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Retro Photo TR: Disneyland 1960 (HQ)


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As you can tell from my join date and post count I'm a long time lurker but don't post often and have never posted a Photo TR before, so if I've done anything wrong please be gentle :)

 

This trip was taken 20 years before I was born, so I'll do my best to caption what I can. My mother (3 at the time), her sister, and their parents (my grandparents) are the ones that were on the trip. The images were scanned from Kodachrome slides, which is why the contrast is screwy on some of them. If you haven't scanned slides before, the lights are REALLY light and the darks are REALLY dark. I tried to fix it as much as I could.

 

I wanted to post these because there are some really good images of attractions long since gone from the park, mainly the Indian Village (and canoes), Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland, Pack Mules Through Nature's Wonderland, the original Mark I ALWEG Monorail vehicles, the Pirate Ship restaurant, and the mermaids of the lagoon. My originals are 2000px length, I'd be happy to send any if anyone wants them, I shrunk them for the TR in the interest of filesize and readability.

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Entering Adventureland...

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Part of storybook land with the Skyway entering the Matterhorn in the background

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One of the old Indian War Canoes, before they became the Davy Crockett Explorer canoes in 1971.

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This is a great photo of Fantasyland taken from the Skyway. You can make out the original Mad Tea Party, the carousel, Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and the facade of Peter Pan behind the carousel.

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An old Carnation Ice Cream stand that was quite beautiful. Note the price - 10c! My grandfather owned a grocery store at the time and apparently "had the hookup with Carnation" so he got them even cheaper than that...lol...

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I believe this is just down from and facing away from Main Street?

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I believe this was part of the que for the Pack Mules.

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The Ceremonial Dance at Indian Village. My aunt is in the pink shorts. These were real Native Americans that worked at the park until I believe about 1971 when it was shut down due to combination of labor disputes and declining interest.

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The Ceremonial Dance at Indian Village

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More Indian Village..

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More Indian Village...

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More Indian Show...

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This is one of my favorite photos in the bunch, a great photo of the Jungle Cruise ride loading and the Adventureland Bazaar behind it.

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These plastic gators look about the same as they always have!

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The burning settler's house back before the politically correct changes when he was still the victim of an Indian attack. Kinda ironic that the only time this was acceptable is when there were actual native americans working at the park, isn't it?

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I love animatronic hippos too :)

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Main Street, USA, 1960. Note the banner in the background advertising the newly opened Nature's Wonderland.

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Main Street, USA, 1960. Note the banner in the background advertising the newly opened Nature's Wonderland.

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That's cheap for a carriage ride!

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I like this one. Nice snapshot-in-time of tourists in 1960, the Penny Arcade visible on the right and the Main Street Station in the far background.

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Great photo of the original Matterhorn decoration and the Skyway cars going into the tunnel.

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One of my favorite shots..you can see the mermaids in the lagoon with the submarine and the monorail track in the background and the Matterhorn behind it.

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Another great one of the mermaids with the Matterhorn and the Skyway in the background.

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The best shot I've seen anywhere of the mermaids. Disneyland stopped having live mermaids in the lagoon in about 1966, probably due to health concerns. I heard that the chemicals used to keep algae off the rocks was harmful to the girls.

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The famous Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland..great shot with the waterfall in the background. I hear it was run exactly like the Jungle Cruise with commentary and such.

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Rainbow Ridge, the beginning of the Mine Train adventure, the only part that still remained after BTMRR was installed in 1979.

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This is a pretty cool shot even though it's kind of blurry with the desert in the foreground and the matterhorn in the distance.

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Big Thunder Falls during the mine train ride, for which BTMRR was presumably named.

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The original Mark I ALWEG Monorail. I heard the new trains are very similar (but without the upside down cadillac fin)

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The Motor Boat Cruise that opened with the park and closed down in 1993.

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There was some debate I think in the 1958 TR over what this ship was used for..it was actually a restaurant. The "Chicken Of The Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant". The entrance was on the bottom through the hull and then you exited through the top as seen here. Note the cool vintage drink vending machine on the right. (My mother is the smallest child there)

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The Pirate Ship Restaurant as seen from the Skyway, with Storybook Land also visible in the background.

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The Sailing Ship Columbia, and I think that is Big Thunder Falls off to the left way back there.

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On board the Sailing Ship Columbia.

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The Monsanto House Of The Future, aka "The Plastic House".

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Actual donkeys! Seriously, this is the Pack Mules Through Nature's Wonderland attraction..and those aren't animatronics.

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The que/loading area for the Pack Mules.

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Pack Mules through Nature's Wonderland. The three girls in red are my mother (front) and two of her sisters.

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The TWA (remember them?) Rocket To The Moon attraction. I kind of wish I had gotten to ride this as a kid, it sounds pretty cool for the day. http://www.yesterland.com/moonrocket.html

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My mom (left) and two of her sisters with some walking advertisements for Tomorrowland!

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The loading of the Storybook Land Canal ride with the Skyway overhead and the Pirate Restaurant in the background.

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Storybook Land castle

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Submarine Voyage when it was brand spanking new.

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The ferry to Tom Sawyer's island

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Great photo taken from TSI showing the Indian War Canoe in front with the boat que in back and the Matterhorn way back there.

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I think these were the indians that supposedly set fire to the settler's cabin and shot him with the arrow.

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I guess Disney wasn't as concerned with safety in the 60's..I don't think that would fly nowadays.

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The Mark Twain Riverboat as seen from Tom Sawyer's Island. The Columbia looks very cool in the background like that, very "Goonies"!

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Inside the fort on Tom Sawyer's Island

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Alice In Wonderland, 1960.

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Time go go, it's been a long day (or 2 or 3 probably) and we've got a 6 hour drive ahead of us tomorrow...

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Wow. What a wonderful "look back" at DL!

 

I went for my first visit in 1963 as a ten-year old,

so this is a great "retro memory trip" for myself.

 

Thanks for sharing. And yes, they are pretty clear

and easy to (still) look at, esp.from slides, which

I believe was "the thing to take" at the time. Very nice!

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Yep, this takes me back. I recall the Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland used recorded commentary back when I was a kid (I loved that ride).

 

Thanks for sharing the pictures!

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Wow. As someone who never had the chance to visit Disneyland before this decade (my mother wasn't even born when these pictures were taken, actually), and a Disney fanatic, this is really amazing! I can't even imagine what people must have thought of this place back then - Disney parks today are still among the top five or ten worldwide in theme, so it must have been absolutely astounding to walk through this one-of-a-kind place back in the 50s and 60s.

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^I agree, this had to be a totally different experience back then. And I love seeing vintage Disney pictures and especially when they are in HQ, very nice. It's so crazy to see how the times have changed from hair to clothes. I wonder what people will think of us in the future.

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Really good stuff.

 

Many things gone due to political correctness and "über"-concern of guest safety. On the other hand due to Disney Imagineering and their well-done new rides one doesn't miss much.

Yeah for the most part. I do miss the skyway and the people mover though.
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WOW, thanks for uploading! I was curious if you, or anybody, knows that the white track-like structure is in the background of the motorboat attraction photo?

 

These are great pictures though, my first visit was in 1985 and I somewhat recall the open sides of the barrel bridge on Tom Sawyer Island...could have been Camp Snoopy though...

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^ I think it is fencing on either side of a walkway

that leads up to what was then the Fantasyland Station

for the DL train that circles the park?

 

You can see the station in the upper right of the pic.

 

It definitely resembles the "tents" that were/are

depicted on my 1963 map of the park.

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The most curious thing about these photos?

 

1)The mermaids in the secret lagoon. I really wish they still had them now

2) The space man and space woman. See how clean cut they are? Nowadays i wiuld hate to imagine a similar photo. It would no doubt be with some kind of silly hair style.

3) The donkeys! Great!!

 

Thanks!

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These photos showed a lot of attractions that I never knew existed at Disneyland. Would of been amazing to have been able to visit the park back then.

 

I never rode the Pack Mules, but I remember them being there when I was a kid (I think they got rid of them sometime in the 1970s). As I recall, the Pack Mules' trail used to cross over the Mine Train's tracks somewhere in the "Living Desert" (via a "natural bridge").

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Amazing collection of images, just fantastic! Thanks so much!

 

So when I become CEO of Disney, I'm going to build a fifth gate in Orlando: Disneyland, circa 1960, with the Nature's Wonderland train, the mermaids, all of it. (A good reason, probably, for keeping me from becoming the CEO of Disney. )

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