I have two extra-nice pix for you on this fine Friday, starting with this postcard-worthy photo looking toward the America the Beautiful building with its classic mid-century wavy awning. This was during the brief period in which a model of a Telstar satellite "orbited" above the building on that long boom. I'm going to quote one of my own blog posts from way back in 2012: Telstar 1 and Telstar 2 - virtually identical - were built by AT&T, Bell Laboratories, NASA, and the British and French postal services, and transmitted some of the earliest trans-Atlantic television images. Neither satellite is functional any more, but both are still in orbit!
Let's zoom in a little, just because we can! And by "we", I mean myself and the Queen of England, who is very familiar with Photoshop. Behind the Clock of the World you can see those ruffle cloth shades that used to be strung across parts of Tomorrowland's main walkway.
Next is this pretty photo of a vehicle winding its way along the beautifully landscaped roads of the Midget Autopia. If you've ever seen similar rides at other amusement parks, they sure didn't look this lovely. "Elevation 144 Ft."? No wonder I feel lightheaded. Main Street Station says that the elevation there is 138 feet, in case you were wondering.
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"asdfasdfasdf" as in "qwertyqwertyqwerty"? Major, did you fall asleep at your keyboard??
ReplyDeleteMajor-
ReplyDeleteOh, those clothes: The plaid outfit and the lady next to her with the yellow"swirl-?" dress. (Love the [almost] knee-high red socks). That POV shot of the Midget Autopia really shows-off the lush landscaping. Clearly - that Autopia was like no other.
Thanks, Major.
Any idea when the Telstar satellites are supposed to come crashing back down to Earth? I want to have a T-shirt made, to go along with my "Skylab Target" t-shirt from 1979.
ReplyDeleteMajor, "asdfasdfasdfasdfdsa"? All I can say in response to that is, "covfefe."
Oh, and I do love today's pics! Thanks, Major!
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
ReplyDeleteNailed it!
Great pics again today. And hopefully just a typing lesson.
My earworm for the day.
ReplyDeleteTM!, I couldn't find any specific info on when they think the first two Telstar satellites will de-orbit, but based on what I could find on Vanguard 1 (which has a generally similar low-to-medium Earth elliptical orbit), they'll most likely be up there a few hundred more years.
As a kid I was amazed to discover what keeps satellites in orbit; i.e. the are falling just fast enough to always clear the horizon. Hence, orbit is a form of velocity, not altitude, and if the Earth was a smooth cue ball, things could orbit at any altutude, even two feet off the ground, given the proper velocity. Also, mountain hiking would be much easier, but that's a subject for another day...
ReplyDeleteBefore Videopolis/Fantasyland Stage was built, you could still see the hilly landscape and pathways of the Midget Autopia ...... the pavement and guide rails were long removed.
ReplyDeleteInteresting info on the 2 satellites. I remember when SKYLAB fell .... I thought coming home from school we’d have to run for cover from flaming chunks falling outta the sky!!!! ( there’s a band name for you : FLAMING CHUNKS)
I remember sometime the year SKYLAB fell, some awards show on tv displayed one of the pieces that had landed in Australia. Was it the Academy Awards ? Miss Universe ? International Jiffy Pop Competition??? I have a memory of George Hamilton presenting the wreckage to the audience.
That satellite on the roof is super cool! I wish theme parks still did stuff like that - it didn't make any money, but it probably made an impression on some people, and that's what matters. Thanks, Major.
ReplyDeleteHere's an 8-year-old me on the last remaining Midget Autopia.
Oh, and Chuck, thanks for your credit card info yesterday. ;-)
Sue, I would never say anything as terrible as qwertyqwertyqwerty. (The “asdfasdf…” was dummy text so that I can format my blog post, and I forgot to put in the real text that was meant to replace it).
ReplyDeleteNanook, it almost looks like Mr. Red Sox’s friend is laughing at his fashion choice. I like that they put in an Autopia just for very small children, since the real Autopia might have been too much for their tiny legs. Plus the grownups often took the driver’s seat.
TokyoMagic!, they are crashing down somewhere in Whittier, TODAY! ;-) I thought maybe they were in “perpetual orbit”, if that’s even a thing. If they haven’t come down in 50 years, maybe they’re just staying up there forever. And a pleasant “covfefe” to you too.
Budblade, I just read a better sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet: “Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow”. WAY better!
Chuck, it’s time to start my business recovering old space hardware and selling it on the collector’s market.
stu29573, Oh I wish I lived on Planet Cueball. No more annoying mountains or oceans! The smoothness would be very relaxing - except for those satellites orbiting 2 feet off the ground.
Mike Cozart, interesting, I guess I assumed that the Midget Autopia site was scraped flat when the ride was removed. Cool that you could still see the hills for many years! I remember when Skylab fell, but have no memories of any pieces being presented on a major TV event. Maybe somebody else does? This seems like it would be right up TokyoMagic’s alley.
Andrew, I love the satellite too, and was once challenged by a reader to produce an animated gif of the thing as it rotated above the building, but I don’t know 3D animation. Where is (was?) that last remaining Midget Autopia? And I wonder if they’ll ever get the one in Marceline up and running again - as much as I like the idea, it seems impractical from a financial standpoint.
Madras was in, what can you say. Maybe sock guy is a Boston fan. I really like these pics, thanks Major. jkl;!
ReplyDeleteSkylab fell?! I guess I'm way off in the office betting pool.
ReplyDeleteI have no memory of riding the Midget Autopia. Maybe because I was 7 when the park opened. I only wanted the real thing. Did anyone else ever fall over in America the Beautiful?
My thing is fgjh fgjh, personally. And Flaming Chunks were way over rated.
Great pics today, thank you,
dz
Pretty sure that I saw Flaming Chunks opening for the Sphinx of Black Quartz sometime in the '60's, but as they say, if you remember the '60's, you weren't there.
ReplyDeleteI can't recall Midget Autopia at all. No idea why, it was there when I was and we were the right size for one another.
Major, I recall another alphabet sentence: "Jackdaws love my big Sphinx of Quartz". Not sure if it's shorter or not, and not popular in the US since we don't know that crows are jackdaws, but relies on many of the same words.
Thanks for the pics!
JG
Chuck, that's not a very catchy earworm, but I like it!
ReplyDeleteAndrew, what a great photo!
Major, I remember that Skylab was going to come crashing down on us (Earth) and nobody knew exactly where it would hit. There was a bit of a scare thing going on with the news (gee, maybe they have always been that way?), but some people were able to use it for comedy. And I do remember some people had t-shirts with big targets on them and the caption, "Skylab Target." I don't remember a TV show where they unveiled the wreckage of Skylab, but if someone knows the month and year or remembers which show it was, I could probably look it up in my collection of TV Guides.
Well, doing a little research, I found that the show was the Miss Universe Pageant, which was held in Perth, Australia, on July 20, 1979. I'm not sure if it aired live, on that same date or if it aired later. The hosts involved were Bob Barker, Donny Osmond, Jayne Kennedy and Helen O'Connell. And just as Mike Cozart remembers, "a large piece of debris from Skylab (which had fallen to Earth nine days earlier) was displayed on stage during coronation night."
ReplyDelete@ TM!-
ReplyDeleteDo you suppose they festooned a part of the debris into the winner's crown-?
You know it's too bad they took out the Midget Autopia. It was one of the few "little kid" rides at Disneyland. And so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that Tomorrowland pic. I get that they wanted an American flag at the entrance but it does sit right where people would want to stand to take pictures of the Clock of the World. The added placement of a trash can seems particularly awkward.
Major, maybe someone stole that elevation sign from Frontierland Station?
ReplyDeleteMajor, I'll see your asdfasdfasdfasdfdsa, and raise you a 'Lorem
ReplyDeleteipsum dolor sit amet...'
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The range of information found in GDB comments is nothing short of amazing.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Queen of England to Telstar to Donny Osmond in six jumps or less.
JG
Jonathan, I thought Madras was a wine. Are you saying that everybody in these photos is drunk? That guy is a Red Stocking fan, he goes way back.
ReplyDeletedzacher, some say Skylab was pushed. I’m one of those people. No Skylab acts that way normally! It’s a conspiracy! If you don’t like Flaming Chunks, do you like Flaming Hot Cheetos?
JG, darn it, I was going to do the “if you remember” joke, but you beat me to it! I also have zero memories of the Midget Autopia, but I was a small child when it was removed. I’ve never heard the “jackdaws” sentence, and I didn’t know that they were the same as crows. Meanwhile, I never knew that we have ravens in SoCal, I thought those were all crows, but a friend told me the difference, and now I see ravens all the time.
TokyoMagic!, what?? You don’t dig surf music? What a square! I also remember the Skylab panic, which was pretty silly. In a way it’s amazing that any of it hit land. Maybe the TV show was “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour”?
TokyoMagic again, wow, I can’t believe you actually found the show with the Skylab wreckage! I wonder if people actually tuned in to see the pile of space junk? Of course I would have tuned into hear Donny Osmond sing. Like an angel! Jayne Kennedy, I forgot about her, she was such a beauty.
Nanook, the wreckage wore a sash and a one piece bathing suit.
Sunday Night, it does look like it might be hard to get a straight-on shot of the Clock of the World, somebody didn’t think things through that thoroughly! Same with the trash can… put it off to the side!
Steve DeGaetano, I DID see somebody with a mask and a striped shirt. Could have been the Hamburgler, I admit.
Warren Nielsen, yes! My “asdfasdfasdf…” was basically a home-made “Lorem ipsum dolor…”. I go back to the days of cut and paste (that hot wax adhesive, I can still smell it) and we had sheets of “Lorem ipsum” rub down type.
JG, my head will hold all of this kind of info, but not math formulas or anything useful.
Major, scroll to the bottom of this Yesterland article to see where I rode the last remaining "Arrowflite" kiddie car ride - Idlewild Park in Ligonier, PA, about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. I of course had no idea of its significance at the time, so I was astounded when I came across this article!
ReplyDeleteNanook, ".....festooned a PART of the debris into the winner's crown"??? The debris WAS the crown! (That year, the Miss Universe title was awarded to the contestant with thickest and most muscular neck.)
ReplyDeleteMajor, if you could get me a chunk that blew off of the Apollo 13 Service Module, I'll be willing to pay good money - maybe up to $50! That is, if Andrew left that much in my account...
ReplyDeleteTM!, that piece of music is an integral part of the soundtrack of my life. My dad came home from Vietnam with a bunch of reel-to-reel tapes (mostly instrumentals) he had recorded at the MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation) Tape Center, and we listened to those a lot around the house from about 1970-76. One of the tapes had a couple of Ventures albums on it, and their cover of "Telstar" was included.
Six years and a couple of moves later when I got my own stereo and a basement rec room outside my bedroom to put it in, I appropriated the idle reel-to-reel equipment and tapes and hooked them up to my own system and listened to them over and over and over again. I was the only kid I knew in my junior high who a)had a reel-to-reel tape deck and b)listened to real surf music. Over time, I did manage to win quite a few converts amongst my friends (I also got them listening to the Kingston Trio, but that's another story entirely).
Andrew, thanks for that neat photo. I see my money didn't go to waste.
Am checking back in for some more entertaining reading and am NOT disappointed. LOVE all the funny comments from everyone, and everything added, today - especially Andrew's picture! These stay-at-home expanded-versions of GDB are great! Thanks, Major and all!
ReplyDeleteOkay, everyone....I know it's late. I was busy all day, so I couldn't look for this until just now, but I found it without much trouble. It's the TV Guide and listing for the Miss Universe 1979 Pageant. I've posted it at the link below. The pageant also happens to be on YouTube, in it's entirety, and that includes weird moments of not much happening on stage, during what apparently were the commercial breaks. I guess they just kept those cameras rolling. I haven't gotten to the part where they "unveil" the big hunk of Skylab yet, but at the 7:40 mark, Bob Barker talks about it and how they will unveil it later, but while he is saying that, they show it sitting on the stage anyway! I'm assuming that later in the show, they make a bigger deal out of it. Right after Bob Barker mentions it, a bunch of children from around the world parade out onto the stage, dressed in their native costumes, and singing that classic Sherman Brothers ditty, "It's A Small World." So for those who are interested, here is that address. As usual, scroll all the way to the bottom of the post/page for the 1979 Miss Universe TV Guide listing and the embedded video of the pageant:
ReplyDeletehttps://meettheworldinprogressland.blogspot.com/2009/12/snowflakes-in-emporium-1995.html
Thanks, TokyoMagic! Am looking forward to watching [and laughing at] that program! Did you get your A/C fixed?
ReplyDeleteSue, the A/C was fixed today....thanks for asking! I didn't finish watching the video, myself! I'll maybe hunt around for the part where they unveil Skylab, but other than that, I'm not sure I want to watch the whole two-hour show. Although, the beginning was mildly entertaining as all of the contestants sang "Waltzing Matilda!"
ReplyDelete