Main Street Electrical Parade

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Main Street Electrical Parade
Disneyland
Opening date June 17, 1972
Closing date November 25, 1996
Sponsored by Energizer (1985), General Electric (1996)
Magic Kingdom
Opening date June 11, 1977
Closing date April 1, 2001
Note The parade closed September 14, 1991 and reopened May 28, 1999
Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade
Tokyo Disneyland
Opening date March 9, 1985
Closing date June 21, 2001
Sponsored by Unisys
Disneyland Park (Paris)
Opening date April 12, 1992
Closing date March 23, 2003
Sponsored by Philips (1992 - 2002)
Disney's Electrical Parade
Disney's Electrical Parade at Disney's California Adventure.
Disney's California Adventure
Opening date July 3, 2001
Sponsored by Sylvania

The Main Street Electrical Parade is a regularly-scheduled parade, created by Bob Jani, famous for its long run at Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort most summers between 1972-1974, 1977-1982, and 1985-1996. It features floats and live performers covered in thousands of electronically-controlled lights and a synchronized soundtrack triggered by radio control along key areas of the parade route. The parade was also spun-off many other versions that ran or continue to run at Disney parks around the world.

Contents

[edit] Origin

The predecessor to the Main Street Electrical Parade is the Electrical Water Pageant, a show made up of seven 25-foot (7.6 m) tall screens with electrical lights placed on them. The screens are placed on a string of seven barges that travel around the Seven Seas Lagoon in front of the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, beginning at 9 p.m. at Disney's Polynesian Resort or immediately after the fireworks if they are scheduled for 9 p.m. The Electrical Water Pageant still shows today. The Electrical Water Pageant has been showing since October 26, 1971, just weeks after the Walt Disney World Resort opened.

The Main Street Electrical Parade had counterparts of the same name and layout at the Magic Kingdom which ran from 1977 to 1991 when it was replaced by a similar parade called SpectroMagic. From 1999 to 2001, the original Disneyland parade also appeared at the Magic Kingdom before returning to Disneyland for the final run. In 1992, the parade from the Magic Kingdom went to Disneyland Paris and ran from 1992 to 2003, when it was replaced by Fantillusion, a nighttime parade from Tokyo Disneyland that had earlier replaced the Tokyo version of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Tokyo Disneyland's current night parade, Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights was a return to the style of the original updated with new music and floats.

In 1972, when the Main Street Electrical Parade debuted, the engineers who helped create the parade also created the first show-control program in existence. This allowed the 2000-foot long parade route to contain multiple radio-activated "trigger zones." Using radio-activated triggers as each float entered a zone, the audience would hear float-specific music through the Disneyland audio system. Each zone was between 70-100 feet long, and the zoned system meant that every person watching the parade would experience the same show, no matter where they stood along the parade route. [1] Until 1977, almost all of the floats were 2D and had to be pulled or pushed along the parade route. The Blue Fairy float was the only 3D float, and ran until closing. A 3D "Chinese Dragon" float was added later on.

Main Street Electrical Parade 1995
Main Street Electrical Parade 1995

After the parade closed, light bulbs certified as having been part of the show were sold to collectors. The replacement show, Light Magic, opened in 1997 and was an immediate failure. Disney quickly cancelled Light Magic but held off on bringing back the popular Electrical Parade. The parade was refurbished and appeared at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in May of 1999 for a limited engagement. The parade ended its run in Magic Kingdom on April 1, 2001. The floats were sent back to California for the parade's return to Disneyland. These plans changed after Team Disney Anaheim saw the poor attendance figures for the spring break season at Disney's California Adventure and feared the park would fail to attract large crowds during the crucial summer season, unless they had a big draw. So on April 25, 2001, Disney announced the popular parade would be coming to California Adventure on July 2, "in honor of the first summer of Disney's California Adventure". That first summer has lasted almost seven years now. The name was changed from Main Street Electrical Parade to Disney's Electrical Parade. Most of the 1996 parade floats returned, except for the Pinocchio Pleasure Island section and Snow White diamond mine float, which were sent to Parc Disneyland at Disneyland Resort Paris in 1997. The parade has been offered during summer periods and selected weekends. It finished a nine-month hiatus during the 2005 off-season at the Disneyland Resort, which allowed replacement of lights on all of the floats and alteration of wording on the drum to, "Disney's Electrical Parade, Presented by Sylvania". Currently the parade runs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and will continue daily once the summer season starts.

[edit] Music

The Main Street Electrical Parade's underlying theme song is entitled "Baroque Hoedown." The original version was created in 1967 by early synthesizer pioneers Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley. Originally, the parade's soundtrack had the same themes as the current recording, but was a different arrangement by Jim Christensen and Paul Beaver. In 1977, it was updated and arranged by electronic music artist Don Dorsey and Jack Wagner at Jack Wagner Studio, which is still used today. A remix created for Dream Lights is still used in the Tokyo parade.

The soundtrack to the parade has been released numerous times, here are a few releases that contain the multiple versions of the parade:

Don Dorsey used the following synthesizers to create the soundtrack: Moog Model III, Mini-Moog, Steiner-Parker Synthacon, Oberheim 8-voice, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Fender Rhodes Piano, New England Digital Synclavier II, Bode 7702 Vocoder, Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter, Yamaha DX7 and Yamaha TX7.

Jack Wagner was the voice that was synthesized for the intro and outro to the parade, until Don Dorsey took over after Wagner passed away in 1995, as noted by Dorsey in a documentary about the parade: "From One Lightbulb To Another".

[edit] Remixes, samples and parodies

  • In Japan, Walt Disney Records released a CD called DJ Digs Main Street Electrical Parade which featured the theme music remixed by Japanese DJs.
  • In 1998, a Disney Tribute Album entitled We Love Mickey ~Happy 70th Anniversary (Walt Disney Records), featuring covers of Disney songs by Japanese artists, included a remake by The Eccentric Opera. The track uses samples from Dorsey's arrangement and Snow White. Lyrics are from from an unknown source.
  • A slightly remixed version was heard in the Main Street Electrical Parade's replacement Light Magic. Light Magic ran for one summer, never to return again.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The drive vehicles for the smaller units have four wheels and are called "whirlybugs". When they spin, the front and back wheels turn sideways while the side wheels stay straight.
  • The lighted costumes that parade performers wear cost about five to six thousand dollars to make, many lights and fabrics were imported from France.
  • If a parade float breaks down, a small tractor is used to pull the float to the end of the route.
  • During its run at Disneyland, the parade was put on hold so two other parades could be shown. America on Parade was shown from 1975 through 1976, and Flights of Fantasy Parade was shown from 1983 through 1984.
  • A new version of the Electric Parade was being worked on for debut in the year 2000, but the project was cancelled for unknown reasons.
  • The Walt Disney World version of MSEP served as the halftime entertainment for the 1978 Orange Bowl.

[edit] Show facts

[edit] Main Street Electrical Parade

Units

  • Blue Fairy
  • Casey Jr. Circus Engine
  • Alice in Wonderland
    • Mushroom with Butterfly and Ladybug
    • Snails
    • Mushroom with Alice and Cheshire Cat
    • Fireflys
    • Mushroom with The Caterpillar and Frog (originally a butterfly)
    • Turtles
    • Centipede
  • Cinderella
    • Pumpkin Coach
    • Ballroom
    • Cinderella's Ball
    • Clock Tower
  • Dumbo's Circus
    • Hippo and King Leonidas Calliope
    • Four Ring Circus with Dumbo and Clown (split into two parts before 1996)
    • Bear Balancing on Barrels
    • Elephant Bathing
  • Pinocchio
    • Funhouse Face and Pleasure Island Part 1
    • Pleasure Island Part 2
    • Briny Deep
  • Peter Pan
    • Pirate Ship
    • Smee's Boat
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
    • Dwarf Mine
    • Dopey's Mine Carts
  • Sleeping Beauty Dragon (1972) (later changed to Chinese Dragon)
  • Pete's Dragon (1977 - 1996, replaced Chinese Dragon)
  • Return To Oz (1985)
  • Disneyland's 25th Anniversary (1980) (replica of Sleeping Beauty Castle)
  • Mickey Mouse's 60th Anniversary (1988)
  • It's a Small World (1972 - 1988)
  • To Honor America
  • Disney Neon Finale (1977 & 1978)
  • Fox and the Hound (1980)

[edit] Disney's Electrical Parade

Units

[edit] Main Street Electrical Parade

Units

[edit] Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade

  • Park: Tokyo Disneyland
  • Japanese Name (in Kanji): 東京ディズニーランド・エレクトリカルパレード
  • Japanese Name (in Romaji): Tokyō Dizunīrando Erekutorikaru Parēdo
  • Original Run: March 9, 1985 - June 21, 1995

Units

[edit] Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights

  • Park: Tokyo Disneyland
  • Japanese Name (in Kanji): 東京ディズニーランド・エレクトリカルパレード・ドリームライツ
  • Japanese Name (in Romaji): Tōkyō Dizunīrando Erekutorikaru Parēdo Dorīmuraitsu
  • Original Run: June 17, 2001 - Present
  • Sponsor: Nihon Unisys, Ltd.

Units

[edit] Main Street Electrical Parade

Units

[edit] New York City

  • June 14, 1997. The one presentation of the Electrical Parade outside of the Disney parks for the opening of the New Amsterdam Theater and Hercules movie. Called one day on Broadway - "The Hercules Electrical Parade". Disney arranged for the lights to be all turned off on about 8-blocks of Broadway up to the theater. all business' complied--with the exception of Warner Brothers. It was lead by a custom Hercules title unit made for this one time only use. It was shown on national television on a one hour promotional program featuring the music and making of Hercules. Rather than be run on Battery power Disney opted to run the units on Generator power. This caused a host of problems, one being The 2nd Pinocchio unit went dark before it even got on the parade route but they had no way to move the unit out of the parade. It was a good decision to let it go on as after the parade it and the dwarf mine were sent to Paris along w/ the first half of the Pleasure Island unit.
  • New units included:
    • Hercules and Pegasus (Lead parade title unit)
    • Greek Temple
    • Megara
    • Hades

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Article describing the creation of MSEP audio technology
  2. ^ Siemens 2005. "The Sylvania lighting division of Siemens will sponsor Disney-MGM Studio's holiday light show — "Osborne Family Spectacle of show Lights," as well as "Disney's Electrical Parade" and "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" at Disneyland Resort in California." http://www.sylvania.com/AboutUs/Pressxpress/Innovation/LightingNews%28US%29/USLIGHTINGNEWS0106.htm
  3. ^ Siemens 2006. "The Sylvania lighting division of Siemens will sponsor Disney-MGM Studio's holiday light show — "Osborne Family Spectacle of show Lights," as well as "Disney's Electrical Parade" and "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" at Disneyland Resort in California." http://www.sea.siemens.com/automat/GOAmerica/Archive/2006%20March.pdf
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