Randos
Here are two random scans to start your weekend off right! Let's start with this Skyway shot of Storybook Land, as seen in January of 1966. It's a nice view, but fairly standard. I like that we can see one of the Casey Jr. Circus Trains, and the folks in line are bundled up against the January chill. It's at times like this that Monstro appreciates a hot meal. But what's that in the upper right?
Construction is well under way for "it's a small world", which would open in on May 28th, 1966 - a mere five months after this photo was taken. Considering that the version at the New York World's Fair was built in a very short amount of time (being a relatively late addition to Walt's slate of design challenges) I guess it's not that surprising that it wouldn't be long before that dark building would be full of color and light and music.
This next one is from March of 1969, and it's a very nice view of the "Flight to the Moon" attraction. It started out as "Rocket to the Moon", and was changed to "Flight to the Moon" on July 2, 1967. It was still sponsored by McDonnell-Douglas at this point, and I believe it continued its sponsorship all the way through the change to "Mission to Mars", which finally closed on November 2, 1992.
28 comments:
"Randos". Wasn't John Wayne in that one? Or maybe I'm thinking of "Randos Rides Again".
1) The lower half of Monstro seems awfully white. Was he always that way? I think he used to be darker, lower. And when did Disney start flying long johns on flag poles? ;-)
2) The close-up. I guess I'm turned around (it happens a lot). I thought the Small World building would be more to the left, where that light-colored 3-door warehouse is, and facing the same way as that building. But it HAS to be Small World because nothing else that big is in that area.
3) I went on "Rocket To The Moon" in 1957, and "Mission Mars" in '75. But I missed "Flight To The Moon" entirely. They did a good job with the futuristic architecture. Lots of angles and shiny white curves. We see the PeopleMover track up above, but no PeopleMover cars; which seems strange. Although it IS just a small section of track.
Thanks for the "Return Of Randos" pics, Major.
It’s possible they just wasn’t a PeopleMover train passing the moment the Flight to Moon exterior. The PeopleMover was closed most of 1968 as the warped ASB molded bodies were replaced with Fiberglass and the first versions of the safety railings were added to each PeopleMover car. During 1969 the PeopleMover was closed again while the new Mark III Monorail station was constructed. …… so these might be other possible explanations for absent PeopleMovers in these 1969 images.
I don’t know what happened but every other word was omitted in my first sentence.
It’s possible there just wasn’t a PeopleMover train passing the exterior of Flight to the Moon the moment the photographer shot the photo ….
Another testament to how quickly the Disneyland team could work back in the day…McDonnell Douglas was formed by the merger of the Long Beach-based Douglas Aircraft Company (the second and final sponsor of Rocket to the Moon) and St Louis-based McDonnell Aircraft on 28 Apr 1967, although I’m sure that they were prepping a bit before that as the companies were doing the merger dance (is that like a corporate mating ritual?). Love that sweet, sweet logo, originally used by Douglas and now carried on by Boeing since the 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas.
JB, you aren’t turned around as much as you think you are. The “3-door warehouse” is the second Monorail maintenance facility, built in the early ‘60s (the original facility was a two-stall, ground-level affair north of the Fantasyland Autopia, paralleling the SF&DL RR tracks).
When they built it’s a small world outside the berm, the Monorail beamway would have cut across the facade of the structure as you can see here, which would have messed up that beautiful view down the Small World Concourse. They wanted to add a fourth train to the Monorail fleet anyway and the SF&DL RR had outgrown its own “roundhouse” in the NW corner of the Park, so they built a new, combined, still-rectangular “roundhouse” facility with four stalls for the SF&DL RR on the ground floor and four stalls for the Monorail upstairs on the east side of it’s a small world at the same time as small world construction was in progress (yes, Virginia, that’s all one sentence). This is the same facility that is in use today.
The old Monorail facility was converted into an actual warehouse with three very high doors that made no sense unless you knew the history of the building. You can see it in the background of some post-1967 photos, sometimes with the upper level doors open for ventilation or possibly dirigible mooring. It remained standing until Toontown was built in 1992-93.
Mike, the weird thing is that I read your original text and my brain just filled in the missing words without me even noticing. Our brains truly magnificent things.
Thanks for clarifying the position of the Monorail beamway in relation to small world today, Chuck. I wonder how far they were on the facade construction before they removed the old line. That Rocket to the Moon picture is perfect.
And just saying, I posted some pictures of Storybook Land and the rest of Fantasyland a few days ago on my blog. :-)
The "Flight to the Moon" image is perfection. What a beauty! Just illustrates why Tomorrowland '67 was my favorite of all the Tomorrowlands. The peak of Disney futurism.
Thanks, Major.
One thing that had to help accelerate construction of IASW is the blunt simplicity of the container. This might be the simplest of all the show buildings in the Park. Just a big clear span warehouse. I always chuckle at the cheap standard suspended ceiling painted black, but it’s part of the charm. The waterproofing is simple, too. The boats ride in a modular gutter that sits on the concrete floor, nothing at all like the multi-level madness of Pirates. The only really complex part is the buzzy facade.
JB, the show building has a dog-leg angled bit as the entrance, so the facade we see is not directly in front of the bulk of the building, this helps get the monorail around and past. You can see it clearly in the googel satellite view.
I loved that Rocket to everywhere, very sad when that closed. The big window to the right looked into the Mission Control set with AA figures controlling your trip to an AA planet. Two trash cans and two ash urns, very nice.
Major, thanks for these interesting photos!
JG
Mike, your Peoplemover rehab guess must be right: there are no trains in the boarding area reflected in the Flight to the Moon windows.
Fight is a beautiful, exciting piece of architecture; the observer may already feel launched upwards. There is still a little bit of earlier Tomorrowland on view; those pine trees in the background ringed the Flying Saucers, and probably lasted till Space Mountain hunkered down.
JB, yes, John Wayne was in “Randos”, co-starring Fabian as the young hotshot. Monstro’s coloration changes with the seasons, and… well… if it’s mating season. You asked. If you are turned around, you should turn around again in the opposite direction! That’s what I do. I’ve had a few other construction photos of IASW, and it’s always right there. I probably experienced “Flight to the Moon”, and “Mission to Mars”, but it was all so long ago now that only snippets of the rides survive.
Mike Cozart, jeez, I didn’t know that the Peoplemover was closed so many times for such long stretches. I’ll bet it cost a pretty penny to replace all those ASB bodies with fiberglass. They should have just used plywood and chicken wire! “Rustic futurism”.
Mike Cozart, it’s OK! It does not go on your permanent record.
Chuck, not many people know that it was originally going to be McDonnell Douglas Pepperidge, but I had to drop out due to that Twiggy scandal. I regret nothing! That logo is pretty great, back when companies seemed to be able to use something besides Helvetica. Look at you with all of that Monorail roundhouse info! I’m sure you had it all right there in your brain, too, unlike me. I need lots of 4 X 5 cards and yellow notepads. It was pretty ingenious to build one structure for both the DLRR and the Monorails. Hmmm, not sure I remember seeing the old Monorail facility in photos, now I’ll have to look for some. When I have time.
Andrew, yes, I also wonder how much “down time” there was as they switched over from the old facility to the new one? Maybe with good planning it was only a few days. And thanks for the heads up on the new post on your blog!
K. Martinez, I love that Flight to the Moon photo too, and was very happy to find it among the piles and piles of “the usual junk”.
JG, even the New York World’s Fair version of IASW was essentially a large steel shed, so the Disney folks obviously liked the economy and efficiency of building a ride that way. I know many people prefer the “flooded room” look of other versions of the ride, and I do too, but there’s something about the curving waterways that I like also. I see both sides! I should look to see if the NYWF version of the Small World building also has a dogleg, I never really thought about it before. And I actually did not know that you would be able to see inside Mission Control (with Tom Morrow) from the front window!
Stefano, I forgot to mention the Rocket Jets gantry, also reflected in the windows! Thanks for pointing out those pine trees, which I did not even notice. Survivors!
Major, yes, the Twiggy scandal...I think the less said, the better...for all parties concerned. Especially Henry Kissinger.
Andrew, I wonder that myself. Several years ago, I spent some time looking at overhead imagery of the "switchyards" in front of both the second and current Monorail facilities. It looked like they re-used most of the concrete beamway from the second facility, particularly the switches, leaving an odd layout with a three-way switch out a ways in front of the new facility with each track aimed at what I remember as the right three doors and then a single switch leading off the leftmost (westernmost) track that serviced the far left (west) door.
If that perception is accurate - that they reused the beamway - then the system was probably down for a time, although how long I don't know. Which leaves us both wondering, perhaps forever. Let me know if you get any sleep tonight.
As long as I'm going to be up, I might as well take a look at your latest blog post. ;-)
JG, my memory of Disneyland's Flight to the Moon/Mission to Mars is pretty old (1975-76) and has the danger of being conflated with much more recent memories (1979, 87, and 93) of WDW's Mission to Mars, but I thought the exterior windows looked into the "holding pen" for passengers awaiting the next sho-, er, I mean flight. I then remember being led around a corner into the presho-, um, I mean Mission Control, where you could look into the control center through a large set of windows. After that you were ushered into one of the theat-, sorry, rockets for your trip.
@ Chuck-
"...(the original facility was a two-stall, ground-level affair north of the Fantasyland Autopia, paralleling the SF&DL RR tracks)". Make that: north of Storybook Land, and just west-ish of the Fantasyland Train Station. That 'Wings Over Disneyland' image from The 'E' Ticket magazine article makes it very clear. (But as The Major already intoned - you probably had that info in your head; whereas I needed photo-verification for proof-!
Chuck, you are right, the queue was between the outside window and the Mission Control pre-show set, but the AA figures were visible from outside when the crowd was small enough.
And while we are talking about Twiggy and Henry, don't mention the prawns.
JG
Chuck, sometimes Hank and I (I call Henry K. “Hank”, he loves it) love to reminisce about Twiggy. What a gal. Hey, if you have some leftover concrete beamways (and who doesn’t?), you might as well reuse them. It’s the responsible thing to do. Just imagine having to leave your Monorail out all night, in the cold, with bugs and Draculas and other stuff. It’s just not right. Hopefully they at least threw a tarp over them. If you look at that sign next to the big window in front of Flight To the Moon, it says “Mission Control Center”, which seems to indicate that guests would indeed see a bunch of robots pushing buttons, swiveling in their swivel chairs, and making Sloppy Joes on a hotplate. The smell was intoxicating!
Nanook, you apparently have much easier access to your issues of The E-ticket Magazine. Mine are all at my mom’s house, and as time goes by, she puts more and more of her junk in front of MY junk. I always loved the “Wings Over Disneyland” articles!
JG, I sure wish I remember seeing the AA figures from outside! We probably visited Tomorrowland during the day when it would have been much less obvious.
Major, I know they needed those car barns for the monorails since the early models didn't have glass in the windows.
We visited once later in November, I think it was 1968 when we visited with my Grandfather, and there was a little rain. I remember because it was cold and windy and a lot of favorite rides were closed. The monorails were closed down and one of them was parked in the Tomorrowland station with a tarp over it, just as you describe. We couldn't see the other train, maybe it was parked at the Hotel the same way.
Reading Chuck's timeline, I wonder if this was during the construction or reconstruction of the car barns and there was no other place to store the trains, and maybe my memory of the date is faulty.
JG
Another interesting note regarding FLIGHT TO THE MOON : like other parts of 1967 New Tomorrowland: Many attractions were not quite ready for opening day …. Inner Space opened a few months later … and the actual Moon flight opened late as well … but guests were able to visit the AA Mission Control show without the actual moon trip for the firsts few months ….
Ironically towards the end of MISSION TO MARS’ life , guests were walked passed the AA mission control show - completely skipped - and taken directly aboard the MARSLINER …. Part of the attraction. For about a year after MARS was closed the holding pen was used as a Magic Kingdom Club lounge …. But all the Mars mural and interior show signage remained.
Below the flight to the moon /mars show building was the film projectors for the above attraction - the other half was the Tomorrowland ( and main st. Sound room) where rows of cabinets played reel-to-reel tape-athon recordings , 1/2 cassette bricks and 8-track like audio cartes …. Later replaced with CDs then digital files. Security personal also take naps down there!!
OMG: I had a post describing the flight to the moon and Mars holding pen displays and murals …. And it disappeared . I’ll re-write it later today and post again..
@ MIKE-
In August, 1980, I visited that 'control room' below the Moon/Mars show building. A large portion of it was dedicated to many, many tall, EIA equipment racks loaded with either ITC 'Delta' or Broadcast Electronics 'Spotmaster' Cart Machines, running Size A [possibly Size B], Fidelipak 'NAB' cartridges, with a key word or phrase of the contents engraved on a plastic label, appended to the face of the cart machine. Those were the days of analog audio - prior to upgrading to some form of digital files, changing over time as you mentioned.
The label declaring: MAGNIFICATION still remains firmly in my memory.
NANOOK; yes!! The park used to use TONS and TONS of those Fidelipak audio cartes!! They had the standard radio station size cartridges … and the double wide ones for longer tracks … like PeopleMover background music.
Disney customized their carte playback machines ….. where as a radio station would have a stereo left and right track …. On a carte Disneyland often separated the left and right to be used for two entirely different sources .. an example :
The market house phones and Main Street cinema music were on a single carte tape. One one the left channel and the other on the right channel.
Later the same thing was done on CD’s …. Like a single CD featuring Space Mountain Plaza music on the left stereo channel and Plaza Inn BGM on the right.
The America Sings basement also contained a sound room for AMERICA SINGS … TRON TUNNELS …. And Walt Disney Story / Lincoln. ….
The sound room located above Bank of America / Disneyanna is for parades and entertainment audio. No attractions.
Back in the day Those audio cabinets would have entire attractions on those cartes …. The PeopleMover had dozens for its various zones …. If something was being updated or changed … like AMERICAN JOURNEYS or STAR TOURS was coming …. The audio for that zone would be put on a carte and slid in while the obsolete audio could be pulled …. And never affecting the rest of the PeopleMover narration ….. etc.
JG, good point, not only did they have to worry about moisture, but also raccoons. Those little buggers will make themselves at home, even in your futuristic Monorail. Interesting to think that you might have visited the park when the Monorails were merely covered by tarps… maybe they were astro-tarps (everything is cooler when you put “astro” in front of it).
Mike Cozart, I kind of like that they made the Mission Control show available, even if the ride itself was not quite ready. It would whet their appetites! I’m shocked to hear that the Mission Control portion of “Mission to Mars” was skipped toward the end… it seems like such an integral part of the experience. I guess folks who were paying attention probably started to get a bad feeling. Just like when rides today start to get seedy and there is no more maintenance.
Mike Cozart, OH MAN. Dumb Blogger. I curse them while waving a mandrake root and doing a dance!
Nanook, even though I know that you had an “inside connection”, I’m still surprised that they would let you into that room that would normally be off-limits. “Hey, you kids! I oughta call security!”.
Mike Cozart, this is all very technical. Beyond me. But I love it! Your description of having two different tracks on a carte might explain some of the audio files that I got my hands on years ago. Literally completely different things going on in the right ear and left ear! I was able to separate them, but I wondered “WHY?”.
@ MIKE-
You can just imagine what a boon (the Fidelipac Cart technology) was to the Park, when introduced in 1959. Do you know what was used prior to the cart machine-?
Major, you forgot about opossums, well known to inhabit monorails
Skipping the preshow seems to be a signature move as a ride nears its end. People could skip the preshow film and hydrolators of The Living Seas at EPCOT Center as it got on in years. On a related note, Splash Mountain has had a lot of downtime in recent weeks at WDW as maintenance has been cut back ahead of the Tiana update.
Nanook, I've read that there was far less BGM in the parks in the early years. I suspect that they only considered making it nearly ubiquitous when cart-based systems made it feasible.
@ Dean Finder-
Yes, but how about timed, general park announcements - plenty of which have become 'available' thru the internet - and the music/cues/etc., on the dark rides... The cart machine enabled reliable, repetitive, short audio cues to become common place, for those with the 'bucks' to spend.
Frankly, continuous BGM would be easy to pull-off starting in 1955: Do I hear an Ampex 300, 350 or 351 - just for starters - if Disneyland was so inclined. [Not to mention other manufacturers...]
I know two sizes of reel to reels were used in the parks … but the amount of tape would be adjusted. Like for ticket entry announcements . For lengthy recordings there was a system called a TAPE-A-THON. It played in both directions …. The Main Street USA background music and the fantasyland skyway area music and later the Village Haus music was done this way. In one direction a large reel would play … then when done it would reverse and have the identical recording play in the opposite direction . ( I’m not sure how this was done … was the duplicate recording on the opposite side of the tape ? Or was the reel split down the middle?? Anyway , the tape-a-thon would keep playing over and over … one direction then the opposite direction over and over until it was shut off.
I know at one time the fantasyland attractions were on tapes that were very very wide. Over an inch wide and we’re in long rectangular cassettes that looked almost like typewriter ink cartridges. In the fantasyland sound room ( under village haus) along a wall is a display with tape sample styles over the years used at Disneyland. It ended with Audio cartes.
@ MIKE-
[I don't think] Tape-a-Thon was around in 1955, but not too long after that - perhaps as early as 1960. I presume the same music was recorded on both 'halves' of the tape, and when the tape reversed, simply played the same program as was recorded on the 1st half of the tape. The Tape-a-Thon machines were extremely reliable and robust, and were designed to just play and play and play with little to no maintenance.
Nothing wrong with random. Definitely a great shot of the Flight to the Moon! Seems like I’ve seen that one recently before…
Brad Abbott, there’s an uncannily-similarly-composed-and-lit shot of the Flight to the Moon facade over at Yesterland. It’s possible that that’s what you are thinking of, although since the building lent itself best to photographs taken from this angle, there are probably a lot of similar images floating around the interwebosphere.
Dean Finder, how funny, I wonder if my brain retained some shadow of a memory of the opossums from that episode?? I’ve heard about the hydrolators from The Living Seas, I personally would not have wanted to skip those ever, but… some people have short attention spans. Meanwhile, I am so curious about the “Princess and the Frog” redo to Splash Mountain. That movie is “OK”, I wish I loved it more, and I have a hard time imagining that it will inspire a good ride. Hopefully I am wrong.
Nanook and Mike Cozart, I’m just going to sit back and read what you guys are talking about, because it’s all over my head!
Brad Abbott, it’s as if you have ESP!
Chuck, Brad and I have been exchanging emails relating to a project that he is working on (top secret??), and I sent him my scan of “Flight to the Moon” months ago! But I very much appreciate that you defended me!
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