Trip Report SLIDE PHOTOS FROM 10/01/1971 NOW PREPARED & READY TO POST

It was a huge undertaking but the feeling of accomplishment is gratifying. I couldn’t have done this without the help of my son, Nick. He provided two fold vision in as much as approach to the problems involved and eyesight. The film cleaner arrived this morning in the mail. The red label on the front reads “Archival Photographic Emulsion Cleaner”. The info on the back of the bottle reads “For Professional Photographic Use Only. Not To Be Sold For Personal, Household Or Family Use”. Our DIL, Amber, arrived late in the afternoon and laughed when I showed her the film cleaner bottle. Amber has a Master’s Degree as an archivist and had just come from an interview for just such a position. She said she was the only one in the room authorized to use the professional cleaner. Amazon sold it to me with the assumption I knew an archivist.

Without further hoo-hah I want to see how these pictures turned out for web viewing. There were some with issue but the majority looked decent for their age.


Below are our ticket books from opening day. Several web resources quote the opening day price for an eleven adventure book @ $5.75. It is plain to see that our eleven adventure book was $3.75. Notice we still have “A” ticket unused. Perhaps I could trade for a fast pass?

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This outside Main Entrance. I will avoid comments to speed up the process. Most here will know what is what.

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Evidently the “turnip truck” must have just pulled away headed back to Ohio.
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Our first ride of the day. Park has been open for about 30 minutes.
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[jme]

I had some free time this morning so I touched up a few more with color correction and balance levels, removing some dust/speckles/noise, etc.
Hope you like them

 

[DisSplash]

Now that you have your photos all digitized and spruced up, you might want to consider making a photo book on one of those photo websites ... That would be a really neat way to share them with your family!

 

[Sparkle1566]

WOW .... so cool. So amazing to see the buildings look the same today.... seeing the CR being built, and the open view of it from the MK. Thank you for sharing !!!!!

 

[SleepyPuppy]

Now that you have your photos all digitized and spruced up, you might want to consider making a photo book on one of those photo websites ... That would be a really neat way to share them with your family!

You provide a nice suggestion but the bigger scope of things is that I am nowhere close to finished. I have concentrated on the Disney first but just for the 1971 time frame I have a lot of additional photos from the Space Center, Daytona Beach and the Smokey Mountains. My plan is to save on DVD with back up DVDs. I have only one son and so a small family to share with. I have already practiced with a Disney photo slide show on DVD and my son added a Disney themed sound track of the ambient tunes played throughout the Kingdom. It is only 5 minutes but is a way cool start for saving our memories. Saving those to a photo web might be a neat option somewhere down the road.

 

[LibTree76]

Sleepy – This is easily the most awesome set of slides I have ever seen of WDW! Over the years I have seen many excellent pictures of the Magic Kingdom’s classic years but most of them that are not close-up of family members are only focused on the design and architecture, mostly of the same dozen or so things. Your pictures uniquely captured the atmosphere and the people on that historic day.

You figured out early on that there are many interesting things almost everywhere you look in the park. It was really fun for me to look at each slide in depth to see what was there on the first day. And the pictures of the all the cast members you captured on their first day is priceless.

Finally, I was really happy to see you took some pictures of the Liberty Tree Tavern. I worked there in the 70’s & 80’s and this was a great treat for me since it was very rare for anyone to take a picture of the restaurants back then. I remember the area chef telling me that on the first day that had to put people out by the doors to tell the guests the paint was still wet. Your pictures have proven him right. Thanks a million!

 

[FlaggNL]

WOW! Really marvelous! Thank you so much for the share! Great to see WDW back in 1971! The best year ever The birth of WDW and ME

 

[Belowthesurface]

These photos are wonderful. You took shots of things that some of us have been wanting to see for ages.

 

[officialtom]

These are awesome! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Amaing photos! So many interesting details, including the original Hall of Presidents entrance (before they built the covered outdoor queue...yup, that's what the "market" used to be!), Haunted Mansion's exterior without the canopy, no roof over the teacups, no Timothy Mouse on Dumbo (!) and so many open lawns without tree growth. That Grand Prix Raceway entrance sign looks so tiny too, like something you'd have for a restroom more than a ride.

But I imagine in 1971 the whole thing must have been incredible.

 

[Longers]

Amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time, effort and money To share this. It's amazing as even though things change a lot of things haven't in your photos. What a lovely lasting memory you now have.
Thanks again

 

[DisneyChild1968]

Wow! Those are incredible pictures and mostly jaw dropping. I can't believe the crowd levels and no one (except a few) walked down Main Street, they all walked on the side walks. I also loved the pictures of the Great Smoky Mountains. That looks like the chateau that overlooks Gatlinburg when you first get into Gatlinburg from Cosby. Walt Disney World and the Great Smoky Mountains are my two FAVORITE vacation destinations! It's awesome to see pictures from 1971! Thank you so much for posting!

 

[jme]

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Just noticed this picture of the (now removed) frogs that used to bookend Inspiration Falls! Very cool

 

[SleepyPuppy]

Sleepy – This is easily the most awesome set of slides I have ever seen of WDW! Over the years I have seen many excellent pictures of the Magic Kingdom’s classic years but most of them that are not close-up of family members are only focused on the design and architecture, mostly of the same dozen or so things. Your pictures uniquely captured the atmosphere and the people on that historic day.

You figured out early on that there are many interesting things almost everywhere you look in the park. It was really fun for me to look at each slide in depth to see what was there on the first day. And the pictures of the all the cast members you captured on their first day is priceless.

Finally, I was really happy to see you took some pictures of the Liberty Tree Tavern. I worked there in the 70’s & 80’s and this was a great treat for me since it was very rare for anyone to take a picture of the restaurants back then. I remember the area chef telling me that on the first day that had to put people out by the doors to tell the guests the paint was still wet. Your pictures have proven him right. Thanks a million!

Hi LibTree76

I really liked your response. A former CM with a link to history makes the project seem worthwhile and enjoyable for me. I don’t know that I figured out anything photographically. I just found it natural to take pictures of things I know I would like to look at some time later. I am also happy I provided proof that the chef was truthful. Chefs never lie. They enhance and spice up things a bit, but never contrive the facts.

Did you see the link I posted for the thread where there are about 35 more pictures from opening day? Those were prints and in pretty good shape to scan so I started with them while I worked on cleaning up the slides.

 

[SleepyPuppy]

Just noticed this picture of the (now removed) frogs that used to bookend Inspiration Falls! Very cool

Hi jme,

I noticed the picture of the frogs when I was cleaning them up. It was a little blurred but I went ahead and used it because I was kind of sure that some of the frogs were animatronic and croaking. Is that possible? I also read somewhere that the frogs were an item at one point but didn’t know the details. The frogs are no more and they were such a small little portion of the attraction to gain any attention at all, “Ribit”!

 

[LibTree76]

Hi LibTree76

I really liked your response. A former CM with a link to history makes the project seem worthwhile and enjoyable for me. I don’t know that I figured out anything photographically. I just found it natural to take pictures of things I know I would like to look at some time later. I am also happy I provided proof that the chef was truthful. Chefs never lie. They enhance and spice up things a bit, but never contrive the facts.

Did you see the link I posted for the thread where there are about 35 more pictures from opening day? Those were prints and in pretty good shape to scan so I started with them while I worked on cleaning up the slides.

Thank you to replying to my post as I did not know about the additional 35 pictures. I have really enjoyed your pictures! Every time I revisit them I see something new and interesting.
Hope you don't mind but I have made one of your pictures my PC background and I have shared a couple of links and picture with my facebook group "We Worked at Disney World in the 70's". You may want to consider joining that group as many in the group worked on 10/1/71 and love sharing stories about that day. I think if you post a picture and share your history, you would probably learn a thing or two about your 10/1/71 Disney family you have enjoyed all of these years. Very cool!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Disney70s/#

 

[pajammies]

Love, love, love these pictures. I saw your first post, but my computer crashed and I almost forgot to look for this second post with all these pictures.
I think you did that pretty fast, great job. So glad you posted all these. Even for people that were not there or not even born yet, it is amazing to see the similarities and differences. I have a feeling the thing that amazes everyone the most is the lack of crowds.
What a treat to have been there the first day!

 

[ArtieJim]

Thank you so much for sharing these. Too bad tickets to MK still aren't that cheap!

 

[SleepyPuppy]

Thank you to replying to my post as I did not know about the additional 35 pictures. I have really enjoyed your pictures! Every time I revisit them I see something new and interesting.
Hope you don't mind but I have made one of your pictures my PC background and I have shared a couple of links and picture with my facebook group "We Worked at Disney World in the 70's". You may want to consider joining that group as many in the group worked on 10/1/71 and love sharing stories about that day. I think if you post a picture and share your history, you would probably learn a thing or two about your 10/1/71 Disney family you have enjoyed all of these years. Very cool!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Disney70s/#

Dear LibTree76,

Thanks for the info on the group of CM from the early years. I would enjoy that but I don’t want to intrude on a special group such as that or just “drop in” unannounced so to speak. Becky has a Face Book account but I don’t. She said it is easy to do.

We were contacted to do a podcast for a Retro Disney website and have agreed to do that in mid-September. I have never done that either but sounds like fun.

As far as using my pictures I have no problem at all. I have shared them for others to enjoy. My son, Nick, is a writer and has published some items and sold a minor screen play. He is a little more cautious about copy write issues. I am fine with sharing my photos with others for their enjoyment but if they are ever used for profit I would likely change my thoughts rather abruptly.

 

[jessfriends]

Thank you for sharing these! Very neat to see what it looked liked on opening day and enjoyed seeing it from your point of view. Looking forward to reading your trip report and listening to you on the Retro Disney Podcast!

 

[disney4life2008]

Dear disney4life2008,

Congrats on your PHD. That is an accomplishment worthy of shout out. As with other responses I am pleased to be able to share with everyone who apparently has enjoyed the photos.

From the moment we entered the main entrance, rode the shiny new trams and boarded the monorail for transportation to the park it was obvious this place was something spectacular.

There was absolutely never any waiting in que for an attraction. The picture of Small World shows a few people boarding but once they were seated in their little boat the line had dissipated. Any other wait was due to something like Country Bear Jamboree with a timed program finishing prior to entry for the next performance. A great deal of this can be attributed to the low volume of guests in the park and using specific tickets to enter an attraction. It has been noted that many of the guests were elderly. They did not seem over anxious to purchase another book of tickets for attractions. The marvel that was the Magic Kingdom was more than worth the price of admission.


It is funny you should ask about food pictures. I did not take pictures of our cuisine until years later. We were having dinner in the castle in 1980 and I stood up to get a shot of our plates of food and surrounding guests laughed at me. It was good natured chuckling and several ask if they could take a picture of me taking a picture. Perhaps we were food photo trend setters? More about that in another upcoming retro TR; Right now I’m working on 1974.

Thank you so much. With that came a great job right here in Orlando. The world is literally a 40 minutes away and I havent even went yet. I am waiting until it cools down here first. What is so interesting about taking pictures of food - I bet people did look at you like "what are you doing?" But you were on to something even back then. I would be interested in seeing menus from back then: did they serve the traditional burgers, chicken, dogs?