Well well well, it's the Monorail Green! For some reason this particular monorail wasn't captured on film very often (there were three other Monorail trains - red, yellow, and blue). It looks pretty fantastic, doesn't it?
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tomorrowland, January 1975
Hooray for Tomorrowland '75! That was MY Tomorrowland, the one that I grew up with and loved. Sure, the Carousel of Progress was gone by then (replaced by "America Sings" in 1974), but you still had the Skyway, the Peoplemover, the original Submarine Voyage, Adventure Thru Inner Space, America the Beautiful, and more. Construction for Space Mountain would begin in the summer of '75 too! Notice the Peoplemover castmember up on the track, in the strangely stylish blue and yellow costume.
Well well well, it's the Monorail Green! For some reason this particular monorail wasn't captured on film very often (there were three other Monorail trains - red, yellow, and blue). It looks pretty fantastic, doesn't it?
Well well well, it's the Monorail Green! For some reason this particular monorail wasn't captured on film very often (there were three other Monorail trains - red, yellow, and blue). It looks pretty fantastic, doesn't it?
Well well well (all is well, as this ends well), I don't recall ever seeing Monorail Green and rarely indeed does it turn up. Maybe the green acts as camouflage and people don't snap at it. But here we have a nice pic over da lagoooon (say it in pirate). We had a car in that same color metallic green in the 1970s. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat awesome pics. That's my Tomorrowland, too!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't remember ever seeing the Green Monorail either. I took my mom to Disneyland last year and as we sat at a table near the, uhg!, Pizza Port, she looked around and said, "there's nothing very tomorrow about tomorrowland anymore is there?"
This is my Tomorrowland as well....AND I MISS IT TERRIBLY!
ReplyDeleteChiana, we had a car that color too! By the way, welcome back!
Bloefeld, I love your mom's statement.....unfortunately it's so true.
Count me in... I've never seen Monorail green either. It looks like they were going to go with "avocado" but somebody got nervous and pulled it back to "java green"
ReplyDeleteMonorail Green and the Grays......life is good. I also remember those blue and yellow uniforms. I remember thinking at the time how cool and future they looked.
ReplyDeleteWow, great post. My favorite time too. Or maybe just before, when did carosel close? Peoplemover, circlevision and the mighty microscope! It's got me wanting to don my Monsanto synthetic fibre clothing and bop out to Miracles from Molecules! And autopia cars that look like..well..cars. Miss it alot!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI always wondered if anyone has any pictures inside the submarine show building. Kind of like behind the scenes. What the cast member who is the submarine operator sees.
ReplyDeleteI understand it is just a building and have heard there were lots of walkways above the submarines. However, the whole building can not be filled with water. It must be some kind of water channel like an aquarium that the submarine goes thru. Does anyone know for sure or have any pictures to share?
Great pictures Major.
1975 and '76 were the best years of all in Tomorrowland. I was in high school, the music was awesome, and Disneyland was awesome, and the girls would all talk to me.
ReplyDelete@Orange, I have seen pictures of the inside, I don't remember where. It is like you suspect, it looks like a long covered pool, with a low roof, kind of dark and lots of walkways with handrails, and lots of things hanging down from the roof. One of the photos I saw had some naval officers on a tour.
Here's one for Orange Co. Native:
ReplyDeletehttp://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2699/58483125mmyhjmyi7.jpg
Monorail Green? I'd never heard of such a beast. I thought this was some sort of color shift on the image, like how some kinds of grass comes out blue or black on some film emulsions, but I've found documentary evidence that it did, indeed, exist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Monorail_System).
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia, Monorail Green was added to the fleet with the introduction of the Mk III trains in 1969. In 1985, it was the first train rebuilt as a Mk V, in this case as Monorail Purple. The article does not mention it returning to service after the Mk VII rebuild of the rest of the fleet. Anybody know if it's in storage?
Let's hear it for bloefeld's mom. It's just not an exciting place anymore. The 70's WERE Tomorrowland at its best!
ReplyDeleteoh yeah....these are spectacular!! i LOVE the 70s!!
ReplyDelete5 years old, and there wasn't another place in the world more magical. Between puzzling over how we were shrunk small enough to fit into the small end of the microscope and talking to Snow White on the Bell telephones, the Future was really there.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why ol' Greenie is not represented in more photos, because it was there for a good 20 years. And my parent's Buick station wagon was a similar color!
ReplyDeleteBloefeld, just like TokyoMagic! says, your mom is so right.
Katella... "java" green?? I have no idea what that is. You mean "jade"?
Thufer, I'm not sure I want to wear one of those uniforms, but I'm very glad that somebody ELSE wore them.
Alonzo, in spite of all the horrible things I hear about Monsanto these days, I just can't bring myself to hate them because of the Disneyland connection.
O.C. Native and Vaughn, I used to know a professional photographer who said he took photos while walking through the (drained) "dark" portion of the ride, but he'd discarded them over the years.
Chuck, I would never lie to you!
And Nancy, me too!!!
Vaughn,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. Those pictures really look creepy. If I was a cast member, I don't think I would want to spend much time in there.
Wow, the riches in this post.
ReplyDeleteThe best era of Tomorrowland, the green monorail, and the inside of the submarine show building. My mind boggles. Thank you Vaughn.
My family also had two cars in that same green, both 1967 model years, and I remember enjoying the ride on "Green" since it was just like our shiny Thunderbird out in the parking lot. How I wish I had that car today.
Two years after these pics, when the Space Mountain opened in 1977, was my last trip with Mom and Dad.
JG
PS I would gladly wear a uniform like that if it meant I could work in Tomorrowland.
Holy smokes! What can I say that hasn't already been said?
ReplyDeleteFantastico! Ole!