Defunctland: The History of Disneyland's America Sings

America my name is Kevin burger and welcome to another edition in defunct land for background slash context on this series please visit the purge calm with the link below it's fourth of July so I thought why not celebrate with the patriotic addition to the pomp planned America sings the attraction was found at Disneyland from 1974 to 1988 this was suggested by one up gamer zippedy lady and samantha lynn so thank you and everyone else who has been commenting America sings debuted at Disneyland on June 29 to 1974 but its origins date all the way back to the 1964 World's Fair what was always excited to showcases new attractions and inventions at the World's Fair and he brought four to New York in 1964 Ford Magic Skyway great moments with mr. Lincoln it's a small world and progress land Progress land was sponsored by General Electric who wanted Disney to showcase the developments and electrical technology over the years what would achieve this by creating a show that centered around a human family portrayed by lifelike animatronics these animatronics would be placed on a stationary stage with the audience's seating rotating around them there will be six different sections a loading area four stages each focusing on a different decade of technology and an exiting area this was designed by famous Imagineers Roger e Braga and Bob Kerr Brody is actually considered the first Imagineer and by now you should know who Bob ger is the show is one of the most popular of the attractions at the fair in 1964 and was supposedly Walt's favorite attraction one that he later proclaimed would never close he made the showcase a permanent attraction at Disneyland where it opened as the carousel progress with the new Tomorrowland renovation if you remember the defunct land on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea this is the same Tomorrowland initiative that closed the 20,000 Leagues walk through exhibit the carousel progress debuted on July 2nd 1967 there were very minuscule differences between the World's Fair and Disneyland version of the carousel as the animatronics and set designs were reused General Electric remained as a sponsor and a two-story ride building was constructed the ground floor was the carousel and after guests had finished with the show they would board speed ramped taking them to the second floor here they would view a large model of Progress City a concept that would later develop into the experimental prototype community of tomorrow while the carousel progress was becoming a cult classic among returners in the early 1970s it was having difficulty attracting new this made GE suggest that the attraction be moved to the newly opened Walt Disney World Disney agreed and on September 9 to 1973 they packed up the attraction and Senate East the Progress City exhibit was dismantled and parts of it were placed on the People Mover route now found directly above stitches Great Escape the carousel progress would open a Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland with Space Mountain On January 15th 1975 but we've already hopped off of the carousels history because one year earlier a new attraction occupied the carousel Theatre in Disneyland after the move was announced imagine years got to work on opening a new attraction in this space coincidentally Disney was also looking for a way to celebrate America's Bicentennial they decided to capitalize on the vacant theater by opening America sings a stage show celebrating the history of American music while this did not at all fit with the theming of Tomorrowland the show fit nicely with the theatre's design it had a cast of animatronic characters swinging various songs similar to the country Bear Jamboree to design and look at the animatronics were based on the never made Disney film Chanticleer based on the french play Chanticleer the film which stayed in pre-production for around 20 years would have focused on a cast of barnyard animals a story three songs and concept art was created for the film but it was never made due to timing and budget issues the concept art was created by Disney legend Mark Davis some of his designs were Chanticleer would go to Disney's 1973 film Robin Hood while others would go to the animatronics of America sings Marc Davis also helped to write the show along with fellow Disney animator Albertina like the carousel progress the show was split into six sections with four acts the loading area act one the deep south act two head and west act three the gay 90's act for modern times and an exiting area the show was hosted by a patriotic Eagle named Sam and his owl friend Ollie Sam was voiced by burro lies the recognizable voice behind the snowman and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and Ollie was voiced by Sam Edwards who many would know for voicing thumper the rabbit in Bambi as guest entered salmon all we would appear on stage with Sam singing Yankee Doodle before telling Ollie in the audience the focus of the show between each act Sam would sing a different refrain of Yankee Doodle as the theater rotated to the next stage and era salmon all.we appear on all six stages the person last time are the same but the rest display them traveling throughout the era of music that is being performed also there's a weasel that pops out during each act of the show to say in a high-pitched voice so there's that the animatronics were especially impressive and lifelike especially considering that there were 115 of them and the attraction opened less than a year after the carousel closed over 40 songs were featured in the show one of the songs was who shot a hole in my sombrero which was originally sang in a Mexican accent the press thought it was so offensive that it was quickly changed to a Texas accent a recording of the show was released the year the show debuted with the original Mexican accent shut including my sombrero what everything like that was a joke from the Rancho hero days because I kiss his wife-to-be back this was also the first attraction created without the help of Walt Disney but his love for music and country were a huge inspiration for it the carousel fever was painted red white and blue and there was a sandy eagle walk around character created to promote the ride the attraction opened less than a week before the fourth of July two years before America's Bicentennial Disneyland's newest attractions a very good thing is about to start and I don't want to miss that whenever you're ready sir I'm proud to officially open to the general public Disneyland's 54th major attraction America sings Hugo is landing carousel or America [Music] less than two weeks after the attraction opened at Disneyland 18 year old cast member Deborah Gail stone was working a shift on America sings she was a hostess that would greet guests as they entered the attraction Debbie was saving up money to attend Iowa State University in the fall and on the night of July 8 1974 she called her parents saying she was in love and asking if she can marry her boyfriend by 10:30 p.m. that night the last show had began Debbie Skeeter was now empty as the final group was rotating to the next stages a yes in the next theater from Debbie's empty one thought the day had heard a scream of terror so they went to notify a cast member the cast members had apparently thought that the screams were part of the show and by the time they reached Debbie she had been crushed to death between the rotating stage wall and the stationary theater wall she was pronounced dead at 11:00 p.m. the exact way in which she ended up between the two walls is just speculation she either fell stepped back or tried to jump from one stage to the other some cast members believe that she may have been leaning her head back to attempt to talk to another host from an adjacent theatre one thing was clear America sings had a huge design flaw that the carousel progress didn't in that the theaters rotated counterclockwise instead of clockwise the direction that they rotate is important because the cast members were positioned to the left in both attractions so on the carousel progress a cast member position to the left would be rotating clockwise this means that they would either have to jump around their wall or go to the other end of the theatre to be in between two walls when they met on America sings a cast member position to the left would be rotating counterclockwise meaning that all they had to do was lean back to be in between two of the walls when they came together after the horrific incident Disney installed breakaway walls and indicator lights the attraction closed for two days for cleaning but we're opening again on July 11th supposedly and I can't find any great sources on this stones parents attempted to sue Disney but they lost in court because Debbie was not following safety instructions despite many people still believing she did nothing wrong they eventually reached a small settlement Debbie you still remembered 40 years after her death she is commonly referred to as the only cast member to diet Disneyland to add to the eeriness Alice Davis Disney legend costume designer and wife of Mark Davis claim that she'll wills who voiced saddle horse Swanson and America sings refused to enter the carousel theatre before Debbie's death because he believed that he would be straight we killed this tragedy is unfortunately what America sings is most known for the attraction unlike the carousel progress only made use of the first story the second story would become the People Mover super speed tunnel in 1977 three years after America sings debuted and after a 14 year run America sings closed down while the second story of the theater continued to house the People Mover the carousel theatre was used as office space for ten years with signs posted claiming that a new attraction was in the works this was until 1998 when interventions a popular attraction from Epcot took over the theatre interventions was a museum showcasing food for technology for a while it attempted to use the rotating mechanism of the theatre but this was eventually dropped and the building remained stationary through its later years in 2015 interventions closed down and was replaced with the Tomorrowland Expo Center which currently houses the Star Wars launch Bay the animatronics from America sings can still be found at Disneyland today in 1986 Star Tours opened which led to a member of the geese quartet getting plucked from the first and second act and taken to the galaxy far far away this transition was done by skinny me animatronic and hey look it's a droid now so in act 1 and act 2 the geese quartet became the geese trio for the rest of the show's run after America sings closed the rest of the animatronics made their way to Splash Mountain which opened one year after the show ended a majority of the America sings animatronics made it to the new attraction and if they didn't fit in with the story or theming they were just put on the show boat after the big drop the reason that this inclusion was so simple was because of Mark Davis who was not only responsible to the America sings designs but he was also an artist on song of the south which Splash Mountain is based off of so why did it close well for one Splash Mountain needed animatronics and America sings was becoming outdated quickly the main reason however is that America sings was in Tomorrowland and it didn't fit at all with the theming there was no reason to keep the show in the land especially 12 years after the event that it was designed that said many people fondly remember the patriotic show and to this day whether it be from the on ride footage or the soundtrack fans still join in with the hurtful melodies of America sings yes folks Yankee Doodle remembers whim to make these songs ring true people came from every land to mix these tunes for you so we should all remember as history moves along that everything is better now for someone notice all Yankee Doodle singing oh yeah googled and they find the music and the words and with the song he handed goodbye so that is the history of America sings at Disneyland I urge everyone in the comments section to stay tasteful win or refrain from discussing Debbie's death while researching it I saw some pretty awful discussion threads and I don't want that to happen here in the description there's a link to a yester land article and an imaginary Disney article that have some great photos and additional information also there are a couple links to a few podcasts that I've recently been featured on so check those out as well happy 4th of July thank you for watching and don't forget to comment share and subscribe

Channel: Defunctland

Views: 851,153

Rating: 4.935832 out of 5

Keywords: defunctland, kevin perjurer, theme park, extinct, abandoned, defunct, history, disney, disneyland, disney world, previous, attractions, on ride, lights on, america sings, disney death, death, carousel of progress, sam the eagle, debbie stone, deborah stone, explanation, explained, 4th, fourth of july, independence day, happy, america, united states

Id: en6War0pFs0

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 04 2017