Jean Shepherd takes us on a humorous audio tour (MP3) of a few of the exhibits at the 1964 World’s Fair. At about 14 minutes into the MP3, Mr. Shepherd rides “It’s a Small World.” Although he is pretty critical of many of the attractions and atmosphere of the fair, he seems really enthralled with It’s a Small World.
It’s interesting to note that in 1975, Jean Shepherd narrated the voice of the audio-animatronics “Father” in the updated Carousel of Progress at the Magic Kingdom.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get into the park until about 12:00 PM even though we touched down at John Wayne at about 8:30 AM. We are staying at a good neighbor hotel and the logistics of the situation aren’t optimal. When we were here in March, we stayed at the Grand Californian and we were in the park about an hour after we landed.
When I finally did get in, we encountered the Disneyland band playing Christmas tunes. I took some nice video that I will upload when I get home. We did a few rides in Fantasyland. It isn’t very crowded and the longest we’ve waited has been about 20 minutes. We practically walked onto It’s a Small World and it was awesome! I took video of that but I’m not sure how the audio is going to come out.
Each year, inside and out, It’s a Small World gets a holiday overlay. They basically string hundreds of thousands of lights inside and out. My previous post was the outside. This is one is the inside.
Daveland Blog has posted a fantastic aerial photo of Disneyland from 1966. You can see huge amounts of construction going on at the park including the Haunted Mansion, Its a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean. Click through to his site and view the large file. You can zoom in on certain areas to see fine details. Also, check out the comments, there is some good conversation going on.
We booked the trip today and got our fourth night free. In mid-December we will be doing 5 days in Disneyland/DCA. I can’t wait to see all the holiday coverings and decorations. I am especially looking forward to the Haunted Mansion and Its a Small World. I will take a bunch of pics to share.
Here is a 26 second ride video from Its a Small World. If the songs gets stuck in your head and you want to hear more, there are a plethora of videos at google.
The Disney Blog has a recent post about the Sherman Brothers and the song they did for the Carousel of Progress attraction entitled “There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.” This is a awesome toon that I just experience for the first time recently while listening to the Inside the Magic Podcast (its the song played at the end of each episode). Michael Geohegan recently interviewed Richard Sherman who talks about writing this song as well as the theme song for Its a Small World on the Official Disneyland Resort Podcast. He also talks about working with Walt Disney and plussing. I recommend taking a listen.
The Disneyland Report is reporting on “It’s a Small World” celebrating its fortieth birthday tomorrow. They even have the full song lyrics linked from the article.
