HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISSION TO MARS!!!
Mega Post #3 in a series.
35 years ago today, Tomorrowland began its McDonnell Douglas DC-88 Super-Space liner Service to the "mysterious red-planet"; MARS. In this post (post #3 if you've been following......) we meet the crew from that serviced the Tomorrowland Spaceport for so many years.
The first people we meet are our Mission To Mars hosts / hostesses wearing a beautiful cosmic ensemble of blues, yellows,white....and a orange band along the waist!.
here we have a flight hostess checking to make sure that her pant cuffs are the correct 8" diameter flare!
the sponsor identification patch
Mission Control at Walt Disney World.....note Mr. Johnson is wearing a BLUE turtle neck rather than his traditional red one??
Mr. Johnson (who replaced Mr. Morrow of the Flight to the Moon), was very modern in his silvery lab coat and futuristic 1975 turtle neck sweater! This is one of Mr. Johnson's actual work uniforms.....he always had two on hand--just-in-case he should spill some Sanka or Nescafe on himself!!
Mr. Johnson's head set.
Mr. Johnson was voiced by character actor GEORGE WALSH
AND NOW FOR AN INTIMATE VISIT WITH OUR MISSION CONTROL CREW!
"MR. JOHNSON" (MMF-9)
"BILL" (MMF-8)
"HAL" (MMF-7)
(is he named after a certain robot from the film 2001...??)
"KEN" (MMF-6)
"ART" (MMF-5)
this figure was altered to become the first African-American AA staff member at Mission To Mars. He was named "ART" in honor of famed tennis star Arthur Ashe......who won Wimbledon in 1975.
"FRED" (MMF-4)
Fred is the only staff member NOT wearing a headphone!
"JIM" (MMF-3)
Jim appears to be napping here, but he is really eavesdropping on Fred's phone call!! Looks like Fred's gotta a date to go to BeniHana's after the day's last mission!
"MARY" (MMF-2)
Of course between 1967 and 1975 there was a great deal of social change in our American Society. 1975 brought with it female staff members to Mission To Mars. Mary was named after Mary Tyler Moore who's TV show of the same name was a top Emmy award winner during this time. Ironically she looks more like Phyllis Lindstrom than Mary Richards......
Staff coat patch
cast members pose for a Tomorrowland cast photo on December 2, 1992 for a final "farewell" to MISSION TO MARS on it's very last day of operation.
HAPPY 25Th BIRTHDAY MISSION TO MARS!!!
Join Tomorrowlounge for a few more MEGA posts as we celebrate MISSION TO MARS MARCH MONTH!!!
next post.....unbuilt plans for MISSIOIN TO MARS and the attraction's final sunset.............
7 comments:
great story, mike!!!
Good golly, these posts are incredible. I remember when Mission to Mars was torn down and many of the props and set pieces came through our Olive Street Warehouse. Several of the Mission Control lab coats and headsets were to be auctioned off to the public, and I remember being especially shocked by the sharp tech screw that went through the earpieces of the headsets to secure them on the heads of the figures. They all looked like some kind of nasty torture device!
Thanks Jordan and Kevin! Like myself I know you two appreciate things dealing with "Tomorrowland's Glory Years". And Kevin; besides the industrial screws that went into the "Mars" AA figures ears via headsets, they were also tortured with pins to keep their wigs, hair,eyebrows and moustaches in place!! Imagine sitting there in that control room with all that sticking in your head and at the same time wearing a Teflon collar and having your feet bolted through your shoes!!
Regarding Mr. Johnson at WDW, he may have sported a blue turtleneck in that photo, but it was always red just like DL in all the years I saw the attraction (I remember last seeing it in May 1993, when it had only five months left to live, and DL's was already gone). But one difference is that WDW's Mr. Johnson sported a thick moustache that made him look like a bespectacled version of the Carousel Of Progress's father, whereas I've noticed on the DL home video I've seen of Mission that his California counterpart was clean-shaven!
I never got to visit the West Coast version, but I loved WDW's Mission to Mars SO DAMN MUCH as a kid!
WOW! Your pics are AMAZING!!
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