 By: Shaun Finnie |
| The Disney Diary’s Shaun Finnie begins a series of columns looking at Disney’s involvement in the 1964 / 65 New York City World’s Fair, and the lasting legacy that work has left for us at the Disney theme parks.
By the late 1950’s Disneyland had become a runaway success, but ever the perfectionist, Walt was disappointed that it was only regularly attracting visitors from a quarter of the USA. He figured that the rest of the country would be as receptive to the Disneyland concept as the West coasters had been. Although he had said that there would never be another Disneyland, he was starting to get offers of help from investors and States to set up similar parks in other parts of the country. While publicly he was concentrating on planning additions and improvements to the California park, privately Walt had already commissioned a feasibility study that showed overwhelming favour for an East coast Disneyland. There were however doubts that the supposedly more sophisticated Eastern populous would accept the simple delights that Disney was offering. Then in 1960 Walt heard that New York was to host the 1964 / 65 World’s Fair to coincide with the city’s 300th anniversary. The World’s Fair had been operating since it’s inception in London in 1851, presenting expositions every few years in various cities around the globe. Walt loved them as they showed the best that the world had to offer, both now and potentially in the future. Also, his father, Elias Disney, had been a carpenter at the World’s Fair in Chicago, seventy years previously Walt realised that if he managed to get involved in the New York City Fair then he could reap multiple benefits. It would be possible to;
This final point was especially important as the lack of advanced robotic technology was holding up major development needed to get people coming back to the park for return visits. For further details on this, see my recent two-part article entitled The Other Side of Main Street, USA.
Part 1 (Residential Street)www.mickeynews.com/Columns/DisplayColumn.asp_Q_id_E_458 Walt knew that corporate America would feel that it had to be represented in such a large and prestigious New York event but that the businessmen wouldn’t have a clue about what entertainment to provide. He could help them, and in return they would be helping him to create Disneyland attractions that would live on long after the Fair had closed. But Walt figured that there was no way that any attraction could make money in two years. So rather than Disney supply their own attractions, the Disney company contacted many of the top corporations in the States, offering to develop and build attractions at the Fair for them. There was less than four years to develop anything, as the Fair was to open on April 22, 1964. One of the companies that Walt spoke with was General Motors, who were very enthusiastic about the Fair. So much so in fact that they designed their own huge Futurama pavilion (a design for future life on the earth, under the seas and out in space) without requiring Disney’s assistance. The G.M. people did however suggest that Walt talk to Ford. The Disney-built Ford Wonder Rotunda was huge (more than twice the size of today’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride) and contained many car-themed murals, indoor gardens and even an Auto Parts Philharmonic - an orchestra comprised entirely of automobile parts. The obvious highlight of the Ford Rotunda was a ride that had guests seated in the latest model Ford convertibles. They didn’t even need to drive; the car itself took them on a 12-minute, 8-mph journey around the massive structure on a moving road called the Magic Skyway. First they toured the outside of the building from within giant Perspex tunnels which allowed views of almost the entire Fair show grounds. Then the Skyway tracks took the cars inside, through a swirling “time tunnel” which strobed with rainbow lights, back to prehistoric times, where audio animatronic cavemen were seen discovering fire and inventing the wheel. Further along were the famous battling dinosaurs that would end up in the Primeval World diorama on the Disneyland Railroad. Eventually guests departed the vehicles at Space City, where they could see the technology of the immediate future. Spaceship Earth would later resurrect many of these ideas at Epcot. Ford provided 160 actual production cars to be installed in the ride. Each was then completely gutted and had a special “radio” fitted which could play the ride commentary in one of six selectable languages. Major problems arrived with the timing of the free rolling cars on the Disney-designed track. Because the different models of car were of varying weights and sizes they travelled along the moving track at different speeds, leading to some inevitable collisions. Initially the problem was so bad that they had a repair shop built into the attraction. While visiting Ford, Walt and Imagineer John Hench saw a conveyor belt being used to transport ingots of hot metal. After a brief discussion they worked out that this idea could be adapted for moving people on rides, eliminating the need for wheeled carriages. Disney first used the resulting Peoplemover track system on the Magic Skyway, and has since used it to transport guests on many of its theme park rides like Haunted Mansion, Spaceship Earth, Horizons etc. Walt asked both Ford and General Electric for $1million each for the use of his name on the attractions that his company built for them at the Fair. When both readily agreed, Walt offered to offset this amount against shipping costs if he could install the attractions at Disneyland. Both companies were invited to sponsor their attractions in California. While G.E. accepted, Ford decided against it, which is why the Magic Skyway was never seen again. But the General Electric pavilion? We’ll have a look at what that contained next time. |
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