It's time for a few more repeats! Or should I call them "greatest hits"? Both are from July, 1958.
I always get a kick out of seeing the Skyway passing over Holiday Hill - before the Matterhorn was hatched. What's truly amazing is that only a year later, the Matterhorn would be completed, and guests would be experiencing their first bobsled trips down the icy slopes. Just to the right of the Columbia poster we can see the Viewliner station - that attraction wouldn't close for another two months, and if you look closely you can see an employee standing in the shade. By the way, I love the way the Skyway looks at this angle!
And here's a familiar sight; the Moonliner as seen from the Skyway. I love it. It is 80 feet tall - a 1/3 scale representation of a "real" moon rocket - imagine if they had built it at its full size of 240 feet! Now that would have been spectacular. It would have overwhelmed the intimate scale of the park (and would have towered over the 140-foot tall Matterhorn), but still… just think of it!
Ahhh, true eye candy! Love a sunny day in Tomorrowland. :-)
ReplyDeleteI am in the orange sky bucket...this view of Holiday Hill somehow makes me think that I am going into parts unknown, its like "wonder what's beyond those trees?" And dont even forget about those gorgeous alien-eye looking lights. Still want one of those!!
Sleek and modern way to travel to the moon...lets go now! Love the Disneyland Hotel poster...its one of my faves!
Great post today! Starting a rainy day off with a big smile here in Western PA :-D
Both images are gems today. The Skyway bucket colors are the best, from the cream colored to the metallic. The Flight Circle sure looks popular. At least with the spectators.
ReplyDeleteNancy, I wish we had rain today. The temp's been 100 last couple of days here on the central coast and will be 99 today.
I love the Skyway photo too. Except for Nancy in the orange bucket...the rest of the buckets look empty!
ReplyDeleteSo - does Holiday Hill become the Matterhorn, and those high-point towers get engulfed by the mountain structure?
Nice post today Major!
Bill in Denver
Cool older pics. The old (round) skyway buckets always remind me of the barrel shaped spinning pods at Magic Mountain (answer to the Disney teacups).
ReplyDeleteA 240 foot moonliner would have been awesome! Even the 150 feet or 5/8ths scale to match most other buildings etc. would have been cool.
No complaint at seeing these beauties again, Major. Reruns are just fine with me. If it weren't for reruns, I wouldn't have had anything to watch on TV growing up.
ReplyDeleteI have a 1:80 scale model kit of the Moonliner, a 90's Glencoe Models reissue of the 1950's Strombecker kit. Glencoe called it the "Mars Liner" because they didn't have a license from Disney, but they were pretty clever with the decals. The name of the fictitious space line was "Fastways," rendered in all caps in the same font and size as the TWA logo on the Moonliner; all you need is an Xacto knife to get the decal you really want.
Haven't put it together yet - it's a fairly challenging build as the fuselage is in four quarter sections - but I'm looking forward to the day I can put it on my shelf.
Nice close-up of my favorite toothpick-and-olive Tomorrowland lights!
ReplyDeleteNancy, you must be invisible, I can't see you in the orange Skyway bucket! ;-) Lucky for me I have lots of "repeats" to share nowadays. And I'm jealous of your rain!
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, it is interesting to observe the changes in the colors used for the Skyway buckets in just 10 years or so. I've always wondered if popular car colors influenced the buckets.
Bill in Denver, yeah, how can that ride be so empty?? Holiday Hill was shaved down to pretty much nothing, as I learned from a slide that I just acquired.
Alonzo, I know it would have been too expensive and too large, but that rocket needs to be huge!!
Chuck, I love your info about the name "FASTWAYS", so clever and awesome!! I have one of the original old Strombecker models, but where the heck is it? I don't know. My mom's house maybe. I wanted to buy one of the reissues, but even those got expensive at some point. And I've never been good at building those plastic models, in spite of making a ton of them (mostly WWII planes) when I was a kid.
Melissa, I'd bet money that those were not custom-made for the park, I wonder who manufactured them originally.