Monday, February 7, 2011

The Santa Fe Magazine - August 1955

Welcome to Magazine Monday. Today we’re going back to where and when it all started with the debut of Disneyland as chronicled in this August 1955 Issue of The Santa Fe Magazine. Walt’s smile is so infectious even old Mr. Gurley is grinning like a little boy.





There’s a lot of industry insider stuff in here, if any of you railroad buffs are
interested in any of these articles just let me know.





This five page Disneyland article is one of the better “day one” articles. This is back when it was still very fresh on everyone’s mind. Of course the focus of the article is on “Santa Fe”, but hey, the train was and still is the focal point of the entrance. There’s lots of standard stuff in the text, but some fun details too.








The photos on these last two pages are outstanding.







An excellent article about a boys ranch in Amarillo Texas where “maverick and delinquent youngsters farm and ranch 3,000 acres and go to school…” The boys also took a trip to Disneyland, all 200 of them!









For the accountant’s out there.





As with these industry magazines there really aren’t many advertisements and they are mostly “business to business” (boring) - This one however caught my eye, fun art work.





Is the back cover trying to tell us something?


4 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

That is a super cool article, with some great photos! I wonder why Walt is adorned with a lei in those opening day shots?

Chris Jepsen said...

I was wondering the same thing, Major. And clearly the straw hat with the tapa cloth band goes with the lei. I want a hat like that!

janet said...

Two terrific articles. Wonderful to see another perspective on opening day.

I wonder if that boy's ranch is still around?

Thanks for taking the sting out of a rather bleak Monday!

Steve DeGaetano said...

Thanks for posting this. It's really a great article.

The Santa Fe took quite a bit of paternalistic pride in the SF&D Railroad. Over the years, their magazine covered several events on the SF&D, from a spectacualar celebration of the Railroad's first anniversary to the dedication of the Fred Gurley. Often, single photos of the trains might be accompanied by a caption interspered among the larger articles.