Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress
| Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress | |
|---|---|
| Park | Magic Kingdom |
| Land / area | Tomorrowland |
| Type | Rotating theater Audio-Animatronics show |
| Opened | January 15, 1975 |
| Designer | WED Enterprises |
| Height req. | None |
| Status | Operating |
Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress is a rotating-theater Audio-Animatronics stage show in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. The audience sits in a theater that revolves around a central stage, following an American family through four eras of technological change in the home. Created by Walt Disney and WED Enterprises for the 1964 New York World's Fair, it holds the record as the longest-running stage show in American theater history, and is the oldest attraction at Walt Disney World that Walt himself worked on.
History
The show's roots reach back to the late 1950s, when Disney and General Electric (GE) developed ideas for an Edison Square area at Disneyland celebrating electrical progress. That land was never built, but the concept was revived when GE commissioned Disney to create the centerpiece of its pavilion at the 1964–65 New York World's Fair. There, as Progressland, it opened on April 22, 1964, and proved one of the fair's most popular exhibits. The Sherman Brothers wrote its theme, "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," expressing Walt Disney's optimism about innovation.
After the fair, the show moved to Disneyland, opening in the new Tomorrowland on July 2, 1967, and running until September 9, 1973. GE, concerned that the audience remained largely Californian, asked Disney to move it to Florida. The Disneyland theater became home to America Sings, while the show was rebuilt at Magic Kingdom.
The Florida version opened on January 15, 1975 — the same day as Space Mountain — under a ten-year GE sponsorship. It received a new theme song, "The Best Time of Your Life," also by the Sherman Brothers, reflecting GE's preference for celebrating the present. The show was updated in 1981 and the mid-1980s, and GE's sponsorship ended in 1985.
A major refurbishment in 1993–94, tied to the New Tomorrowland project, renamed the attraction Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress in honor of its creator, restored "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" as its theme, and rewrote the final scene. The updated show reopened on November 23, 1994, with actor Jean Shepherd — best known as the narrator of A Christmas Story — as the voice of the father, John. After a drop in attendance following the September 11 attacks, the attraction closed in October 2001 and for a time operated only seasonally, before returning to regular daily operation from 2003 onward.
Experience
Guests are seated in one of six theaters arranged in a ring. Between acts, the entire audience section rotates — the "carousel" of the title — around the stationary central stages, while the theme song bridges the move.
The show follows father John, mother Sarah, their children Patricia and James, an uncle, grandparents, and the family dog, Rover, through four acts, each set roughly twenty years apart and each built around the arrival of new domestic technology. The first act, set around the turn of the twentieth century, shows gas lamps, a hand-cranked washing machine, and the excitement of early electric light. The second moves to the 1920s, with radio, indoor plumbing, and a tangle of new electrical appliances. The third, set in the 1940s, adds television, automatic dishwashing, and the postwar suburban kitchen. Between acts, the family ages little while the world around them transforms — the show's central joke and its central point.
The final act brings the family to the present day at Christmastime, with voice-activated appliances, virtual-reality games, and a kitchen that mostly cooperates. That scene has been revised repeatedly to keep its "future" plausible. At about twenty-one minutes, it is among the longest attractions in the park.
Together with It's a Small World, it is one of two current Magic Kingdom attractions that originated at the New York World's Fair.