Greetings family, friends and Disney buffs! I hope that you enjoy this vignette of a little known

theme park "land".

MUSINGS OF A THEME PARK FAN

HOBBYLAND

Disneyland’s Forgotten “Land”

Tomorrowland was far from completion with just a few months before Disneyland’s widely announced July grand opening date and in an atmosphere of spiraling costs, budget cuts and pressing infrastructure priorities. Postponing the opening of the showcase park feature was not an acceptable option for Walt Disney who pressed forward to have as many attractions open as possible by July 17th. With only several of the planned attractions ready, and despite his initial reluctance, Disney reached out to private corporations for World’s Fair style exhibits. Visitor’s on opening day not only experienced Rocket to the Moon, Phantom Boats, Autopia, Circarama, Space Station X-I, and cardboard movie sets from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but were also treated to Kaiser’s Aluminum in our Future and the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry. Additional corporate exhibits were added over the next few months including the history of milk from American Dairy Association, Crane’s Bathroom of Tomorrow, Dutch Boy Paint’s Our Future in Color, and Monsanto’s House of the Future. Two months after the parks opening in 1955, and still attempting to ramp up interest in Tomorrowland, Disney created the Flight Circle, a large round area encircled by a tall chain link fence.

Initially the Los Angeles Hobby and Model Club, and later Wen-Mac, demonstrated U-control line model planes, tethered miniature race cars and powered model boats to enthusiastic crowds every hour on the half hour. A row of shade structures and seating near the flight circle became home to an array of merchandise carts dubbed Hobbyland featuring a wide variety of plastic models, toys, hobbyist and scientific products. The L.M. Cox Manufacturing Company replaced Wen-Mac in 1958 renaming the attraction “Thimble Drome”.

Neighboring exhibit’s and attractions were not happy about the noise but Walt loved watching the shows and the hastily constructed Flight Circle and Hobbyland survived until 1966.

From the Postcard Collection of Bill Ralph