A few members of our family are true “Disney Fans.” They seem to like all things Disney. I first visited Disneyland in California in the early sixties and visited Disney World in Florida shortly after it opened in 1970 or 71.The places always fascinated me because of the advanced technology they used and their fairly accurate presentation of the “future.”
It’s interesting to note that when Disneyland opened (in 1955) Tomorrowland was designed to look like a year in the distant future — 1986.
Disneyland opened the year before I graduated from high school. I guess back then, 1986 did seem like the distant future. A blurb from the Los Angeles Examiner shortly after the opening in Anaheim read, “1955 becomes 1986 as you enter the new era — Tomorrowland where our hopes and dreams for the future become today’s realities.” The first time I actually visited Disneyland in the early 1960s, Tomorrowland was all about the Atomic Age, and rockets. A Space Station let riders get a “satellite view” of Earth. When Tomorrowland opened, no one even knew what a satellite was, but it was only a couple of years before Sputnik was launched and suddenly Tomorrowland seemed “dated.”
Of course that’s the problem with designing something that’s supposed to be the world of tomorrow. Tomorrow soon becomes today and then, before you know it, yesterday. It seems like it keeps getting harder and harder to have those future fantasies — science just keeps the future coming at a rapid clip….
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