Walt Disney Story Featuring Great Moments With Mr Lincoln Articles

Mr. Lincoln retired on New Year's Day in 1973 when the Walt Disney story moved into the Opera House. However fans were so insistent about bringing the president back that Lincoln return in 1975 generating the longest title of any attraction so far "The Walt Disney Story featuring Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln". Updates in 1984 and 2001 enhance the presentation with new special effects and better sound.Lincoln's voice was performed by Royal Dano the character actor with a long career in movies and TV shows. Dano who was 42 when he first recorded the Lincoln vocals and died in 1994 at age 71. Paul Freese spoke the original narration introducing the attraction and Buddy Baker provided the heart swelling music. As for the mechanical president Disney Legends Roger Brogie,Harriet Burns, Mark Davis, Blaine Gibson, Bob Gurr and Wathal Rogers helped make Great Moments great.

Opera house theater has 500 seats

The First Lincoln figure built (1964) was shown at the Worlds Fair

The Second Lincoln figure built was a spare never shown to the public

The Third Lincoln figure built (1965) was a revised design and shown in the Worlds Fair second year

The Fourth Lincoln figure built (1965) was shown at Disneyland: Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln

The Fifth Lincoln figure built (1971) was shown at Walt Disney World

The Sixth Lincoln figure built (1975) was shown at Disneyland: The Walt Disney Story Featuring Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln

I believe there was one built around 1977 that traveled around the U.S. for shows. I am having trouble confirming that though.

From Steve Birnbaum brings you the best of Disneyland 1982:


The Fifth Freedom Mural: Measuring 53 feet in width and 52 feet in height, this oil painting in the exit hallway of the Walt Disney Story portrays the likenesses and vignettes of the contributions of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, iron-and- steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Henry Ford, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Pearl Buck, agricultural chemist and educator George Washington Carver, communications executive David Sarnoff, rocket propulsion pioneer Robert H. Goddard, Albert Einstein, and Walt Disney- all of whom rose to greatness through free enterprise, the "fifth freedom" to which the mural's name refers. The first four freedoms-freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear-were described in a 1941 speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The fifth freedom was highlighted in one of Lincoln's own addresses: "I believe each individual is natu- rally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man's rights." This quote is reproduced on a brass plaque on the pillar in the middle of the room. Plaques below the painting give other quotes on the same subject by Louis D. Brandeis, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Pearl Buck, David Sarnoff, Albert Einstein, and Walt Disney. Presented by the Gulf Oil Corporation.

The Seventh Lincoln figure built (1984) was shown at Disneyland: The Walt Disney Story Featuring Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln

The Eighth Lincoln figure built (1993) was shown at Walt Disney World

The Ninth Lincoln figure built (2009) is currently being shown at Disneyland: The Disneyland Story Featuring Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln

Buddy Baker composed the original music for this attraction.

In July 2001 this attraction was retooled with binaural sound through head phones. The audience member became Private Cunningham. The new show was named Journey To Gettysburg

Voices (2001 version) :
Abraham Lincoln - Warren Burton
Announcer - Corey Burton
Frederick Douglass - J.D. Hall
Matthew Brady - Lane Davies

THE WALT DISNEY STORY:

We see a display of nostalgic photographs, memorabilia, and awards honoring the accomplishments of Walt Disney. Also on display are Walt's studio offices, recreated with the same items he used for 26 years.

The ''working office'' was used for conferences with directors, writers, artists, and almost anyone involved in creating Disney productions. Walt used his ''formal office'' for appointments with special guests visiting the Disney Studio. Although Walt didn't play the piano himself, several of the Studio songwriters would occasionally stop by to play a tune for him. For instance, Leopold Stokowski played some of the music from Fantasia on this baby grand more that 50 years ago. And in the early 1960's, the Sherman Brothers offered Walt a preview of the Academy Award winning songs from Mary Poppins.

Behind the desk, in the corner of the ''formal office'' are Norman Rockwell portraits of Walt's daughters, with Sharon on the left and Diane on the right. Between these sketchings is a portion of Walt's miniature collection, which is said to have been part of the inspiration behind the attraction, ''It's A Small World''.

In all, more that 960 awards were received during Walt's lifetime, including 51 Academy Award ''Oscars''. Just across from the offices is a special tribute to Walt Disney the naturalist, and his Academy Award winning True-Life Adventure films. Walt had a high regard for education, and many of his films were designed for this purpose. At the far end of the lobby is a brief presentation about Walt's pioneering achievements in animation.

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GREAT MOMENTS WITH MR. LINCOLN

Once seated in the theater, the show begins with a slide presentation offering an introduction to the tumultuous times when Abraham Lincoln became President. A realistic figure of Abraham Lincoln then rises from his chair to deliver an inspiring and prophetic address to the audience, with words derived from Lincoln's own speeches from more than 100 years ago


People:We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.


Narrator:These immortal words, when first they were written, proclaimed to the world an idea new among men. This was the American dream, the prayer for the future. But that golden goal was not to be had without cost. The American way was not gained in a day. It was born in adversity, forged out of conflict, perfected and proven only after long experience and trial. Our nation's greatest crisis occurred when Abraham Lincoln was our President, and our protector. For Abraham Lincoln gave all to save the Union


Lincoln: My countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with those great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence, if you have listened to suggestion that would take away it's grandeur, if you are inclined to believe that all men are not created equal, let me entreat you to come back. Come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity. If that Declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute book in which we find it and tear it out. Then let us stick to it then, and let us stand firmly by it.


Narrator:Abraham Lincoln became President faced with the terrible threat of Civil War, a thing he dreaded, yet a calamity he was prepared to meet if he must.


Lincoln:Without union, the Constitution is only a piece of paper. I know there is a God and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming. I know His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me, and I think He has, I believe I'm ready. I am nothing. But truth is everything. And with God's help, I shall not fail.


Narrator:April 12th, 1861, Fort Sumpter. The cannons spoke for war, Civil War. Violent. Devastating. Now had come the reckoning, the supreme test that would decide whether a republic founded on liberty could survive the terrible strife of men's passions.


Soloist:Two brothers on their way
Two brothers on their way
Two brothers on their way
One wore blue and one wore gray


One wore blue and one wore gray
As they marched along their way
The fife and drum began to play
All on a beautiful morning


One was gentle, one was kind
One was gentle, one was kind
One came home, one stayed behind
A cannon ball don't pay no mind


A cannon ball don't pay no mind
If you're gentle or if you're kind
It don't think of the folks behind
All on a beautiful morning
All on a beautiful morning


Lincoln:Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away, with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right. Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.


Narrator:Abraham Lincoln, man of the people, man for the ages. His spirit is with us still, for he is one with us, and we are one with him.

We pay tribute here not to a man who lived a century ago, but to an individual who lives today in the hearts of all freedom-loving people. His prophetic words are as valid for our time as they were for his. And now the skills of the sculptor and the talents of the artist will let us relive great moments with Mr. Lincoln.


AUDIO-ANIMATRONIC PRESENTATION


Lincoln:The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts. These are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against is? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us in a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up from amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide.

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by the menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.


Choir:America, you must be dreaming now
Dreaming of promised lands
Of your pioneers


America
Keep on flying now
Keep your spirit free
Facing new frontiers


America
Spread your golden wings
Sail on freedom's wind
Across the sky


Great bird
With your golden wings
Flying high
Flying high
Flying high


America
Keep on flying high