If it hadn't closed in 2005, today would have been Movieland Wax Museum's 46th birthday. The top photo shows Mike Tucker and his sister at this Buena Park landmark in 1962, when the paint was barely dry. I took the second photo last year on Movieland's "walk of fame," which is still accessible to the public. It's a who's-who of actors from 1970s and '80 TV and B-movies. The late Herve "Tattoo" Villechaize's inscription is by far the most elaborate. .
Speaking of Buena Park anniversaries, tomorrow (Monday) will be the 117th anniversary of the Buena Park School District.
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Further expanding on our theme,... Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of Mott's Miniatures in the historic Jeffries Barn at Knott's Berry Farm. Sadly, the Mott's were pushed out in 1992. I knew their amazing collection of miniatures had been auctioned off, but I had no idea where they'd ended up. Until now. Ken at OutsideTheBerm let the cat out of the bag on Friday.
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As "EDGE4194" pointed out in our comments section, I've added some new links to this site, including one to HistoricAerials.com. Old aerial photos fascinate historians the way yarn fascinates kittens.
Hi Chris -
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link on your site - just to clarify a point, though, the amazing Mott collection was auctioned off to a number of bidders. We are lucky enough to have a *portion*. Keep up the great work!
Ken
Chris, just wanted to thank you for providing the link to historicaerials.com. I discovered the web site last night and was so fascinated by it. I had been looking for a pre-1983 aerial photo of the area off the southwest corner of Nellie Gail Road and Red Corral Road in Laguna Hills. There used to be what I would describe as a trench or a dip in the land there, I stood over it when I was very young back in 1982. It was a magnificent sight for me back then. Sadly, several years ago, it was filled in with dirt and several dozen houses were built on it. I got to see a 1980 aerial photo of that area and was reminded of how terrific it once looked with NO houses built in or around that trench. Although I seem to remember there being some houses in the process of being built near it when I was there.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of aerial photos of that area (with houses built around the trench) from the 1990s, and was lucky to fly over it several years ago right before it was filled in with dirt.
In my view, overdevelopment ruined Nellie Gail Ranch. I am aware though that the plan a long time ago was for a large-scale development there. However, it would have been better if there had been a total of 300-400 ranch style homes built instead of 1,400 oversized, generic looking cookie-cutter homes, NO homeowners association, real open space throughout so as to allow for quality horseback riding, an expanded Gallup Park to include all of that trench I was talking about, a barn on each of the residential lots, a profitable cattle ranch or two, a saloon just like the one in the movie "Tombstone," and stores similar to the ones at Knott's Berry Farm, with possibly an amusement park to cater to south Orange County residents.
Amen to the Nellie Gail Comment. The egos there are out of control as well. There is also a Nellie Gail blog. You can find it through searching the google blogs.
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