Let's go through a little history that's pretty important to a lot of this list. If you already know all this, go ahead and scroll by.
In 1964, a bunch of New York businessmen, nostalgic for their memories of 1939, and wanting an economic boon to their city, organized a World's Fair to be held at Flushing Meadows in Queens. Knowing they would need big tourism draws to make the fair financially viable, they turned to one Walter Elias Disney and his team from WED Enterprises. The group had fairly recently opened a park in Anaheim, California, full of themed lands with imaginative use of ride systems and technology. What brought people to Disneyland, the organizers hoped could bring people to the World's Fair.
For Walt and WED, designing for the World's Fair presented a great opportunity to design bigger concepts for the future of their parks, as well as testing the appetite of those on the east coast for the idea of Disney themed design.
The WED team backed off on making new stuff for Disneyland so they could focus on the 1964 New York World's Fair, and created four attractions for the event. All of them are tremendously important to what Disney theme parks have become.
For the Ford Motor Company pavilion, WED created the Ford Magic Skyway. A brand-new ride system was designed where the vehicles -- Ford cars in this case -- would be continuosly loading to maximize capacity. The concept would inspire two ride systems that will show up later. Massive animated dinosaur figures were also created for the Skyway, and can still be seen (obviously) on the Disneyland Railroad today, while a moment where the cars leave the pavilion to travel overhead would one day be used in World of Motion at EPCOT, followed by Test Track.
For the UNICEF pavilion, sponsored by Pepsi, the legendary Mary Blair led the art direction for "it's a small world," where thousands of children from countries across the world shared their connection. To tour the continents, WED perfected a pump-driven boat ride that again was an absolute people eater, and will also be seen a few times on this list.
For the Illinois Pavilion, Walt and WED unveiled perhaps their crowning achievement: Audio Animatronic technology. In Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Guests were amazed by a life-like recreation of Abraham Lincoln standing and delivering a speech. It was not the first example of AA tech (that comes later!), but it was the first human example, and would radically level-up the Disney attraction game.
Finally, we reach our highlighted subject matter. For the Progressland pavilion, sponsored by General Electric, WED took that Lincoln technology, and created an entire family out of it. Four times.
The Carousel of Progress was the world's first show featuring multiple animatronic performers on stage together. A story could be told on repeat, all day, without need for human actors working an impossible schedule; practicality of use met amazement of technology.
The story of the Carousel served, essentially, as an advertisement for how GE had made American life better, and how it would soon make it better than ever. Guests visited a family at the turn of the 20th century, the 1920s, the 1940s, and the immediate future, seeing how simple home technology we now took for granted had progressed, and where it would be going soon thanks to GE.
In the 00s, mother brags about her new wash day marvel that gets the laundry done in a day. In the 20s, the first hints of electric lights blow out the fuse in the whole neighborhood. In the 40s, grandma can watch a grainy wrestling match on the television. Finally in the 1960s, the family told you about how much better everything is now thanks to GE.
To take you from scene to scene, Richard and Robert Sherman wrote one of the most iconic songs in the Disney pantheon. Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow is upbeat, positive, optimistic, it summarized perfectly the concept of the future Progressland was trying to convey: better living soon through technology.
Back to that efficiency and throughput concept from the other attractions, that was an important part of the Carousel's design, as well. Disneyland had become a wild success, and WED had made it a priority to look for ways to create attractions that would carry more guests per hour than their Fantasyland dark rides were doing. For Carousel of Progress, WED legends Bob Gurr and Roger Broggie designed a theater show that could cycle through literally thousands of people in an our through a rotating concept.
Progressland contained six identical theaters, and each of the scenes was the same length. Once guests were loaded, the show would rotate to the 1900s, and while the previously-loaded guests watched, the next group would be loading. The show could go on and on all day, without any need to empty and reload the entire building, and without anyone needing to plan around show times. The rotating pie concept for the attraction was huge for maximizing experience, and the same idea has still had an influence on more recent designs taking you 0.5 past lightspeed.
The Carousel of Progress was a success, and it was important. It showed of a new way of populating a stage, and a new way of getting people to that stage. Further, its idea of the hope and optimism of technology making recognizable improvements to daily life fit perfectly with what Walt was trying to do in Tomorrowland back in Anaheim. Thus, the show has stuck around frequently now referred to as the long running stage presentation in history.
Picking the date for the attraction was hard for this blog, though. Because of the Carousel's success, the whole thing was packed up and moved to Disneyland, where it remained for several years as an anchor convincing guests to believe in the promise of Tomorrowland. That, of course, is Disneyland, though, and this is a Walt Disney World retrospective.
When the Carousel closed, it was too important an attraction to stay closed, so it was again packed up and moved, in 1975, to the Magic Kingdom, where it has remained ever since. That could be a good date to go with, but there are a couple small issues. First, this is when the show started to severely deviate from the original. The immediate 1960s were no longer the future to be excited about, so they began updating the finale of the show to try and be the near future, creating longer and longer gaps between the 1940s and the the last scene.
Second, the iconic song was replaced, and that's simply not the version of the attraction that is going to make this list. Best Time of Your Life is actually a very good song, but it is not the song.
We discussed a little bit about the amazing 1994 overhaul of Tomorrowland when we talked about The Timekeeper, and that ended up being a great opportunity to revitalize the Carousel of Progress, taking it back to the Sherman Brothers' song, and making one more change to the finale, this time representing the early 2000s. At this point, GE was also no longer a part of the show.
That 1994 refurb is the version of the attraction we're looking for here. The Carousel is like something of a museum now. The name now includes Walt Disney, and the introduction talks about the history of the show itself. The technology is no longer exciting, the promise of the future has become quaint, it is in no way thrilling, and it doesn't even necessarily fit in Tomorrowland anymore.
All of that said, it is one of the most important attractions ever built, for its place in the legacy from the World's Fair, and for its advancement of Audio Animatronics which will be so important to this list. While we sit amused on a tour of how home technology changed in the increasingly-distant past, we are also treated to a meaningful artifact in the development of theme parks as we know them.
Which is not to say Carousel of Progress is only here because of its importance and influence. The warmth, charm, and optimism still shines through today. Whether you enjoy it ironically or sincerely, the show remains delightful, its theme song remains catchy, and its ride tech means everyone who wants to revisit it can do so in a timely manner.
Nearly 70 years ago, people lined up for hours to see it. For a time, it was maybe unappreciated, but many of us now see it for what it created and what it is. Now that's progress, and speaking of progress. . .
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