Disneyland Dream

This is the home for vintage newsreels and documentaries.
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Kitty
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Disneyland Dream

Post by Kitty »

I found this years ago on archive.org. this is a home-made documentary film about the Barstow family, who won a trip to the brand new Disneyland in 1956. I loved this so much! Since I've watched it, there have been 2 more made, Disneyland Revisited and Disneyland Revisited Again. I hope you love this as much as I did.
https://archive.org/details/barstow_dis ... dream_1956
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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donnie
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Re: Disneyland Dream

Post by donnie »

This was a neat thing to see. It's wonderful to see this family's affection for each other and the fun they had. It's pretty well-made for an amateur film, too, isn't it? You felt like you were along with them for the trip. I liked that they used Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto as the opening music and the "magic" ending

I think it was probably every kid's fantasy back in that day to be able to go to Disneyland. It would have been really special in the 50's—there was nothing else remotely like it. I think that Skyway ride was really a big attraction, kind of an iconic thing, as was the Dumbo ride. I didn't realize there were so many similarities between this and Disney World. My favorite thing in the park was the circus train—that was really neat.

The ad for the Valentino film on Main Street was interesting in that he mentioned it as a memory for adults, which come to think of it, for anyone over about - what? - 45 or so, that would have been a living memory. It would be like looking back on 1987 now. (I do those kinds of computations all the time.)

Another thing I noticed is that Mr. Barstow's voice sounds very similar to Pete Smith of the Goofy Movies! The tone of his voice is the same, and even the way he exteeeends certain words.

A most unique video—thanks for sharing!

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Kitty
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Re: Disneyland Dream

Post by Kitty »

I love those kinds of films that make you feel like you are along for the trip. I thought it was cool that there were so many similarities to Disney World, too. You must read the comments under the video. One person links to the father's obituary. It gives a very nice background about how he made about 100 films in this way, documenting his family's travels and so on.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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donnie
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Re: Disneyland Dream

Post by donnie »

I didn't think to look at the comments.

Another thing I found interesting was the visit to Knott's Berry Farm, first because I had always heard of that place and wondered what it was exactly (a place where you go and pick berries??); and second, because the ghost town type of attraction was also big here in the Southeast back in the 60's.

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house in the mountains of North Carolina, and there were several of those types of things still going in that area at that time. The biggest one was in Maggie Valley and was called just "Ghost Town" (it may still be in operation, not sure). It drew people from all over. Stars from Westerns that were on in the 60's and 70's like Bonanza would appear there and they would have staged gunfights, etc. Everybody was obsessed with Westerns in that day.

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Kitty
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Re: Disneyland Dream

Post by Kitty »

The Ghost Town theme park was opened in May of 1961. I looked it up, and it is currently on hiatus. It did not open in 2016. It looks like it was an interesting place. You can only access the place, which is on top of a mountain, by chair lift. They've been on a rocky road for a number of years for financial trouble.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Town_Village

I wonder if that attraction in the film still exists. I have a feeling that it isn't in that form anymore, exactly. People would be too worried about the treatment of the trained animals. They'd say they were animal slaves or something.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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donnie
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Re: Disneyland Dream

Post by donnie »

You're probably right. Thanks for the Ghost Town link.

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Kitty
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Re: Disneyland Dream

Post by Kitty »

I wish things were still as simple as they used to be.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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Mrs. Danvers
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Re: Disneyland Dream

Post by Mrs. Danvers »

Oh how wonderful! We went to Disneyland in 1957 or perhaps 1958, I'd call my mommy and ask, but she isn't up yet.
So I was either 5 or 6 when we were there. We have home movies too. One of the highlights or low lights of the trip was when one of the rides at Disneyland broke down, we were stuck in the Sun for I don't know how long.

It was the Alice in Wonderland ride. My mom got a horrible sunburn on her back, blistered and peeled really bad, it was still bad when we got home, because in a home movie, right after we got back, her and I are standing and waving to the movie camera and I up and slap my mom on the back, on her painful sunburn and she went ballistic. What a rotten kid! :lol: :roll:
We were in a caterpillar car on the upper tier when the ride quit. That's all I remember about it, but Disneyland must have thought it was safer to just let everybody stay put until they got the ride going again. Sure let's just bake the tourists in the hot Sun for a bit.
7-58AliceB.jpg
7-58AliceB.jpg (185.08 KiB) Viewed 5070 times
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!

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