Disneyland home movies from 1956

[Wilt Dasney]

http://www.archive.org/details/barstow_disneyland_dream_1956

Found a link to this on one of the LA Times' blogs. It's a half-hour home movie from a family who won a free trip to DL just a year after it opened. There's a lot of preliminary stuff in there leading up to the trip and showing other attractions around the LA area (obviously the dad loved his camera), so if you want to skip right to DL footage, it starts at 19:00 in. The dad went back and added the narration in 1995.

It's cool to see how simple most of the attractions were (Stagecoach, Pack Mules, Dumbo, Teacups) but these people seem thrilled with the place.

 

[primetime52]

That was a great video! Surprisingly enough, I watched the entire 34 minutes. I had no idea they had hand held color video cameras back then (or did they add the color later perhaps?). It's interesting to see that Main Street looks pretty much the same as it did back then.

 

[Mr.EPCOT]

That's amazing footage! It's awesome to see some of those famous Los Angeles locales in the 1950s! Don't miss Walt Disney Productions at about 16:20.

 

[TP2000]

My gosh! What an amazing video.

Besides the fabulous Disneyland footage from '56, the narration throughout and 10 minutes of pre-Disneyland preparation give a glimpse into an America that barely exists anymore. It's not flattering to us 21st century Americans who are so spoiled and yet so quick to complain and declare that we aren't as affluent or comfortable as we were in the past.

Can you imagine a middle class family today who cuts their own hair, sews their own vacation clothes, mows their own lawn with a push-mower, and makes thrifty picnic lunches instead of eating every vacation meal at a restaurant?

Todays middle class family visits the salon every month, charges the latest Paris Hilton fashions to the Nordstrom credit card, has a lawn service take care of the dirty manual labor, and dines continually in restaurants on huge portions that make them so much fatter than the slim and trim Barstow family of 1956.

An amazing glimpse back to a better time. Thanks for posting!

 

[lilclerk]

Woah weird, I found this link on mousebits and was watching when I saw this thread.

It's a very cool perspective of the park from back then. Very entertaining family too.

 

[daverube]

This was a great look at Disney past. Though I've seen footage before, I really can't believe that you could ride live animals in the park in the early days.

The last half, at least, is a must watch for any Disney fan!!!

my 2 cents...

dave

edit: How about getting this moved to General Discussion for a little more forum traffic???