“When we opened Disneyland, outer space was Buck Rogers. I did put in a trip to the moon, and I got Wernher von Braun to help me plan the thing. And since then has come Sputnik and then has come our great program in outer space. So I had to tear down my Tomorrowland that I built eleven years ago and rebuild it to keep pace.”
— Walt Disney, 1966
During the closing years of his life, Walt Disney became closely acquainted with science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Walt often invited Ray to lunch at his Burbank studio. During one lunch in 1965, Walt told Ray he planned to overhaul Disneyland’s Tomorrowland.
“Walt,” Ray said eagerly, “why don’t you hire me to dream up ideas for the new Tomorrowland?”
“It would never work,” Walt said. “You’re a genius and I’m a genius. After two weeks, we’d kill each other.”
Ray later reflected, “That was the nicest turndown I’ve ever received.”
When Disneyland first opened on July 17, 1955, Tomorrowland looked like an afterthought compared to the much more fully developed Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Main Street USA. Though Tomorrowland was close to Walt’s heart, he lacked the money to build the eye-popping World of Tomorrow he envisioned.
Tomorrowland was plagued by so many construction problems and cost overruns that Walt’s construction chief, Admiral Joe Fowler, told him to hang an “Under Construction” sign on it and open Tomorrowland the following year. But Walt insisted that Disneyland would be incomplete without Tomorrowland.
On opening day, Tomorrowland featured the towering TWA Moonliner, the Autopia, Circarama, and Space Station X-1. (The Rocket to the Moon attraction, which the Moonliner heralded, opened a week late, July 22, 1955.) To Walt’s chagrin, the Tomorrowland of 1955 was mostly a collection of walk-through infomercials for corporate America: the Kaiser Aluminum Hall of Fame, the Crane Company Bathroom of Tomorrow, the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry, and the Dutch Boy Color Gallery. Even so, the Tomorrowland of 1955 was a hit with the public.
Today, however, only a handful of attractions built during Walt’s lifetime are still part of Tomorrowland. Examples:
• The Tomorrowland Autopia has been a popular attraction since the get-go. What kid doesn’t want to get behind the wheel and drive? The Autopia vehicles were created by Bob Gurr, a twenty-three-year-old design genius who had briefly worked in Detroit for Ford. Despite changes to the track layout and car designs, the Autopia experience has changed little since 1955.
• The Submarine Voyage opened in June 1959. After the ill-fated Phantom Boats closed in 1956, Walt had a big empty lagoon in Tomorrowland — 2.1 million gallons of water that had to be filtered and chlorinated at great expense. After the world’s first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, reached the North Pole in August 1958, Walt was inspired to build his own submarine fleet at Tomorrowland.
In September 1998, after a thirty-nine-year run, Walt’s classic Submarine Voyage closed forever. The Tomorrowland lagoon was walled off from public view for nine years. Then, in June 2007, the attraction reopened with all-new underwater visual effects based on the Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo. Credit for resurrecting Walt’s Submarine Voyage for the 21st century goes to Imagineering exec Tony Baxter.
• The Monorail opened in June 1959. After touring the Alweg Company bullet-train factory in Cologne, Germany, Walt wanted a Monorail of his own. He believed this new mode of transportation would not only be a great Tomorrowland attraction, but could serve as a prototype for solving traffic problems in American cities.
• Astro Orbitor is a redesigned version of the Astro Jets that opened in Tomorrowland in 1956, midway between the lagoon and the Rocket to the Moon building. Essentially the Dumbo Flying Elephants ride but with rocket ships instead of pachyderms, the attraction remains very popular. Since 1998, Astro Orbitor has been located at the entrance to Tomorrowland.
• Space Mountain was not built during Walt’s lifetime, but it was totally Walt’s idea. After building the first mountain-themed roller-coaster, the Matterhorn, Walt was inspired to reinvent the roller coaster yet again — this time in outer space. In 1964, Walt approached John Hench with an idea he called Space Port. It would be a roller coaster in the dark — a thrill ride through deep space.
Hench and a team of Imagineers produced hundreds of drawings for the attraction, which they renamed Space Mountain. When Walt died in December 1966, the Disney company put Space Mountain on hold. Hench later revived the idea and Space Mountain debuted at Walt Disney World in Florida in 1975. Space Mountain opened at Disneyland on May 27, 1977 (coincidentally, two days after the release of the original Star Wars motion picture).
One of Walt’s favorite Tomorrowland attractions was the Monsanto House of the Future, which opened in June 1957 and closed during the big Tomorrowland renovation of 1967. Constructed of steel, glass, fiberglass, and plastic, the House of the Future showcased futuristic appliances, such as microwave ovens. Walt took his daughter, Diane, and her husband, Ron Miller, on a tour of the Monsanto House and told them, “You might want to get some ideas for your home.” Diane later said, “I’d never want to live in a house like that!”
When demolition crews tried to dismantle the Monsanto House, they found it nearly indestructible. Wrecking balls bounced off its polyester walls. The concrete foundation couldn’t be jack-hammered. Today, the Monsanto House foundation still stands next to the Tomorrowland entrance, disguised by the attraction that was built over it, Pixie Hollow.
In Disneyland’s 62-year history, Main Street has closed just two attractions, Adventureland four, Fantasyland five, and Frontierland six, while Tomorrowland has closed twenty-two attractions, more than all the other lands of Disneyland combined. That’s because (as Yoda said), “Always in motion is the future.” To keep up with the ever-changing future, Imagineers have had to continually re-engineer Tomorrowland.
After conversations with Disneyland insiders, David Koenig of MiceChat.com offers some Tomorrowland predictions. He believes the next Tomorrowland rehab will take place after 2024. When it does, some popular Tomorrowland attractions may disappear, including the Autopia and the Submarines. Both attractions occupy a lot of acreage that could be devoted to less sprawling but more marketable attractions. Within a few years, there may be nothing left of Walt’s Tomorrowland but the Monorail.
But that’s as it should be. Walt began overhauling Tomorrowland in 1966, and he’d do so again today. The dreams and visions of the 1950s-era Tomorrowland have receded into the past.
Walt was never content to predict the future. He was too busy building it.
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Jim Denney is a Columnist for the Boardwalk Times.
Jim Denney’s previous book on Walt Disney, How To Be Like Walt (co-written with Orlando Magic founder Pat Williams) has remained in print for a dozen years, and has garnered 4.8 out of 5 stars in 185 customer reviews on Amazon.com. His latest book, Walt’s Disneyland: It’s Still There If You Know Where to Look, is available at Amazon.com: Paperback $15.99; Ebook $5.99.
Boardwalk Times Presents Tomorrowland Week: Honoring the greatness of the future that never was.
