June 29 - America Sings

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On this day, in 1974, Disneyland’s salute to the United States’ 200^th birthday, America Sings, opened in Tomorrowland. As Bicentennial Fever began sweeping the nation in the early Seventies, Disneyland naturally wanted to get in on the action. It was decided to create a new show to go in the space occupied by the Carousel of Progress. That classic show, one of the holdovers from the 1964 World’s Fair, was packed up and, in 1973, relocated to the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, where it still runs today. Imagineers, led by the Legendary Marc Davis, then got to work on an all new attraction.

America Sings was structured similar to Carousel of Progress (kind of a necessity since it used the same space). A total of six theatres rotated around a central cluster of stages, each theater moving to the next stage every four minutes. Guests entered the show in stage one, saw a brief introduction, rotated through four eras of American musical history, then saw a brief conclusion and exited from stage six. For the show’s narrators, Marc created Eagle Sam, voiced by Burl Ives, and Ollie Owl, voiced by Sam Edwards. While Eagle Sam is sometimes referred to as Sam the Eagle, he shouldn’t be confused with our Muppet friend of the same name or the 1984 Olympic Mascot, Sam the Olympic Eagle; those are three distinct characters. In a nod to taking over Carousel’s space, Rex Allen, who played the narrator of Carousel, has a small part in America Sings as Sombrero, a dog.

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On a tragic note, America Sings was responsible for the death of a cast member shortly after it opened. On July 8, 1974, just nine days after its debut, Deborah Stone was caught between the stationary outer wall of the attraction and one of the inner moving walls. The 18 year old was crushed to death but her body wasn't discovered for nearly twenty minutes. Guests had actually heard her screams but thought it was part of the show. As a result of the accident, America Sings was closed for three days while safety lights were installed and the moving walls were redesigned to include breakaway panels. Thankfully, no further incidents were recorded.

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It might seem ridiculously out of place to plunk a historical show down in Tomorrowland, but Bicentennial Fever was a powerful thing in the mid Seventies and no one really minded. Until after the reasonable time that bicentennial celebrations could go on, of course. By the early Eighties, America Sings not only didn’t fit into a land that claimed to have its eyes set on the future, but it was getting long in the tooth as a concept as well. The show persisted almost to the end of the decade, however. In 1986, it was slight victim of recycling when two geese Audio-Animatronics were removed, stripped of their skin and installed as baggage droids in the queue of Star Tours. The rest of America Sings kept on singing until April 10, 1988. At that point, most of the remaining 113 Audio-Animatronic figures found a new home in Splash Mountain, which opened the following year. The Stork figure from the show’s finale is used as a training tool to teach and test new Imagineers on how to program Animatronics.

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Plans were made to install a third show in the rotating theaters and a “coming soon” sign was placed in front of the attraction. That sign stood there for almost ten years, as the remaining sets of America Sings slowly deteriorated and the building was used as office and storage space, the new attraction a victim of Euro Disneyland’s financial shortcomings. Finally, in 1998, the building was completely renovated and became Innoventions, Disneyland’s version of the Epcot area. In 2015, the space was further updated and became the West Coast’s Star Wars Launch Bay, a walkthrough attraction highlighting all things Star Wars related.

November 12 - Song of the South

On this day, in 1946, Song of the South had it's world debut in Atlanta, Georgia. Controversial from its very opening, Song hasn't been officially seen in the United States for over thirty years now.

Walt had wanted to make a movie based on the stories of Joel Chandler Harris long before he started trying to get the rights to them. Even after he did secure the rights, he faced an uphill battle within the studio itself. Some people didn't think there was enough story to warrant the budget it would take, but most employees who raised objections did so along racial lines. Walt was well aware of the minefield he was steering into and but was a bit too overly committed to making the movie to not go full speed ahead anyways.

It was decided that Song would be a mixture of live action and animation, which certainly helped with the budget issues. When an ad was placed in the local newspapers for voice actors, James Baskett applied and was initially cast as a butterfly. Walt was intrigued with James' voice, asked to meet him and immediately wanted to test him for the film's lead. James passed the test and was cast as Uncle Remus and the voice of Br'er Fox (he got to remain in the role of the butterfly as well). Walt was so enamored with James' performance, he campaigned for an Oscar. His wish would be granted. James was awarded a special Academy Award for his virtuoso turn as Uncle Remus. Part of the film's controversy is of course the fact that it had to be a special award instead of a Best Actor award, but that's such a small part it's hardly worth mentioning. Ditto the fact that James didn't attend the premier because Atlanta was a severely segregated city at the time.

The biggest bone of contention with Song of the South is "confusion" over when the story takes place. While Disney has always maintained that the film takes place in the 1870s, and if you are a fashion expert the costumes apparently bear that out, the time is never mentioned in the film. Most viewers are going to assume that the story takes place pre-Civil War. The Hays Office had asked that the book at the beginning of the film clearly show the year of the action, but that, unfortunately never happened. As a result, the usual Disney sanitizing of locations and eras makes it look like the slaves on the plantation were just pleased as punch to be there. It was a notion that didn't really fly in 1946 (there were protests of the film even back then) and definitely doesn't fly now. Song wasn't helped by the fact that, as one reviewer put it, there wasn't enough charm to overcome the cliches.

Song's saving graces (doe's it have any, you might ask and the answer is yes, a couple) are the animated sequences and the songs. "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" has become a classic and also won the Oscar for Best Song. The animated bits and the characters of Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Bear and Br'er Fox have been seen on television numerous times and quite frequently in the parks. The attraction Splash Mountain is based on the Tar Baby and Laughing Place sequences (although you obviously won't see any mention of a tar baby anywhere in it). Most American kids don't have a clue that the Br'er characters come from a movie, not a log flume ride.

That wasn't always the case. Song of the South was re-released in theaters several times successfully, grossing over 65 million dollars total. The last time was in 1986 for the film's 40th anniversary. It's never been released on home video in the US but has appeared in Japan and most of Europe. Song has also been shown on the BBC as recently as 2006. Every once in a while, Disney will make some sort of announcement about it, but don't hold your breath that it will appear in the US any time soon. I personally have never seen the whole movie (even though it wouldn't be hard to as several bootlegs exist various places online), but from what I understand, I'm really not missing much. The plot hasn't aged well at all and wasn't terribly exciting to begin with.

November 6 - Bruce Gordon

On this day, in 2007, Imagineer Bruce Gordon passed away in Glendale, California. Born on April 18, 1951 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Bruce did most of his growing up in Palo Alto, California. He went to Disneyland with his family shortly after it opened in 1955 and was hooked on all things Disney for life. So hooked, he would spend his teen years building models of his favorite attractions in his parents garage. A hobby that paid off in the early 1980s, when Bruce landed a job with the Walt Disney Company.

One of the first projects Bruce had with the company was as (surprise!) a prop builder for the Journey Into Imagination attraction at Epcot. Another long time Imagineer, Tony Baxter, first met Bruce on that project and immediately bonded with him. Years later, Tony would call their partnership nearly perfect as Tony "was an idea guy and Bruce could turn ideas into reality."

Bruce would integral to turning the idea of Splash Mountain into reality, earning himself a show producer credit on that attraction. He would also produce the show for the renovation of Fantasyland, the building of the Winnie the Pooh ride, and the creation Tarzan's Treehouse and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. On top of all that, Bruce also has a show writer credit for Star Tours.

Bruce's side hobby of sorts was writing books about Disney. His most famous book is a 4.5 pound tome titled Disneyland: The Nickel Tour. It's a history of Disneyland told through picture postcards from the park with unique stories about each one. The company declined to print it because they felt it would be too expensive to bother, so Bruce and his co-author, fellow Imagineer David Mumford, self-published it. That was a good move as it made it through a third printing. Bruce also wrote The Art of Disneyland, The Art of Walt Disney World, Disneyland: Then, Now and Forever and Walt Disney World: Then, Now and Forever.

Near the end of his life, Bruce had actually left Walt Disney Imagineering to work on another project. Walt's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, had personally asked him to help with the creation of the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California. She was impressed with Bruce's ability to see her father as a man, rather than a brand. Sadly, Bruce would suddenly pass away before the museum was opened, but not before he had a major influence on the look and feel of it. He was only 56 years old.