America Sings:
Friday, July 4, 2008
America Sings opened in 1974 after replacing the Carousel of Progress after that latter show moved to the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1973. America Sings used the same Carousel Theater that its predecessor vacated, with its outer ring of six theaters, all connected by divider walls, revolving mechanically about every four minutes around the six fixed stages in the center of the building. Unlike Disneyland's Carousel of Progress, which rotated clockwise, America Sings went counter-clockwise.
America Sings was comparable to Disneyland's Country Bear Jamboree, in that it featured a singing cast of audio-animatronics. The show's Masters of Ceremony 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, as were the other characters. Eagle Sam is completely separate from the Sam the Olympic Eagle character designed a decade later by C. Robert Moore (also a Disney employee) for the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984.
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 the owl 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 with the lights blacked out, Sam sang about the next era the audience was about to enter, reprising the chorus of "Yankee Doodle".
The characters in America Sings were patterned after the characters from the concept art for an animated movie called Chanticleer, that Walt Disney scrapped back in the 1960's.~Wikipedia
I always enjoyed America Sings, growing up we would visit Disneyland in the Summer so it was always a good place to sit a take a half hour break from the heat. The new inovations attraction there probaly did not hit home as much as America Sings but the concept of the revolving theater is definately a great idea. The folks from America Sings found a new home though and probaly why it's another of my favorites. Splash Mountain is now the new home for the critters in apropiately named Critter Country.
America Sings was comparable to Disneyland's Country Bear Jamboree, in that it featured a singing cast of audio-animatronics. The show's Masters of Ceremony 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, as were the other characters. Eagle Sam is completely separate from the Sam the Olympic Eagle character designed a decade later by C. Robert Moore (also a Disney employee) for the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984.
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 the owl 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 with the lights blacked out, Sam sang about the next era the audience was about to enter, reprising the chorus of "Yankee Doodle".
The characters in America Sings were patterned after the characters from the concept art for an animated movie called Chanticleer, that Walt Disney scrapped back in the 1960's.~Wikipedia
I always enjoyed America Sings, growing up we would visit Disneyland in the Summer so it was always a good place to sit a take a half hour break from the heat. The new inovations attraction there probaly did not hit home as much as America Sings but the concept of the revolving theater is definately a great idea. The folks from America Sings found a new home though and probaly why it's another of my favorites. Splash Mountain is now the new home for the critters in apropiately named Critter Country.
