Friday, October 20, 2006

Carousel of Progress, 1940's & 1960's



Continuing the theme from yesterday, here are two more photos from the Carousel of Progress. This time we see the 1940's scene, and the final 1960's scene.

Father's enjoying a baloney sandwich, and he's wearing a sweater because it is autumn, after all. He has to stay in the kitchen because grandma and grandpa have taken over the den. Meanwhile, that kitchen looks just like the one at my grandparent's house (that they bought in 1947 and it didn't change for years).

It's Christmas in the 1960's, and Mother is more excited about all of her appliances than ever before. In the past, you could see a smidgen of small neighborhood outside the window, but now (unlike at the World's Fair), you can see beautiful Progress City in the distance. I sure miss that huge model that you could view many years ago...I think it is still on display in Florida, though it is not complete.

If I can successfully scan some of the other slides from this batch, I'll try to post them soon!

4 comments:

Matterhorn1959 said...

Very nice!

Amazon Belle said...

Another thing I enjoyed about the Carousel of Progress was it subtleties. Not only did they display the passing of time (20 years at a whack) but the passing of the seasons too. The time connection we all made immediately but I didn't make the seasons connection until recently. I’ve read that the inspiration for the central narrator, “Father” in this case, came from the play “Our Town.” I never saw the play but I just added the movie version to our Netflix queue.

Major Pepperidge said...

Yes, I can see how the "stage manager" character from Our Town could have inspired the character of "Father". The movie ends differently than the play, though!

Anonymous said...

Great Blog.

Would you happen to have photos of the final act of Carousel of Progress when it opened at WDW in the 1970's? Thank you.