The Story Behind Disney’s Electrical Water Pageant

A few weeks after Walt Disney World opened in 1971, the Electrical Water Pageant debuted on Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. It has been a fixture ever since.

How the pageant went from concept to finished product is a fascinating story, one that ultimately led to the creation of the beloved Main Street Electrical Parade.

Guests staying in the Polynesian Resort bungalows get this up-close view of the Electrical Water Pageant. (Walt Disney World/David Roark)

In the weeks leading up to WDW’s opening, Disney’s higher-ups explored the possibility of adding a nighttime show to its entertainment mix.

The plan was to give guests leaving the Magic Kingdom a “kiss goodnight” in the form of a light and music show that would take place along the shores of the Polynesian and Contemporary resorts on Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. It would give guests leaving the Magic Kingdom one last taste of “Disney magic.”

Disney’s Imagineers came up with a concept for what they originally called the Electrical Pageant. It would feature thousands of twinkling lights affixed to aluminum wire mesh forms of dolphins, dragons, turtles and whales, as well as red, white and blue displays to honor America.

Generators and speakers also on board

Those wire forms would be bolted to a string of 30-foot long pontoon boats. On board the pontoons would be generators and gigantic speakers that would pump out Disney-themed music and patriotic tunes. The show would be seen from the boat docks at the Magic Kingdom, as well as from the beachfronts of the Contemporary and Polynesian resorts.

Once the concept was approved, Disney’s hierarchy went to Ted Kellogg, the man in charge of WDW’s watercraft at the time.

“They asked me if I knew anybody that could manufacture pontoons to our specifications,” Ted said.

Ted Kellogg, who was in charge of watercraft when Walt Disney World opened in 1971, was a key player in the creation of the Electrical Water Pageant.

It turns out Ted had a float boat at his house made by Harris Float Boats of Fort Wayne, Indiana, which he had used many times. “The pontoons on that boat were very sturdy and heavy duty,” he said.

His boat had a decal on its side with Harris’ phone number, so he gave the company a call and asked if it were possible for them make 30-foot long, 3-1/2-foot wide pontoon boats. “I said we’d probably need 33 of them and they assured me that they could make them for us.”

Ted then reported to his boss at the time, Bob Matheison, that Harris would be able to build the boats. They even gave him an estimate on how much each pontoon would cost.

And that was that… until one day, several weeks later, 33 pontoon boats arrived unannounced at Walt Disney World’s North Service Gate without a purchase order or without the approval of anybody at Disney. “Somebody at Harris had misunderstood what I’d said,” Ted said. Matheison scrambled to get a signed purchase order and the pontoons were eventually towed onto WDW property.

Shimmering reflections glisten off the water as the Electrical Water Pageant glides along Bay Lake in Walt Disney World.

The 33 pontoons were then fitted with skeletal aluminum cages and thousands of lights. Generators also were attached to the boats. The next hurdle was figuring out a way to propel this illuminated conga line through the water. “We used two 200-horsepower Mercury outboard motors for power,” Ted said. “We had one on the first raft and the other on the last raft, for pushing and pulling.” On board would be one driver in the front and another in back.

Learning how to keep the boats in line was a huge challenge. “Even though the wind would blow through the wire, it would still knock the boats off course,” Ted said. To keep the boats in a relatively straight line, 16-foot Boston whalers with push bars were used.

Bay Lake/Seven Seas Lagoon water bridge was a problem

Maneuvering over the narrow water bridge that links Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon “was a nightmare,” according to Ted. “We ran aground on more than one occasion and had to get pulled out.”

Once all the kinks were ironed out, the show debuted on Oct. 21, 1971, and was a big hit, pleasing both guests and WDW management.

“Then someone came up with the bright idea that we ought to be able to shoot off fireworks from the pontoons,” Ted remembers.

The idea was to place mortars on the middle pontoons, a safe distance from the two drivers. Huge blocks of lightweight foam were affixed to prop up the mortars.

Ted returned from vacation the day after the fireworks were detonated from the pontoons. Everyone who had witnessed it said the display went off without a hitch. But when Ted went to inspect the boats in the canal where they are stored between the Magic Kingdom and where the Grand Floridian is today, he was aghast. “It was a mess. The barges looked like they had been to war,” he said. “The sparks from the fireworks had burned holes in the foam. It’s a wonder they hadn’t caught fire.”

Thus ended the great Electrical Water Pageant fireworks experiment.

The classic Main Street Electrical Parade rolls down Main Street in Disneyland.

After noting the popularity of the Electrical Water Pageant, Disney’s then-CEO Card Walker wanted to offer Disneyland guests a similar nighttime experience. Bob Jani and project director Ron Miziker came up with the concept for the Main Street Electrical Parade, which went on to become one of the most beloved, innovative shows in Disney parks history.

The Main Street Electrical Parade debuted on June 17, 1972, at the Magic Kingdom in Disneyland. It featured a string of individual parade floats, each decorated with thousands of twinkling light bulbs, all themed to a classic Disney movie, with most of the floats carrying characters from those movies.

Each float was powered by 500 nickel-cadmium batteries. In addition to the floats, which sported a total of 500,000 lights, there were dozens of costumed cast members — also bedecked in lights — walking or dancing alongside. What made the parade so innovative was a synchronized soundtrack [to the heavily synthesized song “Baroque Hoedown”] which played in conjunction with the on-board lights.

Radio-activated ‘trigger zones’ created

Key to the success of the parade was the creation of radio-activated “trigger zones.” Since the series of parade floats stretched for more than 2,000 feet, Disney’s planners devised a system where the soundtrack would be played as each float entered into a zone, enabling guests to hear music specific to the float nearest to them through the park’s audio system. The zone system allowed for each guest to experience the same show, no matter where they were stationed along Main Street.

Disneyland’s version of the Main Street Electrical Parade was so popular that a similar version debuted on June 11, 1977, at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Various iterations of the parade have been shown at Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disney California Adventure. Over the years, Disney switched out the Main Street Electrical Parade with SpectroMagic, a similar presentation with newer floats and a different soundtrack. It’s even been renamed, to just Disney’s Electrical Parade. In addition, there have been nighttime parades with twinkling lights, themed floats, music, and costumed characters during the Halloween and Christmas seasons, as well as versions known as Paint the Night and Light Magic.

While Disney’s electrical parades on land have come and gone over the years, the seafaring Electrical Water Pageant continues its nightly run, to the delight of countless folks who line the shores of Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon just outside the Magic Kingdom.

Do you have fond memories of the Electrical Water Pageant? Let us know in the comments below.

The Story Behind Disney's Electrial Water Pageant

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Chuck Schmidt, bitten by the Disney bug at an early age, remembers watching The Mickey Mouse Club after school in the mid-1950s. During his 48-year career in the newspaper business, he channeled that love of Disney as the Sunday News and Travel editor for The Staten Island Advance. Chuck has written or co-authored seven books for Theme Park Press, including Disney's Dream Weavers, On the Disney Beat, An American in Disneyland Paris, Disney's Animal Kingdom: An Unofficial History and The Beat Goes On. Chuck has shared his passion for all things Disney in his Still Goofy About Disney blog on AllEars.Net since 2015. He resides in Beachwood, N.J., with his wife Janet. They have three adult children and seven grandchildren.

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7 Replies to “The Story Behind Disney’s Electrical Water Pageant”

  1. One clarification. Those gigantic speakers didn’t pump out Disney-themed music at first. For many years it was Handel’s Water Music that accompanied the floating light show.

  2. Think the year 1983. First Disney vaca staying at the contemporary resort. I recall hearing the music, opened the drape and saw magic! Woke kids and hubby to experience our first memorable Disney event, The Electrical Water Pageant!!

  3. The water parade was the biggest surprise and delight on my first trip to WDW. It is such a happy, smiling way to end the days fun. The main street electrical parade is a sight to behold. Many many trips later it still brings on smiles. Thank you Disney

  4. It would be a very sad day if the Electrical Water Pageant stopped it’s run. It really is the last Disney magic of the day, leaving you wanting to come back.

  5. I adore the Electrical Water Pageant to this day and I always will. I feel the same way about the Main St. Electrical Parade. They are both a big part of my fondest WDW memories! Thank you so much for this story!

  6. Saw it for the first time on our last trip 6 years ago. We stayed at the Shades of Green but would walk over to the Poly/TTC to catch the monorail and just happened to get the timing right on our way back to the hotel one night. It was really pretty!