Yesterday’s World of Tomorrow

Creating a credible Tomorrowland has always been a little tricky: How do you conjure a vision of the future that doesn’t quickly become absurd? This latest version is the fourth incarnation of the original Tomorrowland concept, and its trial-and-error history demonstrates how hard it is to get the future right.

Fall 1954--Running out of time and money as he pushed his grand vision toward opening day, Walt Disney decides to open Disneyland without what he’d billed as “the World of Tomorrow.”

Early 1955--Less than six months before the park is to open, Disney changes his mind. Tomorrow, apparently, won’t wait.

July 17, 1955--Disneyland opens. Tomorrowland has just three attractions: the Autopia ride (with no center guide rail to direct the cars), Space Station X-1 (a “satellite view of America”) and Circarama (the predecessor of Circle-Vision). Among the exhibits in the original Tomorrowland: the “Aluminum Hall of Fame” featuring Cappy the Kaiser Aluminum Pig.

1956--Opening of Monsanto’s all-plastic “House of the Future,” one of the best-remembered of the early exhibits. It’s promoted with the phrase “Hardly a natural material appears anywhere,” and the script included a pause for the audience to gasp when the announcer solemnly noted that nearly everything in the house was made of plastic. Also popular: the Crane-sponsored “Bathroom of Tomorrow” exhibit.

1959--A newer, grander Tomorrowland opens. Its aim: To help visitors imagine what life might be like in the distant year 1986, during which, in fact, America witnessed the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

1960--The “Bathroom of Tomorrow” and the “Aluminum Hall of Fame” are retired.

1961--Debut of the popular Flying Saucers ride featuring futuristic bumper cars that floated on a cushion of air. The attraction was scrapped five years later, according to Disney’s Tony Baxter, because it was finicky. “Heavy people or real light people made it behave oddly,” he says. “It was a messy thing to operate.”

1965--After a decade of maniacal pre-adolescent motoring, a center guide rail is added to the Autopia ride to keep cars on the roadway.

1966--Walt Disney launches the second major renovation of Tomorrowland, in which the attractions were mostly underwritten by sponsors such as Goodyear (PeopleMover), General Electric (Carousel of Progress) and the Bell Telephone System (Circle-Vision). Disney dies months before it’s finished.

1967--Monsanto’s “House of the Future” exhibit is scrapped; Disneyland opens new Tomorrowland attractions. Original “Rocket to the Moon” attraction updated to “Flight to the Moon” just two years before Apollo 11 rendered the whole thing comically outdated. It survived until 1975, when it was updated and renamed “Mission to Mars.” That attraction was scrapped before NASA ever caught up.

1974--The pre-bicentennial “America Sings” show debuts in the Carousel of Progress theater, becoming an upbeat counterpoint to the death throes of Richard Nixon’s White House. It survived until 1988, when members of its “versatile Audio-Animatronics animal cast” were given roles in Splash Mountain.

1984--”Magic Journey” 3-D film debuts.

1986--”Magic Journey” 3-D film scrapped. New 3-D film “Captain EO” debuts starring pop star Michael Jackson as a singing, dancing space voyager completely untainted by allegations of sexual misconduct.

1997--”Captain EO” scrapped.

May 22, 1998--The latest renovation of Tomorrowland debuts. “Mission to Mars” ends when its space is converted into a restaurant.