Destination Terror, 1956

Electric Living, 1956, originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures.

The amazing world of Electronic Driving, brought to you by the Power Companies and the American Way! Destination: Terror.

It reads like the marketing ad that it is:

"One day your car may speed along on the electric super-highway, its speed and steering automatically controlled by electronic devices embedded in the road. Travel will be more enjoyable. Highways will be made safe - by electricity! No traffic jams...no collisions...no driver fatigue."

Marketing stuff from the 1950s cracks me up. Everything is whitewashed and perfect, lending a camera view into a world that probably didn't exist; I wouldn't know for certain, because I was born after the decade ended. But I will say that I've seen American life in general for over four decades, and some things are simply too perfect to exist anywhere. But you gotta hand it to them through, for embracing a level of enthusiasm for the future. The above advert shows that clearly. Technology seemed to have the upper hand on nature, and it was okay. Man was able to control his environment, and that was okay too. Long before environmentalists - and for that matter environmental terrorism - we had the 1950s. A world where trees were for the good of mankind, not the other way around. Even the Sierra Club was tamer back then.

In a way I'm happy that the Automated World of The Future was overcome by the Semi-Automated World of Today. Not from an environmental standpoint, but from a safety perspective that isn't embraced or even considered here. While people in the 1950s would see this as Tomorrowland, I see it as an accident waiting to happen. I see it like this:

Dad - likely named Bob - has his head turned from the road in blind faith that one of those other behemobiles ahead of it won't have a blowout. Or that a liquid leak won't cover the electronic sensors embedded in the pavement. Or that a deer won't bound through the Interstate looking for a tasty leaf on the other side. Or that the Commies won't drop out of the sky in an effort take over a small town in Colorado.

WOLVERINES!!!!!!

Bob Jr. and sister Jane - free from the constraints of those pesky seat belts - have full view of any danger ahead of them, dripping in terror that is lost on parents who have willfully turned their backs to any impending doom. That feeling is masked by years of training by their parents to show no emotion.

"We are a happy family. (twirl hair mindlessly) We are a happy family...."

As a vacuum tube explodes and a circuit shorts out somewhere under the dash, the massive car becomes a hi-test gas-fueled rocket. The behemobile begins to swerve and compensate in a zig-zag pattern. Far too late, Bob Sr. spins around and grabs the wheel in an effort to bring the behemobile back to its electronic track, only to find resistance at the wheel as the car attempts to recover on its own with a compromized guidance system.

"I am NOMAD...I am PERFECT."

The family is now hurling towards eternity, knowing their fate is a mere three car lengths ahead and shaped like an wilderness overpass. A family halted in their prime by Bob Sr. and his selfish desire to play dominoes with his family while risking their lives.

Is it Destination: Tomorrowland or Destination: Terror? You decide...