Tomorrowland Scene, April 1974
Let's take a look around Tomorrowland, shall we? I have enough "dehydrated lunch" pills for everyone! Just add warm water for a delicious liverwurst sandwich.
Do you think this first one was taken from the Skyway? Yes, we're not that high up, but perhaps it just launched from the Tomorrowland terminal. Whatever the case may be, we get a decent look at the Autopia, with the Monorail station (and Mark III Monorail), a few Peoplemover trains, and It's a Small World in the distance.
Looking at this photo, the Skyway gondolas and the Peoplemover trains are in roughly the right position to have taken that first photo. The Carousel of Progress building is looming in the darkness, but the attraction had closed on September 9th of the previous year. Boo!
Here's a closeup of that mystery box for JG.
16 comments:
Major-
That first image was taken from the Skyway - probably arriving at the Tomorrowland station. But, you never know. Either way - the foliage looks just lovely-!
Thanks, Major.
I'll have a beef stroganoff dehydrated pill if you have it. Yum! And maybe some Tang to go with it.
My guess would also be the Skyway for the first pic. Small World (yes, I'm capitalizing it!) looks like the snow-covered Alps way off in the distance. And oh my, the Autopia landscaping looks beautiful! (Ah, Nanook agrees!)
I don't think there is anybody in the yellow PeopleMover train. And it's hard to tell, but I think the blue PM exiting the CoP building is also empty. So the PM probably wasn't running on this day.
Peak Tomorrowland photos! Thanks, Major.
Were these pictures taken the same day? If so … the red and blue PeopleMover trains in the first image have passengers …. Even on very busy days there were always PeopleMover trains that would have a cycle where they dispatched empty. Some friends of mine who worked PeopleMover said one of biggest loading delays -Next to guest groups confused about how many people were in their party … was guests who became timid or nervous about boarding the moving vehicles . Of course the “platform and your vehicle are moving at EQUAL speeds…” ( this means boarding a moving PeopleMover car was like boarding a parked car.
Is that Monorail Blue? The angle, shadow, and color shift in this photo makes it hard to tell. It looks like it's in a natural, stainless steel finish and reminds me a lot of Budd-built streamliner passenger cars of the 1930s-50s.
In the second photo you can see that the Autopias were mirror images of each other, right down to the sign.
JB, those are the Alps. It's a small world, after all.
Mike, interesting about passengers freaking out over the moving platform. I wonder how many froze and ended up colliding with the Speedramp at .5 mph?
I've always loved the way the ramps match the speed of the cars on attractions such as the People Mover or The Haunted Mansion. I can remember, however, when I was a small child there was a brief time when escalators totally freaked me out. One day I just said "nope, I can't get on that." I got over it quickly, but I guess I can understand the guests' fear.
Very nice pics today! I'm going to be there Tuesday thru Friday next week with my daughter! Not 1974... Disneyland. She's taking me for my retirement! 50 years and 8 months since I was there last! I raised that kid right!
That was me, by the way...
1970’s Tomorrowland is peak Tomorrowland. It’s kind of sad to realize that Space Mountain and CoP never co-existed, because they should have done so.
I’m going against the grain here and guess that photo 1 was taken from the PM, from approximately the location of the yellow train in photo 2. The vantage is higher and further north than the skyway route. The landscaping in that oval is so beautiful, and such a contrast to the sparse greenery of early Autopia.
I remember occasional empty trains as Mike describes, never mind, another will be along in a minute, no hurry. I can imagine being uncertain of one’s footing, even before bubble generators.
Photo 1 is just wonderful, all the beautiful greenery and overlooked by IASW in the distance like a heavenly city where everyone gets along.
Photo 2, “A World on the Move” and one trash can. I notice a box on the wall near the stairs to the Skyway, any guesses?
Thank you, Major! I’ll have a pizza pill if any are left.
JG
Hah! In photo #1 it looks like the Autopia just goes around in one small circle, then you're done!
I like these two photos, thanks Major.
Anonymous, have fun on your visit! Major, hope you had fun, too, on your visit to San Pedro’s Ports O’ Call Village (did you get Belgian waffles) or wherever!
Nanook, hooray, for once I am right!
JB, you might have to get the beef stroganoff in a tube (sort of like toothpaste), not sure I have any pills for that. Yeah, IASW is kind of blown-out and barely discernible, my guess is that it was what the photographer was aiming at. As for the empty Peoplemover train, it does seem like they sometimes send empty vehicles through, I’ve never really understood why, though.
Mike Cozart, I believe that these were taken the same day, but can’t say for sure. Oh funny, after my comment to JB, you confirmed that they do send empty Peoplemover trains. The way that ride loaded (on the moving turntable), you’d think that it would be so easy to just hop on, but I’m sure you’re right, even the gentle Peoplemover might have caused some folks (a very small percentage) to be flummoxed.
Chuck, the Monorail looks blue to me. It might be due to the coriolis effect, though. Whoah, that “Pioneer Zephyr” is spectacular! What a beauty. That photo of the Autopia shows the bizarro Autopia AND the regular one, a rare sight. In a way the moving The moving “sidewalk” at the end of Haunted Mansion is similar to the moving platform on the Peoplemover, but I have actually seen people step out of their Doom Buggy and fall, somehow. Of course I point and laugh!
Anonymous, yes, when I was a kid, and realized what was going on with the rotating platform and the Peoplemover trains, it impressed me a LOT. I had a girlfriend who could go UP an escalator, but she couldn’t go DOWN an escalator. She’d just freeze. I’d try to gently coax her, but sometimes we’d just have to look for an elevator. COOL that you are going to be there soon - Tuesday through Friday, you are braver than I am. Two full days (plus a few hours another night) wiped me out!
Stu29573, I KNEW IT!
JG, while I saw the earlier version of Tomorrowland, I don’t remember it, so the post-1967 version is “my” version. The one that always got my heart racing! You could be right about the first photo being taken from the Peoplemover, that was my alternate choice. Sometimes it’s really hard to tell (for me, anyway). It’s frustrating to see an empty vehicle to go through on ANY ride with a long, slow-moving line, but I guess they have their reasons. I looked at the high-res scan to try to figure out what that mysterious box is, but it remains a mystery! At first I thought it might be one of the mailboxes that you see here and there, but I’m pretty sure that’s not it. I’ll add a closeup in case that helps somebody else. I have one pizza pill left, but unfortunately it has pineapple.
LTL, I love it - drive 10 feet, ride’s over! I did have fun on my visit, and when finally have time to really sit down, I’ll try to do some sort of trip report.
I think that thing in Photo 2 and the closeup actually is a mailbox. Take a look here
Chuck, you might not know this, but you ROCK!
Major-
"... but I have actually seen people step out of their Doom Buggy and fall, somehow. Of course I point and laugh!" I [of course] do the same thing; but always covering my mouth with the other hand (Japanese-style) so I can plead innocence-! But the eyes always give it away.
@ Chuck-
GEEZ - such sleuthing. I'm very impressed-!
JG, "...box on the wall near the stairs to the Skyway, any guesses?"... air sickness bags dispenser. (No matter what Chuck says!)
Major, when that girlfriend could go up, but not down the escalator, that's probably when you decided that "this isn't the girl for me", right?
My mom in recent years has become afraid of escalators …. She just is afraid now to step onto the moving sections … so we have to find an elevator . Of course that’s from standing still only a moving system …. Disney guests tended to not have problems stepping onto the rotating turntable … but got nervous thinking about being able to step into the “moving” PeopleMover car …. : again which is really standing still synchronized with the load turntable…. They really are getting nervous with the “concept” lol ….. but I get it .
I mailed a few postcards from that mailbox, 30 years or so ago. And a mailbox existed close by, up through the 2010's, attached to the former C.O.P. building foundation, on the North side facing the Subs; mailed a few there, too :D
Love that 5-car Monorail...the one from my kid-hood.
THANK YOU MAJOR
Thanks everyone for confirming the mailbox!
JB, I used to put my airsick bags in the mailbox like a good citizen, so that’s a good follow-up guess.
Stu, congrats on retirement, may it be long and happy!
JG
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