The March 10, 1956 Ames Daily Tribune (Ames, IA) ran this story about a local play called Futurama 2056. The entire piece appears below.
Food in capsules, clothes you can throw away - these are a few of the features of the future to be seen in the play, "Futurama 2056," which will be presented at the general meeting of the Ames Woman's Club Monday at 2:30 p.m.
The play, a comedy fantasy, written by Mrs. George Town, will show two children of the future clad in close-fitting disposable garments and wearing space helmets. These children are being checked out before starting for the Space Drome for exercise classes. Transportation for the trip is the ordinary air pedicycles of the period.
When the study room of the future comes into view, the club committee women will be seen discussing a financial problem of the period.
Mrs. AJ Knudson plays the part of the committee chairman in whose home the play takes place.
Daisy Johnson portrays the Lady in Charge of the Household.
Mrs. W. J. Peer and Mrs. Dean Dickson are delegates with voting power.
Mrs. Joe Lawlor will play a character with flash back tendencies.
Mrs. B. R. Rozeboom, chairman of the Drama workshop, has entered the production in the Play Festival competition. The entire cast plans to present it in Iowa City during the Play Festival period, April 6.
See also:
Closer Than We Think! Throw-Away Clothes (1959)
Disposable Clothes Just Around Corner (1961)
Closer Than We Think! Fat Plants and Meat Beets (1958)
How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)
Glad to see that in the modern world of 2056 women are still referred to as mere extensions of their husbands -- e.g., "Mrs. John Doe". One can only imagine the uproar caused by the "Daisy Johnson", not even a "Mrs." attached to her name, let alone a decent man!
ReplyDeleteThat whole thing has a Monty Python feel to it. I wonder if the actual play involved the Ames Women's Club hitting each other with purses in a muddy field...
ReplyDeleteOk... help me out here. Why was the concept of "disposable clothing" so beloved in the 50s and 60s, besides the whole no-washing thing? You'd think in the future we'd be able to invent ultra-sonic dry cleaners that'd clean soiled clothes in no time. Or, were people of the future so filthy that they HAD to throw their clothes away? Didn't people get that all those tossed-out clothes still had to go somewhere??
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