America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, United States, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of audio animatronics animals singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashion.
History
America Sings opened on June 29, 1974, replacing the General Electric-sponsored Tomorrowland attraction Carousel of Progress, which had moved to the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1973. America Sings used the same Carousel Theater as its predecessor. The building had an outer ring of six theaters, connected by divider walls, that revolved mechanically about every four minutes around the six fixed stages in the center of the building.
Unlike Disneyland's Carousel of Progress, which rotated clockwise, America Sings rotated in a counterclockwise direction. Also, unlike Carousel of Progress, America Sings only used the lower level of the Carousel Theater. The upper level was eventually used to house the SuperSpeed Tunnel in 1977 (which later became themed to the Game Grid from the 1982 film Tron) that the PeopleMover transportation attraction passed through.
Written primarily by Marc Davis and Al Bertino, America Sings featured a singing cast of audio-animatronics animals. The show's Masters of Ceremonies were an American bald eagle named Sam (voiced by Burl Ives) and an owl (voiced by Sam Edwards). Eagle Sam was designed by Disney animator Marc Davis, as were the other characters. Eagle Sam is completely separate from the Sam the Olympic Eagle character designed a decade later by C. Robert Moore (also a Disney employee) for the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Like the Carousel of Progress, the first and the last scenes of America Sings involved the loading and unloading of guests, while the other four scenes, or "acts," depicted a particular era. However, the identical load and unload theaters each featured a small curtained gazebo with a backdrop showing a park. The curtains would open to reveal Sam and the owl standing on a two-level podium, with Sam standing on the higher level, introducing or closing the show.
Between each act, as the theater rotated, the lights blacked out, and the theater illuminated with flashing stars; during the rotations, Sam sang about the next era the audience was about to enter, reprising the chorus of "Yankee Doodle".
Also, at some point in each act, the Weasel would suddenly appear on the scene, spouting the title line, "Pop, Goes the Weasel!" for a total of five times. At the very end of the show, he changed the line to, "Goodbye, Goes the Weasel!"
The characters in America Sings were patterned after the characters from the concept art for an animated movie called Chanticleer that Walt Disney scrapped in the 1960s.
Death of Deborah Gail Stone
On July 8, 1974, nine days after the attraction opened, an 18-year-old hostess, named Deborah Gail Stone, was accidentally crushed to death by iron mechanisms between two walls of the building at 10:37 p.m. A narrow channel with iron mechanisms that provided the show's movement between an inside stage stationary wall and the rotating wall was open and Stone either fell, stepped backwards, got down there, or tried to jump from one stage to the other as the rotating wall began to move (it moved every 2 to 4 minutes, which was how long each act was). Her death was pronounced at 11:00 p.m., when the carousel was being reset for a new cycle. One of the audience members heard Stone's screams and notified park staff. Others thought it was a part of the show. By the time the audience member and the staff got to her, Stone had already died from her injuries. Stone's parents sued Disneyland for the death of their daughter, which resulted in a small settlement.
Following Stone's death, the attraction was closed down, remaining closed while Disney installed warning lights and had the area where the incident occurred cleaned. Later, the walls in the theater were remodeled so that they would break away in case a similar accident happened. The attraction reopened on July 11, three days after the incident.