Here's a nice shot of the old Astro Jets as they spin and spin, and then spin some more. Look at those crazy hot shots who have exceeded the maximum altitude! Without supplementary oxygen, they are sure to black out and lose control.
I like the detail in this panorama taken from the top of the Mark Twain... to the left you can see the crude wooden souvenir stands of the Zocalo Market, and beyond that is the Mineral Hall, Assay Office, and entrance to the Mine Train queue. To the right, the Trading Post.
"If you look to your left, you'll see a guy in a blue windbreaker; you might remember him from, er, Pinocchio."
"Pay no attention to that guy on the shore!" ...stalking the canal boat maids. "Ignore me now," he thinks.
ReplyDeleteThose crude, mis-match covered stands in the pic from the Twain, not entirely out of place with the wooden shade over the benches, strike me as all too real for an early frontier settlement. :) Better fit than the Technicolor Tropicana of the umbrellas next to 'em further back! Tho' they're a neat '50s touch.
Family by the flag pole on the right is really enjoying their ice creams on a stick. It might be the first they ever had. Yum! Who's hungry for some chocolate & ice cream (when it was real Carnation ice cream before cheaper modern guar gum ice food formula).
The whole scene is missing something though, what could it be hmm... a mountain. That's what it needs, a snow capped Alpine mountain! And cover the unsightly skyway peak supports to the right of the castle at the same time. Genius I tells ya.
These are three great photos today, Major. I am thinking of square dancing music for some reason when I look at the first one. Wasn't there a Wonderful World of Color episode that used square dancing music while showing footage of the Astro Jets?
ReplyDeletepretty pictures again today...
ReplyDeletewhy can i NEVER remember what those buildings are called behind the Jets, the ones with all the geometrics on the facade? this is the first time i ever knew that there were 2 of them! where have i been??
was there an actual Astro Jets sign? of course there must have been, but i dont recall ever seeing a picture of it, either, only see the attraction poster...
i love the panorama. fun pictures when you get the different architectures in one shot :D
medal doors in the rocks? to the left in that last picture.
ReplyDeleteSomeone a while back asked where were the old astro jets located. Now you can really see the close relationship to the flight circle and the other buildings.
ReplyDeleteThe building on the right is where the art corner was located, where the "Big Mooseketeer", Roy Williams, would do cartoons. (Just to the right of that was the Yachtsmen conning tower stage was located. The building to the left, behind the flight circle, was where the bathroom of tomorrow was (in the square part), and the round part of the building was where the 20K Exhibit was located. The area just in front of that was where the stage would be set up for the big bands like Benny Goodman. Out of view and to the left is the Moon Rocket, to the left of that is the Space Bar, and more left is the Autopia. You can also just make out the avenue of flags above the buildings, just to the right of the jets, where the entrance to Tomorrowland was, and still is.
The metal doors led to a little-known area under Storybook Land, commonly referred to as the "Detention Room." The original plan was to have the actual storybook characters populate Storybook Land, but they proved a recalcitrant lot, very difficult to manage, and prone to attempted union organizing. When things got out of hand, park authorities would pick out a few and take them for a visit to the "Detention Room." We need not go into the horrors that were inflicted there, but it made Guantanamo look like a tea party with Mary Poppins (legend has it they once took a belt sander to Pinocchio's rear end)! In any event, the park authorities finally gave up and left Storybook Land as it is today: beautiful but empty landscapes and buildings. The "Detention Room" was ultimately walled off and forgotten. It is never mentioned by Disney authorities, and publishing pictures of it is widely considered a foolhardy and dangerous thing to do.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you think the Astro Jtes pic was taken from? I can't figure it out.
ReplyDeleteAstro Jets pic seems to be taken from the famous "Buckets in the Sky" ride (some people called it the "Skyway" but we all know the ride's one true name).
ReplyDeleteI remember the uproar from the fan community when the man in the blue windbreaker was removed from the Storybook Land Canals with only a barren batch of grass left behind. One more icon that has become a permanent "E'" Ticket attraction in Yesterland.
So sad.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the Astro Jets photo was taken from the Skyway, maybe they had a zoom lens.
ReplyDeleteThe metal doors are how you accessed the vast underground private apartment that belonged to Walt Disney! ;-)
Seeing those crude Zocolo souvenir stands makes me wish I could peruse the merchandise - and buy some for a pittance.
Random is cool! Early Tomorrowland is awesome. But then you knew that :-)
ReplyDeleteThe hostesses used to refer to that cave as Never Never Land, "because we never, never take you in there!" (I wonder why it wasn't just Neverland like in the movie.) They would go on to say that that's where the boats "go to sleep at night." Does anyone else remember that part of the spiel?
ReplyDeleteYes, I do. I'm surprised they don't still say that. Or are the doors gone now?
ReplyDeleteCoxPilot, they have a curtain of water pouring down over the opening now and you can kind of make out Triton's Kingdom through the water. They tell you something about it being Ariel's home.
ReplyDelete