A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Tomorrowland
By Dave Shute
Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.
BACK TO THE FUTURE IN TOMORROWLAND
By Jim Korkis
Walking down the main street of the Avenue of the Planets in Tomorrowland, guests find themselves in the central hub of Rockettower Plaza. The names are a playful reference to New York’s famous Rockefeller Plaza and the Avenue of the Americas.
It is a bustling area that allows easy access to all areas of the Tomorrowland “city” and is home to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority that was renamed the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover in 2010 in homage to its original 1975 name of WEDWay PeopleMover.
This attraction serves as an urban mass transit system for the citizens and visitors to this popular space port. The Blue Line provided intra-city service to destinations throughout the city from a beauty parlor to a merchandise shop. It was also the delivery method for businesses like Earth Crust Pizza.
The unseen Green Line was for commuting to the Hoverburbs above the city and the unseen Red Line took riders off the planet to other destinations in the galaxy.
One of the treasures on the attraction is a small glimpse of the past representing Walt Disney’s vision of the future.
It is the display model of Walt Disney’s original concept for an Epcot-like city that was on the upper level post show for Disneyland’s Carousel of Progress for many years. This is only a small part of Walt’s model which was originally 115 feet wide and 60 feet deep with 2,500 moving vehicles, 20,000 trees and 4,500 structures. Walt insisted the interior of the buildings be finished, furnished and lit.
In 1994, the Star Jets attraction was updated along with the rest of the area and renamed Astro Orbiter. The huge central rocket was replaced by a highly stylized iron-work tower along with various planets on the outside of the attraction so it seems like the rockets were weaving between the planets.
The new storyline is that the League of Planets was giving inexperienced pilots an opportunity to learn how to fly their own rocket ship.
Nearby is an actual Metrophone booth from the Galactic Communications Network (GCN). As it states on the phone: “Bringing the World Closer Together. Toll Free From Anywhere in the Galaxy.”
Since 1999, punching several numbers at random will bring up one of nine possible hilarious one-sided conversations from Rocket Realty, Sonny Eclipse’s agent Johnny Jupiter, Earth Crust Pizza (delivering anywhere in the Solar System in less than two light years or your order is free), Intergalactic Movie Line (with information on the movie “Attack of the 50 Foot Earthling”), Psychic Robots Network and more.
By the entrance to the TTA PeopleMover, is a robot newsboy selling his newspapers. The Robo-Newz vendor is always up to minute and supposedly guests can get their daily paper printed “while u wait”.
The main case shows that the latest physical newspaper is a copy of the Galaxy Gazette with its headline: “Stitch Escapes!”
The Thirst Rangers in their red and white (the colors of Coca-Cola) rocket ship are perched high on a landing platform to deliver refreshment to a Thirsty Galaxy. The Disney Imagineers created this spaceship out of the hull of the Trimaxian Drone Ship from the 1986 Disney film, Flight of the Navigator, that was originally on view for several years in the boneyard on the backstage tour at Disney MGM Studios.
At the bottom of the platform are gray crates with images of a Coca Cola bottle and amusing shipping labels.
Tomorrowland is an example of inventive, clever and humorous storytelling that immerses guests into a future that never was but was what several generations hoped would happen.
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Thanks, Jim! Come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!
In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew
, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.
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