Saturday, January 22, 2011

Visiting Disneyland in 1956


Disneyland Dream (1956)

A friend of mine recently referred me to this incredible documentary film called "Disneyland Dream" and I'm thankful that he did. The video, which documents the Barstow family's 1956 trip from Connecticut to California, is an amazing time capsule from that time period. In 1956, the Barstow family entered a contest presented by Scotch tape in order to win the prize - a fully paid trip to Disneyland. The Barstow family won of course and captured their magical trip on film. Some of the sites that you can see in the video include their 1950s home in Connecticut, the Huntington Shertaton Hotel in Pasadena, Knott's Berry Farm when it actually looked more like a farm than a theme park, Southern California orange groves, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood and Vine, the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Universal Studios Hollywood, Will Rogers's home, Catalina Island and a tour of the Disneyland theme park as it appeared back then.

The video is about 34 minutes long but worth taking the time to watch until the end if your a nostalgia or Disneyland buff. The video uses the film footage from 1956 with an added narration track that Robbins Barstow, the father, created in 1995. Some of my favorite things in the video are seeing the family wearing their Davy Crocket jackets or boarding a TWA airplane that holds 64 people. The family is also quite amusing and with the narration provided by Robbins, you feel like you're right there with him as he retells this memorable experience.

So when you have the time, take a moment to step back to 1956 as you watch Disneyland Dream. If the video doesn't play you can also see the video here: Disneyland Dream

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