One Thing You May Not Know About Five Iconic Rides
So you think you’re the big Disney expert, huh?
I’m unconvinced. What I’ll do is talk about seven theme park attractions, and you let me know how many of these facts you’ve heard.
Image: The Healthy Mouse
Here’s one thing you may not know about several of Disney’s most iconic rides.
It’s a Small World Is in International Waters
Okay, not really…but kind of!
Walt Disney was especially proud of this attraction, which he’d personally conceptually.
Actress Joan Crawford had married a PepsiCo executive and eventually became the first woman on its Board of Directors.
PepsiCo found itself in trouble with the 1964 New York World’s Fair fast approaching.
Photo:topdisneyblog.com
At the time, the World’s Fair was one of the cultural touchstones of the corporate world.
No major conglomerate could skip this event, which pressured Pepsi to host a pavilion there.
Photo:Disney Enterprises
Since the company had no ideas of its own, Crawford went to her Hollywood associate, Walt Disney, and asked for help.
To the frustration of his already overworked Imagineers, Disney quickly agreed. He had the perfect idea for a “little boat ride.”
Photo: Disney
While people associate the attraction with its unforgettable music, gorgeous settings, and detailed puppets, there’s still the basic fact.
It’s a Small World is a boat ride, and boat rides need water. So, when Walt Disney christened this ride, he asked for help.
Photo: Disney
Uncle Walt himself invited children from other countries. Each of them brought canisters of water from their own rivers.
Yes, this ride contains authentic water from the many seas of the world, making it just as multinational as its underlying story.
Truth in advertising note: I have no idea whether Disney has maintained this process over the years, but I really hope so!
Pirates of the Caribbean Was Too Realistic
If you’re at Pirates of the Caribbean today and the fire department shows up, you know you’ve got problems.
Odds are good that the ride has malfunctioned to the extent that Disney must evacuate everyone.
Disney
That’s a rarity, but it is something that has happened with this attraction.
However, during the earliest days of Pirates of the Caribbean, the attraction suffered from a different problem. It was too realistic.
Yes, when Pirates of the Caribbean first opened to the public, absurdly naïve locals couldn’t tell fact from the fiction.
Some of them believed that the fire scene would confuse guests.
(Renie Bardeau / Associated Press)
The concerned citizens were employees at the Anaheim Fire Department.
They refused to sign off on Pirates of the Caribbean due to the fire scene, which they worried would cause problems.
Disney
Specifically, guests wouldn’t be able to tell a real fire from the one on display as a permanent installation.
Expert firefighters felt strongly that tourists wouldn’t be able to tell what was real and what was fake!
Photo: Disney
Iconic Imaginer Marty Sklar loved telling this story when he was still alive. It spoke to the genius of the scene’s creator, Yale Gracey.
Country Bear Jamboree Was Walt Disney’s Baby
Walt Disney died in 1966. Country Bear Jamboree opened at Magic Kingdom in 1971.
So, you’re probably wondering how Uncle Walt could have influenced an attraction nearly five years after his death.
1960 Winter Olympics
I can assure you that he did, though. The entrepreneur fell in love with the 1960 Winter Olympics.
Soon afterward, Disney purchased land that would have allowed him to build a ski resort in Sequoia National Park in California.
Disney
By 1966, Disney had worked out an agreement with the local government for Disney’s Mineral King Ski Resort.
This project faced an overriding concern, though. How would guests associate the Disney brand with a ski resort?
Obviously, Uncle Walt had a plan, though. His Imagineers had invented Audio-Animatronics a few years earlier.
One of the most adorable creations was an animated bear, which Disney envisioned as an anchor at the ski resort.
Photo: Walt Disney Family Museum
Alas, environmental protesters, bureaucratic red tape, and Disney’s death forced the cancellation of the Mineral King project.
So, his Imagineers sought to protect Walt Disney’s legacy by bringing the bears to the new theme park in Orlando, Florida.
Photo: Disney Parks blog
That’s why the Country Bear Jamboree was an opening day attraction at Walt Disney World!
PS: Disney also worked on Space Mountain a couple of years before his death.
Photo: Disney Parks Blog
The computer technology wasn’t advanced enough, forcing Imagineers to wait a few years before building the ride.
Haunted Mansion’s Organ Is Older Than the Ride
Photo: Disney wiki
Here’s a nifty bit of Disney trivia.
The Haunted Mansion embodies Disney’s storytelling since it’s such an incongruous mix of funny and frightening.
Photo: Disney wiki
However, not all the parts you’ll witness on the attraction were planned for the ride.
That’s odd because Disney dutifully curated parts for the planned Museum of the Weird for a decade before the ride opened.
Photo: Haunted Mansion Wiki
Some pieces wouldn’t arrive until Imagineers had finalized their plans for the project, though.
While plotting the various rooms at the Haunted Mansion, these storytellers decided that one place needed a musical accompaniment.
Photo: Haunted Mansion Wiki
So, Disney set out in search of a gothic organ that would fit the ride’s overall aesthetic.
Park officials found an unlikely solution. In 1954, Disney had released its adaptation of the Jules Verne story, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Photo: Haunted Mansion Wiki
While nobody used the term then, it was a decidedly steampunk attraction…and so it had a thematic organ.
Here’s a scene of Captain Nemo villainously playing that organ.
You’ve seen that same organ at Disneyland, whether you realized it or not.
Imagineers installed it in the left corner of the Grand Hall, where the organist plays as the Happy Haunts participate in some ballroom dancing.
Cinderella Stood in Space Mountain’s Way
Since 1975, Space Mountain has maintained its presence as one of the two most recognizable landmarks at Magic Kingdom.
Remarkably, the other landmark’s presence worked against Space Mountain.
Cinderella Castle opened with Magic Kingdom in 1971. It was unmistakably the crowning achievement of Disney landmark design.
Consider that Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, the first landmark of its kind, stands 77 feet tall.
Cinderella Castle would dwarf it, no pun intended, if the two stood side by side, as the Magic Kingdom landmark stands 189 feet tall.
While park planners held great expectations for Space Mountain, Walt Disney’s final ride he’d personally worked on, they still had a dealbreaker.
Space Mountain COULD NOT in any way overshadow Cinderella Castle, and I mean that literally.
The management team released strict orders that Space Mountain remain significantly shorter than Cinderella Castle.
Any hope of Disney building the largest artificial mountain ever evaporated after that edict, although Imagineers cheated a bit.
Space Mountain stands 90 feet tall, although its highest tower reaches 183 feet, suspiciously close to the size of Cinderella Castle.
Photo: Disney
I’ve always suspected that somebody at Disney didn’t appreciate that height restriction and boundary-tested to be a contrarian.
Still, Space Mountain stands as an excellent demonstration that artificial constraints often produce creative solutions.
To this day, Space Mountain qualifies as one of the most unique structures in the history of architecture, stumpy though it may be.
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Feature Photo: Disney
