The Carousel Of Progress premiered in 1964 at the New York World's Fair.
Three years later it came to Disneyland & ran from July 2, 1967 through September 9, 1973.
The following year, it was replaced with a new show called " America Sings ".
America Sings was a type of sequel to The Carousel Of Progress. Rather than show how America's technology has changed over the years, America Sings showcased America's music & how it's changed over the years. This show (along with America On Parade) was part of an early celebration at Disneyland in honor of America's Bicentennial.
Opening on June 29, 1974, the show featured over 100 audio animatronic characters & the host of the show 'Sam The Eagle' was voiced by actor Burl Ives.
The look of the show was based on concept art for an unfinished Disney animated film called "Chanticleer And The Fox". Originally Walt rejected the idea but after Marc Davis & other animators kept pushing for it, Walt greenlighted the film the second time around. By the early 1960's, while the film was in animation, Walt felt his staff was being stretched thin & decided they needed to cut back on animated films. Chanticleer & The Sword In The Stone were both in animation at the same time. Walt decided to shut down production on Chanticleer & complete Sword In The Stone instead. Walt put Marc to work on developing characters for upcoming Disneyland attractions Pirates Of The Caribbean & The Haunted Mansion. Marc always regretted not making that movie so it's no surprise that years later he put his drawings to good use when he finally got an opportunity in Disneyland.
The theater in Tomorrowland would turn clockwise when it featured The Carousel Of Progress, but with America Sings the theater turned counter-clockwise. Shortly after the show opened at least one Cast Member died inside the attraction when they got caught between a moving wall & a non-moving wall. After this happened, the show closed for a brief period of time to replace some of walls with breakaway walls to prevent an another tragedy like this from reoccuring.
Before America Sings closed a few of the long necked geese were changed into "Captain Rex" for Star Tours, which opened on January 9, 1987.
America Sings closed on April 10, 1988.
Most of the audio animatronic characters were transported into Critter Country & today can be seen as the additional supporting cast of characters inside Splash Mountain, which opened in Disneyland on July 18, 1989.
Within the last year or so, the soundtrack to America Sings was released for sale in Disneyland thanks to a new 'burn on demand' CD system. It sales for about $16.
