Walt Disney World
A History in Postcards
Chapter 3 The Vacation Kingdom of the World, Page 3: Now is the time (1975)

Between Nov. 1974 and June of 1975 no less than four attractions debuted at the Magic Kingdom . . . all in Tomorrowland, Space Mountain, WEDway Peoplemover, Star Jets, and, fresh from a six year run at Disneyland, General Electrics Carousel of Progress featuring (for the first time) The Best Time of Your Life . Five new attractions opened if you include the conversion of Flight To the Moon into Mission to Mars. Six new attractions opened if you include the re-opening of the Circlevision movie America the Beautiful The Circlevision theatre ran Magic Carpet 'Round the World from March 16, 1974 to March 14, 1975. Basically Tomorrowland opened in 1975.

NOW IS THE TIME


Now is the time
Now is the best time
Now is the best time of your life
Life is a prize. live every minute
Open your Eyes, and watch how you win it

Yesterdays memories may sparkle and gleam
Tomorrow is still but a dream
Right here and Now You've got it made
The world's forward marching, and you're in the parade

Now is the time
Now is the best time
Be it a time of joy or strife
Theres so much to cheer for
Be glad you're here, for it's the best time of your life.

Appropriate that the Carousel of Progress opened at this time since 1974 and 1975 was a time when so much progress was being made in bringing life to the Magic Kingdoms Tomorrowland. And the Carousel itself had its own progress as it appeared with it's new theme song (previously it had featured "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow") Also, this was the Carousels' second transplanting, as it had first appeared at the 1964-65 worlds fair as the central draw to General Electrics Progressland pavilion, then at Disneyland. The words of the New theme song "The Best Time of Your Life" must have seemed quite appropriate to the time and place, with memories of an opening like no other, and dreams of "city of the future" to be built nearby, an Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. Still as central as some of these ideas of a bright , or . . . dare I say it . . . Great Big Beautiful, Tomorrow seem to that vision of the future only three post cards of Tomorrowland were available until the 1980's (four if you count both versions of 0111-0361) .
Probably the most eagerly awaited attraction that opened was Space Mountain and this is reflected in the early postcards. It was Walt Disney Worlds first roller coaster and when hurtling around its' unseen curves through the dark ( not counting those points of starlight and asteroids) it seems to be going much faster than its actual top speed of 27 miles per hour.
0111-0361 WELCOME TO THE FUTURE

If you look at the background behind the characters closely in both versions of this card you can see that these photos were taken in the same location, but in the shot with just Mickey and Goofy there are no benches along the planters behind them, My guess is, that shot was taken before Tomorrowlands construction walls were remover and the land really opened up, in order to have some post cards ready in time for opening. On the card featuring an aerial view of Tomorrowland a bit further down the page you can see an orange looking wall in front of the building that houses the loading platform for the WEDway Peoplemover and the Rocket Jets perhaps that photo was taken before the walls came down too.
0111-0361 WELCOME TO THE FUTURE

Above:0111-0361 WELCOME TO THE FUTURE Below:0111-0362 MAGIC KINGDOM MANY WORLDS IN ONE, 0111-0369 OUTER SPACE RIGHT HERE IN FLORIDA
0111-0362 MAGIC KINGDOM MANY WORLDS IN ONE
0111-0369 OUTER SPACE RIGHT HERE IN FLORIDA

These are some nice views of Tomorrowland, but still with as little representation got in the early postcards I'd like to share another image of Tomorrowland that captures the optimistic, joyful view of the future this land represented for so many of us. So I turn to the talents of another Walt Disney World fan Greg Maletic
Greg's Tomorrowland Poster

If Gregs name sounds familiar you may remember him for the series of columns he wrote for Laughing Place, (also available from his own site ), or you may remember him because of the attraction poster he did that appears on another WDW history web site, the "If You Had Wings" poster at the Widen Your World Web site. http://home.cfl.rr.com/omniluxe/wyw.htm

E-mail Me martsolf@mindspring.com


WDW in Post Cards Table of Contents


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Last modified by Brian K Martsolf at 2:27 PM on 7/19/2004