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The Amazing "Touring Rockets" of the 1950s!
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I didn't see it mentioned specifically, other than possibly the reference to "moving seats" in Gord's post, but part of the moon ride effect was the seat cushions pressing down as the rocket engines fired. In addition, the seats vibrated with the roar of the engines, and at a comparable intensity.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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By gum, I remember those deflating/inflating seat cushions. The audience giggled, because funny things were happening to their butts! Laughing

I can't seem to find which Disneyland episode featured the TWA Moonliner Flight to the Moon with Walt's introduction, the one shown in the middle video I posted. If its on one of the box sets, I might buy it.

I searched through the episode synopses at the site below, but I haven't found it yet.


http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_anthology_series_episode_list

I did find a Youtube video of the Mission to Mars ride that someone made using homemade video, with a high quality audio dubbed over the video.

Not bad!


_____ Mission to Mar - Ultimate Anniversary Tribute

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Here's another brief and interest video about the TWA Moonliner ride, with a narration and film footage that depicts the building of the ride. The video plays a portion of the space captain's narration over a segment of time lapse photography showing the assembly of the Moonliner in front of the Flight to the Moon building in 1955.
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______ Rocket To The Moon--Disneyland History


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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Jun 30, 2018 9:40 am; edited 1 time in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A distant memory just struck me upside the head. As I recall, as a kid I was very disappointed when I learned that the ride didn't actually take place inside the rocket. Sad
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 6:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A montage:



The Rocky Jones — Space Ranger touring rocket:



Butch has fond memories of this one. By-the-way yesterday he was going to a medical appointment in Seattle when the cabulance he was in got into an accident. His left ankle was broken. Then the Fire department ambulance got stuck in bad traffic due to a soccer game. Butch is in the hospital until he recovers. I'm taking over until then, Yay!!!

Also the satellite Vanguard 1 mysteriously re-established communication with NASA for just under an hour and just as mysteriously quit. This is remarkable as it quit in 1964!



The Space Patrol (ABC 1950 - 1955) touring rocket became many a kid's "club house".



The Ralston touring rocket at night:



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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 9:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to Butch! I hope he'll recover soon. Sad

Eadie, that picture of the Ralston rocket with the two kids sitting in the rear is not one that either Gord or I ran across — and we searched high and low for every shot we could find !

Thanks! Very Happy

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2018 1:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A newly found RALSTON ROCKET picture!

Contests were often used by station management to keep local cowpokes faithfully tuned-to Joe's Ranch night-after-night. One such competion was Ralston Cereal's "Spaceship Drawing Contest" which cross-promoted the ABC-TV network weekend series "Space Patrol".
http://kidshow.dcmemories.com/1953joeralstonmal_452.jpg
http://kidshow.dcmemories.com/joesranch.html



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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 3:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote


This is an update on the subject. Some of these photos may have been posted already....But heck....You never see too many rocket photos!.

Before the era of true space exploration, some major retailers built full-scale mock-ups of rocketships and took them on tours around the country.

Not yet the NASA-inspired exhibits of later World’s Fairs, these 1950s predecessors were often based on popular TV space adventures, mostly aimed at children.

Still, their arrival at state fairs and supermarket openings drew enormous crowds in pre-Sputnik America, then in the grip of rocket mania

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Herb Deeks resin kit of the Ralston Supermarket Rocket. The ‘Terra V’ was made famous by the Saturday morning TV show ‘Space Patrol’, sponsored by the Ralston Purina Company in the early 1950’s.

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This rendering is a solid resin kit approximately 12 1/2″ long and is built to order. Allow 8 weeks for completion Ralston Supermarket Rocket

$1,750.00

http://unclealstoys.com/product/ralston-supermarket-rocket/



Childhood dreams fade. When he was a teenager, Ricky Walker’s parents sold the Ralston Rocket he won to a carnival. It nearly became a traveling museum for real space artifacts, but was finally thought to be scrapped. Meanwhile, the Michigan State Fair continued using the Silvercup Rocket until 1962, when organizers replaced it with a replica of John Glenn’s Mercury capsule.









Rechristened Space Ship Mars, the battered spacecraft later amused travelers as a roadside attraction in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.









Interior plan of the Ralston Space Patrol Rocket Ship: Dimensions: Ship is 35' long, 12' high and 8' wide. Intercom system is located in front end of ship, in forward part of cockpit.

Munitions and weapons case is forward on the right hand side. Contains secret equipment. Space port gives a view of space when in flight. Shows City of Terra, capital of the United States.





Viewscope shows the planets and stars of the universe flashing past. Food locker is stocked with space flight foods including Wheat Chex, Rice Chex and Instant Ralston, the official Space Patrol cereals.

Mass reaction generator controls the atom-powered rocket engines. Reaction generator control panel is the central control panel containing 180 colored lights. Astrogation and communication center on the left side of the ship has three separate units:

1. Commun-I-Vision, which shows geographic scenes for navigation.

2. Radascope, which is space radar.

3. Code-O-Graph, which decodes secret messages by light and sound.

Tell all your friends to see the Ralston Space Patrol Rocket. Dont' miss Buzz Corry "Space Patrol" on TV and radio

This Space Patrol photo is from inside the Ralston Rocket, the mock-up rocketship that traveled around the country for promotional appearances.





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This is not a prank call,” Greg Ward once telephoned state police. “My boss ordered me to go search for a 40-foot-long, 1950s vintage science fiction rocket, buy it, and bring it home.” Immediately the trooper replied, “Oh, the Silvercup Rocket!” Ward, senior conservator at the Air Zoo Aerospace & Science museum in Portage, Michigan, knew about the rocket because staff member Thom Sherman had informed Bob Ellis, chief executive and president of the museum, that he had seen it on a road trip somewhere between Benton Harbor and Kalamazoo, 10 years earlier.



Ward rented an airplane to search for it, with no luck. So he called the police. They got him in touch with the owner, Wayne Huddleston, who had been refusing to sell it for years. Huddleston greeted Ward with homemade pie and queued-up episodes of the Silvercup Rocket’s inspiration, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. After showing the owner the museum’s detailed plans for the rocket’s restoration, he finally agreed to sell.

“It’s how we once thought space travel would look,” says Air Zoo marketing and communication manager Patrick Brent about the 1950s-era rockets.

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The museum’s plans for the Silvercup Rocket include restoring the exterior and outfitting the inside as a traveling science education center.







They want to return the rocket to its original mission: getting kids excited about science and space. Air Zoo is currently seeking a partner to sponsor or participate in the restoration.

As news of the restoration spread, letters began pouring into the museum with memories from people who saw the rocket as a child, many of whom went on to become pilots and engineers. “A million kids toured this rocket on its original run,” Brent says. “Maybe it inspired a future astronaut or two?”
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Rescuing the Luer Space Ship
At some point the Luer Space Ship was abandoned atop a large hill along Highway 69, near Prescott, Arizona. John and Peter Kleeman, the father-son team that run the Space Age Museum, hired a trucking company to rescue it, which involved some disassembly before it could make the cross-country journey to Connecticut.



The mission of the museum is to preserve cultural artifacts of the early Space Age. While they do have some historical NASA objects in their collection, says John, “our focus is upon artifacts and images derived from science fiction, space adventure, Space Age design and the experience of everyday Americans.”

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Last edited by Gord Green on Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:43 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Back in the 60s, NASA had a traveling space exhibit that was in a trailer made to look like an Atlas rocket. You entered in the back, between the two engines.

I really wish I could remember what the exhibits were. Sad

David.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I to remember just such an exhibit Krel.
As I recall there was a mock-up of the Mercury capsule and I was amazed at how very small it really was!







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Last edited by Gord Green on Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Eadie
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does anyone have pictures of the Santa rocket displays at Christmas during the 1950s and early 1960s?
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ask, and you shall receive !


















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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 10:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's a few more pictures relating to the Ralston Rocket promotion :

A flyer issued to areas promoting the touring rocket:



A screen grab from the press conference announcing the contest :



The crew arriving for a personal appearance :



Commander Buzz Corey (Ed Kemmer) at the controls :



That "little snot" Rickey!



The "official" map of the planets in the SPACE PATROL universe :


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Ricky's ray gun looks awesome! Shocked

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Eadie
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 7:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eadie wrote:
Does anyone have pictures of the Santa rocket displays at Christmas during the 1950s and early 1960s?

What I meant was the in-the-store displays. The old Bon Marche (changed to Bon-Macy's, and now simply Macy's) in Seattle had a displays in which you entered an elevator, left it on the toy floor and then re-entered a rocket ship which took you to the North Pole and Santa's space age workshop. Anyone remember anything similar? [This would have been in the late 1950s to mid 1960s. This was the main downtown store. The mall stores had Santa's Rocket sled.]
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