A ride for all seasons

Image: Sam Howzit, Flickr (license)

That was the moment when the innovation of Disney engineers stood out. Their cunning plan was to create six phases to the ride. The first and last sections would involve moving people in an orderly fashion. In order to do this, they developed the technology to rotate the chairs at fixed intervals. Every four minutes, viewers would automatically turn to a new stage, affording Disney the ability to tell multiple stories with different AAs and set pieces in the same general location without any concerns of crowd control. They could seat 250 people in each auditorium this way, providing a massive daily traffic throughput to boot.

To a certain extent, Progressland as designed was little more than a glorified showroom for state-of-the-art GE appliances for the 1960s. There was a more telling mechanic under the hood, though. Disney told the story starting with what passed for home appliances in the 1890s, including a hand-cranked washing machine and gas lamps. By the time the people reached the present, the modern world included conveniences such as a beautiful lighted Christmas tree, a heated patio, and a kitchen chock-full of top-of-the-line GE appliances.

Through this brand of storytelling, Walt Disney tipped his hand about what he’d like to see from future attractions, even ones that didn’t involve him in any way. The most obvious spiritual successor is Spaceship Earth, which displays the evolution of humanity over millennia. It lacks the shameless commercialism of Progressland, though. There’s also an obvious influence from Progressland in Ellen’s Energy Adventure, which celebrates the same type of scientific advancements, only without the strong ties to GE, undoubtedly because its original sponsor was ExxonMobil.

While lacking the clear hook of the other World’s Fair attractions, Progressland proved itself as one of the best mergers of art and commerce. People loved watching the AA demonstration of how far they’d come from the days of their grandparents, and they frequented it more than any of the other transparently corporate-mandated pavilions at the World’s Fair. After the exhibition ended, GE transported all the features of Progressland to Disneyland, where it became a fixture of Tomorrowland until 1973.

A little over a year later, it was introduced at Walt Disney World, where it has been a staple ever since. GE stopped sponsoring it in 1985, which has made the process of updating the attraction to keep it modern quite a bit easier for Disney. If Disney ever tried to cancel the Carousel of Progress, however, they’d face a riot. Most people know it was Walt Disney’s favorite attraction as well as the only one at Walt Disney World that he personally touched.

The favorite son of Illinois gives something back

Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)

As much as people loved and admired the Audio-Animatronics employed at Progressland, it was a recreation of a beloved American president that left people shaking their heads in awe. Walt Disney, an Illinois native, loved the history of America, especially with regards to its ideology and heroic leaders.

Soon after Disneyland opened to the public, he began internal discussions about an attraction that would highlight those principles. He intended to call it One Nation Under God, and he fittingly planned to locate it right off Main Street. The last portion of the presentation would be known as the Hall of Presidents, and he envisioned a robotic Abraham Lincoln anchoring this section. The problem with many potential Disneyland attractions in the 1950s is that time and money were limited, so some of the best ideas got pushed to the backburner.

Image: France 1978, Flickr (license)

In the case of a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, it fell behind other projects in the building queue. By the time 1962 rolled around, Walt Disney had met with Robert Moses several times. Once, he showed the World’s Fair leader his plans for the attraction. Moses demanded that this become a key part of the World’s Fair and, as mentioned above, he went out of his way to find a sponsor for it. Illinois was one of several states participating at the event, so they were a natural fit.

As a native son of the state where Abraham Lincoln gained fame, Disney felt driven to create an exhibition worthy of the 16th president, one of his personal heroes. He crafted a somewhat terrifying life-sized AA version of Lincoln, and he programmed its mouth to move in motion with audio dialogue of some of the president’s most famous speeches. He wanted people to feel as if Lincoln stood in the room with them, presenting his best known quotes for the first time.

Image: Disney

Out of the four exhibits Disney built, this one presented the greatest struggle to get working. Great Moments with Lincoln passed all the quality assurance tests before it left California. After the transfer to the East Coast, it no longer operated correctly. This led to a humiliating moment for Walt Disney.

The governor of Illinois attended a kickoff event for the Living with Lincoln pavilion. The debut of the Lincoln AA represented the highlight of this celebration. Disney himself came out on stage and said the following: There isn't going to be any show. It's true. We've worked like beavers to get it ready, but it's not ready, and I won't show a thing that might fall apart on us.” People originally thought that Disney, a born showman, was joking before they realized he was serious. With the leader of the state present, the Illinois pavilion couldn’t debut its signature attraction because Disney’s Imagineers couldn’t make it work.

On May 2, 1964, a week and a half after the start of the World’s Fair, Great Moments with Lincoln officially debuted. Finally functioning correctly, it was a hallmark achievement in the field of audio-animatronics. The Lincoln-bot was capable of roughly 250,000 movements and actions, providing a historically unprecedented level of authenticity to his motions.