Disneyland 1968

_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
Disstevefan1 said:
Ah the good old days.....
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For White people.

Great video. Things that stood out to me:
  • What’s the narrator’s accent? Sort of Mid-Atlantic?
  • Someone should revive the Pan-Am style airline esthetic.
  • 1968 DL sure had a lot of unthemed concrete.
  • Life did seem simpler then. The people seemed to be delighted with the slow-moving rides, costumes, flowers/fruit, that guests these days just run right past.
  • Love how people dressed up to go to the park.
  • Did the narrator place IASM in Tomorrowland?
  • Interesting Tomorrowland was referred to as “a fairground for the universe.”
  • The feeling I get watching this is the feeling I remember getting while visiting the parks as a kid. It is different from the feeling I get now. What changed to make that so?
  • The park feels bigger in the video than it does in person today. Maybe it’s the crowds? Or maybe they’ve just squeezed in a lot more stuff?
Thanks for sharing, @Darkbeer1 !
 
Stevek

Stevek

Well-Known Member
Those Main Street Vehicles look like they are going twice as fast down MS vs what they do today.

I was lucky enough to experience much of this version of Disneyland having been born in 1966...my first visit was in 1970 or 71 I believe.

It really was a much simpler time, Disneyland was a marvel and considered something very special that people were lucky to do once a year. Now, it's treated like we did the malls of the 80's...a hangout.
 
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TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
For White people.
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And men. And heterosexuals. And carnivores. And the able bodied. And any number of other categories so many Virtue Signalers today are happy to try and keep us all divided and separated into. Whatever you do, don't forget to be offended and brag about being offended via Twitter. ;)

_caleb said:
Great video. Things that stood out to me:
  • What’s the narrator’s accent? Sort of Mid-Atlantic?
Click to expand...

This is a British Pathe' film. I love these things, and I've been addicted to them for years on YouTube! I saw this one a few years ago and loved it, but all of the British Pathe' films of the 1950's and 60's are wonderful. British Pathe' was sort of the UK version of a Newsreel that would play at a theater before the feature presentation. They are narrated by English men who have the typical 1960's "BBC English" accent.

But your Mid-Atlantic guess is very close, as the Mid-Atlantic accent that many American movie stars used in the early to mid 20th century was based heavily on BBC English.

_caleb said:
  • Someone should revive the Pan-Am style airline esthetic.
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Yes, but to your point about 1968 only being nice for white people, you could never recreate the Pan American Airways aesthetic today without getting in instant legal trouble with American unions. And Twitter.

The closest thing to it today is Emirates and Singapore Airlines, with notable mentions for Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. Virgin Atlantic used to be in that category, but Richard Branson got in trouble a few years ago for that "look" with the #MeToo crowd and he's been forced to lower his standards for flight crew beauty, stop the gendered language regarding his aircraft fleet, etc., etc.

There is no United States airline that even comes close to Emirates, Singapore, etc. In this country, our current airlines are just a matter of how awful will your experience be; truly miserable, or not that bad if you are very lucky.

_caleb said:
  • Love how people dressed up to go to the park.
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We've discussed this before, but it should be remembered that these folks weren't "dressing up", they were simply wearing the clothes they had.

Casual clothing was becoming popular in the 1960's because people had more disposable income. You didn't wear dress slacks and a leather belt and a buttoned shirt and leather shoes because you were trying to impress, you wore that because that's what clothes you wore everyday, and it was cheaper for you to maintain a basic wardrobe of a few clothing essentials you could wear to church and the office, and to a store or amusement park on the weekends. Only as disposable income skyrocketed in the 1960's and 70's did people start having money to spend on casual fun clothes that they could wear in public. Young people embraced that concept first, which is why you see older people into the 1980's still wearing what we now think of as "formal" clothing out to casual places.
_caleb said:
The park feels bigger in the video than it does in person today. Maybe it’s the crowds? Or maybe they’ve just squeezed in a lot more stuff?
Click to expand...

I think it's the crowds. Disneyland in the 1960's had lots of switchback queues and places to stash people waiting for rides. Plus generally lower attendance on off-season weekdays like this video was probably shot during.

Now the attendance is triple what it was in the late 1960's, and everyone is wandering around waiting for their Fastpass time and their Mobile Order App to summon them someplace else. It makes the park feel hectic and crowded even when it's not.
 
1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
Stevek said:
Those Main Street Vehicles look like they are going twice as fast down MS vs what they do today.

I was lucky enough to experience much of this version of Disneyland having been born in 1966...my first visit was in 1970 or 71 I believe.

It really was a much simpler time, Disneyland was a marvel and considered something very special that people were lucky to do once a year. Now, it's treated like we did the malls of the 80's...a hangout.
Click to expand...
Because the footage of the vehicles are obviously sped up.
 
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TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
For those interested in more fabulous short films from British Pathe', here's a typical mid 1960's offering. It's 3 minutes long and explains how a dirty Beatnik girl can be turned into a lovely young lady. There's literally thousands of hours of this British Pathe' stuff on YouTube, and if you aren't careful you can get sucked into it for days at a time. Like I have on a few occasions. :D

 
D

Deleted member 107043

Stevek said:
I was lucky enough to experience much of this version of Disneyland having been born in 1966...my first visit was in 1970 or 71 I believe.
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Same here. The first trip I remember was in 1970. At the time The Haunted Mansion was being touted as the park's newest attraction. o_O

At its roots the park hasn't really changed all that much. The biggest difference to me now are the impossible crowds and the large number of passholders who act as though they own the place.
 
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