Friday, July 22, 2022

Beautiful Tomorrowland, 1973

Oh boy, I have two beauties for you today, courtesy of my friend Mr. X! As I have said before, he handed me a stack of 35mm negatives from photos that he personally took 49 years ago. To keep, ya see?! And by golly, many of them turned out to be really nice. Pretty cool, huh?

Check it out. I love the color and composition in this one! For one thing, you've got that intense blue sky, the red and yellow Peoplemover trains, and the gleaming white snows of the Matterhorn. You almost need dark glasses to look at it. The way the Peoplemover is arranged on that undulating edge of the track is really neat too.


Zooming in, we can see three climbers on the Matterhorn; Hans, Otto, and a rare photo of their American cousin, Cletus. The climbers almost always ascended in pairs, so I wonder why they broke with tradition this time?


The perfect accompaniment to the first photo is this  wonderful shot of the Rocket Jets, with more Peoplemover goodness as well. Mr. X almost always went to the trouble of waiting for the jets to be in the "up" position before he took a photo, and it was well worth it.


23 comments:

  1. Major-
    The compositions: Check
    The colors: Check
    The subjects: Check
    Even the sky: Check

    Thanks to Mr. X and The Major. Check

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  2. Anonymous12:10 AM

    BEAUTIFUL! Especially the first one.
    I even see two Skyway gondolas hiding.

    Thank you, Mr. X and Major!

    —Sue

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  3. Anonymous12:14 AM

    And there’s also a blue PeopleMover hiding in the first image!

    —Sue

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  4. Wow! That first one is a keeper, for sure! (So, I did.) Like you said, Major, all the pure colors, and the composition. Those sinuous curves are the epitome of futuristic architecture.
    As Sue noted, there are a couple of Skyway buckets in the background; a yellow one and an aqua one.
    Cletus? I guess Fritz called in sick that day. They're wearing their finest red shirts (uh,oh) and lederhosen. Or maybe they're cut-offs made from old Levi's.

    Ooh! I really like the second one, as well. I'm keeping that one, too! Both of these are definitely post card worthy, or souvenir guidebook worthy.

    A big thank you to Mr. X today for a couple of beautiful photos. And thank you, Major, for being friends with Mr. X. ;-D

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  5. Cletus (the Slack-Jawed Yokel?) looks like he's standing on the Tomorrowland entrance wall, but I know that he's not.

    Thank you Major and Mr. X, for these Tomorrowland beauties!

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  6. Anonymous1:17 AM

    Hahaha! “Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel.” He obviously drank decaf, that morning.

    Speaking of decaf, I wish I drank decaf at dinner time, last night. Those three cups of caffeine are haunting me now...and I have to get up for work in about 4 hours. I’ll be “Sue the Slack-Jawed Yokel,” soon.

    —Sue

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  7. B E A U T I F U L !

    To bad we can’t see the red PeopleMover train’s # . My PeopleMover car was RED TRAIN # 12 , car B prior to it being painted white and grey in 1988.

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  8. What everyone else said, times two.

    TM!, “Hey, Maw! Get off the dang roof!”

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  9. Beautiful photos of the greatest Tomorrowland that ever was. Thanks Mr. X. and Major too.

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  10. What. Ken. Said.

    I can’t add anything to that.

    Perfect cap to the week, Major. Big thanks to you and Mr. X.

    JG

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  11. Stefano7:33 AM

    Both images are not just postcard-worthy, but attraction poster-worthy too. Like the posters there are only 8 or 9 colors in both photos; remove some of the detail and delineation, and graphic voila: instant communication of the rides' excitement and appeal.

    Thank you Mr. X and Major!

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  12. I can only echo everyone's sentiments at this point. Beautiful photos. Desktop and postcard worthy to say the least. Number one is going right up on my screen, followed by two and three.
    Mr.X, you have an great sense of, well, what Nanook said. Thanks for these beauties, and thank you Major posting these remarkable photos.
    Sue, I see that happy little blue Peoplemover. Perfect.

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  13. Anonymous7:56 AM

    DrGoat, now I’m wondering if that blue PeopleMover is actually the back of a man wearing a blue shirt. What do you think?

    —Sue

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  14. Sue, the guy in the red Peoplemover is definitely wearing a light blue shirt. But on the view of the track below the one with all the red movers is 100% a blue Peoplemover, heading into the building. Good eye.

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  15. Anonymous8:32 AM

    Haha! You’re right, DrGoat! I was looking at the wrong blue thing, a few minutes ago. Only 3 hours of sleep. Darn caffeine.

    —Sue

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  16. Wow, these are some nice crisp photos with awesome colors and composition.

    Cletus might be in training... although it's hard to tell by the body language. Maybe he's supervising.

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  17. Nanook, you left off “Rich chocolatey flavor”!

    Sue, why am I not seeing any Skyway gondolas??

    Sue, THERE IS??

    JB, I love that first photo so much. It reminds me of how excited I used to be just walking into Tomorrowland, and what an amazing place it used to be. Why am I not seeing those Skyway gondolas? Gotta stop drinking first thing in the morning. Would lederhosen made from jeans be called lederjorts?

    TokyoMagic!, Cletus is afraid that a possum might bite his ankle. AGAIN.

    Sue, now you are paying for your sins! May I recommend strawberry Nesquik? So delicious!

    Mike Cozart, I wish we could see that Peoplemover train’s number too, it would be great if it turned out to be one that you owned.

    Chuck, maybe more of us need to get ON the dang roof. If you know what I’m saying. Which I don’t.

    K. Martinez, I knew you’d like these!

    JG, hooray! It’s nice to have something extra-special for Fridays.

    Stefano, I should run the photos through Photoshop’s “posterize” filter and see what I get! Sadly, I’m away from home until late tonight.

    DrGoat, it’s funny how modest Mr. X is about his abilities. In fact he even emailed me this morning saying, “I took these photos??”.

    Sue, yes, I think that’s a blue shirt we’re looking at. And now I see those gondolas, I was looking at the zoomed-in version, that’s why I couldn’t see them before.

    DrGoat, that guy wore a blue shirt just to fool us! If only we could see an aqua Peoplemover train, I love that color.

    Sue, no more caffeine before bed!

    LTL, yes, the “hands on hips” attitude does look a little like somebody supervising. He doesn’t appear to be getting ready to climb.

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  18. Major, I have literally no idea what you mean. And I love you for it.

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  19. Anonymous10:19 AM

    Major, there REALLY IS a blue/aqua PM. Look at the 1st pic—not the close up. That was my mistake, a little while ago.

    —Sue

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  20. Anonymous10:44 AM

    Major, correction on my part—

    Actually it’s more of a dark blue, not aqua (the PM I’m seeing). Forget the guy’s shirt. I think we’ve had this discussion before—about aqua, teal, turquoise, blue—but regarding the lagoon color shades or something. By aqua, I’m assuming you mean the ‘lighter’ blue/green color....

    —Sue

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  21. Major-
    I'm all about the "Rich chocolaty goodness", or nothing-! If you're going to make it phony - may as well go for broke.

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  22. I've seen some beautiful pictures by Mr. X on this blog, but I can;t recall any of them being as striking as these. Postcardworthy. POSTCARDWORTHY, I say!

    Hans is my name; mountaineering's my game.
    I go climbing with Otto and Cletus.
    When I lose my grip, it makes Otto trip,
    And Cletus falls downhill to meet us.

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  23. Chuck, awww!

    Sue, NOW I see it.

    Sue, yeah, that one is “blue”, not the aqua/teal that I meant. But hey, it’s something!

    Nanook, I stand corrected!

    Melissa, yes, I do think that photo 1 is Postcard Worthy™! Or Souvenir Guidebook Worthy™ (which is better?). i love your poem!

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