Welcome to Extinct Attractions. Today, we’ll be taking a look back at some Disneyland potty humor as well as their take on clothes and how they’ve changed over the years.
Via Disneyland
Since we last chatted, a lot has changed at the Disneyland Resort with the full reopening of the state of California on June 15. Fully vaccinated guests are no longer required to wear masks at the parks and capacity limits are no longer in effect (though Disneyland has not announced how much crowd capacity has increased since then). Everything is slowly but surely returning to normal with one of the biggest and most exciting returns coming next July 2nd when fireworks are back. A staple in Disneyland since near the beginning of the park’s time, their return shows the world is healing and helps take guests back to the past, even all the way back to 1956 where we’ll be going today.
Via Tech E Blog
Over the years, the story of Opening Day Tomorrowland has been told many times, with work stalling on it as Walt decided whether it would be an opening day land or not before ultimately deciding on opening it half completed. As a result, early Tomorrowland featured a lot of changes over its first few years, with a lot of attractions being smaller in scope and disappearing in a short time. Today’s attractions were no exception with the first truly being one of Disneyland’s most peculiar attractions.
Looking for anything to fill space in the land, Disneyland teamed up with the Crane Plumbing Company as the sponsor for their newest attraction, the Bathroom of Tomorrow. Opening on April 5, 1956, the new addition eschewed the traditional ribbon cutting instead opting for a valve turning ceremony at the opening to help let the waters of the non-functional bathroom run rampant.
The Bathroom of Tomorrow was a pretty simple attraction in that it was basically just a 20 foot wide room where guests could look in and see what bathrooms could potentially look like in the future. Apparently, in the future everyone was supposed to have the luxury of a ton of space because I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone with a 20 foot wide bathroom. (My living room is barely even that big).
Of course, this bathroom was not actually usable because you’d be doing your business in wide view of quite a few people. But the bathroom seemed like a pretty exciting place because there were dumbbells and a phone in it, so one could probably find themselves content with just hanging out there for a while.
Once guests were finished checking out the bathroom, they could move along and check out a little area that showcased how laundry may be changing in the future. It didn’t seem like there was a lot to that portion of the attraction nor to the valve area in the front where kids could turn those same valves Walt had used on opening today.
Shockingly, the Bathroom of Tomorrow managed to stick around for over four years before finally closing on August 30, 1960 to become an extension of the Fun Fotos attraction. That building, which today houses Star Tours, was home to quite a few exhibits at once, with generally two to three calling the building home at a time. That being said, let’s jump forward a few years to when one of those said attractions made its way into Tomorrowland.
Fashions and Fabrics Through the Ages opened in March 1965 replacing the Hall of Aluminium Fame. Both of these attractions were sponsored by Monsanto, and I’ve got to say, the latter attraction made a lot more sense considering Monsanto is a chemical company. But the company made it work by focusing on the fibers that go into fabrics and diving into the science of closing as opposed to simply showcasing a bunch of different outfits.
Via Daveland Blog
All in all, the attraction was pretty simple, basically a showcase of different outfits, but primarily focusing on replicas of gowns from famous people through the ages. As you can see in the picture, they had some mannequins with the dresses on to show them off in full regalia. But what really stands out to me in the picture is that someone was selling balloons in the exhibit. For all the talk that people say about how Disney has become too focused on milking every last cent out of their guests and how Walt would never do that, I think this photo, taken while Walt was alive, shows that that argument doesn’t hold up quite as strongly as many people would think.
In a way, it’s almost like this attraction has lived on over the years because it seems like there is always some kind of showcase of costumes from movies in the parks, so yeah, it’s not quite the same, but it’s adjacent to be sure.
Via D23
By December 1965, it was time for Fashions and Fabrics Through the Ages to call it quits at the park because Monsanto was looking to combine all of its exhibits into a more robust attraction. And thus, Adventure Thru Inner Space was born. All in all, these exhibits were some interesting diversions when Tomorrowland was in its infancy, but it’s a good thing that Tomorrowland began to take shape and start its transformation into the land we know today.
Via WDW Magazine
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!