Main Street Parades

[drddrd]

I was watching the film, 'Disneyland USA' (made I think in 1957). It includes a parade on Main Street - an old-fashioned 'circus' parade, with elephants etc. There were no Disney cartoon characters in sight; and it was quite different from the parades of today.
It made me wonder: were there any parades in those days featuring Disney characters - or is that something that only started later?
(For that matter, were there always characters like Mickey around in costume on Main Street, to shake hands and pose for photos - or did that only start later, too?)
DrD

[GIOny]

I was watching the film, 'Disneyland USA' (made I think in 1957). It includes a parade on Main Street - an old-fashioned 'circus' parade, with elephants etc. There were no Disney cartoon characters in sight; and it was quite different from the parades of today.
It made me wonder: were there any parades in those days featuring Disney characters - or is that something that only started later?
(For that matter, were there always characters like Mickey around in costume on Main Street, to shake hands and pose for photos - or did that only start later, too?)
DrD

I don't know about the parades but I remember seeing old photos or newsreels with a very different looking Mickey in Disneyland walking around.

[BamaJenn]

All the parades at WDW have been character driven, since day one. I have some shots of a parade in 1976 and, though the characters look quite different than they do today, the parade undoubedtly was centered around them.

Disneyland, being open in the 50s, catered to a very different sort of crowd so it wouldn't surprise me if they had un-character themed parades. Think about the park itself, very little on opening day was character themed as well.

[doconeill]

Are you referring to the "Disneyland U.S.A." Treasures DVD?

I don't remember the parade specifically, but I do remember seeing the characters, and yes, they looked very different then. But I do remember Minnie and Minnie and the dwarves being shown.