20 September 2011

One year older

On June 14, 1959 Disneyland celebrated its fourth anniversary with a huge extravaganza that brought a plethora of new entertainment to the park and Tomorrowland into the 20th century. Timeless attractions, including the Monorail, Submarine Voyage and Matterhorn Bobsleds made their debuts at the park during a televised special hosted by Walt Disney himself. Fourth anniversaries mean a lot to the Kingdoms of Disney, and they have special place in the histories of Tomorrowland. With that in mind, let’s fast forward to the Magic Kingdom and 1975.

While they did not open on, or as part of, Walt Disney’s World fourth anniversary, quite a few attractions were added during the fourth year of the Magic Kingdom’s operation. The WEDWay PeopleMover, Space Mountain, and the Star Jets all began their tours of tomorrow in the year between October 1, 1974 and October 1, 1975. It is hard to imagine a Tomorrowland skyline that did not include Space Mountain or the elevated trains of the PeopleMover, but it took four years, a tenth of the time the park has been open, to bring us world of tomorrow we all know and love.

Additionally, that year also included the announcements of EPCOT, WorldShowcase and Mineral King, the premiere of America on Parade, and the opening of The Village. There was so much to discuss and Eyes & Ears did a great job cramming it all into a single page of the 4th birthday issue. Well, they may not have had a lot to say, but they did provide some fantastic pictures!

2 comments:

Bartsy said...

Boy, talk about an expansion!! That's quite a lot to go up in a single year... Tomorrowland was really lacking attractions in those first few years but they made up for it in a huge way! I really love your posts dealing with the very early days of WDW!! My first time visiting The World was 1976 and although I was only 5 at the time, I do have some pretty vivid memories of the trip!! Keep up the great blog!

Ryan P. Wilson said...

Thanks for the kind word, Bartsy! It's funny, I wasn't alive during those first few years, but I feel such a connection to them! Either way, I'll continue to plug away.