Anyone remember Walt Disney's Magic Skyway?

[Darkbeer1]

Indiana Scott at another board posted this link.

It is the Ford's promo film (12 minutes long) of the attraction from the 1964 World's Fair..

If you don't know, the ride basically is the basis of the People Mover, the source of the Disneyland RR Dioramas, with a bit of the Storybook Boats in the pre show.

A fun watch....

http://autoweek.com/article/classic...er&utm_content=body&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

 

[Longhairbear]

We bought a 1964 Thunderbird a couple of years ago, and learned of the cars used in The Magic Skyway. Ours was not one of them. Many of those cars are still around, and on the road. We live in Palm Springs, and it seems to be a haven for 1964 Thunderbirds, there are a lot of them around town. Being Disney Vacation Club members, and Annual Passholders to DLR, we go to the parks pretty often, and have for years. So a question for you.
Correct me if I am wrong please, but I have seen a video ride through of the Magic Skyway, and of course have ridden the Disneyland Railroad countless times. When on the DLRR, are we seeing Primeval World in the reverse order as presented at Magic Skyway? On the DLRR we have the scenes on our right, in the Magic Skyway, the scenes are on the left side of the vehicles. Or, are the scenes re arranged in the correct order for the DLRR?

 

[FerretAfros]

When on the DLRR, are we seeing Primeval World in the reverse order as presented at Magic Skyway? On the DLRR we have the scenes on our right, in the Magic Skyway, the scenes are on the left side of the vehicles. Or, are the scenes re arranged in the correct order for the DLRR?

I could be wrong, but I believe that there were actually 2 mirror-image tracks for Ford's Magic Skyway, each with its own set of AAs and scenery. So while the scenes would progress in the same order on both tracks, looking at them left-to-right would mean that one matches the DLRR progression and one would be a mirror image. The Fair versions of the scenes were slightly different from the DL versions, due to space available and other factors

This would explain why the railroad diorama is more densely populated than the scenes in the video. Some of the more iconic figures (like the battling T-Rex and stegosaurus) only appear once, so the copies must have been scrapped at some point along the way, along with all the cavemen from later in the ride.

The Magic Skyway seems to be the least documented of Disney's World's Fair pavilions (there's also not a lot about Mr. Lincoln in New York, but there's tons on the development), so I'm having trouble finding evidence to back this up. The loading area and glass tubes were obviously replicated for two tracks, but it's not entirely clear what happened once the vehicles entered the building

 

[TP2000]

I could be wrong, but I believe that there were actually 2 mirror-image tracks for Ford's Magic Skyway, each with its own set of AAs and scenery. So while the scenes would progress in the same order on both tracks, looking at them left-to-right would mean that one matches the DLRR progression and one would be a mirror image. The Fair versions of the scenes were slightly different from the DL versions, due to space available and other factors

This would explain why the railroad diorama is more densely populated than the scenes in the video. Some of the more iconic figures (like the battling T-Rex and stegosaurus) only appear once, so the copies must have been scrapped at some point along the way, along with all the cavemen from later in the ride.

The Magic Skyway seems to be the least documented of Disney's World's Fair pavilions (there's also not a lot about Mr. Lincoln in New York, but there's tons on the development), so I'm having trouble finding evidence to back this up. The loading area and glass tubes were obviously replicated for two tracks, but it's not entirely clear what happened once the vehicles entered the building

There was a Persistence of Vision article on the Magic Skyway about 20 years ago. It had schematics and such, and when the tracks entered the building from opposite side they met up and then were often parallel to each other or on slightly different routes but still close to each other.

I believe the Persistence of Vision article said there was only one set of dinosaurs. There were some cavemen that were duplicated for each track, and Walt didn't want to keep them because he felt they weren't as sophisticated as the other animatronics created for the GE and Illinois pavilions. That PoV issue is in my garage or attic somewhere, but not easy to find or refer to right now I'm afraid.