Terrific Tomorrowland
I love vintage Tomorrowland. There, I said it. And I have two excellent photos to share with you today, starting with this neat view of a helpful sign that would point you in the direction of anything you might wish to see. The Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow? That's to your right. The American Dairy Association Dairy Bar? That's to your left. It appears to be topped with a kinetic sculpture resembling an anemometer; appropriate, since the Flight Circle is just beyond that lovely chain link fence.
I wonder if the "scoops" on the wind sculpture are repurposed Army surplus bowls (or something like that)?
You might think that I'd be tired of the Monsanto House of the Future, but you'd be wrong! I'm happy to see it, every single time. There it is, looking fresh and new (not that it ever looked old and tired), the plants surrounding it are still pretty new and could use a few years to mature. I like this angle, with the HOF juxtaposed with the Castle.
How about a nice zoom-in? A man snaps a photo of his wife and mother-in-law beneath one of the cantilevered "wings" of the futuristic house.
24 comments:
Major-
The Dairy Bar and the Bathroom of Tomorrow-! Another instance of 'an embarrassment of riches'. They would keep me occupied for hours and hours and hours...
Thanks, Major.
Major, I think you're right about the anemometer cups. Or maybe they're salad bowls from a Thrifty's, down the street. We can see a Skyway bucket through that "lovely chain link fence" on the left. These are solo swizzle sticks instead of the usual tripod (quadrapod?) formation, and they have only two olives each. I don't think a measly two olives is gonna sate my hunger.
It looks like this photo was taken rather close to the ground? Maybe not; kinda hard to tell.
I agree with you on the Castle/HOTF juxtaposition. It's an "only in Disneyland" scene for sure. I wonder if our photographer was part of the same group as the in-frame photographer and the two ladies?
Looking at the windows, it doesn't look like there's anyone inside the HOTF, at least not in this wing. After visiting this attraction, the group made their way to the Rocket To The Moon, where the photographer shouted, "To the Moon, Alice!"
Nanook, If those two attractions had lots of push-buttons, wheels to turn, and levers to pull, they would also occupy my younger self for hours. As a kid I was enthralled with push-buttons and watching what happens when you press them. (Pretty much still am.)
Thanks for the neato Tomorrowland pics, Major. (I finally got over my rhyming and alliteration phase.)
That Moonliner sign & Tomorrowland directional : stupendous!!
Wowee....that first pic could be right out of a DL pictorial guidebook. And I love that directional sign.
As for the second pic....I wonder if the man got reprimanded for standing on that rock to take his pic? He's probably the reason they put metal railings around all of the planters. Well, him, and those two people who were lounging around on the grass in the photo from two days ago.
Wow, what a great sign, directing to all the corporate sponsors. I love the Trans-World Airlines arrow, the Moonliner brings a whole new range of meaning to that name. By 1986, you would be able to book a trans-world trip.
Cox Pilot is just out of frame, hooking a battery to one of the little planes.
Photo 2 is definitely “Only in Disneyland.”
Looking at the pattern of the window frames in the HOF, I can feel the architect agonizing over whether the bottom mullion should extend all the way to the left, or stop short as it is. I bet they drew that glazing pattern a dozen ways before settling on the design that was built.
Fine stuff today, Major, thank you!
JG
Tomorrowland was always about motion and color. I miss the old future.
Nanook, if only they’d had a Rumpus Room of Tomorrow, life would have been perfect!
JB, yes, I suppose those bowls could have been from any one of 100 different discount stores. Hey, I appreciate the frugality. I’m OK with two olives on the swizzle sticks, since I don’t really care for olives. I think it looks pretty clear that the man is taking a photo of the ladies, but… it’s possible he was just there, being a creepy guy! I’m not terribly surprised that there isn’t anybody visible in the HOTF windows, since folks constantly walked through the house. And it often didn’t appear to be that crowded. I’m jealous that you remember those sponsored attractions!
Mike Cozart, yes, I think it’s pretty great as well!
TokyoMagic!, not only was he reprimanded, he was beaten with wet churros. I know, I know, they weren’t serving churros way back then. But they WERE beating people with them.
JG, I think it’s funny that they have a sign to the Rocket to the Moon and a sign to Trans World Airlines. Sponsorship has its advantages, I guess. I sure wish we could see CoxPilot. You are probably right about the window pattern, I wonder if they were limited by the size of the acrylic (or whatever plastic they were using) panels?
Melissa, Tomorrowland was also about killer robots. Most people forget that part.
Back to the future of the past. Gotta love the original Tomorrowland despite the corporate advertising presence.
As much as this space-nut kid loved the Rocket to the Moon I was enamored with the House of the Future and walked through it more times than I can remember. The best times were on quiet days when I could linger in the house and pretend I was grown up and lived there.
Thanks for the memories Major!!
"Only in Disneyland"....I thought this was a marketing slogan from my day....or perhaps it was one of those employee area "touchy feely/YOU create happiness" posters you would see at the Disney University and the Casting Office. I wouldn't mind that slogan coming back, there are some things that ARE only in Disneyland...like churros to beat people with (?) It sounds kind of sticky and not worth it....I was waxing poetic about MY Disneyland...the one in my head with elements of days gone by, and an interesting future...an updated "House of the Future"....with really "out there" ideas...blending the commercial future with an organic agricultural one. Not things like air plants and "Listen to the Land" hydroponic lettuce farms...we ALREADY have that stuff....like super crazy inventive never heard of or thought of ideas...kind of like Disneyland when it opened.."what is this thing called Disneyland?" Robots are already here, computers...been there done that....no french fry mountains, no Jules Verne, how about original ideas? Kind of like...Disneyland :) My thoughts also revolved around "Theme Park"...probably spurned by an article I was reading about "de-theming" restaurants in Walt Disney World (?) I think some careful de-theming is appropriate. It seems that rides/attractions/etc. for the current market dictates "spectacular" "entertaining" "immersive"....things as small and low key as a Sleeping Beauty Walkthrough may not drive them into the gates demanding more (it would me...)...BUT...why not corporate sponsors/World's Fair/education paired with entertainment/ parks and physical enjoyment (Tom Sawyers Island/Canoes, etc.) When everything is fabulous...nothing is fabulous. Quaint is underated. Peace and quiet also underrated. Immersive does not demand blowing your ear drums out. Disneyland was not created for people demanding sensory overload...people didn't even know they needed sensory overload...I could go on. Vintage Tomorrowland IS the future. Completely relevant today. The chain link fencing, well....it's a look. Thanks Major. Off to buy olives with cute little sticks....
Preach it, Bu! I agree.
And DON’T change Blue Bayou.
That first scan is out-of-this-world! I love it.
Grant, how cool that you could spend lots of time in the HofF. You had mentioned you spent a lot of time on TSI, too, while your mom was working. Where else did you like to hang out?
Thanks, Major.
Sue
Major, the sizes of the glazing panes (whether glass or plastic) are definite controlling factors in window design.
Glazing materials have maximum sizes, usually related to fabrication limitations, but also shipping and installation. Wind load is a factor, large panes are subject to flexing in the wind, which can cause leaks and breakage. For operable windows, size is related to weight. If an operable pane is too big and heavy to move easily, they don't work well.
Another constraint is the form factor, or proportions, especially for the operating panels. For example, on the HOF windows, I suspect the three long horizontal-aspect panes near the bottom are operable, either tipping out (awning-type) or tipping in (hopper-type) and operator panels that are too long and thin don't work well because they will sag and warp, making them stick. These in the HOF might be at the outer limit of operability, but they are probably single glazed (back then) and so are lighter than a modern window today.
JG
Wondering if anybody ever replicated the House of the Future out in the real world. Time was when the Sears Big Book would have everything you needed to set design your home as a fantasy environment: mock medieval, Melody Ranch, sci-fi plastic, etc. And here and there people actually built houses with exteriors straight from studio backlots, from fairy-tale cottages to ancestral manors. You'd think at least one Disney adult with too much time and money would have at least made the attempt.
It would take a fair piece of land where one could surround it with foliage rather than bracketed by standard suburban houses. And you'd need a second structure for garage, guest room, home office, etc., maybe connected by a clear plastic tube ... Excuse me, I have to buy a lottery ticket.
It figures that I was completely swamped at work when this beautiful picture of the Moonliner shows up! Man, I hate work! Man, I love that Moonliner!
DBenson, you’re right, it WOULD take a fair piece of land! You need room to add a castle, to ‘complete’ it.
Sue
I always wondered why it wasn’t called “House of Tomorrow”, besides the fact that it’s actually an MIT project. That moniker wouldn’t be used until 1960 in Palm Springs AKA the Elvis house, now impeccably restored.
Window frames fitting properly from a tension roof along an extreme overhang, set in plastic panels must have been a real challenge, and I’m sure Dave Bossert’s new book will tell us All about it later this year!
Salad bowls? No joke. You might be recalling that John Hench used them in the nuclear engine room on 20K Leagues, and won an Academy Award for it! (Effects 1954)
MS
…and Yes, Thank You Bu, so true.
MS
A gentleman did build a pretty accurate copy of The House of the Future in Rancho Palos Verde Estates here in California …. Not too far from where Marineland was once located. It was built out of traditional construction methods however and as a guest house behind the owners large main house. I’ve only seen pictures of it and heard a few years ago the property and the property next to it was purchased and everything was torn down and a giant massive McMannsion was built by the new owners. From the pictures the wood and steel and fiberglass “plastic house of h the future” looked pretty good …. Maybe 90% ( I can be picky) I never saw any interior pictures.
I worked with a guy at WDI around 2011 who retired and built a cabin copy of “Maurice’s Cottage ( Belle’s) Cottage from the film Beauty and the Beast . He built it in the San Bernardino Mountains and the architects made the actual blueprints by using the blueprints from the Storybook Canal plans of the same structure for Disneyland Paris. It looked very good!! Almost like it could have fit in with DL’s “new fantasyland’83” that still stands but I heard a few years ago after a pretty big storm some of the “inventors contraptions” and waterwheel were damaged so it was repaired with a non-working static waterwheel.
BU: some friends and I used to share parody posters of bad news events with the 70’s marketing and moral booster poster tag lines “IT COULD ONLY HAPPEN AT DISNEYLAND!!” , “LOOKS LIKE WE STARTED SOMETHING!!” And “THIS IS DISNEYLAND”.
Picture a capsized keelboat or Skyway guests being rescued by fire ladders : “IT COULD ONLY HAPPEN AT DISNEYLAND” …. Or the Small World facade fire or guests being evacuated from Rocket Rods “ THIS IS DISNEYLAND” ….. there were inappropriate ones as well.
MS, all the best nuclear engine rooms use salad bowls now.
I remember reading that Star Trek set designers used kiddie's play balls, the smooth plastic ones, sprayed with gold paint as decorative doo-dads on the engines or generators or whatever they were, in the middle of the Enterprise Engineering set for the second season. They cut holes in the plywood tops of the "generators" and just set the painted balls onto the holes so they looked like domes full of dilithium crystals.
JG
Major, a "Rumpus Room of Tomorrow..." You mean like in Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt?"
JG, wait - are you saying those domes weren't really filled with dilithium crystals? Next you'll be telling me that the Earth outpost on Cestus III in the episode "Arena" was just a redressed set from a 1950s TV series set on the Northwest Frontier of British India in the late 19th Century and only located a couple of hundred yards from the rock formations Kirk battles the Gorn on later in the same episode! How gullible do you think I am, man?
Chuck, I would forcefully assert all of those facts, if in fact, any of them were facts. Every sensible person knows that Star Trek is real. The TV show was fake, but Star Trek is real.
Major, there are times that I would settle for the Bathroom of Today, or even the Bathroom of Yesteryear, or the Bathroom of the Dark Ages.
JG
Grant, hey, the House of the Future was cool, no shame in enjoying it! I wish I’d had a chance to experience it.
Bu, I am getting an old 1955 pre-opening brochure ready to sell on eBay, and it’s so interesting to read the text, explaining what sort of things guests will be able to do there. Some of it is accurate, some of it was probably planned but never executed. I feel like Tomorrowland, to people in 1955, meant a life in space, or at least traveling back and forth to space stations, or the Moon. And of course you’d have your flying cars and meals in pill form, and silver lame clothing. De-theming restaurants in Walt Disney World? Do they know who their audience is?? The most popular eateries are the ones with the best themes. Is it true that when everything is fabulous, nothing is fabulous? I’d love to test that theory!
Sue, luckily the Blue Bayou is at Disneyland, and they know all too well that it is a huge cash cow for them. They’d be dumb to change it!
JG, I had the feeling that the size of the panels would be an issue - it makes sense. I remember watching a video about an Apple store in Chicago, they had to make all sorts of special solutions to problems caused by Chicago’s brutal winters. But they came up with some neat ideas!
DBenson, as far as I am aware, there were no other Houses of the Future built. I’ve always dreamed of having one made just for me as soon as I win that lottery! Imagine all of the sweet mid-century doo-dads that one could have purchased through the Sears catalog back in the 60s! Of course I would want to have some authentic Eames furniture, and other stuff from the Herman Miller catalog. And I’d need the waterfalls and beautiful gardens as well!
Stu29573, yay, I’m sorry you hate work, but I’m glad you love the Moonliner!
Sue, hmmm, I didn’t even consider needing to build a neighboring castle. Would it need a dent??
MS, wow, I have never heard anything about Elvis’s Palm Springs home, now I’ll need to look it up. I hope it had lots of animal print stuff (zebras, tigers, etc). I forgot about Dave Bossert’s book, I hope it goes into excruciating detail. And yes, I’ve heard the story of the salad bowls used in 20,000 Leagues… I think his Oscar might have been for more than just the salad bowls though! ;-)
MS, Bu is always true.
Mike Cozart, wow, neat, I’d love to see photos of the Palos Verde Estates home, though it kind of stinks that it was built with traditional methods - kind of misses the point. He would never be able to wash his dishes ultrasonically! I’m not surprised that it was torn down, especially since it was in SoCal, the land where developers will tear anything down. I guess that is true elsewhere! “Maurice’s Cottage”, jeez, who even remembers that? Not me! And yet, somebody loved it enough to build a copy. I’m surprised that the Storybook Land blueprints had enough detail to be used for a real structure. Bummer that it has not stood the test of time, it’s expensive to live in a unique house I guess. I wish we could see some of your parody posters!!
JG, if they’d used salad bowls at Three Mile Island, there would have never been any problems. I think it’s pretty clear when watching Star Trek TOS that they cut corners for those sets! It sort of added charm, in my opinion. I hate to say it, but I don’t recall what the generators with the dilithium crystals looked like.
Chuck, yes, just like that! Well, maybe less lions and creepy kids. But otherwise, yes. As for reusing sets from other productions, that’s just good economics. Ask Roger Corman!
JG, yes, Star Trek is real! I hope the Borg never show up in my lifetime though. I’m not good at resisting. When you need a bathroom, the one that is nearest to you is the best one! It’s sort of like the best camera is the one you have with you.
Presently locked out of the house. I may be settling for the Bathroom of the Tree Out Back if the 22-year-old doesn’t get here soon with the spare key…
Where are YOUR keys, Chuck?
Sue
The Maurice cottage storybook plans were used as a style guide for real architects to make real construction documents to build a real cabin / cottage …. Like what Tony Baxter did to hade his model home turned into a real livable house. The problem when dealing with real life architects is that while they have training or knowlege of traditional construction … they are not set designers and often can’t see how to build a wall that looks old or sagging … so other drawings and models are priceless . When I worked on Shanghai Disneyland is was obviously the architects could have never drafted up plans without the aid of scale models … despite they were all trained architects . They spend their careers making things looks straight and new …. But they are usually not comfortable making something old and sagging ….
Like the seasoned concert organist hired to play the recordings for The Haunted Mansion …. When they wanted to try alternate “kooky” or out of key alternate recordings …. He couldn’t do it! So a studio musician had to be smuggled in to record the outta toon kooky versions.
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