Friday, February 06, 2009

The Spaceman of Anaheim

Tomorrowland's wandering Spaceman first appeared on Disneyland's opening day in 1955 and was a regular until at least the late 1960s. Based on the photos I've seen, he and his companion, Space-Girl, had innumerable changes to their costumes over the years and were portrayed by many different "cast members." The 1950s costume above has "K7" on the helmet, a reference to Kaiser Aluminum, which sponsored the Aluminum Hall of Fame (1955-1960) and the giant Kaiser Aluminum Telescope - early attractions in Tomorrowland. The telescope is depicted on the Spaceman's chest plate.

Here's the spaceman doing what he did best: Posing for photos with tourists. I'd guess this one is from the late 1950s. Jimmy here is wiping the fruit punch stains off his mouth before posing for Dad's camera. (I believe these photos all came from an eBay auction I stumbled across years ago.)
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Man, I'd give my eye teeth for a replica of this outfit to use as a Halloween costume. And maybe a Space Girl outfit for my girlfriend too. Know anyone who sews costumes from scratch? And does anyone have a spare "bubble helmet" or two sitting in their garage?

This last shot is clearly from the late 1960s, with the Astro Jets whirling around in the background. The costumes have been greatly simplified by this point, with the exception of the easy-to-damage antenna atop the helmets. For more about the Spaceman and Space-Girl, see Daveland's excellent post from last November.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice shots!

Major Pepperidge said...

The first photo is from a Viewmaster packet, the second one is from me!

Chris Jepsen said...

Major - If one came from a Viewmaster packet, then they ALL did. They all had the same round black corners on them -- I just cropped and edited to remove the corners from the second image.