Friday, August 26, 2011

Fabulous Tomorrowland! January 1974

Here's a pretty sweet photo featuring the wonderful Rocket Jets and the even more wonderful Peoplemover! The memories of the Rocket Jets whirling around in the distance (and way up high) is a fond one for me. As for the Peoplemover, I tried to describe it to my niece, who probably didn't quite understand my love of such a slow-moving ride. But there was just something neat about being above the crowds, relaxing, enjoying the colorful and exciting views, and listening to the prerecorded spiel.


Here's another neat photo; the rectangular Skyway vehicles are passing overhead, we've got more Peoplemover action, and a beautiful shot of the Matterhorn.


18 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

I want to live there.....right there in THAT Tomorrowland! Of course, I would be sad that Carousel of Progress had already closed, but as long as the rest of the 1967 Tomorrowland was intact, I think I could handle it.

D ticket said...

That second one looks genuinely alpine. As if there had been a wedway peoplemover installed in Zermatt.

The first scan is how nature intended Tomorrowland to be. Kinetic and optimistic.

Chiana_Chat said...

A packed place there and no wonder - get me in that throng. :D

All they needed was a more serious futuristic-themed restaurant - hey now there's where the "organics" themes would have been effective and welcome - down there under the Space Mountain queue, a good shop and to upgrade some existing stuff (like the circlevision theater, Mission to Mars and Peoplemover) a bit then, bingo, it would be pretty complete and could still be playing as a fresh, kinetic and optimistic Tomorrowland. (thanks 'D ticket') Better than what they have...

I think a Tomorrowland is pointless at its core without a full on Carousel of Progress / Horizons kind of deal.

PsySocDisney said...

I will never ever ever get tired of looking at old Tomorrowland. Fabulous is an understatement.
How ironic that it is the Tomorrowland of the past that we all love and miss so much... Yet if we restored it to that exact way it was it wouldn't very well be Tomorrowland then wouldn't it? Darn paradoxes.

Can I please just be there? Now? Get me on ATIS, stat!
*Sigh. It never works :/

fuzzhead said...

That TL was a true work of art, I don't think it could ever be surpassed.

Chuck said...

Sadly, your niece's incomprehension of the attraction of a slow, quiet ride is the necessary result of a couple of generations raised on loud, fast, and violent. For it to pack in the youth demographic today, you'd have to speed it up at least 5 times, add a blaring rock score and explosions, and rename it the "PeopleRemover."

Nancy said...

what a beautiful sight!

i always feel important when its my turn to step into the gantry elevator to go up to the rockets.

i love our Peoplemover, SUPER LUCKY that we still have that as well, but i do like the futuristic look of the Disneyland Peoplemover trains a little bit better. David, you have to bring your niece to our side of the World!!

my favorite Skyway buckets overhead, a sunny day, a monorail will be going by any minute....oh yeah!!

this is the nicest way to start my day off. thanks!! :-)

stu29573 said...

WDW's travesty against the guests was the removal of 20,000 Leagues with nothing to replace it. At DL, it has to be the Peaplemover. I've heard interviews with imagineers that swear you should never remove an attraction without putting something better in its place. It makes you wonder why they did so?

Thufer said...

It's truly heart warming to read the comments today. It is amazing to see the response to something as 'mundane' as a public transportation system. ;)
It truly was an exceptional vision of tomorrow and what SHOULD have been.
I too have long felt that the entire impact of the Rocket Jets from visual to placement was 'possibly' the best in the park.

This Tomorrowland was truly a special place for a lot of us.

Major Pepperidge said...

TM!, me too! As long as we're wishing, we can make it a few years earlier to include the Carousel of Progress.

D ticket, since Zermatt doesn't allow cars, maybe they need a Peoplemover!

Chiana, if only you were working at WDI...

Hannahx2, Tomorrowland is my favorite, and nice photos of that "land" take me back to my 11 year-old self, remembering how dazzling it was.

fuzzhead, unfortunately I think you might be right. I wish I had confidence that today's designers (and the execs that need to approve stuff) could do better, but they had their chance!

Chuck, I think my niece would have been more interested years ago, but now she's a teenager - and you're right, she thinks rides need to be fast and exciting.

Nancy, I WISH I could take my niece and nephew to WDW. In fact, I still need to see it for myself!

stu29573, they did replace the Peoplemover with those Rocket Rods! I thought the Rods were fun, but NOT an improvement over the Peoplemover. And there was no good reason for the constant breakdowns and other engineering mistakes.

JG said...

JACKPOT!!

Major, these are great. '67 Tomorrowland is my "second-favorite" land (in spite of my shiny suit). This place was my youth and my dream. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

I hardly want to go into what it has become now.

The old world charm of New Orleans Square is still my favorite, but oh, the clean hopeful kinetic world of the future.

JG

Vaughn said...

If today's Imagineers can't be optimistic about the future, and Tomorrowland at Disneyland can't reflect an optimism for the future, what hope is there for the rest of society to be optimistic about their future? *sigh*

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, yes...let's set the dials for 1972 just to make sure COP is still there!

@Stu....they have a long history now of replacing classics with things that are substandard....Electrical Parade/Light Magic, People Mover/Rocket Rods, Carousel Theater/Innoventions, Mary Blair's tile murals/"billboards", Mission To Mars/Pizza Port, Country Bear Jamboree/Winnie The Pooh, Swiss Family Treehouse/Tarzan's Treehouse, the parking lot/California Adventure. At least DL's Tiki Room wasn't converted to the "Under New Management" show like WDW's and at least we didn't get Stitch's Great Escape or Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor!

Anonymous said...

The above comments speak for themselves. Add me to the long list of those who demand better of Disney for the admission prices they are asking. There should be a discount for those of us who avoid TLand these days for the sorry place it has become. Do I have hope for the future? Yes, more than the imagineers have demonstrated at this point in time. I remain hopeful that they have gotten the message and an announcement will be forthcoming in a year or two...but no longer than that!

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, maybe most of my Tomorrowland love is just nostalgia still sweetening what is still there. I can't argue with having New Orleans Square as a favorite, for sure.

Vaughn, it might not be that the Imagineers aren't optimistic; they probably have a bunch of ideas that have been squashed by the accountants. I almost wish they had gone more "Jetsons" if they wanted to update Tomorrowland, make it fun and funky, and yes, optimistic.

TM!, your list makes me sad!

Anon, I sometimes wonder if the fact that today's designers are not old movie set designers and animators is what makes all the difference. Instead, they are theme park people. I'm not saying that they don't have talent and passion, but there's just a different mind set.

TokyoMagic! said...

I forgot to mention Rocket Jets/Observatron and CircleVision/Rocket Rod queue. And if you really want to go back in time....I don't think Big Thunder was a better or even an equal replacement for Nature's Wonderland. And while I'm at it, let me just say, BRING BACK CAPTAIN HOOK'S PIRATE SHIP AND SKULL ROCK!!!!! Whew...I feel better now!

Chuck said...

Major - I'd never considered the difference in background of today's Imagineers as potentially being a actor in the relative lackluster of many of the new attractions of the past 15 years or so. Interesting thought to ponder...

Vaughn said...

I think you're probably right, Major, I can see the Imagineers being optimistic and enthusiastically presenting ideas only to have them quashed by bean counters beholden to the upper management who have their bonuses determined by stock performance. I too, have been in similar corporate atmospheres.

Well, anyway, here's to hoping for the future. *raises glass to screen*