The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room

In Disneyland’s first decade, guests had been blown away by the “electro-mechanical” figures that populated the Jungle Cruise, the Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland, and the Submarine Voyage. But these figures were, by their nature, constrained to repetitive, mechanical motion. On a vacation, Walt picked up a souvenir mechanical bird and challenged his designers to improve upon it. WED Enterprises electrician, Lee Adams, set to work.

He couldn’t have known that his project would be remembered today as perhaps the greatest advance in theme park history.

Image: Disney

We traced the historical development and amazing technology behind Disney’s patented Audio-Animatronics figures in a standalone in-depth feature, but suffice it to say that the incredible technology is literally a pivot point in the industry’s story.

And given that a mechanical bird was Walt’s inspiration, it’s fitting that Audio-Animatronics made their introduction with 1963’s Modern Marvel: The Enchanted Tiki Room. Still a classic to this day, the amazing attraction places guests among 150 Audio-Animatronic birds, tikis, totems, and even plants that gradually come alive in a timeless tropical serenade. Each figure – controlled at the time by a personal reel of tape and vibrating reed to open and close circuits powering pneumatic valves – can blink, flap, click, and even breathe.

Image: Gorillas Don't Blog

 

Disney placed a single “barker bird” outside of the Tiki Room to entice guests inside like a carnival barker. So inconceivable was the Audio-Animatronic to audiences of the 1960s, crowds would gather to gawk at the seemingly brilliant bird, clogging the entrance to Adventureland and forcing Disney to move the macaw.

Perhaps just as memorable as the enchanted encounter with an aviary of talking birds, the attraction’s theme song “The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room,” was composed by Walt’s go-to songwriters, the Sherman Brothers.

Image: Disney

The wildly infectious, unforgettable tune remains one of the highlights of the Disney Parks’ songbook, and one of the first examples of the Sherman Brothers’ indelible impact on Disney Parks.

With the Tiki Room having taken flight, a new path forward was revealed for WED Enterprises… and it couldn’t have come at a better time!

The 1964 – 65 New York “WED’s Fair”

Image: Disney

Walt – as fascinated with America’s foundation as its future – always considered fellow Illinoisan Abraham Lincoln a personal hero, and was working with WED Enterprises to create a lifelike Lincoln Audio-Animatronic. When New York’s mid-century “master builder,” Robert Moses, visited Disneyland scouting ideas for the World’s Fair the city was set to host, he caught wind of the prototype president and encouraged Walt to develop the unprecedented human figure for a World’s Fair attraction.

Frequent readers of our renowned Lost Legends collection (and particularly, of entries concerning closed EPCOT Center originals) know what happened next.

Notice the size of the people standing around the Unisphere. Image: PLCjr, Flickr (license)

 

The 1964 – 65 New York World’s Fair is perhaps one of the best known international expos of all time, and for good reason – right on the verge of the Space Age and fueled by the optimism of pre-Vietnam baby boomers, this World’s Fair was an icon of mid-century Americana at the height of corporate influence and classic design.

As never before, corporations would construct massive pavilions in Queens’ Flushing Meadows Park, each dedicated to its area of science and industry, and each throwing open the doors to invite guests from around the globe to see its latest showcase of inventions. Before the Internet, this was your chance to see what the future of transportation, food, energy, and society held… a grand display of optimism, wonder, and possibility.

Click and expand for a larger and more detailed view.

It’s no surprise that WED Enterprises had been contracted by a number of corporations hoping to use Walt Disney attractions to draw visitors to their pavilions. But the one Walt was most excited about? General Electric. With the dawn of the Audio-Animatronic, GE arrived back at Disney’s doorstep. Now was the time to look at Harnessing the Light again, as Disney’s revolutionary Audio-Animatronics could now draw international acclaim and interest in a showcase of GE’s appliances. GE helped underwrite Disney’s development of those human Audio-Animatronics, and the race was on.

Advances

Click and expand for a larger and more detailed view. Image: Disney

For Pepsi-Cola, WED Enterprises set to work developing a family cruise through stylized scenes representing children from all corners of the world. It was the debut of the now-famous flume ride through international waters… and the first ever installation of a wildly high-capacity ride system that would become a staple of Disney’s portfolio.

While Imagineers had originally planned for the stylized dolls in each of the ride’s cultural corners to sing their own respective national anthems, the discordant mess of conflicting, clashing songs was enough to drive the designers wild. Walt turned once more to the venerable Sherman Brothers to create a song that would emphasize the unity of the world. Their product? The eponymous sing-along of the Pepsi pavilion’s Walt Disney’s “it’s a small world” – A Salute to UNICEF and the World’s Children.

Image: Disney

Ford Motor Company contracted Disney, too, resulting in Ford’s Magic Skyway. In the unusual attraction, guests would step onto a moving sidewalk and board a “motorless” Ford convertible cruising alongside them. Then, the convertibles would glide out of the pavilions and along elevated highways around its exterior, then into the pavilion to drive past dioramas of a prehistoric world and spectacular dinosaurs.

Image: Disney

True to his promise to Robert Moses, Disney did complete work on the human Audio Animatronic they’d been testing, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln opened at the State of Illinois’ pavilion. The moving, unthinkable encounter with the nation’s sixteenth president was a highlight of the Fair.

But by far the most impressive piece developed by WED Enterprises was the project they’d created for General Electric… In the video here (a continuation of the one at the top of this page), Walt dives into the surprising 'sixties science of programming human Audio-Animatronics for what he expects to be the hightlight of the World's Fair: his "Carousel Theater of Progress."

 

On the next page, we’ll step into the attraction Walt proclaimed as Disney’s best. Read on…