A Disneyland of long, long ago

After all of the pictures of the General Electric Pavilion from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair I thought it was time for something different. In fact, I thought I would stray outside the realm of world's fairs for a visit to Disneyland. It was my visits to the Fair that led me to work for Disney, so why not follow the link?

I'm restoring a batch of large format slides from around 1958 or so. There are quite a few things shown that are no longer part of the Happiest Place on Earth. Here's one, for example.



This view was taken from the Mark Twain. I bet the stagecoach was a lot of fun given how popular westerns were on TV at the time. Looking at the kids sitting up top sure shows how things have changed in terms of theme park safety. Not a single seat belt anywhere in sight.

About 20 years after this was taken you could still see them remnants of the old stagecoach road in places. Disneyland was closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays in the off season, and I used to enjoy walking out there along the river. It was very peaceful, with flocks of ducks and geese stopping by the river. Someone had dragged a chair out there and put it under a tree so it wasn't readily visible when the park was open. It was a great spot to sit and enjoy lunch.

These slides are fun but they are a bit challenging at times. They have some scratches and mildew, but worst of all the color has really shifted. Here's a view of the same slide after cleaning but before color adjustments.



Thanks once again to the wizards behind Photoshop.