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Gordo’s Gold

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World’s Space Mountain, and here, courtesy of Tom Morris, is part of the attraction’s first queue safety spiel. It features Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper who, let’s just say, was a heck of a pilot but possibly not ready for prime time as an actor.

https://progresscityusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/WDW-RCA-Space-Mountain-Gordon-Cooper-Safety-spiel-edited-1_15_15-3.33-PM.mp3 Related Posts…First Launch – May 27th, 1977Star Tours, Those Crazy Star Tours!A Model Kingdom, 1968Trippy TomorrowlandAnd The Relaunch – 2005

A Model Kingdom, 1968

One hallmark of Walt Disney World since its very earliest inception is the ambitious master plan; the sweeping, grand vision which is slowly whittled away and watered down once the practicalities of construction and the vagaries of history take their toll. While the construction of the resort in the late 1960s involved a massive amount […]

Trippy Tomorrowland

“Modcinema” on YouTube emailed me to let me know of some “remix” videos they’d created using, in part, footage from the Progress City YouTube Channel. Modcinema has its own channel, which you should absolutely check out post-haste because it is a mindbending cornucopia of midcentury retro-madness; jet-age spy-chic lounge-era cool right on the taupe edge […]

And The Relaunch – 2005

From George McGinnis comes this:

Front row: George McGinnis, Show Designer (1975) and Luc Mayrand, Show Designer (2005). Second Row: Bill Watkins, Ride Designer (1975).

Bill asleep on his thrill ride. Proof it only goes 30 MPH. 😉

With me in the front seat at the 2005 reopening is the designer of the new show […]

First Launch – May 27th, 1977

With our recent look at the engineering process behind the creation of Space Mountain, I thought that now would be a good time to take a look back at the opening of the attraction itself courtesy of this very nifty program.

Space Mountain had opened at Walt Disney World in 1975, but it wasn’t […]