Walt Disney's "America The Beautiful" at Disneyland

America The Beautiful was a 360 degree film that was presented at Disneyland, in Tomorrowland's Circle-Vision Theater. Over the years, there were several films with that same name that were shown, but the version that played the longest debuted in 1967, along with a whole new Tomorrowland.

The film played at Disneyland for 17 years until it was eventually replaced by American Journeys and The Wonders of China in 1984. However, in the summer of 1996, America the Beautiful returned to Disneyland for a limited engagement that lasted into 1997.

This was still a time before everyone was on the internet, so I didn't have any advanced notice about the film's return. I can still remember the excitement I felt back in 1996, when I first saw this new banner hanging over the entrance to the theater. The banner reads, "Celebrating 40 Years of Circle-Vision - The 1960's Classic - Walt Disney's America the Beautiful - Special Return Showing"

Let's go back now and take a look at the Circle-Vision theater building (and surrounding area), through a series of "then and now" photographs. This first photo was taken in 1983. It doesn't show the actual theater (which would be just to our left) but it does show what the costumes looked like for the hostesses working the attraction.

This next photo is from 1996 and was taken while standing just a little further west, allowing us to see a portion of the theater marquee. Note the two banners announcing the return of America the Beautiful. One of them is the Statue of Liberty banner that we saw above. We'll get a closer look at that red, white and blue one in just a minute.

Not to depress anyone, but here are a couple "later" shots of the building taken from almost the same spot. The first one is from Wikipedia. I have very few of my own photos of the "Brown Tomorrowland of 1998" because I found it too repulsive to photograph.

And this is the current view:

Next, we have some shots of the theater entrance that were taken while standing underneath the PeopleMover beam. This is from 1983:

If we lighten the photo a little, we can see the design on the wall just inside the doorway a little better.

This is the same angle, from 1996. Note again, the two new banners. Also note the strips of metal that have been added to the marquee to cover up the former sponsor of the theater (Delta Airlines).

I don't need to lighten that photo to see the wall inside, because I took a close-up shot of it back in 1996.

Once again, I don't want to bum anyone out, but this photo was taken from the same angle, so I'm including it here. I shot this one through a hole in one of the construction walls that were put up during the destruction of Tomorrowland in September of 1997. (The hole in the wall just happened to line up perfectly with the shot I had taken back in 1983. You can see just a smidgen of the PeopleMover beam in the upper right hand corner of both photos.)

And the same view today:

Going back to 1983, this close up shows the smaller sign that was tucked into a corner just to the left of the entrance.

And here's the sign's replacement. This was taken in January of 1996, prior to the return of America the Beautiful. The Wonders of China would play in the theater first, from early morning until early afternoon. American Journeys was then shown the rest of the operating day. There was a short period of time in the middle of the day, that the theater would have to close in order to change the marquee and switch the reels of film on the projectors.

This is the same display case in July of 1996. The sign on the right mentions that America the Beautiful was the last Circle-Vision film personally supervised by Walt Disney. There is also a mention of the "next generation of Tomorrowland attractions". What a joke! The Circle-Vision theater didn't even get to remain as a stand-alone attraction in the new Tomorrowland of 1998. It was turned into a queue for an attraction that lasted only two and a half years! Argh!

Now we will head inside the building. The waiting area had large square upholstered seats. Sometimes you would see guests sprawled across them taking a nap. In the photo below, they have been pushed together in groupings of two. The PeopleMover had not permanently closed at the time this interior shot was taken in 1995, but it's operation was "spotty". Here, we can see that there is one car lined up right behind another on the track. Also, if you look at the wall below the PeopleMover track, you can just make out a world map. This photo goes back to when Delta Airlines was still a sponsor of the theater.

I'm including this next pic just for fun. If you look carefully in the photo above, there is an upside down popcorn box under one of the seats (far left and in the back). This isn't THAT exact popcorn box from the photo (I don't usually pick up trash off of the ground), but it is one just like it that I had saved from back then.

This photo shows what the pre-show area looked like during the time that America the Beautiful was having it's special return showing. The state flags were a little reminiscent of the way the room was decorated back in the early days of the Circle-Vision Theater. Too bad they didn't replicate the modern flags that used to hang from the ceiling.

Now let's go inside the theater and watch America The Beautiful. I've posted two links below. I shot this footage in 1996, during the film's return engagement to Disneyland. This first link includes the building's exterior and also the pre-show ("Hey everyone....at the count of three, shout out what state or country you are from!").





This second link is for a video of the actual film, in it's entirety.





I do have footage of both American Journeys and The Wonders of China that I will post in the future, if anyone is interested.

****POST UPDATE****
I have now posted footage for both American Journeys and The Wonders of China. That footage can be viewed here: Circle-Vision at Disneyland.

The Magic Kingdom - Arriving & Halloween Stuff

One of the nice things about the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is that it doesn't sit in the middle of a "city." When driving to the park, you enter the Disney property and then drive for quite a while past undeveloped stretches of land before you ever get to the park. Along the way, there are a few billboards advertising attractions at the various parks. The first one that you pass promotes the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at the Disney Hollywood Studios Park. The elevator car is actually animated and wobbles around continuously.



This advertisement is for Mission Space at Epcot. I'll have more to say about that attraction when I post pics from Epcot, but for now I'll just hold my tongue. The Monorail beam behind the sign is the route that connects the Magic Kingdom with Epcot.



This last billboard is for the movie "It's Tough To Be A Bug" which is an attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It reads, "Catch a 3-D Flick" (my seventh grade history teacher always referred to movies as "flicks"!) This sign actually faces the traffic that is leaving the Magic Kingdom.



Now we're at the entrance to the parking lot.



After parking, you can catch a tram that will take you to the Transportation and Ticket Center where you buy your park tickets and then take either a monorail or ferry to the main entrance of the park. This was my park ticket.



And this is the cover of the park map and guide that was being handed out.



The park was having special Halloween event nights, just like Disneyland.



If you look closely in this next pic, there is a rope across the front of the Monorail queue. They had just closed it off and were making everyone go to the Ferry dock. It seems like most people want to take the Monorail, so I'm guessing they do this to keep the line from getting too long.



So it's off to the Ferry dock we go....it's sort of like cattle being herded.



Here as part of the "herd", we wait for the Richard F. Irvine ferry boat to dock.



The Polynesian Resort Hotel sits just across from the dock. This hotel opened on October 1, 1971, the same day that the Magic Kingdom officially opened it's gates to the world.



The park can be seen off in the distance on the other side of the Seven Seas Lagoon. That black crane to the right of the photo is a part of the New Fantasyland construction.



Here's the view looking back at The Polynesian.



The ferries also pass the Grand Floridian Hotel, which opened in 1988.



We're getting closer......



....and even closer. The Admiral Joe Fowler ferry boat is approaching after dropping off guests at the park entrance.



Before reaching the dock, we pass The Contemporary Resort Hotel which also opened on October 1, 1971. I do not like the new Disney Vacation Club tower that was built next to The Contemporary. It does not match architecturally and I think it makes The Contemporary look less significant.



For those that aren't familiar with The Contemporary, here's a better pic showing it's unique shape. I took this back in 2007 and I just now realized that construction on the new tower must have already begun. Note the dirt just to the left of the hotel.



Okay, we are finally at the park! The train station is decked out in special bunting for Halloween



Let's look at that 1975 slide again that I posted before my trip.



I tried to stand in the same spot to take my pic. After a little bit of cropping, we have a "before and after" comparison.



Here's the Magic Kingdom's City Hall......



.....and the Fire Station.



These cast members were "Walking right down the middle of Main St. U.S.A."....at least that's the song that they were singing. It reminded me of Marie Osmond's performance on the 1985 Disneyland 30th Anniversary Special.



There were quite a few themed scarecrows positioned around Town Square. I took this first pic during the day, but snapped photos of all of them before leaving the park that night.













I like the extra touch on this one with the sugar leaking out of the sack and into the planter.



Speaking of sacks of sugar.....these jack o' lanterns sit in the same general area of Town Square as Disneyland's giant "Mickey" pumpkin.



Halloween trim adorns all of the lampposts on Main St.



This part of Main St. used to be West Center St. and contained an outdoor flower market. A few years back, they actually built another building in what was the open portion of the street and extended the Emporium over to the shops on the other side of the street. Geez, how badly did they need that additional space? And for what.....just to sell more plush toys? How sad is that? I hope they never do that at Disneyland!



Here's the interior of that new addition....



....along with some turn of the century Halloween displays.




Further up Main St, the Horse-Drawn Trolley had stopped in the Plaza.



That gave me the perfect opportunity to recreate another shot from my 1975 Walt Disney World Post. Note how the large trees in the Plaza have all been replaced with smaller ones.....just like Disneyland's Plaza.




And while we're in the area, let's get a "today" shot of Cinderella's Castle to compare to the vintage slide from that same post.



We will just crop it a bit and VOILA!




The last slide in that post included a shot of some topiaries near the Castle.



The only topiary I could find that close to the Castle today is this sea serpent, but it appears there used to be more at one time.



And last up for today, we have a couple of statues from the Plaza. Both Donald and Pluto are dressed up as "Musketeers."




I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!