Disneyland: Steps In Time

I love "before and after" photos. They're a fun and effective way to look at changes to a place over time.
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I'm also fascinated by old "concept art" and enjoy comparing it to what actually was or wasn't built. (The 1920s concept art for an unrealized addition to the Old Orange County Courthouse is a great example.)
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And I also dig Disneyland, which, as architects like Charles Moore and Alan Hess have pointed out, is one of the most important works of architecture of the 20th Century.
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Combining those three things, I'm launching a sporadic series of posts that will feature various scenes at Disneyland: First, as the designers conceived it (1953-1955), then as it appeared when first built, and finally as it appears today. Let's start with the park's entrance,...
Technically, the image above is advertising art rather than concept art -- But it still shows what the train station and entrance were supposed to look like before anyone knew quite how it would turn out. The obvious change here is the floral Mickey, which has been through various iterations, but never ended up as a side-on view. What's less obvious is what's behind the viewer: A huge and innovative parking lot that has now been turned into a second theme park.
Like most of the "early" photos in this series, this 1950s view comes from Dave at the wonderful Daveland blog. (I knew I wouldn't get very far with this project without access to his amazing photo collection.)
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It appears the entry turnstiles have migrated farther away from the train station over the years, providing for increased traffic flow. Note also how the trees and other landscaping have filled in over the years.
So far, I've only spent one day in Disneyland shooting "after" photos. But already, a number of big differences from the 1950s have become obvious.
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1) People and visual clutter: There are a lot more guests milling around than there used to be, which effects everything else. More vending carts have been rolled out to provide food and drink for the thundering herds. More trash bins have been set out. And fences have been placed around landscaping, to keep it from being trampled into oblivion. The end result is a lot of visual clutter that really detracts from the intended "suspension of disbelief" as one strolls into the worlds of the past, the future, and fantasy. As much as I love churros, I don't remember rows of portable outdoor vending carts in any Fairy Tales or stories of the Old West.
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2) Landscaping: The trees and other plants have filled in dramatically in the past 56 years. The huge stands of trees in Frontierland, for instance, are beautiful, even when viewed from the parking structure across the street. And certainly the Jungle Cruise and Adventureland are more convincing with lush vegetation everywhere. The landscaping ranges from excellent to occasionally breathtaking (especially in spring). But there are a few locations -- like the main path into Frontierland -- where the landscaping (beautiful as it is), conflicts with the original intention of wide open space.

3) Strollers: Yes, there have always been some baby strollers at Disneyland, but now there are THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of them, and each one is roughly the size of an SUV. Many areas of the park that were once very scenic are now enormous, ugly, stroller parking lots. Why? If your child isn't yet self-propelled, it's unlikely that he or she is getting much out of the experience. Wait to take them until they're old enough to appreciate it -- Or at the very least bring a smaller stroller that won't cause traffic jams.

4) More attractions: There's much, much more to see and do at Disneyland than there was in the 1950s. This is sort of amazing when you consider how little land the park actually sits on.

5) Guests' appearance: People used to dress up more for everything than they do now, but Disneyland guests seem to have slipped more than most. Looking back at photos from the 1950s and 1960s, the guests were a pretty clean cut bunch. Today, many guests dress like they just stepped out of a trailer park in a episode of Cops. There must be a happy medium, folks!
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Anyway, look for these changes and others as this series continues -- interspersed among my other posts -- in the coming months.

Apricots in Orange County

The apricot was brought to the New World by the Spaniards and was grown in the gardens of the missions. The first records of notable commercial production of apricots in California appeared in 1792. Today's photos both show apricots being dried in Santa Ana in about 1905. The image above comes from the postcard collection of Mark Hall-Patton. The image below comes from the Heritage Museum of Orange County.
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Apricots were a major crop in early Orange County. In 1910, we shipped 1,700,000 pounds of dried apricots. And plenty more were eaten fresh.
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Even the pits turned a profit. Notably, they could be turned into quality charcoal that was especially good for gas mask filters during World War I.
Often, farmers planted both apricots and walnuts (another locally popular tree crop of the day) on the same ranch. Perhaps the alternating harvest seasons made this a good pairing: Apricots are picked in late spring and early summer, while walnuts are harvested in the fall.
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After picking, most of the apricots were cut in half, pitted, sprinkled with sulphur as a preservative, and left on racks (like those seen above) to dry in the sun. Dried apricots kept well and could be shipped easily.
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In those days, historian Phil Brigandi tells me, "cuttin' 'cots" was a common (if not popular) summer job for youngsters.
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How big was the apricot in Orange County? In 1920 (hardly our peak year) we had more than 39,600 apricot trees here. In 1919 Santa Ana alone was still churning out about $200,000 a year in apricot sales -- Big money in those days.
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Today, about 95% of all apricots in America are still grown in California, but production has moved north. Not a single commercial apricot grove can be found from Coyote Creek to Camp Pendleton.

Presidents at Disneyland

In honor of Presidents Day, I thought I'd post a little photo essay on U.S. presidents who have visited Disneyland in Anaheim. Of course, not all of them visited while they were in office, but we can excuse them if they were a little busy at the time.
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Today's first photo, above, shows Harry and Bess Truman cruising down Main Street, U.S.A. in 1957. It's said that he would not go on the Dumbo ride, because of his aversion to "Republican" elephants.
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It seems Truman and his entourage didn't have to stand in lines, and that they moved at a good clip, experiencing most of the park's high points in under two hours. The L.A. Times reported, "For the most part, Mr. Truman headed the parade of sight-seers, breasted only by one or two of the brisker-walking park officials and politicians. Mrs. Truman and other members of the party often trailed far behind."
Next we see Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mamie, and the rest of his family aboard Disneyland's firetruck in Dec. 1961. Ike got to take the wheel of the "Yangtze Lotus" on the Jungle Cruise and admired the Mark Twain steam boat.
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"You kids enjoy the wilder rides," he told his grandchildren. "Grandma and I are going to rest."
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They retired for a while to Walt's apartment, above the fire station. All told, the Eisenhowers spent about six hours in the park. Film footage of his visit is available online.
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The photo below shows Senator John F. Kennedy at Main Street Station in Oct. 1959 with the President of Guinea, Ahmed Sékou Touré. Kennedy was on a speaking tour in California at the time. Touré was on a three-day visit to Southern California -- part of a tour of the United States he was taking at the invitation of President Eisenhower.
It doesn't seem that L.B.J. ever visited Disneyland, but that may be just as well. His regular drunkenness, constant swearing, and public groping of women may not have fit in too well with the park's squeaky-clean image.
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Richard Nixon, however, was a big fan of Walt's park and made numerous visits over the years. He went on most of the rides, from Snow White's Scary Adventures to the Submarines to the Matterhorn. In the photo below, from the 1960s, Nixon takes his daughters, Julie and Tricia, on a ride down Main Street. (Clearly, the Republicans had some special fondness for the firetruck.) In 1959, then-Vice-President Nixon and his family also helped Walt Disney dedicate the new Disneyland-Alweg Monorail system.
Disney Archivist/maven Dave Smith says Gerald Ford visited Disneyland, but I can't find any dates or photos of it happening. The newspapers do show him visiting the Disneyland Hotel in 1965, when he was House Minority Leader, and again in 1974 as Vice President. We can only hope he took time to walk across the street and enjoy the Jungle Cruise or Pirates of the Caribbean. Jimmy Carter stopped by one morning before the park opened to jog around the park. Sort of seems like he missed the point. The photo above shows him jogging past the America Sings building, which now houses Innoventions.

Like Nixon, Ronald Reagan visited Disneyland numerous times. His first visit was as host of the live television broadcast of Disneyland's grand opening, in July 1955. He would return again in various other capacities, including as Governor. The photo above shows Reagan in a parade down Main Street with Disney CEO Michael Eisner in 1990. Reagan gave a speech to kick off the park's 35th Anniversary Celebration that day.

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George H.W. Bush also visited Disneyland. The photo below is from an event in Sept. 1988, when he was still Vice President. He also visited the Disneyland Hotel for various events over the years.

I haven't found any substantive evidence that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama have ever visited Disneyland. (Although "Dubya" visited Knott's Berry Farm before Disneyland even existed.)
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In short, it seems that American Presidents are less and less familiar with Disneyland as the decades roll on. Few of them visit at all, and those who do are more frequently there just for the publicity. At the very least we should make our leaders go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride once or twice -- just so they know how Washington makes us feel.

A bit of California art history

Diane Ryan (who often teaches Orange County history classes) will teach an art appreciation class on California Regionalism beginning later this month. The class runs for five weeks, Feb. 24 to Mar. 24, on Thursdays, from 1:30 to 3:30pm. It will be held at Oasis Senior Center in Corona del Mar. The cost is $40. For more information, contact Diane via email.
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She writes, "The late 1920s and early 1930s saw a dramatic change in the art scene. The beautiful landscapes of the California Impressionists were replaced by subject matter reflecting changes taking place in America that transformed the country from a rural agrarian society into an industrialized world power. Come learn about some of the artists of this dynamic period and see how they took watercolor painting into a whole new dimension."
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She's definitely playing my song, since I love the work of artists like Millard Sheets, Milford Zornes, Phil Paradise, etc. The image at the top of today's post is a Phil Dike painting called "Regatta," which served as the cover of the Aug. 1956 issue of Western Family Magazine. Note the Balboa Pavilion in the background.
Some time ago, I stumbled across a great website where you can order prints of works by many of the best California Regionalists / California Scene Painters / California Watercolor School artists. It's called (not surprisingly) CaliforniaWatercolor.com. The Mary Blair painting, "Beach Party," shown above, is one of the thousands of prints available, as are the two paintings below.

The watercolor above is "Moore Hill, Los Angeles, 1940," by one of my favorite artists, Emil Kosa, Jr. The one below is "California Coast, 1936" by another favorite, Rex Brandt.

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If you can't take Diane's class but still want a good introduction to the style, I recommend finding a copy of American Scene Painting: California, 1930s and 1940s by Ruth Westphal and Janet Blake Dominik.

Orange County was lucky enough to have many of these artists living and working here. Rex Brandt and Phil Dike even ran a summer school in Newport Beach, influencing generations of local artists.

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Moreover, key collectors like E. Gene Crain, and authors and experts on the subject, like Gordon McClelland, live here. And every five years or so, some museum or another manages a retrospective of this kind of work. Being in the midst of all this is just one more reason to like Orange County.

Knott's Berry Farm exhibit

Sometimes an unforseen roadblock forces you down a road that's better than the one you were on.
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At the Orange County Archives, we were told that a "new display case" was to be installed soon, and could we please assemble an exhibit to showcase our wonderful Knott's Berry Farm Collection? We assumed the new case would be like our old ones -- Flat, wide, and "one story," and developed the exhibit accordingly. (Much of the early version was assembled by our intern, Nichole.)
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When I saw that the new case had exactly the same dimension of the phone booth that once stood in its place, I knew we had to rethink everything. I started by rummaging again through the Archives and then through my personal collection. But that barely made a dent.
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Luckily, necessity afforded me the opportunity to twist the arms of our friends at Knott's and ask to borrow some 3-D artifacts. As you can see, they were most obliging. We rummaged around "backstage" for a couple hours and came up with great stuff. The effort also resulted in finding some additional historical materials they were willing to donate outright to the Archives. (Thanks again!)
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Anyway, I posted a photo of the exhibit to Flickr, and included notes that pop-up as you roll your cursor over each item, telling you what each one is and where it came from.
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I think my favorite artifacts are the hats from Walter and Cordelia Knott, Walter's shoes, and the barrel which once hung on the side of the wagon in the old Covered Wagon Show in the Gold Trails Hotel.
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This exhibit will be on display through at least April 2011 in the lobby of the Hall of Finance & Records (Building 12 of the Civic Center), 630 N. Broadway, in Santa Ana. Come by and see it! The building is open from 9am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday (although this Monday the building is closed for the holiday). Also be sure to stop by the Orange County Archives, just across Broadway in the Old Orange County Courthouse.

Anaheim's Chinatown

Most people don't realize that a number of Orange County towns once had their own Chinatowns, including Santa Ana, Anaheim and Orange. The image above (from the Anaheim Heritage Center) shows the last building in Anaheim's Chinatown to be demolished. This house, at 119 W. Chartres St., was torn down in 1940.
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According to Leo Friis' book, When Anaheim Was 21,

"Chinese commenced settling in Anaheim in the early [Eighteen] Seventies, most of them crowding into an area facing Chartes Street between Anaheim Boulevard and Lemon Street. In 1876, the [Anaheim] Gazette editor estimated that one-sixth of the town's population was Oriental. Many Chinese engaged in truck farming northeast of Anaheim and their vegetable wagons were a familiar sight. ...Actually, Anaheim was a good place for Chinese to live. Its citizens never carried to extremes the prejudice found in many other towns."

Tonight, the Anaheim Historical Society will celebrate their city's Chinese heritage with a special meeting for Chinese New Year. The program will include traditional Chinese dancers, music, and a presentation. The public is welcome to attend this free event. The program will be held at 7pm, Feb. 15, at the Loara Elementary School Auditorium, at Broadway and Loara St.

Greenville Bean Growers Association

Today's photo shows the Greenville Bean Growers Association warehouse at S. Greenville St. and W. Alton Ave. in Santa Ana in 1973. For last week's Orange County Historical Society "Show & Tell" meeting, I brought a bunch of railroad spikes from this spur and shared some information about the site's history...
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In 1909, the Pacific Electric Railway opened a new line between Huntington Beach and Santa Ana. The "Big Red Cars" also shared the tracks with freight.
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The Greenville Bean Growers Association was established in 1918, and their "fireproof warehouse" (so far, so good) was built that same year. The Association's founding and long-time member families included the Borchards, the Plavans, the Tedfords and the Wakehams. It was a virtual who's-who of Gospel Swamp pioneers. Board meetings were held in the warehouse.
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The Greenville (a.ka. Gospel Swamp, a.k.a. Old Newport) area was chiefly known for its limas and other beans. Sugar beets were also common.
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In 1922, the railroad tracks washed out along the Santa Ana River in a flood. From then on, the remaining track between Greenville and Santa Ana was used for freight only.
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The warehouse was still a busy operation. In 1926, about 70,000 sacks of beans were expedited through that building to market. (I suspect that quantity of beans would be expedited through anyone.)
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The Association used the warehouse into the 1980s. Later, it was purchased by longtime Association members, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.
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My thanks to everyone who attended the OCHS Show & Tell. It was a great program and went in fascinating directions I never would have expected. I think we'll make Show & Tell one of our annual traditions.
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Thanks also to those who attended the "Amazing Neutras of Orange County" program today at the Old Courthouse. I was very pleased by the large turnout, and the good questions from the audience. If you'd told me 10 years ago that I'd be sitting on a panel with Dion Neutra, Alan Hess and Barbara Lamprecht, I would have said you were crazy. In the strange world I live in, these folks are sort of the equivalent of rock stars.

Orange County Modernism revisited

This is the Orange County Central Justice Center, in Santa Ana. It was designed by the famed architect Richard Neutra and the local firm of Ramberg & Lowrey. It was completed in 1968 and offically opened in 1969.
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I blogged about Neutra back in October, when the "Amazing Neutra of Orange County" exhibit opened at the Old Courthouse Museum. Now that the exhibit is about to end, there will be another panel discussion on Orange County's Modernist heritage, the works of Richard Neutra, and efforts to preserve them. The panel includes Alan Hess, Chris Jepsen, and Dion Neutra -- seen (left to right) in the photo below -- and Neutra expert Barbara Lamprecht. The program will be held tomorrow, Sat., Feb. 12, 2:00-4:30pm, at the Old Orange County Courthouse, 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana. The event is free and open to the public.

Happy Lincoln's Birthday!

Come to O.C. History "Show & Tell" Night

Are you ready for Show & Tell? The Orange County Historical Society is holding "Show & Tell Night" this Thursday, Feb. 10th, 7:30pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The event is open to the public.
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Rummage through your garage, files, scrapbooks, or trunks for a choice artifact or bit of memorabilia or ephemera that helps tell us something about Orange County of yore.
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Maybe you have a local orange crate that connects to a story about a parent who worked in a packing house. Perhaps you have your name badge from when you worked at Disneyland on opening day. What about great-grandpa’s branding iron, or a piece of flatware with the name of an early local hotel stamped on the back?
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Or maybe you just have an outstanding photo or map of early Orange County that hasn’t seen the light of day in many years.

There will be a sign-up sheet when you arrive at the meeting. People will be called up in order of their position on the list. If we run out of time, we’ll save the list for another meeting, so you’ll still get your chance to share your “piece of history” and a bit of the story behind it. (We're a pretty friendly and informal bunch, so don't be intimidated!)
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Have fun with this one. And surprise us!
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Photos: The photo at the top of today's post shows County Bee Inspector Roy Bishop in Dec. 1946, displaying a tray of beetles found in Orange County. (I'm not sure that's the sort of Show & Tell item we're looking for, Roy.)
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The second image shows County Supervisors Cye Featherly and Willis Warner at the 50th anniversary of the Old Orange County Courthouse in 1951. They're holding one of the photo prints that were given away on the opening day of the Courthouse in 1901. The gold seal and orange ribbon in the upper left corner make it easy to identify as an original. (That's a great Show & Tell item, guys!)
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Both photos come from the Bob Geivet Collection, held by OC Parks.

Reagan centennial, Tustin book, and vintage paper

Sunday, Feb. 6th would have been Ronald Wilson Reagan's 100th birthday. No matter what your party affiliation, it’s hard to argue that Orange County wasn’t the heart of “Reagan Country.” Support from Orange County played a crucial role in his 1966 gubernatorial campaign and both of his presidential campaigns. Reagan himself once said (somewhat cryptically) that “Orange County, is where the good Republicans go to die."

The photo above shows Governor Reagan at Knott's Berry Farm in 1971, celebrating the 60th anniversary of his friends Walter and Cordelia Knott. The image below shows Reagan as one of the three hosts of the national broadcast of Disneyland's opening day in 1955. As president, Reagan's greatest contribution was ending the Cold War and the threat of what he aptly called the “Evil Empire.”
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He also played a crucial role that some presidents have sadly overlooked: National cheerleader. This wasn't a political thing so much as an innate capacity that some presidents (regardless of party) have, and others do not. Reagan's earnest yet cheerful optimism and his faith in America were contagious, and helped pull our country out of the “malaise”/pity party of the 1970s.

Governor Reagan bestows a medal to Huntington Beach lifeguard Eric Emery in the photo above. The image below is from the Newport Beach event that launched his gubernatorial re-election campaign in 1970.

This last photo shows future Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande, Governor Reagan, and Coach Herb Hill on the field at Loara High School in Anaheim in 1970. Happy birthday, Mr. President.

Guy Ball will be signing his latest book, Images of America: Tustin, on Sat., Feb. 5, 10am-2pm, at the Tustin Area Historical Society Museum, 395 El Camino Real. I’ve only had a chance to thumb through the book briefly at this point, but it looks great so far. I’ll post something more about it after I actually read the thing.

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The Vintage Paper & Postcard Fair is returning to the Glendale Civic Auditorium this weekend. It’s worth the drive, and you can usually find some good Orange County stuff. I'll be there on Saturday. Try the enchiladas at the lunch window, they're great!

From Herman-Miller's 1769 catalog?

Oh, the things you find in old magazines and newspapers when you're researching something totally unrelated. This Spaniard -- presumably Gaspar de Portola -- comes from an ad for Orange Empire National Bank in the October 1964 issue of the late lamented Orange County Illustrated magazine. It has all the elements of 1960s Orange County: Ranch homes amid dwindling orange groves and wind breaks (these appear to be in the Tustin area), a touch of the ultra-Modern (the chair), an attempt at local appeal (the bank's name), and a healthy dose of somewhat hokey faux-Early-California.
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Orange Empire National Bank was based in Anaheim, and collapsed a year after this ad was published. The bank was the victim of some kind of "check writing scheme" that sent financial consultant Samuel A. Longo to prison.
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Portola, on the other hand, died in Spain in 1784.