Friday, June 20, 2008

Tomorrowland 1969 and Another Poster!

Today we (that's me and Elvis) have a couple of tasty treats for you. First up is this nice photo of the old "New Tomorrowland", opened just two years before this photo was taken. The photo must have been taken from the Skyway, it's too high to be from the Peoplemover. Anyway, it's an unusual view. To the extreme right you can see part of the multi-level Peoplemover platform with the Rocket Jets on top. Is that a ticket booth just below the "Goodyear" sign? Very cool, whatever it is. Then you can see the Flight to the Moon building with the red Peoplemover cars going overhead. And finally, there's the large "Carousel of Progress" building.


Which brings me to this photo of my scarce "Carousel of Progress" poster! I haven't seen too many of these around. It has a simple graphic look that is slightly different from the posters designed in the 50's, and it shows our narrator and his wife ("Mother!") hangin' in different eras. Mother, in the "good old days", has made an impromptu ironing board out of two chairs and a plank, while wearing her high-necked dress and high-button shoes. The man (is he ever referred to as "Father"?) is reading the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated in his curvy modern chair, while "Progress City" shimmers outside the window. They stare at us with their blunked-out eyes (Lulu Arfin' Nonny - - anyone? anyone?) because they want to eat us. That part of the show was apparently removed prior to its debut.

14 comments:

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Awesome Tomorrowland Photo, boy do I wish it still looked like that!!!

Neat poster, hey I saw a post on another blog that WDW reproduced that poster and its in a few places now at WDW, how cool it that! I sure hope its running when I am there next month.

Anonymous said...

What's with the zombie eyes?!? And that's a cool aerial view of Tomorrowland, I often use your shots as wallpaper on my PC.

The Viewliner Limited said...

Absolutely beautiful TL pic Major. Days long gone by, but remembered clearly. And the poster is awesome.

Anonymous said...

Great picture, I echo those sentiments, tomorrowland had so much going on...unlike today.Bring back the people mover!

outsidetheberm said...

Love the Pogo reference! What a GREAT comic strip.

Anonymous said...

Great shot--not an angle we usually see. That poster rocks as well! Question for you folks: Why is the Carousel two levels? Did they run two theatres simultaneously? That's something I've long wondered about. I'm pretty sure it's only one level at the Magic Kingdom....

Thanks!

Brer Dan

Anonymous said...

I second that People Mover motion and that is a great picture. This is the Tomorrowland I have in my Sweet Memories cache. Too bad we couldn't get a 360 panorama....I also loved that Tomorrowland Stage that popped up. Been there more than one evening as a lonely teenage girl. Still sweet.

jedblau said...

That is indeed a rare poster...never had one myself :(

Jason Schultz said...

Wonderful photo and poster.

Brer Dan: The upper level of the Carousel Theater featured the Progress City model. I don't know the footprint of that versus the space upstairs, but I think there might have been offices up there, too.

Anonymous said...

From my distant memory bank, I believe that was the TL ticket booth in the middle of the picture. And I agree with the others, this was the best version of TL. The entire area buzzed with 'motion', especially with the Peoplemover running down the middle, through the buildings and around the perimeter.

Major Pepperidge said...

Thanks as always for the nice comments folks! Outsidetheberm, you win a virtual cigar.

And thanks Progressland, it's been so long that I didn't really remember why the Carousel of Progress building was two levels!

Anonymous said...

Progressland remembers it right. The great thing about the Progress City model was, at the finale of the last scene in the Carousel of Progress, you'd "Spring up, out of your seat," and board an escalator ON THE STAGE to the second level. To actually enter the universe of the show you'd just seen was a huge deal to this sixties kid.

Tink1272 said...

Love it. It does look like there is a ghost in the picture, though. :-)

Connie Moreno said...

Holy smokes! That TL photo gave me goosebumps! See the red PeopleMover cars? If it had gone about 6 feet forward that would be the EXACT spot where I had to be evacuated from. SHIVERS!