Not Having Fun at Disneyland

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Disneyland not Walt Disney World, but these old photos were too priceless not to share. From Imagineering Disney...

EYE CANDY: Not Having Fun at Disneyland

Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 8:22PM Posted by Fritz

Sit back and let your eyes feast on these beautiful vintage pics of people NOT having fun at Disneyland. Ok, they WERE having fun at Disneyland except for the moments they were being photographed. Probably.

Oh how I loved Boy Scout Days at Disneyland. I was a Boy Scout (and a Cub Scout) and lived for this one day a year. For some dumb reason I thought it was fun to wear my uniform in public at Disneyland. As if I were more important than on other non-uniformed days in the park. This is not me in the photo.

Lady, take better care of that guide map!

I'm sure the Color Gallery in Tomorrowland was loads and loads of fun. Secretly the lady and guy wearing a purse were loving it.

Nice white tuxedo and Test Track hat, kid.

Alice?

15¢?

I'm lovin' the double steering wheels. (Midget Autopia)

Walt is definitely not having fun.

For all those Guest Relation people who say "Walt hated Disneyland because he didn't get it right until he made Magic Kingdom"... you are still wrong. Despite his expression in this photo. Also, he never saw the Magic Kingdom.

For all you that say early Disneyland was no fun... you now have your proof. No, actually it was very very fun.

The funny thing about all these photos is that they came from Disneyland souvenir books. Books that Disney sold in the park. I used to photograph the parks for Disney and they were always so particular about the people in the shots. First of all, we had to introduce ourselves, ask the people to sign a waver, then ask them to pose a certain way. (Unless we hired professional models to act like they were guests). Additionally there were a million guidelines about diversity. There had to be non-white people somewhere in each shot. Age diversity was big, as was (believe it or not) weight diversity--not only skinny people in every pic. And of course smiles. That was huge with management. Occasionally it was asked of me, “can you Photoshop an even bigger smile on that person?”

I do prefer the very candid shots of the old days. Much more natural. Although it's always nice to at least look like you are not miserable.

Photos from the collections of the ImagineeringDisney.com staff. ©The Walt Disney Company.