The “Magic Highway” episode of the Disneyland TV series, that aired on this day in 1958, steered viewers through the history of America’s highways, transporting them from the earliest days to the highways and vehicles of the future. The animated segment about the future takes an optimistic look at many possibilities for the highways, from color-coded highway lanes to radiant heat to keep them protected from ice, rain, or snow. Even fog might be eliminated by dispelling devices. While most of these ideas never came to fruition, at least one is just beginning to drive into our lives, a video monitor which acts as a rear view mirror. Four decades later, the Rocket Rods attraction at Disneyland looked as though it might have been a vehicle out of Magic Highways, so it was appropriate that Disney got more mileage out of the program by using clips from the television in the queue for the attraction.
