Why did they bother to rebuild “Rocket to the Moon” from the ground up in 1967?

[MK-fan]

Rocket to the Moon is an attraction that opened with the park in 1955 and from the beginning was a D-ticket attraction which was the biggest ticket at the time. With the introduction of the E Ticket in 1959, the attraction received E-Ticket status but just a year later, it experienced a significant drop as it was demoted to a C-Ticket and stayed like that for the remainder of its time as Rocket to the Moon.

When the New Tomorrowland debuted in 1967, it was decided to update Rocket to the Moon by demolishing it and rebuilding the attraction from the ground up. It was relocated to make room for Carousel of Progress and was renamed Flight to the Moon and was labeled as a D-Ticket. With the update came bigger showrooms with wider seats and screens on each side of the theater showing a live feed of the astronauts on the moon. An Audio-Animatronic “Mission Control” pre-show was added as well but the ride itself was essentially the same as Rocket to the Moon.

My question is why did Disney feel they needed to update this attraction instead of just building a new and different attraction all together? Rebuilding it from scratch wasn’t cheap and had to have costed a significant amount of money just to have the same ride. To be demoted to a C-ticket from an E-Ticket in 1960 must have meant the attraction experienced a decrease in popularity after Walt’s new fleet of E-Tickets debuted. This just adds more to the confusion to spend money on it later in 67. Disney did work with NASA on the update but NASA kept some of their newest strides in technology close to their chest, so the ride was already a little outdated before it even opened. After its update for the New Tomorrowland, it was shown up by the actual moon landing in 1969 and lost popularity again only to be updated to Mission to Mars a couple of years later in 1975.

 

[TP2000]

They rebuilt it from the ground up because McDonnell-Douglas paid for it. The pre-show and show itself heavily plugged McDonnel-Douglas aircraft, products, and technology. McDonnell-Douglas was mentioned repeatedly by name from the CM's in spiels, in facility signage, and in recorded dialogue.

I know I've mentioned this before, but...

When I lived in Villa Park, I knew a couple who met because of that ride. The wife was working as a ticket agent, baggage clerk, and defacto hostess for LA Airways in the mid 1960's, the helicopter service to multiple SoCal airports that had a heliport and office at the Disneyland Hotel's Travelport. A dashing young engineer from McDonnell-Douglas kept taking the LA Airways helicopter from Long Beach Airport to Disneyland as he was assigned to help install the new 1967 show and the company paid for the tickets. After several flights and some flirting, he got the nerve to ask the young ticket agent-baggage clerk-terminal hostess out on a date finally, one thing led to another, birds and bees got involved, and they lived happily ever after. He eventurally retired as an executive for Boeing, after Boeing bought out McDonnell-Douglas. But his heart always belonged to McDonnell-Douglas and the girl he met as a young engineer assigned to help with the new Disneyland show.

All of the major attractions for New Tomorrowland 1967 were sponsored by American commerce and industry. Flight To The Moon got a full rebuild and re-Imagineering because McDonnell-Douglas was a successful American aerospace company based in SoCal and they spent the money to do it for good publicity.

McDonnell-Douglass circa 1967 was much like SpaceX is today in SoCal, but we aren't allowed to have a SpaceX exhibit or sponsorship in Tomorrowland because of... feelings. Or Tweets. Or something like that, I'm not sure.

 

[MK-fan]

True, everything in the New Tomorrowland was sponsored and paid for by different companies. Disney was good at that back in the day, the New York World Fair and Epcot both come to mind as well.

Interesting Note, Douglas Aircraft sponsored the attraction since 1961 and when the update took place in 1967, Douglas Aircraft and McConnell Aircraft merged to become McConnell Douglas that same year.

 

[TP2000]

True, everything in the New Tomorrowland was sponsored and paid for by different companies. Disney was good at that back in the day, the New York World Fair and Epcot both come to mind as well.

Interesting Note, Douglas Aircraft sponsored the attraction since 1961 and when the update took place in 1967, Douglas Aircraft and McConnell Aircraft merged to become McConnell Douglas that same year.

Yes, the first Rocket To The Moon after it lost its TWA sponsorship around 1960 was sponsored by Douglas. I would assume my old friend worked for the Douglas company pre-merger, as they were based in Long Beach and all of his tales involved Long Beach. Including the LA Airways helicopter flights to Disneyland on the Douglas dime.

I just Googled, and Douglas Aircraft and McDonnell Aircraft merged officially on April 28, 1967, just a few months before New Tomorrowland opened. But the merger had been in the works for several years, so they probably alread told WDI "Hey, you should design the sign to say McDonnell-Douglas instead of just Douglas."

The best thing Boeing did with the McDonnell-Douglas buyout of 25+ years ago was snag the original early 1960's rocket logo from McDonnell-Douglas. That still looks cool and futuristic over 60 years later.

 

[Phroobar]

Back in the 50's Walt had three short movies detailing plans for space. Ward Kimball and Dr. Wernher Von Braun were involved in them.

Man in Space, Man and the Moon and finally Mars and Beyond.

 

[Phroobar]

Back in the 50's Walt had three short movies detailing plans for space. Ward Kimball and Dr. Wernher Von Braun were involved in them.

Man in Space, Man and the Moon and finally Mars and Beyond.

There was suppose to be a forth movie. The military wanted Walt to make it. At the last minute before preproduction was to begin, the military dropped out. It was to be about first contact.