The February 28, 1957 Lowell Sun (Lowell, MA) ran a fantastic piece about the plant and animal life we would likely find on Mars. A map that accompanied the piece even laid out where the likely vegetation, deserts, canals and oases were located.

The 1957 Disneyland TV episode Mars and Beyond shared many of the same assumptions about animal life on the Red Planet. Of course it would be difficult for life to sustain itself on Mars, that's why they're Martians!

An excerpt from the Lowell Sun piece appears below.

The Martians greeting the first space travelers from Earth may be fantastic furry little creatures peeking out of lonesome burrows.

 

Speculation that Mars might have animal life is contained in a book, "A Space Traveler's Guide to Mars," by Dr. I. M. Levitt of the Fels Planetarium, Philadelphia.

But these Martians would be astonishingly different from earthly animals, living by a different chemistry of life dictated by severe conditions of our Red Planet neighbor.

Many astronomers think Mars has some kind of plant life. One bit of evidence is changes in blue-green areas, which could be plant life spreading with the seasons over the Martian deserts.

And if there are plants, are there animals that feed on them and help decompose dead plants?

See also:
Animal Life on Mars (1957)
Plant Life on Mars (1957)
Mars and Beyond (1957)

The Disneyland TV program aired Disneyland Around the Seasons on December 18, 1966. The episode contained this great clip of a man wearing a jetpack (or rocketbelt), flying around Disneyland. The entire program can be found on the DVD Disneyland: Secrets, Stories & Magic.

See also:
Jet Pack Video (1966)
Rebuilding Tomorrowland (1966)
Bell Aviation's Rocket Pack (1964)
Jet Flying Belt is Devised to Carry Man for Miles (New York Times, 1968)
Where's My Jetpack? (2007)
Tomorrowland, Disneyland Opening Day (1955)
How Do You Like Them Apples?
The Tomorrowland That Never Was (1965)
Rocket to the Moon (1967)

Kevin Kidney has uploaded some amazing Magic Highway, U.S.A. images taken straight from publicity stills of the era. He cleaned them up, spending upwards of an hour and a half on each image. As a Disney artist for over 22 years, Kevin's Flickr account also contains great examples of his work on Disney collectibles. Kevin currently works as a freelance designer.

See also:
Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)
Farm to Market (1958)
Magic Highway, U.S.A. Segment (1958)
Disneyland to Take to Highways Tonight (1958)

Jeff over at 2719 Hyperion consistently has great analysis of all-things-Disney. Last week he posted the futuristic segment from the 1958 Disneyland TV show, "Magic Highway, U.S.A." Provided it stays up, I recommend checking out the clip because you can't find this program anywhere else.

You may remember the clips that we've looked at here on the Paleo-Future blog, including the commute as well as farm to market.

See also:
Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)
Farm to Market (1958)

This clip from the May 14, 1958 Disneyland TV episode, "Magic Highway, U.S.A." depicts the high-speed freightways of the future. Simplicity and efficiency reign supreme in this streamlined future of yesteryear.

These non-stop farm-to-market freightways will bring remote agricultural areas to within minutes of metropolitan markets. At transfer points within the city, individual units automatically separate from the truck-train for immediate delivery to shopping centers.

See also:
Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)
Superfarm of the Year 2020 (1979)
Delicious Waste Liquids of the Future (1982)
Robot Farms (1982)

The Disneyland TV show episode Man and the Moon originally aired December 28, 1955 and was released theatrically outside the United States.

The entire episode prominently showcases Werhner von Braun's torodial space station. The clip below dramatizes what a space mission may involve some day in the distant (paleo)future.

You can view a clip of the program here and you can find this program in its entirety on the DVD set Walt Disney Treasures - Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond.

See also:
Challenge of Outer Space (circa 1950s)
Mars and Beyond (1957)
Animal Life on Mars (1957)
Plant Life on Mars (1957)

The TV critic for the Albuquerque Tribune (Albuquerque, New Mexico) wasn't a fan of the Disneyland TV episode, "Magic Highway, U.S.A." The review in May 14, 1958 proclaims that, "the future for driver's is hideous if Disney artists have their way." Below is the full review.

Walt Disney's Disneyland goes a-motoring in "Magic Highway, U.S.A." with a kaledoscopic history of the road, its present cluttered state and some future projections. The future for driver's is hideous if Disney artists have their way, though they don't mean it to be. There are also some road-building shots for any folks at home who might want to build roads. These sequences are rather interminable. Perhaps an hour was too long for the subject matter, with the Southern California Horseless Carriage Club providing the most amusing moments in their 1904 and 1906 models.

See also:
Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)