Review by C.J. Bunce
The Jetsons, Lost in Space, Star Trek, Matt Jefferies, Syd Mead, Ron Cobb, Midcentury Modernism, Tomorrowland. What comes to mind when you think of the future? Do you look to improvements you’d like to see or do you flash back to what science fiction visionaries have explored before? The movie Tomorrowland took Walt Disney’s ideas and updated them into a modern fantasy film. The artist known as Shag has succeeded at creating art prints that take us all back to the era of Burke chairs, geometric shapes, rounded edges, bold colors, and innovative materials–all those elements that conjure post-War America. But back in the 1950s Walt Disney brought together the Monsanto corporation, and other interests to actually create the future. They did it via a high-tech house at Disneyland. Writer David A. Bossert researched the attraction and just published a photograph-filled book about its creation in The House of the Future: Walt Disney, MIT, and Monsanto’s Vision of Tomorrow, now available here at Amazon, or direct from publisher Old Mill Press here.
The House of the Future isn’t a book about what Disney got right or wrong, but readers will find adequate evidence that he and his visionary team were on the right track more often than not. Bossert presents the story from the inception of the idea to completion and later renovations, incorporating images of all sorts of ephemera, like marketing collateral and corporate brag pieces. You’ll find concept artwork and engineering drawings created by Monsanto scientists, engineers, and chemists as they created this unique eight-part spoke and hub building, intended to be affordably priced and replicated in the post-War years when the housing market was booming.
As recounted from that Dustin Hoffman scene in The Graduate so many times, it was all about plastics. Bossert doesn’t give the historical characters a pass on what science has learned about the detriment of rampant plastic use in the 20th century and beyond, and he makes some wise comments in the final chapter about the legacy of a house like Disney’s creation.
The house stood at Disneyland for only ten years before being torn down. The author unveils the house to the reader on its opening day, June 12, 1957, with photographs of Walt Disney onsite, and then he takes the reader on his/her own tour of the house–as one would have done during the short life of the unusual theme park attraction. Readers will even find the complete original text of the tour at the back of the book, along with end notes and a thorough index. It’s full of diagrams, in-process build photos, and so much more.
The house consisted of 16 pre-formed segments, which could be shipped stacked. They were attached to a core in a plus sign pattern, elevated to allow for trees and shrubs. That core housed a kitchen, two smartly located bathrooms, and all the utilities. The design then and today has some intelligent features.
Everyone will have their own takeaways after examining the explanations and photographs. For me, the house had many similarities to the color and form elements of the Brady Bunch house and my own elementary school fixtures, tables, chairs, cupboards, and art design in the 1970s. I also spotted at least two chairs that would make it to the set of the original Star Trek. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy discuss the sinister threat in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, they could very well have filmed that in the House of the Future. I was surprised to see how much Star Trek: The Next Generation really embraced the look and feel of the House of Future with its crew quarters furnishings. But even before that you can see some of these elements echoing the House of the Future in Lost in Space, and of course The Jetsons premiered after the House of the Future, too.
The functionality seen on The Jetsons couldn’t make it to the attraction, however. The future, its gadgets, remote controls, hyper-efficient dishwasher, video communicators, and big TV/movie screen still had to be invented in the real world, so they made their appearance using the same Disney magic the Imagineers would use on the theme park rides. Wanting to replicate the look of the house today? The book includes a few close-ups of fabric swatches.
Bossert takes the final 24 pages to explore a current homage to the House of Tomorrow found at the Anaheim Howard Johnson’s “House of the Retro Future Suite.” It’s a look at a good next step in the evolution of what Disney & Co. began, preserving in a way some of the continued legacy of the Disneyland attraction.
Fortunately futurism didn’t stop with the House of Tomorrow. Attractions and scientific experiments like The Farm of Today and Tomorrow at Living History Farms in Des Moines, with its earth-covered building and nearby solar house, continued in the 1970s and beyond Disney’s effort at building tomorrow… today. When you think of the word futurism today you probably go directly to Syd Mead and his predictive designs that have proven to become reality over time in many ways.
Fans of futurism and all things retro will find House of the Future as a good bookend on your shelf with the likes of The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist, The Art of Ron Cobb, and Star Trek: Designing the Future–How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future. All of these books portray a common visual design idealism, a world view that was never quite fulfilled. But there’s always tomorrow.
Fun and informational for Disney fans and those who marvel at the idea of Tomorrowland, futurism, and all things retro, you won’t want to miss this full-color hardcover treasure. Get your copy now of The House of the Future: Walt Disney, MIT, and Monsanto’s Vision of Tomorrow, available here at Amazon, or direct from publisher Old Mill Press here.
