentioned above, I would peg this photo as 1961. It could theoretically be 1962 prior to the Douglas paint job, but the girl in red wearing the late 1950's clamdiggers that were already going out of style in the early 60's makes me think this has to be 1961. And you know those clamdiggers were hand me downs from her older sister that were forced on her by Mom. Either that, or this is a tourist from back East who wasn't quite as fashionable as the SoCal locals of '61. After her trip to California, she probably never wore those clamdiggers again.

Pictures #44, #47 & #48 - The Skyway cabins are the old round two-seaters that were retired in 1964 in favor of the square four seat cabins. Judging by picture #44 and the girl with the early bouffant hairdo with can curls at the nape of the neck, and the modified ducktail haircut on the boy near her, I would peg this photo as taken in 1961 or '62.

Picture #45 - This also has the round Skyway buckets seen in the distance, and the long pencil skirt on the woman in the right of the frame pegs it as from 1960, or maybe '61. The older woman in the middle of the frame, in the early bouffant hairdo, cats eye sunglasses, and the strawberry print oriental-line blouse is absolutely fabulous. And she only strengthens the argument that this was taken in the very early 1960's, as she may have been an aging housewife, but she had it going on for 1961. Besides circa 1960-61 fashions, the Version 2.0 paint job on the Matterhorn precludes this from being 1959. In '59 the Matterhorn had a far less authentic looking paintjob on the rockwork and snowline. They redid it in 1960, and it improved the look of the mountain dramatically.

In spite of the dating errors however, these really are fantastic pictures. :D
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
One other thing, right at the start....

Picture #1 - That's the rear flanks of a 1962 or '63 MGB on display next to the Spring Fling sign. They must have been giving that away as a Spring Fling prize or something, but they wouldn't have displayed a '62/'63 car as a prize in '65. Judging by hairdos on the middle aged women in the picture, plus the original 1955 Jungle Cruise attraction poster that was used until the Marc Davis rehab of '64, the date 1962 seems about right.

Can you imagine the screams of horror on message boards today if they parked a new 2008 Miata at the main entrance right in front of the Mickey floral display with a Year Of A Million Dreams signboard next to it? Some things have improved for the better as the decades went along, that's for sure.

And then there's Picture #14, which I just looked at more closely. Here we see my favorite housewife in the strawberry print again from Picture #45, but we see her walking away from the photographer. The entrance to Adventureland has been blocked off with rehab walls, and it seems my guess of 1961 from Picture #45 was probably correct. Why, you ask? Because the entrance to Adventureland underwent major construction during 1961 and into 1962 in preparation for the opening of the new Tahitian Terrace in June of 1962. Now that we get a better look at the strawberry print housewife (or are those red flowers?), we see she is wearing a long pencil skirt like another woman near her in a previous pic.

The combination of Adventureland entrance rehab, and two pencil skirts with hemlines below the knee, strengthen my guess that we are looking at a snapshot taken in 1961, probably the autumn. At the very latest this could be spring, 1962, but then my strawberry housewife isn't as hip as I once thought if she hasn't raised her hemline a bit by '62. :D
 
T

tigfan

New Member
photoflight said:
More old images of Disneyland, these are from August and the Christmas season, 1965.

Full gallery is >>here<<
Click to expand...

This is probably a dumb question, but did you take these photos yourself? Either way, they are really excellent, and it's so cool getting to see them. I have some old DL guidebooks that I really should get around to scanning one of these days and posting them here. I just think it's so fascinating to see how much DL has changed over the years...but at the same time, how much it has remained exactly the same in many regards. It's amazing to look at the Main St train station, for example, and think how it looks as though it was built yesterday, and then go back and look at these photos and see that it looked the same then as it does now. Very cool!

Thanks so much for posting these!!
 
photoflight

photoflight

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
TP2000 said:
One other thing, right at the start....

Picture #1 - That's the rear flanks of a 1962 or '63 MGB on display next to the Spring Fling sign. They must have been giving that away as a Spring Fling prize or something,...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the analysis. I went back and looked more closely at the slides. My original assumption about '65 was based on a note written on one slide mount - which happened to be one of the night pictures (August 1965). Based on the mount and the timing I'll assume the fireworks were shot during the same time.

The other images are without a doubt pre-1965. The car isn't an MGB, it's a Mk1 Midget. The lack of quarter, or "vent" windows dates it as pre-1965 also. The Mk1 & Mk2 overlapped a little in '64 but I think it's probably not hard to believe it's pre 1964. The dating on those mounts is very shallow (they're stamped but not printed with the dates), but they were processed in April 1962. Based on family history I believe they were shot no earlier than the spring of 1962.

The other slide mounts are also dated. They're harder to read but the year "64" is there, and "JAN 64" is clear on many of them. With the seasonal decorations in mind I'd guess they're from the 63-64 Christmas season. The other non-Christmas ones must be later on in the year. Again, based on family history they can't be any earlier than late '63, but probably not until 1964 - and certainly no later than 1964 (the process date on the mounts).

I've left the original gallery up, but have sorted and categorized the images into two new galleries. I cleaned up some of the dirtier slides too:
1962: http://aerialphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/4177495
1964: http://aerialphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/4177851

Tigfan: No I didn't shoot these, they're old family photographs.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
photoflight said:
Thanks for the analysis. I went back and looked more closely at the slides. My original assumption about '65 was based on a note written on one slide mount - which happened to be one of the night pictures (August 1965). Based on the mount and the timing I'll assume the fireworks were shot during the same time.

The other images are without a doubt pre-1965. The car isn't an MGB, it's a Mk1 Midget. The lack of quarter, or "vent" windows dates it as pre-1965 also. The Mk1 & Mk2 overlapped a little in '64 but I think it's probably not hard to believe it's pre 1964. The dating on those mounts is very shallow (they're stamped but not printed with the dates), but they were processed in April 1962. Based on family history I believe they were shot no earlier than the spring of 1962.
Click to expand...

I had forgotten about the "Midget"! I take it you are a British sports car fan as well? My last one was a '69 Spitfire that I just loved to its death.

I imagine it's entirely possible they didn't paint the Rocket in the new Douglas livery until Spring 1962, getting ready for the big summer season. If so, you've got some 1962 Tomorrowland pics showing the very last days of the TWA paint job. But those pics of the Central Plaza, and with your additional info on the years, you've obviously got some photos of that area when they were getting ready for the Tahitian Terrace debut coming in June, '62.

Do you recognize the woman in the pictures with the strawberry/flower print blouse? Is she a relative of yours, or does she just keep getting in the frame of those shots by accident? I instantly liked her when I saw these pictures, as she reminds me of so many of my aunts and grandmas from the mid 20th century. A classic look!
 
photoflight

photoflight

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
TP2000 said:
I had forgotten about the "Midget"! I take it you are a British sports car fan as well? My last one was a '69 Spitfire that I just loved to its death.
Click to expand...

She could have been a friend of someone - I really don't know for sure.

As for the brit cars... YUP - MGB for me (see here). I thought it was an MGB too until I saw the flared fenders :)
 
Shere_Khan

Shere_Khan

Well-Known Member
I've never been to DL, where are the pictures of the Skull and the boat that says Chicken of the Sea on it taken? Are those still there?

Edit: Sorry I did not bother to read the rest of the posts. I see you answered the question.
So those are no longer there. That's too bad, of all the pictures those intriqued me the most. I think that would have been one of my favorite spots.
 
photoflight

photoflight

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Shere_Khan said:
I've never been to DL, where are the pictures of the Skull and the boat that says Chicken of the Sea on it taken? Are those still there?

Edit: Sorry I did not bother to read the rest of the posts. I see you answered the question.
So those are no longer there then?
Click to expand...

Nope - apparently not.

I'm an east-coaster but we went to DL every year up until about 1980 or so when I was a kid. I went to WDW for the first time in the late 80s and was so disappointed there wasn't a Bobsled ride or a mountain in the middle. Heck, I didn't know! :p
 
photoflight

photoflight

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Again, thanks for the comments everyone. I'll post more as I find them.

It looks like the characters got taller over the years, but maybe it's just my imagination :)
 
NadieMasK2

NadieMasK2

Active Member
Wow these pictures are great!

Why does it look like the monorail has been wrapped with giant duct tape in #36? :lol:

It is so neat to see the changes in the monorail trains.
 
photoflight

photoflight

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It does kinda look that way (duct tape) doesn't it? I think they used a lot more aluminum in the old ones.

Wouldn't it be cool if they ran a "retro" version monorail at WDW? :)
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom