Feb. 8, 2008 - America Sings

[Werner Weiss]

Featuring 115 Audio-Animatronics animal characters, America Sings is a "musical joyride through history."

Link to America Sings.

Please discuss it here.

[aashee]

Thank you, Thank you for posting these. Wonderful memories.

[tigersmsk]

That was a great read. It jogged a lot of memories from some of my earliest Disneyland experiences. I love how u broke it down song by song.

[Pineappleprincess]

Thanks for that trip down memory lane. America Sings was my favorite ride as a child. I was heart broken when they closed it. Innoventions is really nothing more than a space filler that brings in advertising dollars and I think the visitors know that. It was such a shame to go from such a brilliant and original ride to product placement advertising.

[xalesa]

Oh my goodness, did this article ever bring back a flood of memories!! I absolutely LOVED America Sings! Thanks so much for listing the actual songs; I sat here reading them and could remember exactly how they sounded back in the day.
Good job, Werner!!

[danyoung]

While I enjoyed reading the article and looking at the pics, I have to say that AS was never one of my favorites. I was crushed when they took out the Carousel of Progress, and AS never quite lived up to that for me. The "Pop goes the weasel" joke just seemed to fall flat even the first time. And they could have done much better with the contemporary scene than the tired old Joy To The World.

The 6-cd set of DL music has the entire show track on it. It was fun to listen to once, but I don't think I'll be playing it through any time soon.

But anyway, thanks for the look back, Werner!

[ralfrick]

I've never understood why anybody would want to sing Polly Wolly Doodle once, much less all day!

A bientot.

[wulfblat]

I realize that America Sings was a very popular attraction, but I never liked it, mostly because the show was composed of just songs and had absolutely nothing to do with Tomorrow.

Having said that, it was still better than the god awful crap that currently squats in the building, and is also mostly unrelated to Tomorrow.

[wec]

As much as I loved that show there is one thing I absolutely hate about it. I have become acquainted with someone who knew the young lady who was crushed to death on that attraction. When Carousel of Progress was there, they had break away safety walls just in case a cast member got to close to the danger area. When America Sings was installed, Disney opted not to put the break away walls in. They thought they were saving mony. It cost the young cast member her life. After the lawsuit was settled, the safety walls were re-installed.

[KevinYee]

typo at the end of the article: Star Tours opened in 1987, not 1986.

I dearly miss AmerSings. I have an article planned for April of this to commemorate the 20 year anniversary, alas.

[aimster]

My first visit to Disneyland was in 1986 and I loved America Sings so much I rode it several times that visit. I didn't make it back there again until 1989 and was sooo mad America Sings was closed. I was really looking forward to seeing it again. It has to be one of my all-time favorite Disney attractions. I even remember buying a Sam Eagle plush.

[Werner Weiss]

Originally Posted by wec

When America Sings was installed, Disney opted not to put the break away walls in. They thought they were saving mony. It cost the young cast member her life. After the lawsuit was settled, the safety walls were re-installed.

I chose not to include the tragic death of Debbie Stone as part of my America Sings article.

In the interest of accuracy, please allow me to clarify the information from wec. It's true that there was a sad accident soon after America Sings opened. But it wasn't a case of Disneyland removing breakaway walls to save money.

Carousel of Progress had operated safely for around seven years with stationary walls in the central core (between each stage) which aligned with stationary walls in the moving theaters whenever the theater came to a stop. There was a cast member station in one corner of each of the six theaters. That's where the phone/microphone was located from which the cast member would make announcements.

America Sings used the same walls and the same phone/microphone station. The big difference was the direction of rotation changed to the opposite direction. Now, the walls approached toward each other rather than moving away from each other. Sadly, Debbie Stone was trapped by the walls when they came together. She should not have been between the two walls, but she was.

The walls in the moving theaters were quickly modified to prevent a repeat of the accident. But it was too late for Debbie Stone.

On July 8, 2004 — the 20th anniversary of the accident — David Koenig wrote an article about Debbie Stone and the tragedy 20 years earlier: http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mt040708dk

[Werner Weiss]

Originally Posted by KevinYee

typo at the end of the article: Star Tours opened in 1987, not 1986.

Thank you! I fixed it.

Originally Posted by KevinYee

I dearly miss AmerSings. I have an article planned for April of this to commemorate the 20 year anniversary, alas.

I'm looking forward to it!

[drb]

I like the fact that one of the Star Tour "Goose Droids" sings "I've been working on the same droid" at one point. One of the two geese that went to Star Tours was from the Western Quartet, where the geese sang "I've been working on the railroad." Wanna bet it's the same goose?

Mind you, it's a bit of a stretch that, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away, there'd be a song so similar to an Earth folk song, but the level of suspension of disbelief is worth the price of an America SIngs in-joke.

America Sings was my favorite thing in Disneyland. Before that, Country Bear Jamboree was, and before that, it was Enchanted Tiki Room. I've always been a sucker for A-A shows. And now Tiki is the only one left. Disneyland used to be known for its animatronics (see the original Stepford Wives for an example of that), but they've been moving further and further away from that, it seems.

*Pop goes the weasel, hehehehehe.*

[retrodiz]

Strange to think that America Sings was around longer than Carousel of Progress.

It was a fun attraction, even if portions of it were a little corny. I'd take it back in a heartbeat over Tom Morrow!

But in my opinion, the cheapest thing Disneyland ever did was to recycle the animatronic characters by putting them inside Splash Mountain. What, they didn't think anyone would notice?

Thanks for the link to David Koenig's article commemorating Debbie Stone. I still think about her after all these years.