Walter Elias Disney, the person, was born
on December 5, 1901, but Walt Disney, the
personality, was born on October 27,
1954 with the premiere of the television
show Disneyland.
To help fund his theme park, Walt and his
brother Roy entered an agreement with
the television network ABC. ABC agreed to
help finance the park on the condition
that Walt would create an anthology
series for the channel. This turned out
to be a lucrative deal for both parties.
On top of the funding, Walt had a
platform to promote the park. The
Disneyland show would showcase some of
Disney's old animations and films, as
well as present new content. The key
element that would elevate this
anthology series was Walt himself, who
would host the program. While he had
performed on screen is specials and
events before, this would be his first
consistent role as a television
personality, and the immediate power of
his charm cannot be overstated. The Walt
Disney character was warm, funny, and
all-around calming. It was the mentor-like figure that Walt had always wanted
to be for his animators. He had become
Uncle Walt, but Uncle Walt could
project more than just tranquillity. The
personality could also exude excitement.
Excitement for Disneyland's future, and
the future in general. Through his
television show and his park, Walt was
positioning himself as a futurist,
arguably the most prominent and
influential of his time.
Song: "There's a product where the past becomes today. Where forgotten memories come back to stay..."
"A place where nothing ever goes
quite as planned. If this makes you..."
curious, then we suggest Defunctland!"
Retro Announcer: "Defunctland! The Show About the Past.. of the Future!"
*50's Music Plays*
It's the 1950's, and the United States of
America... is making babies.
Nothing gets a country collectively going in the
bedroom quite like winning a war.
Soldiers returned from World War II
ready to put some figurative buns in the
oven, and to remind their wives to put
some actual buns in the oven.
Millions of women had entered the
workforce to assist in World War II, but
as men returned home from the conflict,
they expected women to return home and
stay there. The long-accepted idea that a
woman's place was in the home was an
admittedly tough sell after that woman
had spent the past three years building
P-51 Mustangs, but it wasn't impossible.
Along with the baby boom, there was a
housing boom in the US. His families
moved from the city to newly built
suburbs. This helped to bring back the
idea of the homemaker, which was
reinforced by an entire genre of media.
Old Film Reel: "She met Chad at the University in a math...
course, she got the better grades, now
he's an engineer and she's a housewife."
Faster manufacturing practices, new
materials for goods, and a thriving
economy meant new products were being
pushed on Americans like never before,
and companies from General Electric to
Monsanto were showing the public their
ideas for the modern home. This abundant
optimism was helped by the fact that the
US was one of the only global powers not
rebuilding after the war. Rather, the
country was more equipped than ever to
succeed. With a reinforced social
structure, a booming economy, a new
standing as the premier global
superpower, and about 10 years before its
massive social unrest would need to be
addressed, the sky was the limit for the
United States of America, but even that
wasn't enough, because many people had
their targets set on the stars.
On March 22, 1952, the weekly magazine
Collier's published the first in a
series of articles titled Man Will
Conquer Space soon who was one of the
first prominent and extensive
speculations on the real world
possibility of space travel. It also
positioned the prospect of sending
humanity to space as a destiny of sorts.
Space was not just another frontier to
conquer, but it was, as the magazine put
it, the last frontier. This sense of
optimism and purpose was supplemented by
prominent scientists, all of which came
together to formulate a rough plan for
space travel using their expertise and
the available knowledge. At the forefront
of this team was rocket scientist and
ex-Nazi Wernher von Braun. Von Braun had
joined the Nazi Party and assisted in
the war effort, designing the v2 rocket, a
missile that would kill nearly 10,000
soldiers and civilians. Worse, the rockets
were built through forced labor from
concentration camp prisoners, and more
prisoners would die building von Braun's
rocket than the rocket would actually
kill. Von Braun knew and witnessed this
horror, but being powerless to stop it, he
continued his work.
Von Braun claimed afterward that he was
apolitical, and he simply wanted to
continue his passion, a boldly apathetic
response to the question, "Why were you a
Nazi?" Von Braun asserted that his biggest
dream had always been to send humans to
space, not to design weapons. In 1944,
after getting properly drunk at a party,
he mentioned this dream, along with the
fact that he believed Germany would lose
the war. The Nazi Party did not appreciate the
sentiment, and after hearing of the
remarks, von Braun was arrested and held
for two weeks. Hitler himself had to
reinstate von Braun to his position, but
von Braun now knew that he had to
escape, which apparently had not yet
occurred to him. Still, he waited until
May 2, 1945, the day after Hitler was
killed. von Braun and a few members of
his staff were able to surrender to
Americans, and within months, von Braun
was working for the US Army under the
program Operation Paperclip,
designed to recruit German scientists to
the U.S. and away from the Soviet Union.
His relocation was eventually revealed
to the public and he became a prominent
and predictably controversial figure
throughout the late 40s and early 50s.
However, the ideas presented in Collier's
would become so popular that many
Americans' introduction to von Braun was
through these visions of space travel,
many never learning that he was a Nazi,
others not caring. However, there were
still some that took issue.
Tom Lehrer: "Once the rockets are up who cares where they come down. That's not my department
says Wernher von Braun."
Von Braun's v2 rocket would be the basis
for the proposed space flight, and one of
the team's main conclusions was that if
humanity was to go to space, it would be
on a rocket. Collier's article series
transformed the way Americans thought
about space travel. A trip to the moon
went from fantasy to a real-world
possibility in just a few short years.
Walt Disney was among the convinced, and
he had, not just an opportunity to
promote von Braun's vision, but a need.
Walt's anthology Disneyland Show would
be split into four categories to reflect
his park: Fantasyland, Adventureland
Frontierland, and Tomorrowland. Each week, Disney would present a program from one
of these areas. The Frontierland shows
would feature old Disney films such as
So Dear To My Heart and new content such
as the enormously popular Davy Crockett
series, starring Fess Parker. The
Adventureland shows would feature
Walt's True-Life Adventure nature
documentaries, and Fantasyland would of
course showcase some of his classic
animations.
However, Walt had little to nothing to
present on the show's Tomorrowland
programs. In fact, the first 19 Disneyland shows would be presented from
everywhere but Tomorrowland. Walt
assigned his friend and animator Ward
Kimball, one of his only close
collaborators that was not wrapped up in
the building of Disneyland Park,cto
direct one of the Tomorrowland programs.
It was decided that the show would be on
space travel, and Kimball reached out to
von Braun, asking him if he would be
willing to present some of the
information. He published in the Collier's
articles on the Disneyland show.
Recognizing the power of the platform.
von Braun agreed to bring his colleagues
and their collective knowledge onto the
program. The first Disneyland
Tomorrowland episode titled Man in Space
and directed by Kimball would premiere
on ABC on March 9, 1955.
Walt Disney: "In our modern
world, everywhere we look we see the
influence science has upon our daily
lives. Discoveries that were miracles a
few short years ago are accepted as
commonplace today. The special stood as
an antithesis of sorts to the space
sci-fi genre common in theaters at the
time. These alien invasion films were
campy and dystopian while the von Braun/
Disney view of space travel was
researched and optimistic. More than
anything, the Man in Space Disneyland
special captured the values and
aesthetic that Walt wanted for Disneyland
park's Tomorrowland area. However, by the
time the special premiered, Walt had
realized that
Disneyland's Tomorrowland would not live
up to his dreams. With Mickey Mouse Park,
a potential spaceship attraction was
thrown around, but no dedicated future
area was included in the original 1953
Disneyland pitch. Less than a year later,
an area dedicated to science and the
promise of tomorrow was added, named the
World of Tomorrow. This land would invite
the forward-thinking industries of the
mid-1950s to an exposition space that
resembled the popular World's Fairs of
the day, specifically the 1933 Century of
Progress Fair in Chicago in the 1939
Golden Gate International Exhibition in
San Francisco, both of which Walt had
visited. Guests would enter the World of
Tomorrow via a moving sidewalk. Inside
the area was to be a mechanical brain, a
diving bell, a suspended monorail,
a submarine, a flying saucer, a children's
car ride, and a voice-controlled house of
the future. There were also plans for a futuristic
restaurant in which conveyor belts
will carry your food through the
electronic cooking device of tomorrow,
where you will see it cooked instantly
to your liking. The area's signature
the attraction was to be a rocket spaceship
to the moon which would simulate
scientifically accurate space travel.
The proposal lauded the land's
authenticity and values. As Disneyland
would evolve, so would the World of
Tomorrow, eventually being renamed
Tomorrowland by 1954. However, as with the Tomorrowland segments of the Disneyland
TV show. The Tomorrowland section of
Disneyland park would be the lowest
priority-wise. This wasn't necessarily
from lack of interest and there was no
concrete answer as to why Tomorrowland
was an afterthought, most likely it is
due to the fact that the land was the
one with the least amount of iterations.
While Main Street and Frontierland had
been planned since the initial Mickey
Mouse Park concept, Tomorrowland was new to the fold and while the other lands
added in Herb Ryman's 1953 layout, such
as Lilliputian Land and Recreation Land,
would be scrapped tomorrow and remained
and it remained a problem
practically everything was cut from the
1953 proposal including the suspended
monorail the submarine the house of the
future and the moving sidewalk all the
team was sure of was the rocket
simulator and the children's car ride
waltz team knew there was also to be
exhibition halls for companies to
showcase their products but even this
simple idea had not progressed
Disneyland had begun construction on
June 20th 1954 and Walt wanted the park
open less than a year later on Sunday
July 17 1955 this goal was ambitious
verging on impossible and during the
first months of construction as the park
ran over budget and construction was
slower than expected it became clear
that if the park was going to open in
July something would have to give and
first on the chopping block would of
course be Tomorrowland CV would
Disneyland's general manager begged Walt
to not open tomorrow and with the rest
of the park and instead focus on the
other areas Walt reluctantly agreed to
this in September of 1954 choosing to
delay tomorrow ends opening to 1956
although some development continued on
the two planned attractions the plan was
to wall off the land with signs
informing the parks 1955 guests of the
land's debut the following year this was
the case for September October November
and December of 1954 however as well
presented his ABC show each week with
the promise of tomorrow and in each
intro his anxiety over the decision to
delay the area grew and in January he
instructed his team to prepare
Tomorrowland to open with the rest of
the park of course this meant the land
which was the least developed at the
start of construction had lost a
precious four months of a 12-month build
time that could have been spent fleshing
out the area and constructing
attractions or at the very least
searching for sponsors for the World's
Fair type pavilions nonetheless the
construction crew got back to work on
the area and Walt's design firm wet
enterprises went back to the drawing
board the new plan was to construct two
large exhibition halls to take up the
majority of the land space what would go
inside of these no one knew but at the
very least the structures would be under
development a young designer Bob Kerr
was put in charge of the car ride to be
named Autopia Autopia would showcase the
future of highway transportation von
Braun and his team while developing more
specials for the Disneyland show with
Kimball assisted in the design of the
rocket simulator to be named rocket to
the moon would rush to find sponsors for
the Tomorrowland exhibit space and given
that the park was less than six months
from open
he was taking whoever he could get
luckily tomorrow insult itself has
proved by the 1933 Century of Progress
Fair and the fairs that followed almost
any company from any industry was eager
to brand themselves as a product of the
future especially in the 1950s with
every new product material and company
wanting the American public to envision
them alongside the modern home despite
the short amount of time to do so
Wood was able to secure a significant
amount of sponsorships from such
forward-thinking brands as Richfield oil
Monsanto Chemical Company and the
national-led company which owned
dutchboy paints the lead paint of the
future rocket to the moon was to be
sponsored by Trans World Airlines and
outside of the attraction would stand
the moon lighter a seventy six foot tall
model of a Rockets taller than the parks
castle designed by Disney artist john
hench and von braun weds was also
working on two additional attractions
the first was a 360 degree film to be
sponsored by General Motors named a tour
of the West to be housed inside of a
unique theater named circa Rama with
General Motors products on his showroom
floor the technology for the film was in
development by none other than uh by
works Disney's longtime partner who had
left the studio in 1930 only to return a
decade later the other tomorrow and
attraction and development was named
Space Station x1 which featured detailed
models giving a panoramic view of Earth
from space the space station used was
similar to the one that was designed by
Sean Brown Richfield oil who was
sponsoring Autopia would also sponsor a
short film and diorama titled the world
beneath us which would give a history of
the world and the origins of oil hosted
by a character named mr. professor the
Monsanto Company would host a
walkthrough exhibit called the howl of
chemistry Kaiser aluminum would host the
exhibit the Kaiser aluminum Hall of Fame
on top of this would promise the company
that kaiser's aluminum would not just be
in there tomorrow and exhibit it would
be used in building materials throughout
the park the diversified use of aluminum
was expanding throughout the 1950s and
there seemed to be no limit to this
magic metal of course there was one the
Sun but it was not until aluminum was
added to the moon liner rocket ship the
Autopia cars the castle and much more
that the crew realized that aluminum
expands in the heat and contracts when
cooled this meant regular maintenance on
Autopia and loud groaning noises from
the moon liner as it expanded and
contracted throughout
the day the entire land was rooted in
modernism although there were some early
elements of what would soon be the
popular space-age architecture which
feature large curves and paperwhite
exteriors the lands lead designer
Italian director Gabe Scognamiglio
worked with his team to fill the empty
land Tomorrowland was supposed to
reflect the future in the year 1986
chosen because this was the next time
Halley's Comet was to pass earth
additional touches to the land included
bright colored pillars as well as a
state flag display known as the Court of
Honor at the entrance to the land would
be the timex sponsored clock of the
world which told the time of anywhere on
the planet it was no world's largest
thermometer but it would do to
refreshment bars were added to the land
the space bar which served in a unique
automat counter service hybrid and the
Yacht Club named for its proximity to
the Tomorrowland lagoon on which guests
could captain small boats which
showcased new fiberglass technology it
was a rush job and what was disappointed
with the lack of speculative future in
the exhibits and attractions but with
only a few weeks before the parks July
17th opening this was the least of his
concerns even with the less than ideal
exhibits Tomorrowland was not nearly
ready it appeared that the area's
signature attraction rocket to the moon
the one with the tallest icon in the
park luring guests towards us would not
be ready in time for opening day despite
multiple sponsors the exhibit spaces
were far from full and it was still
uncertain if the refreshments bars would
be completed while its main concern was
the exhibit spaces which were visibly
and embarrassingly empty especially the
one to the south in a desperate attempt
to fill the room Walt asked his team to
set up props from 20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea
the popular live-action film that Disney
had released the previous year
unfortunately many of the props were
destroyed or had degraded so new ones
would have to be built meaning that not
even this quick fix would be ready on
opening day given the circumstances it
was inevitable that Tomorrowland would
not be complete but it now seemed that
it would be a miracle if who was open at
all in the final days before the opening
press event crews worked through the
night to ready the park and the team was
able to complete enough of the land to
open it to guests despite many of the
Tomorrowland attractions and exhibits
being roped off on the morning of July
17th Walt planned to give his park
guests and his television audience at
the very least a glimpse of tomorrow an
oh hello and how do you do professor
Harper a ladies and gentlemen I'd like
to present to you a gentleman of
considerable renown
this is dr. Heinz Harbor and I'm sure
you will remember him from Walt Disney's
Tomorrowland go ahead dr. Bell well they
just explain to these kids that I have
here an animal perineum I see but of
course it's only a loaded mousetrap
where suspicions are correct that man
was also a Nazi dedication Avista into a
world of wondrous ideas signifying man's
achievements I thought I got a signal
opening day Disneyland was a disaster
but everyone knows that what's important
is not what went wrong rather what went
right what was actually open in
Tomorrowland on July 17 1955 as guests
entered the land they would be
immediately greeted by the clock of the
world and the two main exhibit spaces
the left or North exhibit space was the
most complete this building held circa
Rahma and the tour of the West film
which some reports claim was not playing
until the following day the North
exhibit space also contains Space
Station x1 and Richfield oils the world
beneath us
the exhibit space to the right or south
only held the Kaiser aluminum Hall of
Fame and the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry
the 20,000 Leagues exhibit was still
under construction as was the back of
the exhibit space which would soon be
filled by more temporary sponsors as
guests continued into the land they
would pass the Court of Honor with 48
state flags arranged in a star with the
American flag raised above all at the
back of Tomorrowland guests could view
the moon liner ship and see the exterior
for the rocket to the moon attraction
which was not yet completed to the left
of rocket to the moon was the space bar
which was serving on opening day to the
left of the space bar was Autopia which
would be operating for the press and
guests next Autopia was the Tomorrowland
boats which some reports claimed were
not functional despite a segment of the
opening special being filmed in front of
the lagoon the adjacent Yacht Club was
not finished in time for opening roaming
Tomorrowland was the Tomorrowland space
man dressed in tubes and sporting a
fishbowl helmet there will be many
iterations of the spaceman throughout
the years and he would most often roam
the land talking to children sometimes
selling balloons
you would soon be joined by the
Tomorrowland space girl and the two
would roam the land is the tomorrow and
space couple and that was opening day
tomorrow and it was not a lot but it was
certainly better than nothing with the
opening day event out of the way in a
steady stream of revenue from Day guests
coming in Walt and his team went to work
finishing the partially built tomorrow
and attractions and planning additional
ones
rocket to the moon would be finished
within the week opening on July 22nd the
20,000 Leagues exhibit would be
completed two weeks later opening on
August 3rd in September the art corner a
small gift shop in a temporary location
near Main Street moved into the north
exhibit in Tomorrowland further reducing
the amount of empty space this store was
themed to the streets of Paris and would
sometimes show up on maps as such Jack
Olsen a Disney artist who worked on
studio merchandising made the brilliant
decision to sell Disney animation cells
in art corner rather than just throwing
them away this turned our corner into a
popular shopping destination despite
having absolutely nothing to do with
Tomorrowland or the future in the middle
of the land a circular stage named
flight circle was placed for when Mac
and later Cox manufacturing model planes
cars and even boats to be showcased when
flight circle was added a makeshift
store named hobby land opened next to it
where models could be purchased around
this time Tomorrowland boats which had
been a nightmare for maintenance were
updated and renamed to the Phantom boats
although the fix which included covering
the boats engines to reduce smoke
unsurprisingly would not reduce
maintenance issues in January of 1956
the boats would be docked seemingly for
good but after failing to come up with
any alternatives the boats were up and
running again by the summer of 1956 just
too close for a final time in the fall
again because of maintenance issues
Tomorrowland continued to be updated in
Disneyland second year additions
included the American dairy
Association's Dairy Bar located in the
south exhibition space and contained in
a structure resembling a barn guests
could view exhibits of the future of
dairy farming as well as drink cool
refreshing glasses of milk that go down
smooth on a warm California day also in
the south exhibition space would be the
crane company bathroom tomorrow the
ribbon-cutting of which featured Walton
executives from the crane plumbing
company turning large water valves the
exhibit was actually one of the more
futuristic offerings in the land
considering that it speculated the
future of bathrooms although it was
merely a display and no functional
toilets were available which had to have
confused a few guests navigating the
park using the guide map in March of
1956 the national-led company's exhibit
would finally be installed named our
future and colors where guests could
view and try different paint
combinations the two biggest
Tomorrowland attraction debuts of 1956
or the Astra Jets in the sky way the
Astra Jets was a spinning rocket ride
that took the place of the court of
her flag display which would be
relocated into the avenue of flags at
the entrance to the land the astro Jets
would open in March of 1956 the Skyway
was a gondola lift that would transport
guests between Tomorrowland and
Fantasyland the Skyway would open in
June of 1956 both of these attractions
added to the kinetic energy of the land
but tomorrow an still lacked the
futurism that Walt had envisioned and
that he was presenting on the Disneyland
show his frustration will lead him to
nickname the area today land other times
yesterday land he was determined to fix
this in 1957 the Yacht Club was moved
and renamed to the yacht bar in
preparation for a new train attraction
named the view liner train of tomorrow
the unique train designed by ger would
circle around the Tomorrowland lagoon
with a station in both Tomorrowland and
Fantasyland the view liner combined with
the Disneyland railroad frontier lands
mine train through nature's Wonderland
and fantasy lands Casey jr. circus train
brought the parks total amount of trains
up to four which thrilled Walt because
he loved the number four the Train would
not fix Tomorrowland futurism problem as
much as the other 1957 addition the
Monsanto House of the future would I
like it what a dream imagine how
wonderful it would be to live in a house
like this
just imagine I'd be getting dinner in
this kitchen if you want more light
press a button any intensity of light
through polarized plastic ceiling panels
oh it would be wonderful a maybe another
day the recent mass production and
implementation of plastic along with the
nationwide housing bill led Monsanto to
envision a home made entirely of the
material they then presented the concept
to Walt hoping to create a functional
model of the home as Monsanto's second
Tomorrowland attraction considering
Walter just approved of an exhibit that
was literally people watching paint dry
it is no surprise that he jumped on the
opportunity to bring a true speculative
future attraction to Tomorrowland the
original plans for the world of tomorrow
had mentioned a home of the future so
the Monsanto exhibit was the first step
in bringing Walt's true vision of
tomorrow and fruition the plastic house
would not just be innovative in its use
of materials but it would also feature a
unique layout and speculative home
features the attraction opened on June
12th 1957 situated near the entrance of
Tomorrowland the attraction would be a
massive
and it would become an image of futurism
throughout the late 50s and early 60s
still Walt had bigger plans for tomorrow
and he wanted to resurrect two
additional concepts from the original
world of tomorrow pitch the monorail and
the submarine ride and after a trip to
Switzerland to shoot the film third man
on the mountain
Walt also wanted a bobsled attraction
inside of a scale model of the
Matterhorn not dissimilar to the roush
bond the historic coaster that Walt had
viewed at Tivoli Gardens a few years
prior throughout 1957 and 1958 plans
were drawn for Disneyland's first major
expansion with these three attractions
in mind all three of which would be
located in between Tomorrowland and
Fantasyland with all three being
designated its Tomorrowland attractions
in order to make room for the new rides
the view liner train of tomorrow closed
in September of 1958 also that September
the American Dairy Association closed
their dairy bar exhibit and other
exhibits for the area were planned along
with the three new major attractions an
entirely new land was proposed for
Disneyland to be located in the area
between the south exhibition space and
rocket to the moon the new land to be
named science land sometimes referred to
as a new pavilion named Adventures and
science was to include a time travel
attraction where guests could view
scenes of dinosaurs a ride called micro
world where guests would be shrunk down
and travel inside of a drop of water and
another space attraction this one
showcasing scenes of not just space
travel but space colonization the new
pavilion would not come to fruition at
least not in this form but the
Matterhorn submarine voyage and the
monorail would the five million dollar
expansion was announced in December of
1958 and in just six months
all three attractions were operating all
opening on June 14th 1959 these rides
the first to be given the coveted
e-ticket designation and ticket books
would be hugely popular for Disneyland
and in an instant would transform
Tomorrowland from an incomplete land of
temporary exhibits into the most
well-rounded and thrilling of all still
even with this monumental and hugely
popular expansion the exhibit space
still troubled Walt in December of 1959
the world beneath us closed soon after
Space Station x1 which had been renamed
to the satellite view of America closed
as well both were replaced with a new
exhibit to coincide with art corner
names the art of animation which would
show displays from upcoming Disney
animated films which in a way was more
about the future than art corner also in
1960 the bathroom of tomorrow and
Kaiser aluminum hall-of-fame were closed
and replaced by fun photo spots to be
clear that was the name of the photo
areas not an endorsement in 1961 the
space once earmarked for science land
would become home to another new
Tomorrowland ride the flying saucers
referred to as the bumper cars of the
future
another Bob gherkin traction the guests
controlled saucers gliding on top of air
valves would be problematic for
maintenance but will continue to
entertain when not broken down in 1962
Transworld airlines dropped their
sponsorship and the Douglas Aircraft
Company took over the moon liner was
updated to reflect the change in 1963
the Dutch boy color gallery closed so
that the circa Rama theatre could be
expanded in 1964 the Astra Jets were
renamed to the Tomorrowland Jets as
American Airlines had recently started
using the term Astro jets for some of
their planes in 1965 Monsanto would host
a third attraction in the South exhibit
space a display named fashion and
fabrics throughout the ages that told
the history of fashion and fabrics
throughout the ages the exhibit would
only last a few months it was around
this time that Walt and the Disneyland
team would first realize an issue with
tomorrow and that would eclipse concerns
of temporary exhibit spaces and non
futuristic attractions the tomorrow and
problem as it would later be named was
that any grounded vision of the future
will eventually come ironically the man
that had inspired much of the land would
be the same that would help render it
obsolete in 1957 the Soviet Union had
launched the satellite Sputnik 1 the
following year the United States would
establish NASA and none other than X not
severe enough von Braun would lead the
u.s. in the escalating space race now in
the late 60s with manned space flight
achieved and a moon landing imminent
even the most optimistic parts of
tomorrow and were becoming a reality an
overhaul was needed in a 1966 dizziness
crew began drafting plans for a new
Tomorrowland while the Matterhorn the
monorail and submarine voyage would
remain unchanged the rest of
Tomorrowland would be walled off with a
model of the new ambitious plans placed
outside the walls for guests to view
this meant that the clock of the world
the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry the
Monsanto House of the future the 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea exhibit the flight
circle hobby land art corner the art of
animation exhibits the Tomorrowland Jets
the flying saucers fashion and fabric
throughout the ages rocket to the moon
the yacht bar and
the spacebar were all closed for good
for new Tomorrowland most were
dismantled and removed while a select
few would be refurbished in two new
attractions Tomorrowland 1955 was gone
even quicker than it was constructed but
its impact on Walt and the public would
live on tomorrow and 1955 would not make
Walt into a futurist figure overnight in
fact more was done to establish Walt's
visions in the Disneyland anthology
series than the park throughout his
career Walt had traded in nostalgia the
future was a new creative space but the
principles of simplicity and optimism
that made Walt's vision of the past
digestible were the same that would make
his vision of the future effective
whether it was the lofty promise of
space travel or the foreseeable future
of the suburban home the answer was the
same American ingenuity and industry
would lead the way and in a time of
post-war prosperity for a large portion
of the population who could argue with
that notion still tomorrow in 1955 was
just the beginning of Walt's visions for
the future his biggest ideas the ones
that would label him a visionary were
still ahead for in between Disneyland's
opening and the original Tomorrowland's
closure in 1966 Walt Disney had
formulated grander ideas for tomorrow
and had taken them not to Anaheim but to
New York City
Thank You Garko
