I never heard of this attraction, If your interested to know.. that they recently revamped (read: bastardized) the "It's A Small World" attraction

disney is what made the shrek movies so much fun. I still can't quite get over the Eisner years, as he has gone on to ruin a game company that I loved. the man turns everything he touches to Fail.

I'm no fan of Mr. Eisner, either. But the fact remains that, had Disney not hired him, the company would probably have gone bust years ago. Eisner is an ironic figure in that he saved Disney animation in the 1980s, only to destroy it 20 years later. Despite that, Disney remained a profitable company throughout his stewardship. And these days the bottom line is all that matters to the stockholders.

I cannot prove it, but here is what I know. Wizkids sold themselves to the Topps sportscard company. Eisner had a little investor group that bought it out. I suspect that he had a hand in shuttering the business. thusly I am cross with him.

Hehe, I wish I could remember America Sings better. All I got is vague childhood memories and fuzzy youtube clips. :S

Wow, so much for being the Disney enthusiast of my family; I can't recall having heard of this ride, ever. I'll have to check out those clips.

In any case, this pic grabbed my attention as soon as I espied it in my mesage centre. :3 Adorable and funny. I'm really enjoying your style!

I remember “America Sings”, the giant spinning cylindrical building, tucked back there next to Mission to Mars (which I never understood the reason why once you got near the martian surface, all of a sudden the mission is aborted and you get shot back to Earth). What I really remember is when Space Mountain first opened and there was a line that went all the way to Main Street. Our family waited for hours in the heat, hoping that the shadow of the people mover above would provide some respite from the sun. And to keep us young ones from imploding from the 4+ hour line, we were allowed to go on the rides we were near. Like "Travels Through Inner Space" with the thumping 'nucleus' that we would mimic by pounding (yes, I know, we were delinquents) on the side of the “doom buggy” car and making the fiberglass resound like a drum. It really made the nucleus sound overly impressive for everyone in the chamber (or at least we thought), then we would scream and hide from the giant eyeball that looks at you through the microscope. I hated that scanning eye. Then *pttuie!* you were ejected out into the gift shop. But because Space Mountain just opened, they were having awful problems keeping the ride online. “Computer problems” they claimed and “airbrake malfunctions” with the rumor that one car got stuck in a hard, banking turn because the braking system stopped the car instead of just slowing it down. So again, we were off, to ride America Sings, not because we particularly liked it, but because there was no line, and it was a long ride AND because it was air conditioned! It is a terrible shame that later a park employee was either killed or terribly injured when they got caught between the static wall and the spinning auditorium. And they say that nothing bad ever happens at the “Happiest Place on Earth”. After that ride ended, and they were still in line near the entrance to Mission to Mars, we went on that attraction, which was a loud ride when the “rocket” lifts off from the pad. But again, like America Sings, there was no line, it was air conditioned and we liked how the seats would hydraulically (not that we knew that was what they used back then) compress down to simulate G-force effects of acceleration. So once that ride ended, we go out and OMG we can’t find the others. It ends up that the ride was working well, and they were at the base of the escalators to go to the upper platform above the fast food restaurant in the ‘lobby’ of the Space Mountain attraction. And boy were they mad! They were good enough to wait for us but had to let so many people pass them so we wouldn’t get lost. So after 4+ hours of waiting (well, not for us kids) the ride was exciting! They even built you up with so many “chicken exits” all the way to the end to challenge your wits. But by today’s standards, Space Mountain is nothing compared to the crazy rides at Magic Mountain, and even back then, Colossus was the big ride in Southern California. Anyway, that’s my memories of America Sings. Yes not much about the ride itself, even though we rode it quite often to take friends and relatives that would visit us to Disneyland and the parents *forced* us to ride both America Sings and It’s A Small World… the two rides that kids hated. Now don’t get me wrong, we love the Country Bear Jamboree, but when people would sing and clap along with the animatronics in America Sings, it would be like my father getting up and having tea with Mr. Lincoln. Just embarrassing! Well enough of this blathering. Great drawing! Sam looks like he wants you to go visit Mr. Lincoln too!

That's an amazing story -- thanks for sharing it with us!

It seems that everyone who has gone to one of the Disney parks has one or more stories like this. Perhaps the nicest surprise in posting my "America Sings" artwork is that it has drawn out several of these stories and memories. Definitely an unexpected (and greatly appreciated) bonus!

P.S. I loved the old "Journey Through Inner Space" ride, too. Especially that wonderful Paul Frees narration (and the Haunted Mansion-style "doom buggies").

I just read Frenata's comment and it's been such a long time since I've been to Disneyland, perhaps 1992 or so, I didn't even know that Country Bear Jamboree closed! That's a shame, and as for his trivia, I always wondered why a robot or two in Star Tours had web feet and antenna tails. But yes, in the mid-70s, our family would park at the Disneyland Hotel and take the Monorail to Tomorrow land. I think dad's thought process was that it was faster to get into the park that way than to slug through the parking booth line, then to the parking area in the back 40, then to the tram where we had to remember that we parked in "E" for Eeyore, then to the ticket booth, then to Main Street, where we a children wanted to be in Tomorrow land anyway. I always love King Arthur's carousel and always rode a special horse, one with roses around the rump. But last time I was there, she wasn't on the ride. It was sad and I can only hope she was taken off for refurbishing. Then in the summer of '86 or so, my friend who was a cast member, invited me to the park where I got to be part of a 'soft opening' of Star Tours. When I got there I was horrified to see that Journey Through Inner Space or whatever it was called, was gone and that this Star Wars themed ride was there. Expecting another Captain Eo, I didn't really know what the ride was about. And since it was a soft open, there was no line! I don't know if they changed it since then, but there was at least two or three simulators, and what we found out later is that they had them set to a gentle, moderate and severe type setting as they interviewed visitors when exiting what we thought. I told them that they needed 'barf bags' in the seat pockets. The next time I rode that ride a few years later, it didn't seem as violent as what I remembered from the soft open. But by the time it was the early 90's I liked to go there to just sit on the park benches in Central Plaza and watch people. And going there for New Years was neat too. On a side note, I always knew it was 9PM while growing up because I could see and hear, off in the distance on the horizon over the houses, the fireworks. And they were tiny from how far away I was, but at least I knew I had 1.5 hours until I had to be in bed.

America Sings began life as the Carousel of Progress that had been transferred from the New York Wolds Fair.
The Mission to Mars began as Flight to the Moon with a large TWA rocket out front. We used to ride the Skyway from one side of the park to the other but that was gone last we were there.

You can find some of the figures from America Sings in the Splash Mountain ride.

Oh yah, I used to be a big fan of America Sings too. It was a fun and lively fifteen minutes or so, and easily the "most furry" attraction Disneyland ever had. Fine pic, Mr. Tim!

Disneyland needs a Bambi dark ride! Am I wrong? >:D

No, you're not wrong -- a Bambi dark ride would be a great idea (and not just because its my favorite Disney animated feature ;) ). It surprises me that they never created one. Then again, there were never any Bambi character costumes at the Parks (apart from Flower -- that I know of, anyway).

A Bambi dark ride in the style of their classic dark rides would have been really neat. I can just imagine a room representing a forest fire -- it would have been exciting!

Check http://farm1.static.flickr.com/89/2....._Fm8LpEHaWOArPVmCBZrHp43VCL8=&h=500&w=487&sz=130&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=aUgWa1p0z1frEM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DThumper%2Bdisneyland%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN/" rel="nofollow ugc noreferrer noopener">THIS out.

Thanks for the link -- so they made a Thumper suit, after all! I wonder what a Bambi costume would look like...

It surprises me the characters they turn into park costumes -- and the ones they don't. There's a rarely-seen Maid Marian costume that, apparently, is just Robin Hood in drag. And a couple years ago I spotted Gideon and Clara Cluck at Disney/MGM. And I've also seen photos of a Clarice costume (the female chipmunk in the Chip 'n' Dale short "Two Chips and a Miss"). She even shows up in this crazy music show in Tokyo Disneyland, Club Disney Super Dancin' Mania.

Regarding the Country Bears, I think you're right: It was probably the first "furry" attraction at the Parks, but America Sings was probably the most furry. Also, AFAIK, the Bears are still at Walt Disney World, but the Disneyland version is long gone (removed, believe it or not, just before the Country Bears movie was released -- another marketing coup for Disney!). There were rumors that the attraction might resurface in California Adventure, but it hasn't shown up yet.

Although I would consider the also-defunct Country Bear Jamboree to be Disney's first "all-furry" attraction (even if it was mostly just bears), America Sings was definitely my favorite of the "sit down and watch the show" rides. In fact, I daresay that little weasel who kept popping up (I'm not sure, but I think his name was Popgoze), was an inspiration for me to create Shadow.

It's sad to read Neysa's comments and learn that some kids considered America Sings to be a "hated" ride that parents "forced" them to go on like it's a small world. The latter I can understand, but America was pure relaxing fun! I was in my mid-teens when the ride first appeared, and me and my brother (who's 5 years younger than I), both loved it! Guess it just goes to show that even "kids" can have different tastes and opinions. (So much for those companies who claim "We know what kids like!")

Here's a bit of Disneyland trivia: At the beginning of each of the four major "acts," there was a quartet of geese who sang the opening numbers. Yet on the YouTube video, there are only three geese appearing in the "Down South" and the "Old West" acts. What happened to the other two geese? The gruesome truth is, they were goosenapped one night, stripped of their beaks and feathers, and reprogrammed into 'droids to become a part of the Star Tours attraction! You can see the poor things while standing in line for the ride. I've seen them -- they still have their webbed feet, though they've been painted silver. And they still have tails!

Anyways, cute drawing and tribute to the attraction, although the owl's response seems a bit terminal...

see reply above please.

I still haven't forgiven Disney for yanking "Adventure Thru Inner Space". And never will.
But Tim couldn't be that bad! I think those two avians are just over-reacting.

I first visited Disneyland around 1972. The building that housed "America Sings" used to be the General Electric "Carousel of Progress" which had the same revolving audience seating and stage. The miniature city for the Carousel of Progress was rather spectacular. I never had the opportunity to see "America Sings" as my next visit to Disneyland was in the mid 1990s.

On a more somber note, the "America Sings" building was a scene of a tragedy as a 19 year old Disneyland hostess was crushed to death by the revolving stage a few days after the "America Sings" attraction opened in 1974...the first fatality for a Disneyland employee at the park. The attraction was shut down for a period when breakaway walls were installed for employee safety.

Interestingly enough, Disney brought back the original "Carousel of Progress" show at Walt Disney World a couple years ago. My nephew and I saw the show, which is still prone to the occasional malfunction: the theater got "stuck", so we had to sit through the same sequence THREE times -- if I ever hear "It's a Great, Big Beautiful Tomorrow" again, I'll scream! :)

I first heard about the America Sings tragedy many years ago. A friend of mine who once worked at Disneyland told me of a co-worker who, while piloting the Jungle Cruise ride in Adventureland, quipped to the passengers as they disembarked, "Be sure to check out our new attraction in Tomorrowland, The People Crusher."

When he returned from the next ride, a manager was waiting for him at the dock and fired him on the spot.

This is a Disney attraction I really wish I hadn't missed out on. At least I got to see some of the recycled animatronic characters at Splash Mountain.

Sadly, I never got the chance to experience this amazing show! Thank God for youTube!