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Disneyland and the Rise of Automation

How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth

Roland Betancourt and Imagineer Tom Morris explore how visionary engineers adapted postwar industrial automation to create a new kind of entertainment experience for the opening of Disneyland in 1955.

When Disneyland opened to the public in 1955, it demystified the hidden world of factory automation through its extraordinary new attractions. In Disneyland and the Rise of Automation, Roland Betancourt tells the story of how the visionary engineers and designers at Disney transformed the technologies of the postwar assembly line into an entertainment experience unlike anything the world had ever seen.

Essential reading for anyone interested in engineering, corporate histories, or popular culture, Disneyland and the Rise of Automation invites us to consider how technology and the logic of automation become integrated into our lives through entertainment.

This groundbreaking, deeply researched book explores how Walt Disney and his designers aestheticized midcentury automation and computer science to create Disneyland and transform its offerings. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of them parks and how the reshaped postwar America.
—Todd James Pierce, author of Three Years in Wonderland: The Disney Brothers, C.V. Wood, and the Making of the Great American Theme Park and Making Mary Poppins.

Deeply researched, brilliantly written, and wonderfully illustrated, Disneyland and the Rise of Automation is a tour de force. Betancourt outlines the key role automation has played in the history of theme parks at large and Disneyland in particular, filling an important gap in US postwar and Disney history. This is a must-read for scholars and fans alike. —Sabrina Mittermeier, author of A Cultural History of the Disneyland Theme Parks

Copies of Disneyland and the Rise of Automation will be available at this event.

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