DISNEYLAND: 'Man In Space' Part 1 - 1955

Our family got our first TV back in 1953, and, when Walt's new DISNEYLAND hit the airwaves we sat down and enjoyed every single episode of that great series! By far, my favorite stuff was from Tomorrow Land. Here's part 1 of Man In Space, part 2 will come on Friday.

This episode explains what it's like to visit space with experts joining in on the discussion.

Walt starts the show surrounded by some awesome models of spaceships and the like!

Here's Ward Kimball, producer, writer and director of the series. This guy is no joke, he joined Disney Studios in 1934 as an animator and became involved in all aspects of animation production, most notably as the designer of Jiminy Cricket for the film "Pinnochio." He was also responsible for the redesign of Mickey Mouse! Walt recognized Kimball's achievements by making him one of the "Nine Old Men", Disney's semi-official group of advisors.

Then, here's Wernher von Braun, the German that helped design Hitler's V-2 missile, quite a score. That's his design for a 4-stage space rocket for the US.

This expert tells everyone how a rocket engine works, interesting as Hell for us kids. I was actually a science major in high school until I took chemistry, I hated it and changed my major to art when I was a sophomore.

Bring in the fifties style artwork! They show some odd rocket designs from the past.

Then they show some footage of old time uses of rocket engines, some worked and some exploded like a powder keg!

Okay, time to bring in our hero, the typical fifties cartoon dude. Here, he's really enjoying his ride until he plows it into a freakin' telephone pole!

One of my very favorite things was the rocket sled, I used to make them out of clay and throw them against the wall to see if the passenger survived the crash! Hey, number 13!!

Time to go into space to understand the effects of weightlessness, things seem fine until he goes beyond the stratosphere!

Not sure what this has to with, but, Disney sure liked to use cigars and booze bottles for props!

When you're in space with no gravity, it's hard to know which way is up, or down, or sideways!!

No matter how bad things get, there's always that certain something to brighten the day!

Beware of radiation in space, and, meteors!!

After our hero gets sucked out through the meteor hole, he bakes on the side facing the sun and freezes on the opposite side, sooo...

He needs a spacesuit with some handy Swiss knife tools, and, a tooth brush!

Then, his hand held rocket gun gets him into a ton of trouble! Tune in Friday for part 2, when we take a trip into space with some of the finest fifties space art you'll ever see!!

25 GOOD REASONS TO WATCH OLDE MOVIES Part 03

  #51 - Britt Ekland - "The Wicker Man" "The Man With The Golden Gun"

 #52 - Diana Dors - The Siren of Swindon, The English Marilyn Monroe!

 #53 - Elizabeth Campbell - "El Planeta De Las Mujeres Invasoras" "Las Luchadoras Contra El Médico Asesino" etc.

#54 - Gianna Maria Canale - "Lust Of The Vampire" "Colossus And The Amazon Queen"

 #55 - Jane Birkin - "Blow-up"

 #56 - Joi Lansing - She probably should have been the first one on the first list! Just because!!

#57 - Julie Adams - "Creature From The Black Lagoon"

#58 - Kathryn Grant - "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad"

#59 - Martha "Two Guns For" Hyer"

#60 - Milicent Patrick was not only a beautiful actress, she also gets the mind-blowing credits for creating "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" mask, the Mr. Hyde mask in "Abbott And Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde," the mutant mask in "This Island Earth," and the Xenomorph in "It Came From Outer Space!" Now that's sexy!!!!

#61 - Mylène Demongeot is just too cute!

She was Hélène in the three "Fantomas" films!

#62 - Nancy Kwan - The World of Suzie Wong" "The Wrecking Crew"

#63 - Patti Chandler - "Ski Party" "Bikini Beach" "Dr. Goldfoot"

#64 - Peggy Cummins - "Gun Crazy" "Curse Of The Demon"

#65 - Raquel Welch - "Fathom" "Bedazzled" "Bluebeard"

#66 - Sherry Jackson - "Make Room For Daddy" "Star Trek" "The Monitors"

#67 - Veronica Lake - Been in love with that coif since I was a little boy!

#68 - Yvette Mimieux - "The Time Machine" "Three In The Attic"

#69 - Martine Beswick - "From Russia With Love" "Thunderball"
 

#70 -  Jennifer Jayne - "The Crawling Eye" "Hysteria" "They Came From Beyond Space"

#71 - Marie-Pierre Castel - "La Vampire Nue"

72 - Sheila Carol (Sheila Noonan) - "Beast From Haunted Cave" "Bucket Of Blood"

#73 - Mary Ann Mobley - Miss Mississippi 1958 and Miss America 1959.
She was originally cast as "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E." and Batgirl too, but was replaced both times!

#74 - Leigh Christian - "Beyond Atlantis" "The Doll Squad"
 

#75 - Jill St John - "The Lost World" "Diamonds Are Forever" "Batman"
So that's it for this go round, I think there will still be at least 25 more which will make it an even hundred! We've all been blessed for years! Thank-you to them all!!