Friday, December 26, 2014

More GDB Classics!

It's time for more repeats - I mean "classics" - from the past! Tomorrowland is the theme today.

I just loved the wonderful Rocket Jets (in a picture from 1974), set way up atop the Peoplemover loading platform. You were a good two stories up before you even "took off"! Does anybody know if the Rocket Jets were the same exact mechanism as the earlier Astro Jets? It almost looks the same to me, just covered up with lots of awesome faux-NASA theming. Notice the stage in the background (to our left) with its pre-Bicentennial theme. I also like how you can see that the roofs of the Peoplemover cars are angled up, which automatically happened while it was in the load area. (Photo first posted in 2009)


Originally posted in 2008, here's a very nice shot of the blue Monorail as it waits at the Tomorrowland station (notice the Santa Fe logos). Right below it is the load area for the Submarine Voyage. This bright sunny picture (from 1963) is definitely "postcard worthy".


And finally, here's a very rare photo taken inside the "America the Beautiful" attraction (circa 1968). I love the bold graphic banners for each state, hanging overhead. Among the displays are "A Touch of Tomorrow" and "Hear Your Own Voice". I remember sitting on one of those benches while a hostess impressed everyone with her encyclopedic knowledge of area codes! 


12 comments:

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Picture number one is just plain perfect! Astro Jets, Peoplemover cars tipping their lids, Coca-Cola signage and covered spotlights atop the elevator tower just waitng to bathe the "Kids of the Kingdom" in bright light.

The blue monorial is perfectly framed and ANY shot of America the Beautiful is super rare.

Thanks for posting and starting a super friday.

Chuck said...

Happy Boxing Day! I'll be celebrating by perusing the four Disney-themed books I got for Christmas and then watching a movie appropriate for the day. Can't decide between "On the Waterfront" or "Rocky."

I absolutely LOVE the America the Beautiful wait area shot! I remember the benches, although I don't remember the rest of the decor; I'm guessing it had changed by my first experience with the attraction in 1974.

I find it interesting that although the US Postal Service introduced two-letter state abbreviations along with ZIP codes in 1963, the older abbreviations are still in use on the banners in 1968. I know it took a while for the new abbreviations to take hold; I can remember using "Calif.," "O.," and "Ill." on letters to and from grandparents throughout the mid-70's until I got into stamp collecting and felt I had to use the new ones.

Today's reruns are great. I don't mind you re-using "classics" - it saves me the trouble of trying to Google my way through 8 years of GDB goodness to find THAT ONE SHOT.

Major Pepperidge said...

Alonzo, I think I have probably bored everyone with my stated love for the Tomorrowland of that period… it’s the one I grew up with, and in many ways it was the best (though an argument could be made for the pre-1967 Tomorrowland, I guess). Happy friday!

Chuck, ah, I remember when I used to ask for a bunch of Disney books for Christmas. After so many years, they started taking over everything! I finally had to start culling the herd, so to speak. Remember when only ONE good Disney book came out each year? Now it’s four or five, or sometimes more. Like you, I love the America the Beautiful image… such fond memories of that attraction. I never really collected stamps “officially”, but I inherited my grandmother’s collection (unorganized as it was), and probably have enough 3 cent stamps to last me two lifetimes.

K. Martinez said...

The Mark II Monorail Blue shot is perfection! I love the "Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System" signage. The fan palm is a nice touch too. Beautiful!

I remember the bench seating from the Circle-Vision 360 lobby. I also remember being impatient for the show to start. Watching the digital? clock ticking time away was torture.

Major - I've experienced Anaheim's original, 1967, 1998 and current Tomorrowlands as well as Florida's original Tomorrowland. The 1967 version was the best IMO!

Chuck - I had a wonderful stamp collection when I was a kid. About ten years ago I became friends with someone who was into stamp collecting and I got into it all over again.

Chuck said...

Major, heck, I can remember the days when years would pass between the publication of ANY Disney books of note. We may love the Disneyland of the 70's and 80's, but it wasn't a good time for quality Disney books. Now there are so many you really have to be discerning.

My collection's not at the point where it needs to be culled, but I stopped collecting and asking for Disney books for a long time - no space to shelve them, no time to read them, and they add a lot of weight when you have to plan for relatively frequent household moves. I think I received two as gifts and bought three more in the whole 1999-2013 period. This year's been a bit of a catch-up year for me, and both my birthday and Christmas hauls are enough to keep me reading for a while.

I only collected stamps for a few years, largely under the influence of a grade-school friend from a philatelic family. While I didn't stick with the collecting, I did develop an off-and-on interest in postal things in general - I even supervised a military post office overseas for a year. That's really neat that you inherited your grandmother's collection. I have some of my grandmother's postcard collection, and it's nice to have that little bit of her personality around today.

Chuck said...

Ken - I think that's really cool you got back into stamps. I find hobbies are a lot more fun when you have someone to share them with.

I still have my stamps...somewhere. I also have a decent first day of issue collection from that time period. Somebody bought me a membership in the "Postal Commemorative Society" (one of several collectible companies that were run out of 47 Richards Ave in Norwalk, CT), and I would get commemorative envelopes with the first day of issue postmarks on them in the mail along with binder pages to display them that also included contextual information on whatever was being commemorated by the stamp. Great memories...

Nanook said...

Major-
My favorite "state flag", often eliciting groans, was the 'state of confusion'-! Oh, those Disney Imagineers - always with the corny quips.

Thanks, Major.

Katella Gate said...

Oh Nanook! I was going to point out the State of Confusion flag but you beat me to it. See you over at Automaticwasher.org

Major Pepperidge said...

K. Martinez, those fan palms always make me think of my grandma’s backyard… there were always volunteer fan palms, and she gave us a quarter for each one we pulled up. I guess they were brought there by birds? Who knows. Florida’s Tomorrowland, while cool, always looked a bit strange to me. Maybe just because it was different from what I was familiar with.

Chuck, I have all kinds of abandoned collections from childhood. I recently looked at my old coin collection, and MAN, did I choose crummy coins. Almost nothing truly interesting. Back then, if a penny was especially shiny, I was happy!

Nanook, I have no memory of that bad pun! But Disneyland wouldn’t be Disneyland without a generous helping of bad puns.

Katella Gate, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Nanook!

Anonymous said...

Wow, those flags, that lobby. I remember the spiel now, but not until nanook and KG chimed in...

So cool, Major. So cool.

JG

Unknown said...

With respect to the Rocket Jets mechanism: I'm pretty sure that the original works were cannibalized to make the Observatron. You can still see that conical base (visible in your shot) on the Observatron and though the hydraulic lifters aren't in their original position I'd bet they're being used to move the arms that we see today.

And how about a shout out to the Main Street Station for another cool photo-bomb!

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, I have a faint memory of hearing a live recording of the "America the Beautiful" pre-show, but I sure can't find it now. Maybe I just imagined it.