How Disneyland subtly served as one of society’s first introductions to automation – UC Irvine News

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“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible” is a quote attributed to Walt Disney. An artist, entertainer and master of innovation, he was always thinking ahead. As Disney sought financing to develop his new theme park, he turned his eyes to the small screens starting to populate the family rooms of American homes in the early 1950s. By 1954, ABC had aired the first episode of a television show simply titled “Disneyland,” a program aimed at both captivating its audience and promoting its founder’s multiple projects.

When the amusement park of the same name opened to the public in 1955, visionary engineers and designers transformed technologies of the postwar assembly line into extraordinary entertainment experiences. In his new book, Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth, Roland Betancourt examines how the Magic Kingdom introduced the world to the large-scale realities of industrial automation. The UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of art history put seven years of archival research into a book that appeals to fans of Disney and popular culture as well as people interested in engineering and corporate histories.

In this episode of The UC Irvine Podcast, Betancourt will discuss his unique journey from medievalist to authoritative voice on the technology powering the Happiest Place on Earth and connect 1950s anxieties about automation with today’s concerns about artificial intelligence. Just in time for summer, he’ll tell us what we shouldn’t miss the next time we visit the theme park, and he’ll share why he’s enthused to return to teaching the class he created – Disneyland: Art, Architecture and Operation – this fall.

“Inevitable Hope,” the music that introduces this episode, was provided by RKVC via the audio library in YouTube Studio. Betancourt recorded the various sounds from rides and attractions at Disneyland during a visit to the theme park.

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