ATIS significance

The significance of ATIS to me

The Adventure Thru Inner Space ("ATIS") opened on August 5, 1967. Since my first trip to Disneyland after that date was November 23, 1968, that was the first time I ever heard of it or was able to go on it. Unfortunately, the car in which I rode with my friend Steve that day had a defective sound connection with a crackling spiel, so Steve had to narrate for me throughout to explain what was going on. I found it fairly interesting and I picked up the free Monsanto postcards at the end. I came to regard that day as one of the happiest and most memorable days of my life.

Kids called the attraction "The Monsanto," never "Adventure Thru Inner Space." On the school bus home it was always, "Did you go on The Monsanto?" The Monsanto was a standard ride to go on whenever you visited Disneyland. Since I always went on school trips with high school buddies who were also interested in science, going on The Monsanto was de rigueur.

The very happiest day of my life, however, was a few years later on November 7, 1971, when I went on a date to Disneyland with my girlfriend Teresa. The Adventure Thru Inner Space was one of the few rides on which we held hands. Since my Disneyland trips with Steve and later Teresa were some of the very happiest days of my life, Adventure Thru Inner Space has very deep, meaningful associations for me beyond its own admirable qualities.

My favorite retired attraction

ATIS closed on September 9, 1985. Of all the Disneyland attractions and restaurants that have been retired, ATIS is the one I miss the most. It wasn't even my favorite, and technologically it wasn't even very good, yet I lament its loss even more than that of the Submarine Voyage, which was one of my top favorites. I feel like I've lost a close friend.

What made the Adventure Thru Inner Space so great?

• It was free.
  
• They gave away free postcards of colorful paintings of it.
• There was rarely much of a waiting line, due to its high throughput.
• Everybody went on it.
  It was a common shared experience among school kids everywhere, almost a stardard part of American culture.
• For a relatively low cost attraction, it was fairly good.
• It was around for many years while other attractions came and went.
• It was rarely monitored.
  Unlike the Pirates of the Caribbean, where you are always on camera, ATIS was largely unmonitored, which probably encouraged less-than-respectable behavior from the kids. Yet maybe every theme park needs at least one ride like that as a kind of release valve.
• It encouraged memorable personal interactions.
  If you were a young male adolescent, it was a place to get rowdy with your buddies. If you were slightly older, it was a place to hold hands or kiss in the dark with your girlfriend. I went on it with my best friends and--later--favorite girlfriend.
• It was one of the few serious Disneyland attractions.
  No cross-eyed sea serpents, no smiling elephants, no dogs holding jailer keys in their mouths.
• It was scientifically interesting.
  Although not very accurate, it was a great idea and taught young people about the fundamentals of atomic structure.
• It had depth.
  Any attraction that evokes the mysteries of the real world, especially scientific mysteries, has depth. Unlike Captain EO or It's A Small World, it points the way for more information if you really find yourself getting involved with the subject matter.
• It fired the imagination.
  Who could look at a piece of plastic or AstroTurf afterwards and not think of all the scientific research that went into producing it, and of its molecular structure? What would you have seen if you had kept shrinking beyond the nucleus?
• It was psychedelic in an era when psychedelic was fashionable.
  I was inspired by the effect of being in a room with images of flowing snowflakes or whizzing electrons projected on the walls, and was tempted to try to make something like that for my bedroom at home.
• The entire attraction had atmosphere.
  True, Star Tours has far more atmosphere in the waiting line than this attraction did. But when Star Tours is over, it essentially dumps you out into the street. At the end of Adventure Thru Inner Space, you were left in a sort of display room with a futuristic "fountain" of nylon strands dripping with oil, and several Monsanto posters on the walls advertising their products such as AstroTurf or AstroTurf door mats. The unspoken message was: "See? Your adventure wasn't such fantasy after all. Chemistry is real, and here's what you can do with its wonders." Go ahead and laugh, but it is little things like this that inspire kids to become our future chemists and scientists.
• It had a clean, art gallery type atmosphere.
  Both the waiting line and display area at the end had bright recessed lights in the ceiling, and displays in both areas. In the waiting line were small lighted displays of simple 3-dimensional scenes with plastic figures, mounted on floor stands, and at the end was a magnificent nylon fountain bathed in colored lights around which people would often gather after the ride to snap a flash picture. It's rare that science is ever portrayed as having a warm, clean, artistic, glowing atmosphere, but Monsanto sure gave me this feeling.
• It was small, quaint, focused, and psychologically managable.
  A long ride like the Disneyland Railroad or Pirates of the Caribbean goes through many different scenes and styles, and can leave you in awe, but a short simple ride like Peter Pan or ATIS projects a single impression much better. Less to remember, fewer distractions.
• It had a theme song.
  "Miracles From Molecules." Corny, but music has the intriguing and important effect of gelling memories.

The moving Atomobiles illustration is from the Don Bertino site, The Bertino Disney archives: http://www.bertino.com/disney/.
In the 4-picture composite, the top right photo is by Werner W. Weiss, 1969, from the site Yesterland.
The bottom two photos are by Jon Nadelberg from his site 1970s Disneyland.
The top left photo is from my own 1971 postcard. I created the composite from the few rare ATIS photos I was able to gather on the Internet.
The icon of the atom with three moving electrons is from Our Virtual Mall.
The artist's conceptual painting of ATIS' chain of Atomobiles is from the out-of-print book Disneyland: Inside Story, by Randy Bright, 1987, page 198.
Updated: January 25, 2002