Here are two swell randos to brighten your Friday. TGIF, am I right? I don't know what "tuhgif" means, but it seems to be some sort of powerful incantation.
Let's start with this view (from January, 1964) taken from the top step (?) of the Monsanto House of the Future looking down on our close personal friends. They're afraid of THE FUTURE, but not me! I welcome it, and all Soylent products, with open arms. The ladies appear to be holding souvenir guidebooks, and the one in teal has hers open in a manner which I find unbecoming. But I forgive her because she might be using it as an actual guide as she made her way through the park.
Next is this very nice January 1971 shot (souvenir guidebook worthy?) of the Rocket Jets (extra points added because the rockets are UP), along with busy Peoplemover trains. Wowee, Tomorrowland was THE place for me in those days. The folks down below are a bit hard to see, I guess the film stock had a tough time with the brilliantly lit area above and the bit in shadow on the ground level.
Major-
ReplyDelete"TGIF, am I right?" I don't know whatever happened to the abbreviation for Sure Happy It's Thursday, but some things are best left unexpressed...
Yes - that poor guidebook-! Even now I can still hear its binding screaming.
Thanks, Major. (and happy Friday)
The lady in teal sees herself reflected in The Future, "Oh my, is that really going to happen to us?" Speaking of blue-colored things, I can't take my eye off the blue rinse in that lady's hair (on the left). This is a rare and unusual angle of the HotF.
ReplyDeleteYer right, Major. This is where I want to be! So much excitement! So much movement! So much color! A thousand curses on he/she who did away with this perfect Tomorrowland.
Nice Randos. Thanks, Major.
I remember when I first heard about the PeopleMover being replaced with the VELOCI-PODS ….. the precursor concept to the ROCKET-RODS …… I thought it was a joke….. then the bowling ball rolled down the stairs … resulting in TOMORROWLAND ‘98. I suspect the imagineers involved in that disaster don’t mention it in their resumes - because they’d never be hired again.
ReplyDeleteEither the afternoon sun was washing out the mural on the Carousel of Progress, or this was the year that they painted the entire building a very bland gray. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThere's that wonderful "Rocket Jets" sign with the red upward arrow. Always was a favorite. This here is Tomorrowland perfection. Disney futurism at its peak.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Major.
The HOF photo is terrifying! Those folks are standing on that sidewalk above the pond feature with no guardrails, ropes or curbs! A single mis-step could result in retiring as multi millionaires!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I love it, great clothes and shoes etc.
The Rocket Jets pic is perfect. This was a common vantage for photos, and we can see why. Notice the normal size non-SUV strollers far back in the shadows.
Major, my X-wing comment yesterday was joking on how the R2 droids resemble trash cans. It was a stretch.
JG
@ JB-
ReplyDelete"I can't take my eye off the blue rinse in that lady's hair". That's nothin' compared to the lady's hair I saw yesterday in the grocery store, who couldn't decide if it was 1964 or 2024 - the 'blue' was a bit much.
@ MIKE-
"I suspect the imagineers involved in that disaster don’t mention it in their resumes - because they’d never be hired again". NO... they appear to be working today - just look around at the Parks. For just ONE example, that new Haunted Mansion "gift shop" @ DL, more resembling a storage shed easily bought at Home Depot.
I love the as-you-are-there high angle of the first photo! I think the cool-grey hair color was a popular style back then. My grandmother even dyed her hair that color for a while even though she was a younger woman at that time. No doubt those people are discussing the possibilities of ultrasonic dishwashers. Where's mine?
ReplyDeleteThe second photo couldn't be more perfect! It accurately captures the wide collars, jean jackets, and earthiness of that time. There's a great view of the Goodyear display pods along the "Up" Speedramp. Yea - that '99 Tomorrowland was so very misguided. The only thing I think that could be worse than a Steampunk future, is a Steampunk future painted blue and silver.
Nanook, “Sure Happy It’s Thursday”?? HEY! That spells something bad! I’m telling a responsible adult (where can I find one?).
ReplyDeleteJB, that teal lady doesn’t look that bad! Jeez! My grandma used to have bluing in her basement, but I don’t ever remember her using it in her hair. That would have been weird.
Mike Cozart, I don’t hate the idea of a Veloci-Pod ride, just don’t rip out my Peoplemover! It really is stunning how terrible Tomorrowland ’98 turned out to be; and I remember being excited for “changes”. Little did I know.
TokyoMagic!, the Carousel of Progress was definitely going in January of 1971, but it does seem odd that we don’t see any of that blue mural that was painted on the outside.
K. Martinez, yes, I love clever graphics like that Rocket Jets sign, it’s really fun. And it’s a little sad that they’ve never surpassed that Tomorrowland!
JG, you KNOW that there is no way they would have that walkway without a railing. And a railing is not the end of the world, but it sure looks great as it is in the photo. I saw a video of some architectural masterpiece in Japan, and one walkway is a series of circular “steps” that cross a shallow waterway. I thought, “They have a lot of faith in humanity!”. I wonder when the giant strollers became a thing? The 1990s? I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on the X-wing comment, I am a little slow.
Nanook, is it possible that the lady you saw just died her hair blue? You see that sometimes. Usually it’s a younger gal, but I saw an older woman with bubblegum pink hair a few weeks ago. Hey, good for her. My gosh, I saw a video with that gift shop outside the Haunted Mansion, what an eyesore. And the “true fans” are defending it as if it is the most wonderful addition in the world.
Omnispace, you might be right, I have seen photos of my maternal grandmother from before I was born, and her hair appears to be a bit blue. Might just be the film though. By the time I was old enough to know her, she just let her hair go gray, and it looked fine to me. You make a good point, the fashions on the guests add a lot of fun and context to an already great picture!
ReplyDeleteMajor-
ReplyDelete"I saw a video with that gift shop outside the Haunted Mansion, what an eyesore. And the “true fans” are defending it as if it is the most wonderful addition in the world".
A good friend of mine who is "too big a Disneyland fan" for me was pitching the line that the new gift shop is supposed to be a carriage house for the Haunted Mansion-! Oh, really-?? (Disney is never without a good “story” – it’s their raison d'être, after all-!)
A more 'honest appraisal' sounds more like this: "It looks like Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz – dropped from the sky to land where it did unconnected to anything surrounding it". It more resembles a storage shed - "designed" to ape an upscale barn - easily purchased at Home Depot or Lowe's-! Someone on-line applied a little Photoshop work to an image of it by appending a Cracker Barrel sign above the double, sliding "front doors". Now all it needs are the requisite rocking chairs and checker boards to complete 'the look'. Disney has soooooo lost its way.
That is both the best and worst photo ever of the HOTF water feature. A good look, but a bit grimy.
ReplyDeleteGood times in Tomorrowland.
MS