 The history of Walt
Disney's Carousel of Progress starts
in the early 60's when many companies were preparing for
the World's Fair in New York City in 1964 and 1965.
The Walt Disney Company, then known as WED Enterprises
(Walter Elias Disney) was hired by several companies,
Ford and Pepsi among them, to design and create exhibits
to boldly represent their respective corporations.
None, however, so grabbed the founder's heartstrings like
the exhibit he was hired to produce for General
Electric. Progressland's Carousel Theater would
be a completely new experience for Walt, and a challenge
he couldn't wait to throw himself into. Walt immersed himself in the project,
even choosing the voices for the show personally, to make
sure that the characters reflected the midwestern values
and attitudes that he felt so strongly about. (The voices
of the father, both chosen by Walt, were Rex Allen and
author/actor Jean Shepherd. Most people remember him as
the writer and narrator of the movie "A Christmas
Story.") Trying his hardest to let the
engineers do the work, he took every opportunity to make
his point ever so clear about what story the show should
convey.
"When we were designing the
thing, Walt couldn't resist getting up and doing the work
himself," explains imagineer, John Hench. "He
jumped in the bathtub for the Cousin that was
visiting--the guy who invented air conditioning with the
fan and block of ice. And he'd say, `What would Cousin
Orville do if he were in here?' Walt turned the tub
around to face the audience, and he took off his shoes
and wiggled his toes to show us. He went through the
whole bit. He did several of the acts and even vented
dialogue as he went. He was the best storyman,
particularly on the small bits of business, and it's the
small individual things that you never forget." (Persistence of
Vision Publishing)
Of all of the exhibits that came
to fruition, the Carousel Theater was by far the
fan-favorite. It is, in fact, often remembered as the
G.E. pavilion. In reality, there were five different
sections to the presentation, including Fusion on
Earth and Electric Living - an on display
electric community.
 After the fair's
end in 1965, the theater was demolished while all of the
animatronics and control systems were moved to Disneyland
so the show could be put on display in
Tommorowland. The name was changed from Progressland
to G.E.'s Carousel of Progress. It remained
there until the early 70's, when it was closed and moved
to Walt Disney World in Florida, being replaced at
Disneyland by America Sings. The theme song
that had been used since the opening at the fair, "Great
Big, Beautiful Tomorrow," was dropped during the
transition, and changed to "Now is the
Time." A major change was made in 1992 when
G.E. removed its sponsorship of the attraction. A
dramatic rewrite of the final scene, changed the setting
from a late 60's culture to a more 90's look with high
definition T.V., Dad in the kitchen, and Mom doing her
work at the computer. (Which if you look closely, is
scrolling the script along with the animatronic
family.) During this revamp, the show was renamed Walt
Disney's Carousel of Progress and the original song
was returned to it's rightful place. Today, the show has
the distinguishment of having more performances than any
other stage presentation in the world.
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