Tomorrowland In Da 50s
I have a pair of 1950s Tomorrowland beauties for you on this Friday! Starting with this swell look at the entrance to the Rocket to the Moon attraction. That cowboy in line is more used to riding a pinto through the rugged plains; won't he be impressed! He's looking for his bag of tobacco, but smoking is strictly forbidden on this journey. I love the details in this picture, especially the little ticket booth that looks suitable for punishing Cool Hand Luke.
Signage! I love it. A factual and thrilling ride through space at 13,716 miles per hour! Experience the “feel” of space travel - see the Earth below and the heavens above as you pass space station Terra, coast around the Moon and return to the planet Earth.
The initial blast-off, phenomenal acceleration, sounds and visual sensations are all realistically simulated aboard a rocket.
This venture into space is under conditions as calculated for the year 1986 by Willy Ley and Dr. Wernher Von Braun, internationally known scientists and authorities on space travel. Their vivid conception of this eight hour flight in ten minutes is based on technically and scientifically coffect data.
ROCKET TO THE MOON is today’s revelation of outer space travel in the future.
Next is this different look at the corner of Tomorrowland where the Skyway Terminal was located - gondolas come and go, I hope they don't disturb Screechy and her (?) egg. Meanwhile, we get another fun ticket booth...
... this one has a bit more of an overhang, presumably to help shade the poor CM inside on hot days. I like the graphic paint scheme, resembling something rocket-y, somehow. The signs are just a bit too hard to read, but it appears that an adult coupon book was a mere $2.50, while a child's coupon book was $1.50.
I hope you have enjoyed today's Vintage Tomorrowland pix!
9 comments:
Major-
It's reassuring to know that venetian blinds will play an important part in the future - at least up thru 1986...
Thanks, Major.
Which one is the ticket booth? The one that says "Waste Paper", or the one that says "Rocket to the Moon"? That silver trashcan must be the forerunner of the Tomorrowland 'bullet' cans. The building is almost unrecognizable from this angle; we can't see the distinctive domes, and only that smidgen of the curved arch that surrounds the entrance. soooo, what is that row of shiny silver things to the left of the sign? Perhaps this is where space cowboys, like the one digging for his tabacky pouch, tie up their robotic horses? Which also doubles as a recharging station for same.
OoOoh, a nice close-up of one of the "olives on toothpicks" light towers! Apparently, Screechy's real name is "Autopia"; it says so right under her (?). You'd never know from this pic how colorful the Gondolas were! All we see are two silvery blue ones, and one teal one. Is that the ticket guy standing/leaning on the outside of the booth? I don't see anyone inside. How does one get in or out of this booth? Just sort of ooze through the wall using osmosis? Or perhaps they teleport? This IS Tomorrowland, after all.
Nanook, those aren't venetian blinds, they're radiation deflectors. How do you make a venetian blind, anyway?... Take away his eyeglasses! HawHawHaw!
Some rather rare Tomorrowland photos seen from angles we usually don't see. Thanks, Major.
Above that row of "shiny silver things" that JB pointed out, there appears to be a large tarp...or something, stretched out and tied to that rectangular framework. There appears to also be a smaller version of that, behind the sign over the entrance to the "Space Port Waiting Room." Were these just to block out or filter the sunlight? It doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the building or themeing. They should have used venetian blinds!
That second ticket booth does appear to be closed. The little pass-through for the tickets and money is blocked off. JB, maybe the door is around the back, where that guy is leaning. Maybe the ticket booth operator asked a random guy, "Hey, I have to run to the john, will you stand here and guard my cash box and ticket inventory? I'll give you a free "A" Coupon!"
In the 50's Tomorrowland had "Rides"...it's confirmed. No attractions or adventures here in Tomorrowland! Only ticket booths! Question is: why did the photographer want photos of ticket booths? Was he plotting a takeover? 2.50 in the 50's is about $30.00 today. Kinda pricey if you ask me, however isn't a breakfast morning in Starbucks around $30? I guess it all makes sense. I'm getting a craving for Olives looking at these photos. I love Olives and am trying to grow them unsuccessfully, however in 10 years, I got ONE olive: which I was very proud of. I did not put it on a stick as depicted in 1950's Tomorrowland. Skreechy looks kind of butch to be a "she"...just saying. Although I do like all the openness in 50's Tomorrowland, it is deserving on a palm tree or two, and it seems in California, where palms are abundant, it would have been a relatively easy commodity to get. Alas: that money thing! Looks like there was money for ticket booths though! Manned and Un-Manned. I'm not sure you should call them ticket booths tho...they look and probably felt like little Suzie Bake Ovens. Doesn't look like there is a whole lot of ventilation in any of these torture chambers...I mean Ticket Booths. I happen to like old school Venetian blinds...with the wide straps and metal blinds. I can see why they put them here in the Ticket Booth/Rotisserie Chicken Warming Station in front of the Rocket to the Moon. The Rocket to the Moon looks super scientific and serious, which I am enjoying. It doesn't need to be pink and light up. Rides should entertain and educate. Period. Aventures and Attractions too. Thanks Major!
Happy 65th Birthday to Matterhorn Bobsleds, Submarine Voyage & Disneyland Monorail! Yippie!
Now back to the show. I love 1950's Tomorrowland and what better than the TWA Rocket to the Moon. I remember that attraction as a wee child back in 1963. I really believed we went to the moon in my child's mind. Great memories.
Thanks, Major!
W. C. Fields vs Charlie McCarthy:
"Keep quiet or I'll turn you into a Venetian blind."
"That makes me shudder."
Loving the sign on the silver booth “To The Rockets!”. The sign has no exclamation point, but it should.
That stretched-out tarp is a mooncalf hide, curing in the sun. Mooncalves were plentiful before daily rocketry ruined their lunar habitat, as seen in the H. G. Wells novel. The seats of later Disney Moonliners were upholstered in mooncalf leather, but at this time the seats were plain old nylon.
Like Ken, I loved this ride and desperately wanted it to be real. Star Tours is weak sauce by comparison although I convinced my little son that ST was a trip to “Real Space”(as he termed it).
Trash cans seem kind of sparse in these pics, maybe they’re hiding.
The second ticket booth looks like a cousin of those checkerboard umbrellas we see in other views. Purina Feeds was a silent sponsor of Tomorrowland as they were developing Purina Astronaut Chow and Purina Mooncalf Chow. Sales never really took off.
Major, thank you for these!
JG
“That cowboy in line is more used to riding a pinto through the rugged plains”
I’m still waiting for one of our witty Jr. Gorillas to add a punch line to this…:o)
Nanook, in the future they will be called Venusian blinds!
JB, only your hairdresser can tell which thing is the real ticket booth. The Rocket to the Moon building reminds me of the famous TWA terminal at JFK from this angle! I wondered about those shiny things as well, I’m going with “repetitive decorative thingys”. Sort of a forerunner of the “kit bashing” you might see on model spaceships today. How can Screechy be named “Screechy” AND “Autopia”? It makes no sense and goes against the Geneva Convention. You don’t want to do that. They usually imprisoned ladies in the ticket booths, so I doubt that the man is a ticket dude.
TokyoMagic!, yes, those tarps are very futuristic, they are made of Merculon (which doesn’t exist yet). My guess is that they were added to block out some sunlight but they should have used Venusian blinds, I agree. I don’t recall seeing that Tomorrowland ticket booth in other photos (though it must have been in some), maybe it was deemed unnecessary very quickly.
Bu, yep, we’ve seen more than enough evidence to confidently proclaim that rides were rides and not “attractions”, at least a lot of the time. Not sure when “ride” became a four letter word. I’m not sure the photographer was trying to get the ticket booth necessarily in that first pic, he just wanted the overall scene of the entrance. But the second one does seem to feature that booth significantly! Maybe he just liked the cheerful Bauhaus design. If you grow olives, don’t you have to cure them to make them edible? Maybe that’s just black olives. I’m not crazy about olives but I will eat them under protest. Tomorrowland got plenty of palm trees in 1967, including that crazy many-trunked Senegal Palm that we’ve seen. I truly fear that those ticket booths got incredibly hot and stuffy in the middle of summer, those poor women who worked in them, it sounds miserable. “Here’s your damn tickets!”. Can you blame them?
K. Martinez, is today the actual 65th birthday of those rides? Wow! I had no idea, clearly. At POP, their “Trip to Mars” ride let you get off and walk around a Martian landscape (not sure how that worked exactly), I wish they had something like that at Disneyland. Watch out for giant moon gophers!
LTL, ha ha!
JG, oh I didn’t even notice the “To the Rockets” sign, that’s pretty fun. Mooncalves, of course, I remember them from the movie “First Men in the Moon” (I think that was it, anyway). Good old Ray Harryhausen, my brother got me his autograph, and I still have it. I think Star Wars was pretty cool in its day, but motion simulators became pretty common, half the rides at Universal Studios Hollywood are simulator rides, and they get pretty “samey” after three or four. Astronaut Chow, everything an astronaut needs, in pellet form. I hope they still get peanut butter in metal toothpaste tubes, however.
Lou and Sue, well now I am waiting for that too!
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