Disney Sunday ~~ The Beginning

When I was a kid back in the early 70's, Sunday nights were my most favorite time of the week. I knew my mom would serve oven baked BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy that were cooked in the small silver pot with the black handle and a salad covered in ranch dressing with one cherry tomato on top. And of course a glass of milk to wash it all down.

All of that was served on old flowered aluminum TV trays in front of the giant 4 legged TV in the back den while watching The Wonderful World of Disney. In my opinion, life could not have gotten much better than that.

When this scene would come onto the screen, I just knew the next hour was going to be wonderful!

There he is! Uncle Walt!

While waiting for dinner to be served I always started my evening by watching Wild Kingdom hosted by Marlin Perkins. I can still hear the song... Mu-tual of Om-a-ha is people.

All of these memories created a deep, undying affection for all things Disney... especially vintage Disney stuff from this era.

This blog was my way of remembering the early days of Disneyland through pictures I have found from all over the web.

If you love early Disney as much as I do, you will surely enjoy this walk down memory lane.

Opening Day July 17, 1955

The front of the park on Opening Day:

Town Square during Walt's speech:

 And here are some really great color shots of the Opening Day Parade:

 Walt in an antique car:

Frontierland Stagecoach:

The Mouseketeers

The trolley hasn't changed :

A bunch of (odd-looking) characters:

Driving the Midget autopia cars down main street!
Never saw this before!

Art Linkletter during one of the live broadcasts hosted by ABC:

Walt dedicating Fantasyland:

Dedicating Frontierland:

During Walt's famous speech:

Another famous shot of the kids heading into the castle:

And here they are coming out the other end:

And the golden ticket to get in:

Even though there was apparently a lot of chaos and things did not run as smoothly as planned, I would love to take a time machine and go back to that day and watch everything live and in person!

Have a great Disney Sunday Everyone!!

Disneyland Park Entrance

To this day, nothing is more exciting than arriving at Disneyland and knowing you are about to have a magical day.

Here are some great vintage photos of the entrance from the early years.

Here's a panorama from the 50's with the sign and the monorail.

Another from a similar era

This one is the from the other side of the sign.
Parking was 25¢
A bargain!
I also just LOVE that old station wagon.

Further around the curve and almost to the toll booths.
I like this one because of all the vintage cars.

Finally to the toll booths!

Get out your quarter!

You would drive right by the entrance before you got to the parking lot.

After you parked your car, you took the tram to the entrance. 

Don't you love the outfit on the greeters?

Time to buy your tickets!

And finally time to enter the Happiest Place on Earth!!!

And once you have had a fun filled day at the park, you can take the monorail across the street and stay at the Disneyland Hotel!

The Matterhorn & The Skyway

Today I thought I would visit the Matterhorn and the Skyway.

One I love and other scares the beejeezus out of me.

We'll start with the one I love.

The Matterhorn. Shown in the first three shots at the beginning of it's career.

I love this one with the House of the Future in the foreground.

And here it is finished in 1959.

Here's a shot that gives me the willies.

I don't see a lot of safety gear.

(Yes I sound like my mother).

Here's a picture of the original type of bobsled which was just a single 4 seater.

Those are young kids sitting in there.... they look pretty stuffed in.

I can't imagine how people would fit in those today.

Here is one of the original costumes:

This guy stood over the loading area and played swiss music on the accordian.
Note that he is tethered in place.

And to commemorate your ride you could get your picture taken complete with the date.

Now onto the ride that scares me senseless. 

The Skyway.

I hate heights. 

I did have the opportunity to ride this  many years ago while I was young (and foolish) and to this day I'm pretty sure I never opened my eyes the whole ride.

But nevertheless, it's a really cool part of Disneyland's past and most people really enjoyed it.

Here is the Fantasyland station in the late 1950's during construction

And another finished in the early 60's.

And the sign in front:

And here's a great hard to come by shot of the Tomorrowland station from the same era.

And another from inside the bucket:

Here are some old shots of the loading areas

Heading over Fantasyland

This is a great shot coming out of the Matterhorn and heading over Tomorrowland.

See the Viewliner loading it's passengers right below?

I wish I could have ridden that!

 And here is a close-up on the way through the Matterhorn.
My stomach feels queasy just looking at this!!

I hope you all have a great rest of your Sunday.