Originally published at: Whatever happened to Disneyland's all-plastic House of the Future? | Boing Boing
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"…Perhaps the least-known but most interesting tale is in regards to The Swan Hotel Lobby. The building was originally built for the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. It was a modular home and was there to represent the “house of the future.” After the Fair, the building was purchased by a Port Townsend business owner and moved by barge to its Port Townsend WA location.
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Whatever happened to Disneyland’s all-plastic House of the Future?
At ten o’clock the house began to die. The wind blew. A falling tree bough crashed through the kitchen window. Cleaning solvent, bottled, shattered over the stove. The room was ablaze in an instant!
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i would live in that house in a heartbeat. i love everything about it, no matter which decade’s style of its existence it’s decorated in.
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As someone who has lived in the CA heat his entire life, anything plastic left outside for a few years will crumble into dust thanks to global warming.
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Were they inspired by Heinlein?
And did the Futuro designers visit Disneyland?
I love everything about it. New material=new construction methods and new possibilities for living. Lots of famous furniture hanging out in there, too.
Only vaguely related: We took my daughter to meet Tinkerbell there and it was pretty effing special. They deactivated my cynicism like you’d turn off a light switch. Kiddo was so tickled by the whole thing that she couldn’t even talk.
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Can’t fail to point out that Monsanto is one of the most evil companies in American history. Here’s just one example.
And on a less apocalyptic level, the wife of Monsanto CEO Edgar Queenie loved dogs, as do many people. But she used her husband’s substantial political influence in St Louis to direct taxpayer funds to create a museum of dog art in a St Louis County park, including dogs playing poker. You were allowed to bring your dog to the museum.
I only remember it because I worked at a company that did the site design for the project.
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I do think it’s somewhat amusing how many people are simultaneously nostalgic for the Disneyland of their youth while also decrying cheesy corporate sponsorships and IP tie-ins found in some modern Disney attractions. That sort of thing used to be way more blatant in the old days. For the first decade all of Tomorrowland was basically a big corporate showcase with sponsors like TWA, Richfield Oil, Dutch Boy Paint and Kaiser Aluminum. And at the pancake house Aunt Jemima was an actual walk-around character. I have a feeling that in another generation or so people will be pining for the days when they could see the Hewlett-Packard computer exhibit at the Innoventions showcase.
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Growing up in Chicago my favorite place to go was the Museum of Science and Industry, which had a few non-corporate displays: a simulated coal mine, a captured German submarine, and a glorious 2,340-SF model railroad.
ETA: The “Museum & Santa Fe” was paid for by the Atcheson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Oh well, some things are better not researched. It was still wonderful, though.
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I think I very well may be sipping my cold brew coffee through a piece of it, Right Now!
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I think I prefer the blatant displays to the subtle ones. Knowing who’s slanting it and why at least provides context for interpretation.
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Who wears a suit and tie to go to Disneyland?
I love it too, but “Monsanto’s House of the Future” sounds like some sort of dystopian company town hell-hole.
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“Some people say a man is made out of mud / A poor man’s made of adhesive and plastic…”
That vintage video about the futuristic possibilities of plastic in homes reminded me of this fake commercial from a Disney movie of the era:
Someone needs to explain to our narrator that 16 square feet and 16 foot square are not the same.
Why is it that it is so hard to muster any skepticism about Disney? The original narration is terrible marketing BS. Do we use it? Why yes, you’re soaking in it.
I grew up a mile from Disneyland and looked forward to our annual trip to the park until I became a cynical wise-ass teenager and realized I was paying to be advertised at. The early years of DL was based on the periodic worlds fairs that were also pay to be propagandized to festivals… It’s no wonder I grew up to be a cynical wise-ass teenager and it lasted well into my 50s. It is a stupid way to run a culture and we have only gotten worse about it.
Okay, this party-pooper is out of here.
You could have quite a game of Twister on that floor.
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