Since Tomorrowland was sorely missing from my mega-1956 posts, over the next few days I'll be posting a few glorious images from October 1968, beginning with today’s view of the legendary Mary Blair tile murals from Tomorrowland. Personally, I think these Small-World-ish murals are out of place in Tomorrowland, however, I still feel it is sad that they have been covered up and possibly damaged without any regard to their historic and artistic importance. This is probably one of the nicest shots I've seen of them.
Follow my updates on Twitter. See more vintage photos of the Mary Blair Tomorrowland tile mural at my website. You can also view my Mary Blair 100th Birthday Anniversary Tribute.
9 comments:
I'm with you, Dave. Bring the murals back. The sooner the better.
I’m not afraid to say it, I still love the murals. They are not very “tomorrow” and yes they do resemble those little demons from It’s a small world, BUT…. This is how I will always remember Tomorrowland! GREAT shot of the North Mural, you can even see the little Bell System Glass speakerphone booths. Man we used to save up our quarters so we could all cram into one of those booths and call someone who wasn’t lucky enough to be there!
Thanks for this spectacular picture, is it from a slide?
Yep, this might just be the nicest picture of one of the Mary Blair murals I've ever seen...
It's hard to fathom how they could eventually become so worthless to the company that they were covered, and possibly have holes punched in them (or worse)...
Besides the planets, satellites and children (insert Whitney Houston singing)--what else is futuristic?
Walt loved Mary Blair's artwork and this makes me wonder if something was going to be developed. We shouldn't forget the Grand Canyon Concourse at the Contemporary, either. I always thought it was a strange mural for such a futuristic building.
Thanks for the great shot, Dave!
Dave - After spending time at your site for a number of weeks, I've finally found your blog. I had a great time with Mildred (from your January posts) and I will more than likely be checking back here every day!
Regarding the Mary Blair murals - I think she was a great contemporary artist and love the way her influence is seen throughout It's A Small World. I think I remember hearing in the introduction to New Tomorrowland World of Color show that the murals were supposed to represent a tomorrow where all the children of the world got along together.
Thanks again Dave for the great site.
Tim - yes, this image is from a slide. And Brian - welcome aboard and thanks!
Perhaps to spare my inner child any sadness, I thought they only covered the beautiful tile murals, but I now know how naive I was. They DESTROYED them. They are no more. It really is a travesty. Today is Mary Blair's 100th birthday and I spent part of it crying when I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXmHJLifufo Thank you for posting the beautiful photograph. It's priceless.
Doreen - That is awful! I never knew that footage existed of their destruction.
Wow, that was really painful to watch, and the goof-ball construction workers don't make things better.
This is the south mural, I think we all knew large sections of the south mural were "cut out" as they used to go down to the planters. I just never thought they cut the sections out so brutally and idiotically!
On the bright (other) side, the North mural should be "mostly" intact under that stupid plastic tarp painting that's there now. I've see photos that show only small destruction from support post mountings, very repairable, unlike the travesty in that video of the South mural!
Cool Mary Blair Google Logo today, LOTS of people will know who she is now :-)
Oh and Dave, great to see this post again, the color is outstanding in this one!
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