America the Beautiful at Night, December 1960

Here's another nice Tomorrowland image from December 1960...America the Beautiful, which made its debut in June 1960. I believe that from 1955 to 1959 the film had been "A Tour of the West" and the sponsor was American Motors. Bell Systems took over in 1960, and "America the Beautiful" ran (with occasional updates) for the next 24 years, eventually replaced with "American Journeys".

I remember this attraction vividly, especially the strong illustion of motion as you stood in the round theater holding on to the railings. I also recall some of the pre-show, in which a young woman could tell you your area code no matter where you lived in the U.S. And of course there were the phones with messages from your favorite Disney characters.

I would love to see the original films, with their old cars and views of the country 40 or 50 years ago. Someday I hope that we will be able to download these directly from Disney (along with so many of the "Wonderful World of Disney episodes). But I digress!

EPCOT and other Disney parks still show various Circlevision films, if I ever manage to get to Florida I am going to check some of them out.