Looking backward at Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland was my favorite Disney land when I was a kid, and I have a big soft spot for it today.  I was always a Trekkie, a Star Wars Fan, and a Space Program Fan so it was a big thrill to walk around in a world of Tomorrow.  I often suspect that my passion for Mid-Century Modernism is an outgrowth of my love for Star Trek, Disneyland, and the Brady Bunch.  Star Trek: The Original Series had a very thinly veiled Modernist aesthetic, complete with pedestal furniture and angular minimalist sets. Disneyland had the wonderful Tomorrowland of 1967 with its space age spires reaching for the sky. And The Brady Bunch, well the Father was an Architect with a groovy Frank Lloyd Wright-ish home that always captivated me.  As for the Space Program, I vividly remember the first Space Shuttle launch and Space Shuttle toys were among my favorites.

Tomorrowland grab bag of memories: Riding Adventures Through Inner Space and being so sure we were going to be shrunken down in the Mighty Microscope. Being equally convinced I had flown on a Mission To Mars...and why shouldn't I believe it, after all my older brothers assured me they had seen my rocket leave while they were in line for Space Mountain (I was not tall enough for that one at the time). For some reason we usually ended up at Tomorrowland in the late afternoon, when I think back it is always with a western sun. Usually we had taken the Monorail over to the Disneyland Hotel and gone to see the Toy Store and the remote control boats in the Hotel Lagoon. One time I rode in the monorail bubble behind the driver with my brother, that was a real treat, as much as I liked the "Lear Jet" Monorails I really missed the bubbles!

My sketch here tries to capture Disneyland's Tomorrowland circa 1984...the Peoplemover is still solid colored. I have a very clear childhood memory of being so happy looking at the three flag poles atop the Carousel Theater building, with the combination of the smell of the chlorine from the Submarine Voyage and the gasoline from Autopia heavy in the air. Overhead the Skyway whisking folks off towards Fantasyland through the Matterhorn. You can see the Rocket Jets spinning around, Peoplemovers and Monorails snaking around each other, all so fantastic. And the sounds, the goose like "honk-honk" of the Monorail, the steam whistle of the Disneyland Railroad, Is Harold growling at the screaming Matterhorn Bobsleders as they pass through his ice caverns?