America Sings opened at Disneyland on June 29, 1974, replacing the General Electric-sponsored Tomorrowland attraction Carousel of Progress, which had moved to the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1973. America Sings used the same Carousel Theater as its predecessor. The building had an outer ring of six theaters, connected by divider walls, that revolved mechanically about every four minutes around the six fixed stages in the center of the building.
Unlike Carousel of Progress, which rotated clockwise, America Sings rotated in a counterclockwise direction. Also, unlike Carousel of Progress, America Sings only used the lower level of the Carousel Theater. The upper level was eventually used to house the SuperSpeed Tunnel in 1977 (which later became themed to the Game Grid from the 1982 film Tron) that the PeopleMover transportation attraction passed through.
Like the Carousel of Progress, the first and the last scenes of America Sings involved the loading and unloading of guests, while the other four scenes, or "acts," depicted a particular era. However, the identical load and unload theaters each featured a small curtained gazebo with a backdrop showing a park. The curtains would open to reveal Sam and Ollie standing on a two-level podium, with Sam standing on the higher level, introducing or closing the show.
Between each act, as the theater rotated, the lights blacked out, and the theater illuminated with flashing stars; during the rotations, Sam sang about the next era the audience was about to enter, reprising the chorus of "Yankee Doodle".[3]
Also, at some point in each act, the Weasel would suddenly appear on the scene and say, "Pop, Goes the Weasel!" for a total of five times. At the end of the show he said, "Goodbye, Goes the Weasel!"
The characters in America Sings were patterned after characters from the concept art for an animated movie called Chanticleer that Walt Disney cancelled in the 1960s.[citation needed]
On July 8, 1974, nine days after the attraction opened, an 18-year-old hostess named Deborah Gail Stone was accidentally crushed to death between two walls of the building at 10:37 p.m. A narrow channel that provided the show's movement between an inside stage stationary wall and the rotating wall was open and Stone either fell, stepped backwards, got down there, or attempted to jump from one stage to the other as the rotating wall began to move (it moved every 2 to 4 minutes, which was how long each act was). Her death was pronounced at 11:00 p.m., when the carousel was being reset for a new cycle. One of the audience members heard Stone's screams and notified park staff. Others thought it was a part of the show. By the time the audience member and the staff got to her, the teenager had already died from her injuries. Stone's parents sued Disneyland for the death of their daughter, which resulted in a small settlement.[4][5]
Following Stone's death, the attraction was closed down, remaining closed while Disney installed warning lights and had the area where the incident occurred cleaned. Later, the walls in the theater were remodeled so that they would break away in case a similar accident happened. The attraction reopened on July 11, three days after the incident.
Closure
America Sings was created out of the company's desire to celebrate the United States Bicentennial. It did not fit the theme of Tomorrowland, but its relevance to that period in the United States made it appropriate. However, once the Bicentennial was over, the attraction became more misplaced. Disney's Imagineering team began developing new ideas for Tomorrowland, that included a new show in the carousel theater more fitting for the land of the future. Separately, in the summer of 1983, the idea for a log flume attraction for Disneyland that would become Splash Mountain was conceived by Imagineer and Disney LegendTony Baxter.[6] Knowing America Sings was eventually to close, the idea developed to move most of America Sings' Audio-Animatronics figures into Splash Mountain.
Two Audio-Animatronics geese were taken out of the attraction. Their outer "skin" was removed, leaving the robotic skeletons. Their heads were then replaced, and they were used as the G2 droids in the queue of Star Tours, which opened in January 1987.[7] As a result, the geese quartets in Acts 1 and 2 became trios until America Sings closed on April 10, 1988.
Within days of the closure of America Sings, crews began to move most of the Audio-Animatronics figures to Splash Mountain, which opened in July 1989 and closed in May 2023.[8] After the closure of Splash Mountain, many of the Audio-Animatronics figures were reportedly preserved by the Walt Disney Archives.[9]
The Carousel Theater was used as office space for ten years. During this time, the carousel theater's external appearance was unchanged, and the upper level continued to house the Tron tunnel for the PeopleMover until that attraction ceased to operate in 1995. A sign in front of the building read: "Sorry, we're closed to imagineer a brand new attraction." However, the building was not touched for nearly a decade.
From its closure until 1996, the inside of the lower level of the Carousel Theater was used for storage and office space, leaving remnants of sets and backdrops as well as the theater seats. America Sings was replaced in 1998 by Innoventions, a version of the Epcot attraction of the same name, as part of the Tomorrowland update of that year. The building was then redesigned and reopened in 2015 as the Tomorrowland Expo Center, hosting the Star Wars Launch Bay.[10]
^Strodder, Chris (2017). The Disneyland Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). Santa Monica Press. p. 51. ISBN978-1595800909.
^Gennawey, Sam (2014). The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney's Dream. Keen Communications. pp. 264–265. ISBN978-1-62809-012-3.
^Stibbs, Patrick (16 June 2004). "Remembering Deborah". City News. The City Weekly. Omaha, Nebraska: 33–35. Retrieved 11 August 2024 – via Vintage Disneyland Tickets.
