Tomorrowland, July 1996
Here are two great pics of the entrance to Tomorrowland circa July 1996! July means Summer crowds; the further into the land you look, the crazier it gets! Star Tours appears to be packing them in, and I'll bet that Space Mountain had a long line too. The wonderful old Rocket Jets were still there, but the Peoplemover track sat empty and unused (since the ride had closed the previous year). In about two years, strange rock formations would appear right in the middle of that walkway, and the Astro Orbiter would replace the Rocket Jets.
From this angle you can just see the Circlevision theater to the left (mostly blocked by Peoplemover tracks); I'm not sure what film would have been showing there in 1996 - though I believe it was Wonders of China. I thought that the Mary Blair tile murals were removed when Star Tours was added, but it looks like the mural on the left was still there in '96.
22 comments:
Two films were showing then in the Circle-Vison Theater. From opening till 2:00pm WONDERS OF CHINA would show. From 2:00pm on, AMERICAN JOURNEYS would play till closing. At this point in time the Circle-Vison Theater would close about 2-4 hours before the park did. What was odd is that, while the theater was closed for the nite, the film would still play with no guests or castmembers inside.
The year before the Cirecle-Vison would close before being gutted, a special return engadment showing of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL played. It was a nice touch to see the popular film again. What Disneyland guests were actually seeing were the Walt Disney World 1976 AMERICA THE BEATIFUL edition back up film prints. The Disneyland playback reels were long destroyed. The WDW print was partial damaged so at a few points a still image was shown--like the St. Louis Arch segment. Even the 1996 images of Tomorrowland are so much more inviting than what has been lingering on like a bad cold since 1998.
Major, the Mary Blair mural on the Adventure Thru Inner Space side was replaced in 1987 when Star Tours opened. The Mary Blair mural on the Circle-Vision side remained for another 10 years until Tomorrowland was brutally destroyed and replaced by the "Brown Tomorrowland" of 1998 But hey, I try not to be bitter.....
So pretty it was then, love the bright yellow flowers. I agree with TM about the brown, just not inviting ;( at all.
I never tire of seeing photos from these angles into the land of tomorrow. I love how the purty yeller flowers make them pop.
I also agree with the sad fact that although many think Tony Baxter is (was) a genius I think what he did to tomorrowland is a crime. Imho he should be locked in the POTC jail!
While Tomorrowland looks beautiful in these photos, it was already in deep decline by this time. By 1996 the kinetic energy was already nearly gone with the “Skyway” and “PeopleMover” closed. The “America Sings” building had been sitting empty for nearly 8 years and next doors “Mission to Mars” was closed about four years. It had become an empty shell. Tomorrowland 1998 (Imagination and Beyond) just seemed to be the nail in the coffin.
I’d rather have today’s Tomorrowland rather than what was there back in 1996. At least everything is up and running today with the exception of an abandoned PeopleMover track.
What a great way to start a Friday...these pictures instantly put a smile on my face! Beautiful colors, and I love the way the PeopleMover track just swoops in over the entrance to TL. Once I finish this post, I'm heading over to YouTube to ride the PeopleMover. I'm sure DL ops can't believe they let this attraction go. The WDW version seems to get more popular with each passing year. As it's such a people eater (as Walt would say), I can't imagine them ever letting their version close.
....And speaking of the CircleVision films, I was at Disneyland on July 4, 1984, and I believe they had a grand opening for, what was then called, World Premiere CircleVision. I seem to recall this was the day they started showing both the China film and the American Journeys film. Someone correct me if I'm wrong as to the film content, but I do have pictures of the opening ceremony with the balloon release!
O how I miss that entrance. Todays is such a clogged mess. I do agree with K that something needed to be done but I just don't care for the design, the brown of it all and general feel of the place. I seldom go to that side of the Park anymore.
Mike Cozart, thanks as always for the excellent information! I don't think I ever saw "Wonders of China"; I did see "American Journeys" though. Any idea if Disney still has the negatives for the Circle-Vision films? Your comments about the damaged prints hurts my brain! I guess they knew that the end was near for those films, so it wasn't worth making new prints.
TokyoMagic!, wow, I didn't know that the other mural managed to survive for so long. Sad to think that a year after this picture was taken, it finally got removed (or covered or whatever).
Nancy, I think Rolly Crump said that he personally helped to lay out the swirly pattern that you see in those yellow flowers.
Alonzo, I am a Tomorrowland freak, and can never have too many photos from ANY era. I thought that somebody else (not Tony B) was in charge of the Tomorrowland redo that has met with so much negative reactiion? Maybe I am mistaken.
steve2wdw, I am glad you liked these! I know I have a few other nice ones from the 1970's that will definitely make you smile. I miss the Peoplemover so much, I can't help feeling bitter that they replaced it with a lemon that lasted two years. And I would love to see your pictures of the opening ceremony of World Premiere Circlevision!
Irene, it really IS a mess there now. It just doesn't draw you in, except for the knowledge that once you get past the mess, there are some fun rides back there.
The brown rocks are like an anti-weenie; they serve to discourage people (well, me anyway) from going into Tomorrowland from the hub.
Other point: 1996 was 17 years ago. I just can't get over that fact. I feel so old.
Ah Tomorrowland "limbo"... where greats of 67 were starting to disappear and new and exciting attractions were popping up. I still think we need a weenie in TL, and of course getting rid of the mess in the middle of the entrance is a must.
BUT have you heard the news about a Stark Industries exhibit coming to our Innoventions? As much as I'm not huge on too much synergy in the parks this somehow feels like it will be just right for the current, ahem, attraction. You know I love the idea of Innoventions and this could be the change that brings the execution back to the positive side.
Your thoughts?
Major- It would seem very anti-Disney not to have saved the negatives from all the Circlevision films - but you never know. Without getting too technical, here, I had always heard Disney employed the dye transfer process for their "show" prints (for better color matching across the nine prints which make up the Circlevision image), which would require three separate "printing" matrices as the "inner negative". If so, that would've been handled by Technicolor, and it's doubtful the printing separations still exist. However, that wouldn't preclude the existence of the camera negatives, inner positives, inner negatives, etc.
As a longtime projectionist (kinda in a former lifetime) it was with a great deal of pleasure to have toured the Circlevision projection booth at Disneyland in 1980 and marvel at the intense quiet of the room. This in spite of the fact there were nine operating projectors and the attendant film cabinets, used to correctly house the "rolls" of film. (Sorry, no tacky film platters here. This was first class). And if memory serves, I was told the typical print run numbered in the area of 10,000+ screenings. This is unheard of in the real world, where print runs numbering in the 500 neighborhood would be worthy of some grand award.
You are right. Maybe I am jumping to blame without checking my facts. It's probably because I never got over TB gutting Nature's Wonderland for a roller coster.
I'll stand down but it seems that any pre 98 tomorrowland photos get plenty of comments.
Tom, I think most people wonder what those rocks have to do with "Tomorrow". Maybe it is supposed to make us think of Vulcania, where Captain Nemo hid? Who knows.
PsySocDisney, I will have to look up the Stark Industries exhibit... the idea is cool, but how will it differ from what is already there I wonder. It would almost be better if they just went for a fictional future instead of attempting to keep up with technology.
Nanook, I honestly would LOVE to see those early Circle-Vision films, even if we just see the "front" camera's view. These days they would be fascinating relics of the way things used to be. It sounds like Disney doesn't even know what it has in those salt mines in Kansas (or wherever), since they keep finding stuff. I remember you telling me about your tour of the Circlevision projection booth. What is a "film platter"?
Alonzo, I am not positive, but I would hate for Tony B to take the rap for something that he wasn't responsible for! Trust me, I feel much the same way about the current Tomorrowland and the removal of Nature's Wonderland as you do.
Tony Baxter was solely responsible for the disastrous 1998 Tomorrowland revamp. Agrifuture, indeed. Baxter complained that Pressler's expensive failure, Light Magic, chopped his budget to a fraction of what had originally been approved for the Tomorrowland revision, but even the more expensive edition would have been simply a glossier hideous mess.
Tony is the sweetest guy you could ever hope to meet, and he LOVES Disneyland, but his gutting of Frontierland, his destruction of TSI... the list of his missteps goes on and on. So glad he's gone.
Space Mountain's not enough of a weenie?
Major - The think the rockwork and plants were suppose to represent the "Montana Future" Eisner was so crazy about. A sort of return to nature. Whatever it was, it didn't work.
Anonymous, thanks for the correction; I think Tony seems like a great guy, but I suppose that it is very difficult to achieve anything great "by committee". Too many cooks.... it does make one wonder how everything would have turned out if he had been able to do things his way.
Melissa, I love Space Mountain, but it isn't always super visible from the hub; or at least in my recollection!
K. Martinez, "Montana Future", ugh. That's one of the things I really didn't like about Eisner. "My kids play hockey, let's make a movie about hockey!" (giving us The Mighty Ducks). His love of Montana gave us the forgettable "Brother Bear". I guess he thought that whatever interested him would interest everybody. Walt did the same thing, only he was usually right!
To this day the smell of marigolds takes me back some sunny good old Disneyland days due to those wonderful swooshing planters and the built-in seating they provided.
This entrance was one of the most beautiful architectural tableaux ever. My spaceman avatar photo was taken right there under the PM track. I loved that spot.
JG
Stunning beds of bright yellow flowers! They almost make up for no Goodyear Peoplemover! K. Martinez is right... the energy was definitely gone from Tomorrowland by this time. Okay, I can see closing "Mission to Mars" as it was very dated (many still remembered it as the moon, as well), and interest in our space program had so fallen off. But the Skyway, Astrojets and Goodyear Peoplemover were timeless! With the possible exception of the Goodyear Peoplemover, I don't recall there being any "fall off" in attendance in either the Skyway or Astrojets -- I DO recall lines for both (LONG lines for the Astrojets in summer which was usually when we visited). Was their demise another "great" Michael Eisner decision? Oh, and what was wrong with the murals??? They were "timeless" in their own way, as well! (And certainly works of art that should be preserved. Glad the Louvre didn't throw out the Mona Lisa at some point because it began to look "old fashioned"!).
No, the 1967 Tomorrowland will always be THE Tomorrowland for me. I'll agree with K. Martinez that it's at least better to have the full Tomorrowland of today, then the mostly closed one of the late 90s. What happened during that period? Did the Imagineers run out of imagination for "tomorrow", or did Eisner cut off their funds? Like you, Major, I still miss the Monsanto Inner Space ride. It was kinda campy, and that made it fun! I'll never forget that they placed some of those enormous white snowflakes a bit too close to the track, cause every time we went past them, we'd reach way out and bang on them! If I'm remembering correctly, wasn't admission to "Inner Space" free? You didn't even need to use any of your tickets!
It's funny that they used the term "inner space," and for the submarine cruise it was "liquid space"! Almost like both were being "tied into" the Space Age that was all-encompassing in the 1960s. I don't think anyone who came along after the space race could appreciate just how much the space program dominated that whole era (especially for kids like me, who loved everything about space travel, rockets, astronauts, and the like). Tomorrowland of the 1950s and 60s sure reflected that interest, bordering on obsession, with the Space Age!
Shame we can't have a "retro" Tomorrowland that recreates the best of the past and preserves it in perpetuity, while newer stuff comes and goes.
--Mike Douglas
Discussion of CircleVision films reminds me of the old Cinerama features, which used a three camera/three projector system. According to Widescreenmuseum.com (which seems to be the leading authority on the subject) there are now 3 theaters that have been restored with the Cinerama process that can plan Cinerama features (Bradford, England; Seattle, WA, and the good old Cinerama Dome in Hollywood).
I was too young for "How the West Was Won" in 1963 (probably stuck home with a babysitter!), but my folks and my other brother and sister remember seeing it at the Cinerama Dome, and it was a real "knock-out"! The "Cinerama" features I recall seeing at the Dome, starting in 1966 with the previous year's "Battle of the Bulge" were not 3-strip Cinerama, but single-strip Ultra Panavision. While the largely fictional storyline of "Battle of the Bulge" was hardly impressive, seeing it on the anamorphic wide-screen of Cinerama was something I'll never forget -- your were almost literally surrounded by tanks!
Other Ultra Panavision "Cinerama" productions (single strip) I recall seeing at the Dome were "Grand Prix", "Khartoum" and my personal favorite "Ice Station Zebra". Going on the submarine ride in Tomorrowland, where you go under the polar ice cap, always reminded me of that movie. Oh, I believe we saw one more there, as well... 1969's stinker "Krakatoa, East of Java" -- infamous for it's glaring mistake in geography -- Krakatoa is WEST of Java! (Thankfully the volcanic eruption on the submarine ride didn't remind me of that dumb movie! LOL).
--Mike Douglas
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