America Sings
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| America Sings | |
 |
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| Disneyland | |
| Land | Tomorrowland |
| Designer | WED Enterprises |
| Attraction type | Rotating Theater |
| Theme | American Musical History |
| Opening date | June 29, 1974 |
| Closing date | April 10, 1988 |
| Hosted by | Eagle Sam (Burl Ives); Owl (Sam Edwards) |
| Music | Panorama of American music by Norman "Buddy" Baker |
| Audio-animatronics | 115 |
| Required Ticket | E (briefly reclassified as D) |
| Replaced | Carousel of Progress |
| Replaced by | Innoventions |
| Sponsored by | Del Monte |
America Sings was a show at Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of Audio-Animatronic animals that entertained the audience by singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashion.
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[edit] The show
The show's M.C.'s were an American bald eagle named Sam (voiced by Burl Ives) and an unnamed owl rumored to be named Ollie (voiced by Sam Edwards). The image of Eagle Sam, was designed by Disney animator Marc Davis, and is completely separate from The Games of the XXIII Olympiad held in 1984 in Los Angeles, California and preceded those Olympics by over ten years, though sometimes confused for the Sam the Olympic Eagle character designed specifically for those games by C. Robert Moore, also employed by the Walt Disney Company.
The show was comparable to Disneyland's Country Bear Jamboree, in that it featured a singing cast of audio-animatronics. The audience seats rotated around the stage mechanically within Carousel Theater, a building with most of the outer lower level of the building rotating. It rotated counter-clockwise, unlike its predecessor, the Carousel of Progress, which used the same system and went clockwise. The attraction was located in Tomorrowland. The characters were designed by Marc Davis. The show opened for the United States Bicentennial.
[edit] The Songs
Norman "Buddy" Baker arranged a selection of songs chosen to represent a panorama of American music.[1]
In between each act, as the theater rotated, Sam and Ollie sang about the next era the audience was about to enter, along with a reduxed chorus of "Yankee Doodle".
Intro:
- Yankee Doodle - Eagle Sam
- Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair - Eagle Sam
- Pop Goes the Weasel - Ollie and the weasel
Act 1 - The Deep South:
- Dixie \ L'il Liza Jane \ Camptown Races - Geese Quartet
- My Old Kentucky Home - Colonel Houndstoothe (Bassett hound in rocking chair)
- Polly Wolly Doodle - The Swamp Boys (gator trio, frogs and harmonica-playing raccoon)
- Single Girl - Mother Possum
- The Birmingham Jail - Coyote
- Down By The Riverside - Hens, Foxes, Swamp Boy Frogs
Act 2 - Headin' West:
- Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill \ I've Been Working on the Railroad \ Fireball Mail - Geese Quartet
- The Old Chisholm Trail - Saddlesore Swanson
- Who Shot That Hole in My Sombrero? - Sombrero-wearing dog
- Billy, the Bad Guy - The Boothill Boys (vulture duo)
- Home on the Range - Tex Ranger (dog)
Act 3 - The Gay (18)90's:
- She May Be Somebody's Mother \ The Bowery \ After the Ball is Over - Geese Quartet
- Where is my Wandering Boy Tonight? - Geese Quartet & Mother Rabbit
- Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey - Showgirl Pig
- Sweet Adeline - Blossom-Nose Murphy (goose) & Geese Quartet
- The Old Grey Mare - The Old Gray Mare & Geese Quartet
- Bird in a Gilded Cage - Bird in a Gilded Cage and Fox
- Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay - Storks, Geese Quartets (male and female), Pig, Bird in a Gilded Cage and Fox
Act 4 - Modern Times:
- Ja-Da \ At the Darktown Strutters' Ball \ Singin' in the Rain - Geese Quartet
- A-Tisket, A-Tasket \ Boo-Hoo - College Quartet (male wolf, male fox and two female cats)
- Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Bar - Piano Pig
- Hound Dog \ See You Later Alligator - Rooster, Stork, Porcupine, Hound Dog and Alligator
- Shake, Rattle and Roll - Rooster and Frog
- Twistin' U.S.A. - Motorcycle storks
- Joy to the World - Modern Times cast (except Piano Pig and College Quartet)
Epilogue:
- Yankee Doodle (reprise) - Eagle Sam
- Auld Lang Syne - Sam and Ollie
- Exit Music: Stars and Stripes Forever
[edit] The death of Deborah Gail Stone
On July 18, 1974, just three weeks after the attraction opened, Disneyland cast member Deborah Gail Stone was killed when she was crushed between the building's rotating wall and a stationary wall. Stone approached too close to the area between the rotating wall and the non-moving stage wall and was caught between them. The Attraction was stopped when guests in the adjacent theater heard her screams.
Afterwards, America Sings was closed for two days while safety lights were installed, and for one year, management closed the theater in which Deborah was killed. Eventually, the walls were remodeled so that they would breakaway if a similar incident occurred.
See Incidents at Disney parks for more information.
[edit] Closure
After the Bicentennial, the show faded in popularity until sometimes only fifty park guests were seated for each performance. America Sings closed in 1988. It didn't help that the show's sponsor, Del Monte pulled out before the attraction closed. The Carousel Theater sat empty and motionless for ten years. During this time, the theater still looked the same, and a large sign was put up in front of the building that showed Sorcerer Mickey and text that read: "Sorry, we're closed. We're imagineering a brand new attraction." For these many years, guests have always wondered what the new attraction was going to be. For a few years, during the planned 'Disney Decade' started by Michael Eisner, a new audio-animatronic show called Plectu's Fantastic Intergalactic Revue was to open. It would have been an outer-space musical-variety revue featuring a troupe of Audio-Animatronics itinerant alien musicians whose spaceship has landed in Tomorrowland. However, the idea, which was part of the original 'Tomorrowland 2055' plan, eventually was scrapped due to budget.
America Sings was finally replaced by Innoventions, a version of the Epcot attraction of the same name, in 1998. Most of the Audio-Animatronic animals were moved to Disneyland's Splash Mountain log flume, which opened on Disneyland's 34th anniversary on July 17, 1989. Two goose Audio-Animatronics were taken out before America Sings even closed. In 1986, they had their "skin" removed, which left only a robotic skeleton, and had their heads replaced, and were used as two talkative G2 droids in the queue to Star Tours, which would open in early 1987.[citation needed] The rock and roll stork in the finale is now used by Imagineers for training new Animatronics programmers, acting as a final exam of sorts. The remainder of the show's Audio-Animatronics were recycled.
[edit] References
- ^ Guide to the Norman "Buddy" Baker Collection. Fales Library and Special Collections. New York University Libraries (2006). Retrieved on 7 February, 2007.
