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By Michael - June 19th, 2009 On February 1st, 1958, the United States launched its first artificial satellite into orbit. A key member of the scientific team responsible for Explorer I was Wernher von Braun, the German rocket scientist who had previously worked with Walt Disney Productions on a trio of specials for the Disneyland television show. Ward Kimball, renowned Disney animator and one of Walt’s “Nine Old Men”, produced and directed those specials, and along with artist John Dunn created and sent this excellent drawing to congratulate von Braun.
The three Kimball specials – Man In Space, Man And The Moon, and Mars And Beyond – had their roots four years earlier when Disney was looking for ideas for his new Disneyland television hour. The show, which debuted in October of 1954, was intended to drum up enthusiasm for the impending arrival of Disneyland park in 1955. The show was structured to familiarize viewers with the concept of the theme park and its cardinal realms; specific episodes were themed to Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.
While Disney had plenty of existing properties that could be adapted to those first three themes, Walt had precious few creations that could be associated with the Tomorrowland banner. So, Walt went to animator Ward Kimball and asked him to come up with some ideas for Tomorrowland-themed shows. Luckily, Kimball had been following a series of articles in Collier’s Magazine that had been written by a number of pre-eminent space scientists in order to stoke public enthusiasm for an American space program. The articles, by von Braun, Heinz Haber and others, were accompanied by evocative illustrations by Chesley Bonestell. Kimball suggested combining the scientific ideas presented in the Collier’s articles with Disney’s trademark humor and accessibility.
Walt liked the idea and gave Kimball carte blanche to proceed with the project. Kimball sought out many of the scientists from the magazine articles to lend credibility to Disney’s project, but ironically many of them were not eager to take part. Some experts, so far unable to convince the Pentagon of the merits of a space exploration program, despaired that Americans would ever support a space program. Indeed, before the space race with the Soviets began with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, American space efforts were mostly dead in the water.
Eventually Kimball brought on von Braun and other experts, and the results were stunningly successful. The shows, which combined live-action segments with more humorous animated sequences, were big hits; many observers have credited them with kick-starting the American space program. We do know that President Eisenhower personally called Walt after the first episode, Man In Space, aired to ask for a copy of the film to show to officials at the Pentagon. The show was such a hit that it was re-run twice after its debut in March of 1955, and that July it was announced by President Eisenhower that the United States would begin launching a series of orbiting satellites by 1958. The American space program had begun.
Ironically, von Braun’s ideas took a circuitous route to the launch pad. The project on which he was working was passed over by the military in 1955, in favor of the Navy’s Project Vanguard rocket system. When the Soviets surprised everyone by beating America to space in October of 1957, Vanguard was not yet ready. Already a step behind, the Vanguard program was shelved when its first attempts to launch met with spectacular and embarrassing failure. The call was made to restart von Braun’s Explorer program, which successfully built and launched Explorer 1 in an amazing 84 days. It was America’s first successful space launch, and resulted in the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts. The Explorer program remains America’s longest running space science program, and continues to this day.
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By Michael - June 17th, 2009  Tomorrowland – A vista into a world of wondrous ideas, signifying man’s achievements… a step into the future, with predictions of constructive things to come. Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure, and ideals: the atomic age… the challenge of space… and the hope for a peaceful and unified world. Things have been a little backward-looking around here lately, as most of my research recently has been of a historical nature. It also doesn’t help that there’s not a lot interesting going on with the parks currently, and the future plans we do know about do not inspire much confidence. Many Disney fans, myself included, had hoped that with the Pixar merger a new wave of creativity would sweep through the company as John Lasseter and friends fought for a return to Imagineering’s roots. This has, of yet, not come to pass, as all new projects seem to center around ways to either inexpensively insert “franchise” properties into the parks or to expand the company’s DVC properties. The creative problem goes all the way up the management chain, and while the average Imagineer might be as creative and skilled as ever, WDI is not being given the proper direction and funding to create compelling attractions.
This is all to explain why I’ve yet to talk about Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration, the much-ballyhooed new show that debuted at the Magic Kingdom in early May. By all accounts, the show was a travesty. But as much as I’m sure everyone would love to see me spewing vitriol on a daily basis, I don’t really have the energy to deal with it all and, overall, I’d rather see Dick Nunis going down a waterslide.
Sometimes, though, the public comes to the rescue and puts the smack down on my behalf. Reminiscent of the quick closure forced by universal condemnation of 1999’s “Journey Into YOUR Imagination”, Disney has announced the impending closure of Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration.
What’s amazing is that this closure comes after a run of barely six weeks, while the show’s theater itself took about five months to build. Disney will not comment on what will replace the show in the still-brand-new theater, but I can’t believe that they’d give up on the venue as it must have been a multi-million dollar investment.
The whole episode is confusing, and shows how generally discombobulated the management at Walt Disney World has become. First they tore down Tomorrowland’s existing Galaxy Theater to provide parking spaces for management. Then they spent a great deal of money building the new stage in Rockettower Plaza, where it is both out-of-scale and oddly placed. The new stage also lacks seating and shade, leaving viewers standing in a vast, sweltering expanse of asphalt on sunny days. Regardless of the show’s quality, the whole setup is confusing when you consider that the former Galaxy Theater had both seating and shade. Using the Galaxy Theater also wouldn’t have necessitated the addition of the monolithic stage and control booth in Tomorrowland itself like the new show does.
The show itself illustrates just how derivative Disney’s offerings have become; it’s all simply an excuse to incorporate the Living Character Initiative interactive Stitch, which is also in use at California Adventure, Hong Kong Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios in Paris. It’s also pretty much the exact same gag as Turtle Talk, which is already in place at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT, and Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor, which sits right across Tomorrowland from the Stitch show. Same gag, same idea, just more burping. Hilarious. Let’s just hope that guests weren’t already burped out by Stitch’s Great Escape, which uses the exact same character as the stage show and is also right there in Tomorrowland. Variety – the spice of life.
Anyway, the show is gone now so we’ll hope that there’s a miraculous turnaround, the stage is moved to a less obtrusive location, completely rethemed, Stitch’s Great Escape is also rethemed, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor is also rethemed, the Carousel of Progress is refurbished and updated, the empty Skyway station is demolished and replaced with a new attraction, the demolished Galaxy Theater is replaced, the Grand Prix cars are converted to electric and rethemed, and the WEDway expanded. Hey, it could happen.
For those of you who will now never have the pleasure of having seen Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration, I give you…
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By Michael - June 17th, 2009 This isn’t really informative or terribly entertaining, but I got an ironic chuckle out of it. From Eyes & Ears of Walt Disney World in December, 1976:
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By Michael - June 16th, 2009 Here’s a weird one. From an internal Imagineering newsletter in 1981:
I wonder if they ever found it? I wonder what this “essential set-piece” was – “The Seas” still had no sponsor at this point and wouldn’t open for five more years. At the time this notice was written, the pavilion was intended to be far grander than its final format; its original design included a effects-heavy dark ride incorporating the ancient god Poseidon and the myths of the sea.
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By Michael - June 7th, 2009 From the July 15th, 1977 issue of Eyes and Ears of Walt Disney World:
 Voted “Most Likely to Downsize”
ADVANCED TABLE TENNIS
Congratulations to Finance Division’s Al Weiss, whose skill at “juggling” figures paid off with his juggling a table tennis ball to reign supreme at Walt Disney World in the Singles Table Tennis Advanced Division, winning champion honors by downing Finance Division’s Jim Morris 16-21, 21-19, 21-15 and 21-14.
And that day at the ping-pong table, Weiss knew he was destined for greatness.
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