Friday, September 18, 2020

Neat Tomorrowland Views, May 1963

I have a pair of fun Tomorrowland photos for you, circa 1963. Let's start with this shot of the Tomorrowland Spaceman looming above all of the mere Earthlings (he was probably half human, half Lunarian). The man to our left holds his souvenir guidebook, it looks like the finger of his right hand is pointing roughly to where they were standing. Ethel Merman (with the straw hat) thinks Moonboy is quite a dish. And buzz-cut kid in the foreground is supposed to follow his family, but he takes one last look behind him.


The little boy in the blue shirt can't believe his eyes. "Mama mia!" (we don't know if spicy meatballs were mentioned, sadly). I believe the checkerboard awnings were placed over benches, though it might have been some spillover dining area too.


Here's a fun portrait of a nice lady in the garden area near the Monsanto House of the Future. She's sitting on one of those amorphous concrete seats, see another view of them HERE. Notice how a mini-berm and trees help to isolate this area from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the park.


Displays give guests a taste of features that your future home might contain for your convenience and ease. A microwave oven, an ultrasonic dishwasher, pop-out sinks and cabinets, polarized plastic ceiling panels, a "cold zone" for irradiated foods, a hi-fidelity music system... what more could you want or need?



30 comments:

"Lou and Sue" said...

These are terrific pictures!

In the first shot, that kid eating the popsicle is giving us a serious glare (if looks could kill...)!!

Didn't someone mention that the DL spacemen were usually very tall?? This one sure is!

Skyway gondola sighting in #2!

"Mama mia, that's-a spicy meat-a-ball-a!"

Thanks, Major!

Nanook said...

Major-

Gotta love the lady just making herself at home right there in 'the garden'. With her sensible hat, she's ready for whatever Mother Nature may have in store.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

That's not Ethel Merman! It's Lieutenant Hurwitz. He just THINKS that he's Ethel Merman. War is hell.

Melissa said...

She’s even got a scarf tucked in her belt in case the wind picks up and she needs an emergency babushka to keep her coiffure in place!

Andrew said...

I like how the first picture is an "only in Disneyland" kind of view. The spaceman is just out, "among the people," although he honestly doesn't look too thrilled about it. You can also see an Astro Jet and the Moonliner in the background. Thanks, Major!

Chuck said...

Look at the crazy crowds that showed up for their futuristic space land. They should rip out those benches, seats, and planters to make room.

I spy two frozen juice bars in the first photo.

TM!, I don't think I'll ever be over Macho Grande.

Stu29573 said...

The Spaceman is actually a former basketball player who missed the NBA by an inch. He's thinking "If only that last second shot had gone in at the finals, I'd be living the life of Riley with Mary Lou!" Mary Lou, of course, ended up marrying the son of the local Nash dealer and they moved to Malibu when the hippies got bad in LA a few years later. Spacemam (or, more properly "Ken") started a "farming co-op" just north of San Francisco, where he worked until he retired at 45 with a cool mil in the bank. Maybe Mary Lou wasn't "all that" after all... Annnnd, curtain!

Tom said...

"Sensible lady" and her photographer must have just exited the House of the Future, and I believe he's pretty much right in the way of other exiting guests. Careful, sir! You're blocking the path!

I cannot get enough of the optimism displayed in that second photo, despite our subject's dour expression. Crisp white, tidy horizontal and vertical lines, Eames-style pops of color. If we pan down a bit we could see the Astroturf. It's the future!

DrGoat said...

Great crowd shot. 1963, when guys finally figured out they didn't need to wear a tie to Disneyland. In the third pic, my eyes immediately fell on the wavy plastic panels in the backround. We had a Ramada in the back yard that had that stuff as a roof. It actually lasted till the late 70s. We had the kind that probably had asbestos in it. Good times!
Thanks for the pics Major.

Anonymous said...

Feels uncanny knowing that Disney had an attraction sponsored by Monsanto. I know it was many years before the controversy surrounding the company, but still. It's like finding out Marlboro sponsored an attraction. :/

Nanook said...

@ DrGoat-

Well, asbestos is The Miracle Mineral after all-! That stuff is practically indestructible. There was good reason it was used in so many products; that, in spite of both Johns Manville & Raybestos knowing full-well [though they vehemently deny it] it was a deadly cause of cancer and mesothelioma, as far back as the 1930's - or earlier.

MRaymond said...

I have a picture of my mom with the spaceman from 1961, the dude is huge (the lower gravity and radiation allow for rapid growth). My mom was 5'8" and the spaceman towered over her.

Major Pepperidge said...

Lou and Sue, I dunno, popsicle kid doesn’t look so mean! More dopey than anything, ha ha. There were definitely some unusually tall people cast as the Tomorrowland Spaceman, though sometimes they seemed more average (or maybe just skinny).

Nanook, I’ll bet anything that the lady’s hat was bought at the park, it just has that look. Plus we know that the park must have sold thousands of cheap hats every day!

TokyoMagic!, I never could tell the difference!

Melissa, a babushka AND a hat? That lady really doesn’t want messy hair.

Andrew, yes, “Ol’ Spacey” doesn’t look particularly happy. He can’t even bring himself to pretend that he is enjoying himself… maybe he was roasting in his fishbowl helmet. “I should have gone to college like my folks wanted”.

Chuck, benches, seats, and planters don’t make money! Get rid of them! Use that room to sell plush toys, Star Wars merchandise, churros, and I dunno, life insurance maybe. I could use a frozen juice bar right about now, even though it’s not even noon. (“Macho Grande”?).

Stu29573, that story about the Spaceman has everything. Action! Romance! Pathos! Laughs! Murder! Robots! Chimps wearing diapers! Won’t somebody call Spielberg ASAP?

Tom, a great artist (such as our photographer) can’t be bound by society’s arbitrary rules. Blocking the pathway is a small price to pay for a photo of this magnitude. It’s like “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico”, or the sailor kissing the nurse on V-J day.

DrGoat, they might not wear ties, but they probably still have those garters that hold their socks up. Thank goodness we now have holographic socks! I always liked that wavy plastic stuff, though in my memory it was always green. And eventually it would start to crack and break. But it let the light through, which was nice. I wonder if it DID have asbestos in it??

The Magic Ears Dudebro, it’s true, as a kid “Monsanto” was equated with “Adventure Through Inner Space”, so I had nothing but warm-fuzzies for it. That was before they became so nasty, I guess.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I remember my grandmother wanted some old wallpaper removed, and she was told that it had asbestos in it, and that it would be very expensive to take it out responsibly. They weren’t kidding, guys showed up in hazmat suits.

MRayond, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share that photo of your mom here? I’d love to see it!

MRaymond said...

Sent to you.

Kathy! said...

Hee, before I enlarged the second photo, the lady's translucent frames made her look like she had giant bushy white mad eyebrows. "Just take the picture already, Harvey!" We have matchy twin (?) buzz-cut kids in the first picture too! Nice colorful post today, thanks.

Omnispace said...

Wonderful photos! Nothing finer than taking a peak at the Future. I'm glad it includes juice bars.

I think that Spaceman was simply performing his serious bigger-than-life stance for the kids. You know how serious spacemen are.

I love the two men to the left, standing with the map of the park and looking in opposite directions. They must really be lost!

I've never seen the House of the Future displays before!!! They seem to be filled with clean Mid-Century graphic design goodness. As for the benches, there seemed to be a lot of biomorphic-inspired designs during that time. The Eames' used it, Noguchi, Calder,.. ...everyone!

JG said...

Any picture of the Spaceman is welcome to me. When I met the Spaceman who is my profile pic, he was amazingly tall. That was 1968.

Not surprising that little of the novel construction techniques of the HOF made it into the mainstream, although many of the interior appliances and fit-outs did do so.

Thanks Major, nice photo of the self-assured lady on the weird bench. Good weekend to all!

JG

Chuck said...

Major, I'm terribly sorry - I realized while scrubbing out a cat litter bucket this afternoon (don't ask) that I was referencing Airplane II: the Sequel in response to TM!'s Airplane! reference. I'll go stand in the corner.

Major Pepperidge said...

MRaymond, THANK YOU! GDB readers, stay tuned!

Kathy!, if those were eyebrows, they’d be like my grandpa’s eyebrows! He had some real “wizard” brows. It seems funny that somebody would get transparent frames, but then the top part makes her look like she’s mildly angry.

Omnispace, maybe you’re right, the Spaceman might have just been “in character” (a la Zap Brannigan), but he seems to have kind of a “What have I done with my life?” expression. Ha ha, the idea of getting lost in Disneyland (for grown adults) is amusing, but I’ll bet it happens more than we might imagine. I love the mid-century quality on those displays, even today they would work perfectly well.

JG, this Spaceman has to be around seven feet tall! When they looked for people to play that character, I’m sure their eyes lit up when a tall thin guy walked into the room. Only they would have to wonder - “Goofy? Or the Spaceman?”. I’m sure those novel construction techniques could have easily become standard, if the public had shown an interest in something other than traditional houses (which is pretty much what they want today, still).

Chuck, oh jeez! I’ve still never seen Airplane II. I just couldn’t bring myself to watch it after reading the less-than-enthusiastic reviews.

DrGoat said...

Major, Nanook...Yes, that paneling was green. I remember my Dad putting up that Ramada. Sister said it was around 1957 or so. It did indeed finally wear out and start leaking. By then Sis and I were out of the house. He replaced it with Saguaro ribs, which also leaked buy looked great.
My uncle also did a window display for a jewelry store on the boardwalk in Coney Island. He used that stuff as a backround for a mermaid figure, advertising pearls. I was only 2, so no memories of that. I've only seen photos. My sister said we used to go to Coney Island a lot and that I was scared of the fire eater in front of the Ripley's Believe it or Not store front. She said they also had a big urn of incense burning next to the fire eater and I hated that too.

"Lou and Sue" said...

MRaymond, I'm looking forward to seeing the picture!

JG, please share some spaceman stories!

Sue

MIKE COZART said...

JD, everyone : in actuality the Monsanto plastic house did become very much a reality ... just not literally. Even in the attraction’s audio narration they say “ MONSANTO DOES NOT INTEND TO MAKE OR SELL THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE : IT IS A DEMONSTRATION HOME ONLY AND IT IS INTENDED TO SHOW THE VERSATILITY OF PLASTICS TO THE BUILDING INDUSTRY” in fact by the late 60’s all kinds of plastics WERE in regular use in construction. Even Walt Disney World’s Main Street USA and 85% of Cinderella Castle’s exterior is all foams and plastics. During the big Disneyland Main Street renovation in the late 80’s thru 1991 almost all the original exterior details were replaced with foams and plastics. Today MOST architectural details - even what looks like stucco cornices , dentil mouldings , corbels and window frames are plastics and plastic foams!!!! Homes and buildings today have more plastics on the interiors and exteriors than ever before !! Shanghai Disneyland exteriors are almost ALL plastic. Your clothing and automobiles feature more plastic than ever.

Most of us are currently living in a PLASTIC HOME or sorts —— just as Monsanto and MIT predicted.
WELCOME HOME!!

JG said...

@Mike Cozart, yes I agree, most of the detailed exterior trim these days is plastic of one sort or another. The giant "wood" beams inside the DCA California Hotel are also plastic-sheathed. I have detailed numerous large buildings with this sort of plastic trim to pull off the historic look safely.

What I meant was more the futuristic look of HOF, and the pre-fabricated components. We do a lot of modular construction now, too, but go to great lengths to make it look old style. Union rules have something to do with this, but mostly, in home design especially, people are conservative and like the old looks.

Sue, on a childhood visit, my friend and I posed with the Spaceman at the foot of the PeopleMover track at the entrance to Tomorrowland. I was a space nut, and it was an amazing moment to meet an astronaut. The photo is here at Daveland >>

https://www.davelandweb.com/tomorrowland/images/spaceman/2_68_JG_Spaceman.jpg

When I created this profile to comment on GDB, using the Spaceman as my avatar seemed like the right thing to do.

As you can see, we are standing on the planter-bench, and his head is still above us, not to mention the helmet. A big guy.

The photo also kind of advanced the debate, some people thought the Spaceman never appeared in 1967 Tomorrowland, but my photo was taken in Feb, 1968 and is clearly under the PeopleMover, so he was around at least that long.

Thanks for asking.

JG

"Lou and Sue" said...

JG, I love that picture(!) - cute kids! Which one are you?

Major Pepperidge said...

DrGoat, they had some of that green plastic (fiberglass?) corrugated stuff at one of my high schools. Some kids in gym class figured out that you could break off pieces of it, so with no teacher around they did just that, and smashed pieces all over the ground. Kids! They’re so great! Wow, I’d love to see photos of that Coney Island boardwalk display that you mentioned, it sounds neat. I can see how a fire eater would be scary to a kid, but I’m surprised that you had such a negative reaction to the incense!

Lou and Sue, MONDAY!

Mike Cozart, I know that the Monsanto House of the Future was not intended to be a “model home” that people could order for their own property, but it would have been nice if some of the more daring aspects of its design had inspired designers to be a little more “futuristic”. I’ve always loved the way the house was raised on that central pylon. I’ve always thought that the example at Disneyland was too small for most people’s tastes, but it would have been easy enough to make it larger, since the design was intended to be modular. My grandmother’s house had this beautiful wood crown molding, but I’ve seen plastic crown molding for sale at Home Depot that would be indistinguishable once painted.

JG, I like the idea of not cutting down massive trees for structural beams. I know that these days, laminated beams (“glue lam” I think is a term I’ve heard) are sometimes used, and they look nice. I love that photo of you and your friend with the Spaceman! So great. And he’s wearing yet another variation of the Spaceman costume (with the “D” on the arm) that I’ve never seen. Very neat that thanks to you we know that he was still in the park at least in the earlier days of the “New Tomorrowland”!

Lou and Sue, yes, I would like to know that too!

TokyoMagic! said...

Chuck and Major, the only line I remember from "Airplane II" is when Chad Everett tells Julie Hagerty that his career is ruined, and she says, "What about the careers of everybody on this spaceship? The doctors, the architects...the dental hygeeeeeeenists?"

Melissa said...

Andrew, if I was a spaceman who found himself on Earth, I probably wouldn’t be too thrilled about it, either.

JG said...

Sue, as I told Chuck years ago about that picture, I’m the happy one. What I wouldn’t give for one more visit to 1968 Disneyland with Mom and Dad.

Major, you are right, glued-laminated beans are used a great deal in certain construction types. In other building types, non-combustible materials are required, loads and spans exceed the capacity of wood members, etc. New forms of non-combustible plastics are used to clad steel beams while looking like wood (less convincing up close, like those in the Grand Californian). The GC beams can be seen fairly closely from some upper floor balconies and their plastic nature is apparent.

Plastics are also used in humid climates where traditional wood rots and hosts termites.

Ironically, plastic, the material of the future, is mostly used in modern work to imitate the appearance of traditional construction...

JG

"Lou and Sue" said...

JG - cute kid, thanks! Yes, I would also love to go back to 1968 Disneyland with my folks. Wonderful times!