Friday, April 09, 2021

Tomorrowland, September 1968

Welcome to Tomorrowland. A place where humans are harvested for Soylent Green (try the new "spicy nacho" flavor), and where Replicants run amok. It's the coolest!  

Let's start with this nice view of the Tomorrowland Terrace, where the burgers glow in the dark. Don't ask what the special ingredient is (hint: it isn't "love"). The future can be cold and intimidating, so the Coca Cola signs are comforting. Continental drift has moved Switzerland close to Anaheim, which explains why we can see the Matterhorn so clearly.


This next photo is a real stunner! So much STUFF! The Matterhorn and Skyway, the Monorail and Peoplemover, The Tomorrowland Terrace Stage, and of course all of the people adding color and fun to the image. This one would be Postcard Worthy™ - if postcards were square. 


I love the vivid hues of some of the clothing - bright yellows, vivid reds, vibrant greens, radiant blues. 

And just when you thought things couldn't get any better, you can actually see TWO bobsleds on the icy slopes of the Matterhorn, making my Nobel Peace Prize a virtual guarantee.


EXTRA! EXTRA! Here is a photo of DrGoat's childhood toy, Robert the Robot (from Ideal)! The internet tells me that this toy came out in 1950. DrGoat took great care of it, even retaining the original box with it's fun graphics (he also has the "remote control" and the instructions sheet). Notice that Robert's eyes would light up and his arms would swing back and forth. Just like me. What an awesome toy! Apparently Robert had a son, there he is leaning against the box.

Thank you, DrGoat!

17 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
Yesterday it was great color at Knott's... Today it's stunning color at Disneyland. You're spoiling us, Major.

And Dr. Goat - 'Robert the Robot', a treasure to behold. Thanks for both keeping him in such swell shape and taking the time to share him with us-!

Thanks, Major.

Chuck said...

"...if postcards were square." No way! Post cards will always be hip. You dig, daddy-o?

Note the cavalry hat on the kid at the extreme left of the first image. It looks like he has his name embroidered on the rear brim. I've never seen that before. In fact, when I got a similar hat as a kid, the person in the shop told me they couldn't embroider my name on the back because the brim got in the way.

DrGoat, Robert the Robot is swell indeed and in amazing condition. Was he easy to steer? Does he still talk? Has he gained self-awareness? Is the little robot from your bump-and-go tractor? Thanks for curating him all these years, and I really appreciate you sharing him.

Also tantalized by the corner of a picture hanging on the wall in the upper right corner. What does the rest of it look like?

Stu29573 said...

The first picture looks like the scene right before the Matterhorn destroyed most of Disneyland, as seen in that blockbuster "When Giant Synthetic Mountains Attack."
The third picture has just the right amount of people. I have found that while everyone can agree that too many people stinks, not enough can feel really weird and sap the place of energy (much like a poltergeist, but I digress).
Sorry picture two. Keep trying harder.
DrGoat, Robert seems like the perfect buddy! At least until the batteries run down.

Anonymous said...

That robot looks like it may have been the inspiration for Rosie from The Jetsons cartoon.

K. Martinez said...

I like that I can see the top of King Arthur's Carrousel peaking above the Tomorrowland Terrace. Back when Tomorrowland was in tip-top shape. Thanks, Major.

Dr. Goat, that is a super cool robot. Love his little pal there too. It's amazing how some of you guys still have toys from your youth. Thanks for sharing that with us.

zach said...

A talking* device! Thanks, DrGoat!

I agree, just the right amount of people and attractions. I'm guessing only 10 minute waits on everything.

The gentleman with the fedora has an interesting tattoo. What to make of it. And the lady behind him is carrying a boxy thing. Is it a camera?

Thanks, Major.

zach

DrGoat said...

Wow Major. Second pic is postcard worthy. Also desktop worthy if you don't mind. Those Coca Cola signs really do the trick.
Nanook, you can thank my Mom for keeping it till I was old and wise enough to take care of it. The wisdom comes and goes but our Moms always know best. Miss them both.
zach, It must be a camera but it looks like a stack of cassette tapes for her portable cassette tape player in her purse. Can't quite maka it out, but it looks possibly like a female figure with a disembodied head of Jambi.
Chuck, It's a John Hinch print of Badger, Toad, Ratty and Moley in Toad Hall. Picked it up about 20 years ago in that wonderful art gallery that should have stayed above the Pirates.
Thanks for the robot comments and thanks Major for our Tomorrowland pics. I'd put these right at the top.

DrGoat said...

zach, that comment was about the guy's tatoo.

MRaymond said...

Oh it's the Tomorrowland of my childhood. I would have been 7 when these shots were taken. I couldn't help but scan the crowd for my family as I do remember going to Disneyland a few months after the New Tomorrowland opened and a few more times in the same year. That is the perfect Tomorrowland.
Also, I think the woman in the first photo is carrying a "Kodak Brownie Bullet II" camera. Very popular in the 60's. The 126 Instamatic took its place a few years later. But the Brownie did make a huge negative.
And how can you not love all that blue concrete?

JG said...

Major, these are the best! Perfect Friday fare.

Congrats on that Nobel prize.

Dr goat, thanks for the Robbie pics, what a cool toy!

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, of all the slides in this particular batch, this one really was the stand-out for color and clarity (and composition?). I wish I had lots more like it!

Chuck, I guess I was asking for that one. Strange that they wouldn’t embroider your name onto your cavalry hat, presumably you would have visited the park at least a few years after these photos. By then they should have perfected the art! Maybe you go a newbie who didn’t know what they were doing. Or you told them that your name was “Hieronymus” and they just didn’t want to do it. Meanwhile I imagine that tiny robot to be whiny and uncooperative. “Eat your cogs or no dessert - beep”. “I don’t wanna! Beep!”.

Stu29573, I think I saw that movie, didn’t it star Steven Segal? I know what you mean about having the right amount of people in Disneyland - AND YET - I have been there a few times when attendance was low, and it was pretty great! However, it was lacking in energy somehow.

Anonymous, Rosie does look like a big toy I guess! I keep thinking of the episode of “The Jetsons” in which Rosie was in love (though the Jetsons didn’t know it) and she walked around making this funny groaning noise.

K. Martinez, now I’m trying to figure out what is just to the right of the tip of the Carrousel - it has a long yellow pennant flying from it. Not really sure!

zach, ha ha, not just a talking device, it’s a sensational new, patented talking device called “Devica”! How did they come up with that name? I can’t make out that tattoo, but I’ll bet the gentleman had served in WWII, maybe in the Pacific! It looks like the lady is carrying a Brownie camera, but… hard to be sure.

DrGoat, I know I’m a big phony when I gripe about blatant sponsorships in Disneyland these days, since the signs for General Electric, Coke, Monsanto, and Goodyear make me smile when I look at older photos. Your story of your mom saving your robot is unusual… most kids seem to have the “My mom threw it out when I went away to college” story! I’ll have to see if I can find a good jpeg of that John Hench print, now I’m curious.

DrGoat, I was hoping that the tattoo was a sultry hula girl, but I don’t believe that it is.

MRaymond, I truly do love this iteration of Tomorrowland. Maybe adding Space Mountain would make it MORE perfect? Otherwise it’s so wonderful. A “Brownie Bullet II”, hey I was in the ballpark! Thanks. And I was just rereading an old article about Disneyland’s slurry, it might have been where I first became aware of it.

JG, for now the Nobel Prize sits next to the Academy Award and my “Edgar” - good company!

Anonymous said...

Wow...Robert the Robot. A blast from my youth. I got one for Christmas around 1960. Played with it constantly. Just looked it up on Google to find that I probably had the second generation model because I could place objects in the robot's arm-cup and throw them by way of a trigger on the control box. Imagine that today. Good thing they gave you ping pong balls rather than M-80s! I also see a 50th anniversary edition was produced in the early 2000s. Who knows where mine went. I'm amazed Dr. Goat was able to keep his all these years. KS

Nanook said...

@ MRaymond-
At the resolution and angle, it certainly is hard to pinpoint the make/model of that camera, and it could be many a make and model. But I'm going out on a limb and rule out Kodak immediately, and instead say it's an Argus 75 reflex camera. That would mean the lady has her fingers pressed right on the lenses, but...

Major-
I'm thinking that yellow pennant is flying from one of the spires along the "parapet" of the Alice In Wonderland show building.

Anonymous said...

I’m thinking the pennant might be flying from the tuna boat. Just a theory. Ignore if it seems fishy to you.

Chuck

JC Shannon said...

I wish I had the good sense to keep my old toys. These photos are great. Tomorrowland was so cool in that era. I want that hat the boy is wearing. It flatters the wearer. Thanks Major.

"Lou and Sue" said...

Beautiful day in Disneyland - thank you, Major!

DrGoat, it IS amazing you have Robert and Robert, Jr. in perfect condition, with the box and all - how cool! That little one is adorable, for a robot. Thank you for sharing with us! (I'll bet you played with it for a little while before boxing it up again.)

DrGoat said...

Sue, I did. Turned the crank and played the little record and read the bug eaten instructions.