“Mars and Beyond—Man and the Moon” (December 28, 1955, Disneyland Episode) Part 2

Of course, the striking models from the series soon became plastic model kits.
© Walt Disney Productions

In December of 1955, shortly after the opening of the Disneyland park, Disney aired his second "Main in Space" Tomorrowland program “Man and the Moon,” featuring Wernher von Braun, as had the first. After this episode spends half of its time using cute cartoon animation to summarize humankind’s fascination with the Moon, von Braun goes into a fairly detailed but family-friendly discussion of how a manned rocket could be sent to the Moon, emphasizing that that first venture would only circle the moon to test the application of rocket power and to gather scientific information. The program ended by presenting a well- designed, carefully acted, and truly stirring live-action simulation filled with excellent special effects showing just how von Braun’s vision would happen, point for point.

Now bear in mind that von Braun was the same man who headed the real Apollo program that actually did send men to circle the moon thirteen years later—Apollo 8, December 21–27, 1968. The vision presented on the Disneyland TV program showed how it would happen through an unhurried logical leisurely fashion. In fact it happened through a highly political crash-program to race the Soviet Union to the Moon. As a result, the particulars of the real Moon project had very little in common with the more leisurely version shown on Tomorrowland.

Without quite intending to, Walt Disney

became one of the most important early

proponents of American space exploration

by investing in his three "Man in Space"

programs in the 1950s.
© Walt Disney Productions 

It would be two years later that “Mars and Beyond,” the third act of the trilogy aired. In between there was much political infighting between the Navy and the Army about which agency would launch the first American satellite, causing Disney to delay production of the program. However, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union put Sputnik in orbit around the earth causing great American consternation and humiliation. And to make matters worse, the Navy Vanguard rocket exploded on its launching pad on December 6, 1957. But, Disney had rushed to completion “Mars and Beyond” and aired it just two days before on December 4, perhaps giving America a much needed shot of confidence. Of course, it was von Braun who came to the rescue by shooting Explorer 1 into orbit on January 31, 1958. Finally, in this sequence of events, President Eisenhower announced the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which became a reality on July 29, 1958.

In terms of timing, the broadcasting of Disney’s three space programs seem inextricably linked with milestones in the development of the real space program. Is there any real cause and effect? Did Disney actually spark interest in a fantastic goal that was not taken seriously beforehand? More probably, the flurry of interest in space that began in the late 1940s, which I pointed out in my Destination Moon discussion in the book, was still very much in the air and just beginning to become part of the cultural background noise—meaning that each step forward taken by whichever parties in whatever manner added to the substance of the idea that manned space flight was inevitable.

© Walt Disney Productions

Special photo emphasis juxtaposition by Thomas Kent Miller; copyright © 2016-2017 by Thomas Kent Miller.
Other than Walt Disney, the two most important personalities on the 'Man in Space" shows were Ward Kimball (left) and Wernher von Braun (right). It was Kimball whom Disney entrusted with the development of the programs, and it was Kimball whose first action was to contact the authors of the pioneering space-exploration articles he'd been reading in Collier's magazine, one of whom being von Braun, one of the principal developers of the German V-2 rocket. Here we see them both posing next to the large-scale model of the RM-1 moon rocket that figures prominently in the "Man in the Moon" epsiode. 

It’s no coincidence that Wernher Von Braun, Willy Ley, and other German scientists were involved in the making of Destination Moon and Conquest of Space, in producing the Collier’s magazine space series, and in helping persuade Walt Disney to spare no expense televising his “Man in Space” series, and that these were the same men who would in fact make space travel a reality. Furthermore, the men who consulted with these scientists and engineers and who brought all those media projects to fruition would themselves become passionately strong believers in what was then thought of as “Man’s Conquest of Space”— George Pal, Collier’s magazine’s Gordon Manning and Cornelius Ryan, and Walt Disney.

© Walt Disney Productions
 The imagination, enormous drive, vision,

and the sheer ability to get things done of these

two men literally changed the world. It is quite

a treat to see them together in the same

photograph.  It is quite thought-provoking.

Left is Walt Disney; Wernher von Braun is right.

  

 Yet, all these men and these projects were merely the part of the iceberg that appeared above the water; below the surface was a growing interest in “outer space” that fed the hard science fiction readers who held sway just then, that prompted the head-long proliferation of space movies and TV programs, that got under the skin and inspired people to become scientists and engineers the world over, that tickled the interests of private industry and the military. It was all coming to a head more or less at the same time, culminating in the launch and successful orbiting of Sputnik, which in turn sparked into being the swiftly moving engines of the earth’s mightiest nations. And it just so happened that Disney’s three space shows added to the increasing momentum at just the right times.

Here is the actual full-length episode.

Part 3 of these “Mars and Beyond” (December 4, 1957 Disneyland Episode) blog postings will focus on the third of Walt Disney's "Man in Space" programs, "Mars and Beyond."

“Man and the Moon” (December 28, 1955, Disneyland Episode).

USA. Walt Disney Productions. BW/C. 1.33:1. 53m.

CREDITS: Director Ward Kimball. Producer Ward Kimball. Story William Bosché, Ward Kimball, John Dunn. Score George Bruns. Assistant Director Robert H. Justman. Directors of Photography Charles Boyle, Edward Colman. Art Director Marvin Aubrey Davis. Set Decorator Bertram Granger. Production Supervisor Harry Tytle. Layout Designers Frank Armitage, A. Kendall O’Connor. Car- toon Animation Jack Boyd, Charles Downs, Joe Hale, Conrad Pederson, Arthur Stevens, Julius Svendsen. Space Paintings Al Dempster, William Layne. Technical Advisor Dr. Wernher von Braun. Editors Sam Horta, Lloyd Richardson. Special Processes Ub Iwerks, Eustace Lycett. Models Wathel Rogers. Special Instruments Maxwell Smith. Sound Robert O. Cook. Acknowledgments Griffith Observatory, Douglas Aircraft Company, Bill Jack Scientific Instrument Company, Protection, Inc.

CAST: Narrator Edgar Barrier. Host Walt Disney. Ward Kimball Ward Kimball. Dr. Wernher von Braun Dr. Wernher von Braun. Rocketship Crew Frank Gerstle, Richard Emory, Frank Connor, Leo Needham.

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