Uncle Henry Visits Disneyland - Summer of 1966

Sixty years ago, my Uncle Henry came out to California (from Maryland) to visit my mom and dad.  He was my dad's younger brother and there was a 17-year difference in their ages.  During his stay, my dad took him to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Marineland.  In the past, I've posted just a couple photos of him at each of those locations, but today, I am presenting all of the photos from his trip to Disneyland.  There are 24 shots, that's a whole role of film!

This is the first shot my dad took that day, and it appears to have been taken from the upper level of an Omnibus.  (Awww, rest in peace, E.J. Peaker!).  Based on the time on the clock, we know that they arrived at the park fairly late in the afternoon.

These were all scanned from slides, and I have never seen physical "prints" of any of these.  My family's slides were buried in the back of a bedroom closet for years, and were not "dug" out until I was in high school.  I remember being excited to see a hint of The House of the Future in this next shot, but also frustrated that more of it wasn't showing.  As a huge Disneyland fan, I was well aware of it's existence, even though I was too young to have experienced it.

In these next two pics, my uncle is standing on the Castle's drawbridge.

My dad lowered his camera a little bit for this next shot.  Maybe he wanted to capture my uncle's reflection in the moat?

Based on the numbering on the slide mounts, it looks like they headed over to the west side of the park, first.

I love my dad's Jungle Cruise pics!  Incidentally, all of these scenes have been altered to some degree, or removed altogether.

I wonder if this photo was a "whoopsie," or if it was intentional?  There were some large circular lines that I wasn't able to eliminate completely.  I'm not sure where they came from, since there didn't appear to be a fingerprint on the slide.  Maybe they were caused by the bright sunlight coming through the bamboo and hitting the camera's lens?

It looks like my dad went on ahead of my uncle, so that he could snap a pic of him coming down the stairs of the Swiss Family Treehouse.  (That's my uncle in the blue shirt and jeans.)

 The Columbia was teeming with people!

This photo of the Friendly Indian Village was probably taken from the Mark Twain or a Keelboat, since it is too low of an angle to have been taken from the Columbia.  Just beyond the trees, we can see the abandoned right of way for the Disneyland R.R.  The tracks had been relocated further north very recently, for the construction of It's A Small World (which had opened just two months earlier).

Speaking of Keelboats, the Bertha Mae was passing by at just the right moment, as my uncle was crossing the pontoon bridge on Tom Sawyer Island.

Next we have the former Fort Wilderness.  I hope my uncle didn't lose a finger in one of the fort's blockhouses!  I am now realizing how many other things in my dad's photos no longer exist, or have been majorly altered.  Sad!

These next two photos are the only ones that my dad took in Tomorrowland.  I wish he had taken pics of other parts of the land, since it would be closing in just three months (October of 1966), for construction of the New Tomorrowland.  Oh, well.....beggars can't be choosers!  I'm just happy to have ANY vintage Disneyland photos taken by my dad.

Since there are just these two Tomorrowland pics, I can't help but wonder if they experienced anything else in that land, other than the Autopia and the Submarine Voyage.

They did catch the Skyway in Tomorrowland, and made their way over to Fantasyland.....

In this next pic, we can see that the Anaheim Convention Center was under construction.  It would open just one year later, in July of 1967.

Attn: "JB"......Pumpkin Coach Alert!

Here's another view of Cinderella's Castle, but taken from a Storybook Land Canal Boat.

This next shot was taken from the deck of Captain Hook's pirate ship....we can see some of the ropes and rigging on the far right.  We can also see Timothy Mouse holding his whip, and one of the Character Food Stands (Fan I).  I think the small specks of light in the sky might be the beginning or ending of a bursting firework shell.  Although, it might be a little too far south for it to be that.

The last two pics taken that day were of the fireworks.

I hope my uncle had fun during his one and only visit to Disneyland.  I do know that he never returned to California after this childhood visit.  He was averse to flying, and never flew in an airplane his entire life.  For this 1966 trip, he had shared a car ride across the country and back, with some "family friends" who were coming out to California to visit relatives of their own.

****BONUS****

I wanted to add something else to this post, so I searched on ebay and purchased a 1966 Disneyland Guidebook.  I've scanned every page, so here it is in it's entirety.

Since these were free to every guest (courtesy of INA), I wonder if my uncle saved his and took it back home with him?

Only .25 cents a day to board your cat or dog at Ken-L-Land, and it included food, too?  What a deal!

Since this isn't one of my own Disneyland Guidebooks from one of my own childhood visits, I find even some of the slightest differences very interesting.  For example, seeing the Mad Tea Party listed as a "B" Ticket attraction.  It was always a "C" Ticket, during my childhood and teenage years.

The new four-seat Skyway "buckets" were being touted in the attraction's description, and Pirates of the Caribbean was "Coming Soon!"

It looks like they were using the ticket booth built into the facade of the Opera House (the black star).  I don't think it was there very long and at some point, a poster was placed over the ticket window.  That ticket window can be seen here, in this post from Gorillas Don't Blog.

I don't remember Aunt Jemima's Kitchen, but when Aunt Jemima ended it's sponsorship at Disneyland (in 1970), the restaurant briefly changed names to "Magnolia Tree Terrace," before becoming the current Riverbelle Terrace.

New Orleans Square would have been brand-spanking new!  I bet the smell of fresh paint was still in the air.  Once again, Pirates of the Caribbean was listed as "Coming Soon."  It would open in March of the following year, just about six months after the summer season ended.

The Haunted Mansion was listed as a future attraction on the Frontierland map.  Construction on the exterior of the house had been completed in 1963, so it had already been sitting there for 3 years, and it would be another 3 years before the attraction ever opened!

It looks like Fantasyland had the most ticket booths out of all the lands.  I think it's interesting that they put one on either side of the Mad Tea Party.  The one to the east of the attraction was not there during my childhood visits.  And It's a Small World, which was only a couple months old, looks a little mispositioned here on the map.  It is shown sitting directly behind (and maybe even overlapping) Storybook Land.  That was corrected in later guidebooks.

It's fun for me to see the schematic layout for the original Tomorrowland, since all of my personal guidebooks are from after the opening of the New Tomorrowland.  Note that the Matterhorn Bobsleds were still listed as a Tomorrowland attraction at this time.  Apparently, both of the Autopias were also being listed as Tomorrowland attractions.

I also don't remember the Main St. train station's "Train Depot Snack Bar."  I wonder how long it existed?

So the Space Bar and the Yacht Bar had the exact same menus?

The Submarine Lagoon's live "mermaids" were listed in the guide's entertainment schedule.

Free Shows and Exhibits:

The back cover featured an ad for INA, the Insurance Company of North America.  They sponsored this format of the Disneyland Guidebooks for 10 years, from the very first one in 1965, all the way through 1974.

America's 250th Birthday & The American Freedom Train (at the L.A County Fairgrounds)

Fifty years ago, our nation was celebrating it's Bicentennial birthday.  At that same time, the American Freedom train was traveling the country as a part of the Bicentennial celebration.

Here are some images of the American Freedom Train, when it made a stop at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds.  These photos happen to be from the Ralph and Florence collection.  They were all hand-labeled, and stated specifically that the train was, "In the west parking lot of the L.A. County Fairgrounds, Pomona."  These were dated, "December 1975."  Many of America's Bicentennial celebrations began in 1975, in anticipation of the upcoming bicentennial.  This also included Disneyland and Walt Disney World's official celebrations, which began in June of 1975.

Note how each of the train's cars had large windows, for viewing some of the exhibits.

Here's Florence waiting in line to enter the train.  According to what was written on the slide's mounting, they waited for two and a half hours!

This is Ralph and Florence's son, Alfred.  The vehicle in the window next to him has the NASA logo on it.  It appears to be a lunar rover/moon buggy.  According to Wikipedia, vehicles like this were used in the last three missions of the United States' Apollo program (15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972.  Since all three of the actual vehicles used were left behind on the moon (following each mission), this one must have been one of the "test" vehicles or "trainer" vehicles, which are still around today, and on display in various museums.

The sign posted for this next item reads, "Friendship No. 1 (1849) - Hand pumped fire engines such as this beautifully restored vehicle were pulled to a fire by long lines of running men.  The early machines have long since been replaced by sophisticated fire equipment, yet it is still the men, the firefighters of America, on who's courage and sacrifice we depend for protection of life and property."

Unfortunately, those are the only photos they took during their visit to the Freedom Train.  But among Ralph's and Florence's set of slides that I acquired, were these two shots of a display created by Ralph.  This first one was dated December 24, 1975, and labeled, "Bicentennial Christmas display - created and painted by Ralph."

The date on this slide was January 1976, and Ralph's hand-written description was, "Comedy Paul Revere scene for Bicentennial."

Here's a random photo from June of 1975.  I'm including it here, because it sort of fits in with the Freedom Train exhibits, except that Ralph took this one at a Pasadena City College "camera show."  The image shows an Edison Home Kinetoscope and it's companion phonograph, which were used for early sound movies and were both patented in 1897.  The sign has a couple of misspellings.  First, is the actual name of the item.  The other is the spelling of the word, "Attempt."  A black celluloid cylinder, which predated flat disc records, can be seen on the phonograph.  The (phonograph's) sign also states, "For use in connection with the Edison Kinetoscope only."

Here's a vintage image from the internet, showing a row of Edison's Kinetoscopes.

To finish out this post, I'm including some Bicentennial items from my childhood.

These commemorative postage stamps and special "cover" envelope were officially postmarked on July 4, 1976.  My dad gave a set of these to both my brother and me.  The stamps are a representation of the 1817 painting by John Trumbull, "Declaration of Independence."

The flap on the reverse side included these logos.

A card containing a facsimile of all the signatures on the Declaration of Independence came with the envelope.

Both items came in this special "leatherette" folder.

Production of the two-dollar bill had been discontinued in 1966, but was resumed 10 years later and reissued on April 13, 1976 (Thomas Jefferson's birthday).  My great-grandmother went to her local post office in Long Beach, CA, and had a two-dollar bill stamped and postmarked for both my brother and me.  According to Wikipedia, you could only do this on the first day of issue for the bill, so the postmark on these reads, "APR 13 1976."

This block of stamps shows all three from this particular commemorative set.

The reverse side of the two-dollar bill was redesigned for it's 1976 reissue.  The reverse previously had a picture of Jefferson's Virginian home, "Monticello."  The new design (below) featured an engraved version of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence" painting.

I don't remember where I got this Bicentennial decal, but I've had it since childhood and never "stuck" it on anything.

I've also had this box of note cards since 1976.

They were manufactured by Hallmark.

There are still two unused note cards inside.

I posted both of these bicentennial-themed puzzles in 2020, in a post about "Vintage Disney Jigsaw Puzzles."  This first one is a Whitman "Frame-Tray Puzzle" for children, featuring only 12 pieces.

And this larger boxed version contains almost 500 pieces, and was manufactured by Springbok, a division of Hallmark Cards Inc.

In case anyone is interested, back in July of 2015, I posted several other Bicentennial items from my childhood, including a couple commemorative Pepsi cans, a pressed penny, and the Sunday comics section from the July 4, 1976 edition of The Los Angeles Times.

Happy 250th birthday, America!

****UPDATE****

I just found another issue of My Weekly Reader from elementary school (dated September 17, 1975).  I previously posted an issue from 1971, which had a cover story about the opening of Walt Disney World.  Interestingly enough, this issue did not have any more info about "America On Parade" at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, other than the very brief description below the cover photo.  There is a note at the bottom, stating, "See the Teacher's Edition of this issue for a special New Awareness Enrichment Section."  I think the Teacher's Edition had more info, because I do remember after these monthly papers were passed out to us, the teacher would review them with the class.

 Page 2:

Page 3:

Page 4:

This issue also contained a special "insert," for ordering books and posters through "Xerox Education Publications."