This series of blogs deals with the Walt Disney Company’s participation in the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, a watershed moment in the entertainment giant’s history. This installment focuses on the Illinois State Pavilion and its ground-breaking Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln show.
- LOCATION: Federal and State area.
- SPONSOR: State of Illinois.
- RIDE SYSTEM: 496-seat theater with a fixed stage.
- CAST: One Audio-Animatronics figure of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.
- OTHER FEATURES: Pre-shows titled “The Illinois Story” and “The Story of the Gettysburg Address” and a post-show including a replica of Lincoln’s log cabin.
- NOTEWORTHY SONG: “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
The Walt Disney Company’s participation in the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair can be traced as far back as 1957.
“It started, I guess, with Abraham Lincoln,” remembered Marty Sklar, former head of Walt Disney Imagineering, during an interview in 2010.
“That show had been written – not the single Lincoln, but the entire Hall of Presidents show – in 1957.”
As had happened so often during Walt’s life, the technology of the times hadn’t yet caught up with his fertile imagination, so the Hall of Presidents show was put on hold.
“But Walt told him, ‘We haven’t even done one figure yet,’” Sklar said. “Ultimately, Moses put the state of Illinois and Walt together to do the Lincoln figure, which was the first humanized Audio-Animatronics figure we had ever done.”
It turns out Walt Disney and Abraham Lincoln were a perfect fit. “Walt had so much respect for Lincoln,” Sklar said. “Even as a teen-ager, Walt went to school on special days dressed up as Lincoln. He was very much in awe of Lincoln as a symbol of the presidency and a symbol of the America that he was so in love with.”
Committing his staff to doing the Lincoln figure was one thing; getting the incredibly complex machine up and running was something else altogether.
Unlike the other three Fair shows – which featured dozens of perky three-foot-tall dolls; an imaginary family reliving the history of electricity, and prehistoric cavemen and dinosaurs – Lincoln had to be spot-on.
Anyone with a $5 bill in his or her pocket could easily compare the figure on stage with the photo on the currency. And since Lincoln was the only figure on stage, his movements would be scrutinized. He had to be as life-like as the person sitting next to you.
The monumental undertaking of making Lincoln’s body move like a believable human being fell primarily to Disney Legend Bob Gurr, who was Disney’s go-to guy when it came to modes of transportation – not humanized robots.
It turns out Gurr became Mr. World’s Fair. In 1963, Gurr was already working on the ride system for Ford’s Magic Skyway, as well as contributing to the Audio-Animatronics figures for the Carousel of Progress show, and adding his expertise to “it’s a small world”, when Walt Disney matter-of-factly said to him:
“Oh, by the way, Bobby, I want you to do the Lincoln figure.”
Without batting an eye, Gurr dove right in.
“I got it all done in 90 days,” he said. “The concept, making the sketches for all the parts, passing out the parts to all the drafters. … It turned out, in hindsight, to be a radical machine, the first time the world was ever going to see a really believable animated figure. … It was a big effort by so many people working on that machine.”
Gurr, a self-professed “car guy” who first made a name for himself in Disney circles working on Disneyland’s Autopia cars, also had some experience with airplane gliders.
Not only did the Lincoln figure have to look and act like his namesake, but he had to do what Gurr referred to as “that trick thing.”
At the beginning of each performance, Lincoln was seated, center stage, when the curtain was drawn. The show began with the Lincoln figure standing up from his chair.
It was a stunning achievement on so many levels. “Not only that, but he was a tall, skinny guy who didn’t have much of a body to put parts inside,” Gurr said with a laugh. “If we’d done Grover Cleveland, I would have had a much easier time … I would have had a lot more room in there!”
Although things went smoothly during the initial testing of the figure at the Walt Disney Studios on the West Coast, Honest Abe had his problems [jet lag, perhaps?] when he was first tested in the Illinois state pavilion. On April 20, two days before the Fair was to open, a press preview of the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln show had to be canceled because the Lincoln figure wasn’t working properly.
“We’ve worked like beavers to get it ready, but it’s not ready, and I won’t show it to you until it is,” a disappointed Walt Disney told those in attendance. Problems with electrical currents seemed to be the culprit, but after a week of tinkering, Abe was up and running … to the delight of the packed houses at each show.
But since failure wasn’t an option during the Fair’s two-year run, a second Lincoln figure – chair and all – was stationed below the theater’s stage. If Lincoln did malfunction, he could be lowered in a service elevator and his seated “stand-in” would be hoisted onto the stage.
“As it turned out,” Gurr said, “Lincoln figure No. 1 ran almost flawlessly through the 1964 and 1965 seasons such that the elevator was seldom used.”
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was a stunning presentation, leaving the vast majority of World’s Fair visitors in awe. Many who saw it were convinced the Lincoln figure on stage was actually a living, breathing actor.
Other than routine maintenance, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln remained untouched during the Fair’s off-season. The show was so popular, however, that it was decided to give it a permanent home at Disneyland.
So, during the Fair’s second season, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln took up residence at the Main Street Opera House, making Lincoln a sensation on two coasts.
Lincoln’s debut at Disneyland came on July 17, 1965 – the 10-year anniversary of the park’s opening – and was considered the high point of Disneyland’s Tencennial Celebration.
Interestingly, the Lincoln figure had similar electrical issues before it opened at Disneyland. Marty Sklar said the Opera House’s proximity to the Disneyland monorail track may have been the problem.
Walt’s original Hall of Presidents concept – born in 1957 – finally came to fruition in 1971 with the opening of the E-ticket attraction at Walt Disney World.
Although the show has been revised many times over the years to accommodate newly elected presidents, Abraham Lincoln retains a key role – including doing that “trick thing.”
In Disneyland, an updated version of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is shown in the same Main Street Opera House where he debuted in 1965. In addition to some of the original script, snippets from the American Adventure show in EPCOT’s World Showcase in Florida have been added to make it a truly inspiring presentation.
Second in a five-part series. Next time: “it’s a small world.”
Chuck Schmidt is an award-winning journalist and retired Disney cast member who has covered all things Disney since 1984 in both print and on-line. He has authored or co-authored seven books on Disney, including his On the Disney Beat and The Beat Goes On for Theme Park Press. He also has written a regular blog for AllEars.Net, called Still Goofy About Disney, since 2015.
Very interesting. Thank you.