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- Details, Details
- What's that building to the left of the tower?
- Coal Barges
- Bromo-Seltzer
- Inner harbor
- The Basin
- What a headache!
- Giant stepladder?
- Baldwin 62303
- Baldwin VO-1000
- Cold
- No expense spared
- Tough Guys
- Lost in Toyland
- And without gloves
- If I were a blindfolded time traveler
- Smoke Consumer Also Cooks
- Oh that stove!
- Possibly still there?
- What?!?
- $100 Reward
- Freeze Frame
- Texas Flyer wanted
- Just a Year Too Soon
- WWII -- Replacing men with women at the railroad crossing.
- Yes, Icing
- You kids drive me nuts!
- NOT An Easy Job
- I wonder
- Just add window boxes
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Moonliner: 1960
Circa 1960, the TWA "Moonliner" rocket at Disneyland's Tomorrowland in Anaheim, California. (With Richfield Oil's "Autopia" in the background.) At 76 feet, the Moonliner was the tallest attraction in the park. This medium format transparency is part of a recent donation to Shorpy from the family of California photographer Mary Baum (1925-2012). View full size.
Here's How It Looked With Actual Tourists
TWA Moonliner is in the background and tourists are in the foreground: (from left) Jerry Butler, Lydia Horton, Penny Butler, and, in front, Jeremy Butler (that'd be me).
35mm slide taken by my uncle Mike Horton circa 1960.
Attack of the fifty foot ... whatevers
What is the reason the trio of seemingly monstrous 'ghosts' are visible just to the left of the earth-bound rocket ship? A reflection? Double exposed?
[Perspective. They're much closer to the camera than the rocket. - Dave]
Some things missing from the world of tomorrow
One would be TWA, gone as of 2001. Another: Pan Am, which despite appearing as the space clipper in the movie '2001', disappeared in 1991.
Billionaire's playtoy
Long before they eyed Mars, eccentric money-men eyed airlines: it was under Howard Hughes control that TWA morphed from Transcontinental and Western Air to Trans World Airlines; he was long gone when they touched down for the final time, in 2001.
There it is
Looking at the outside of the rocket was the real 'ride'. Inside all I did was look up at a ceiling screen which projected a film of getting closer to and then further away from the moon. Even the People Mover had more nuance.
Why hasn't a colony happened?
Because gravity. More specifically, lack thereof. The same reason (amongst others) that there will never be a "colony" on Mars, either. Tourism maybe; colony no. The human body in its current state of evolution just can't survive it. So, time to stop wasting money, time, energy, and materials trying. Need to focus on taking care of the only habitable planet we have. OK rant over. Beautiful photo - looking forward to seeing more from the collection!
[Of course there is gravity on both the moon and Mars. It’s astronauts orbiting the Earth who experience zero-G. The longest stay up there so far was well over a year. -Dave]
The Rocket still survives!
Looks like the rocket still survives but repurposed as Pizza Planet Rocket.
[Not quite. That’s a 2/3 scale model made in 1998. -tterrace]
Spaceflight
I stayed up, like millions of others, to watch the first moon landing in 1969. I was 13 at the time and thought at least by the time I was 40 we would have a colony and tourism up there by then. I'll soon be 70 and still wonder why it didn't happen.
Fly me to the moon.
I find it interesting that there is a pilot cockpit at the top of the rocket.
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