*Sung lyrics in bold.

(Theatre begins to rotate from Act III.)

FATHER & CHORUS
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
And tomorrow is just a dream away.

Man has a dream and that’s the start.
He follows his dream with mind and heart.

PATRICIA
And when it becomes a reality…

GRANDPA
It’s a dream come true for you and me.

FAMILY
So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.

FATHER
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…

FAMILY
Just a dream away.

(Theatre finishes rotating.)

FATHER (Spoken)
Isn’t it a pleasant holiday? Oh, turkey’s in the oven, it’s peaceful and quiet.

JIMMY (Playing virtual reality game)
Yes! Three hundred points, my best score yet! 

SARAH
Well, it was peaceful until Santa brought that new virtual reality space pilot game.

(JIMMY’s viewfinder lifts.)

JIMMY
Your turn Grandma. Let’s switch the image over to the TV so the resident flying ace can show you how it works.

(GRANDMA’s viewfinder goes down as the TV comes on to show the game.)

JIMMY
Now, it’s a little tricky. Just use your game glove to fly behind the other guy and blast him with your laser blaster!

GRANDMA
Laser blaster? Well, I’ll give it a try.

JIMMY
Take a look around Grandma. You’re in the ship!

GRANDMA
Feels like I’m really there!

JIMMY
Okay, get ready, you’re about to blast off!

GRANDMA
Here goes nothin’.

(The ship on the TV blasts off an passes a ship. The game continues.)

JIMMY
All right, here he comes! Ooh, you missed him!

SARAH (Looking up from laptop computer)
Hey everybody, I’m done programming our new voice activation system. 

FATHER
Now all our household items will do anything we tell ’em to do.

GRANDPA
Great, tell the refrigerator to bring me a root beer.

SARAH
(Chuckles.) Well, it can’t quite do that. But I’ll show you something it can do. (To Computer.) Tree lights, thirty percent brighter.

(The lights brighten and the family reacts.)

GRANDPA
Aw, that’s no big deal. Anybody can do that voice activatin’ stuff. Watch this. (To ROVER.) Rover, speak!

(ROVER barks.)

SARAH
John, the oven should respond to your voice commands now. Give it a try!

FATHER
Ah, okay, here goes. Temperature to 375.

OVEN
Temperature increased to 375. 

PATRICIA
Look at that! It even talks back.

FATHER
Reminds me of certain people I know.

PATRICIA
Yeah right, Dad!

JIMMY (to GRANDMA as he watches her play the game)
You’re gonna lose him, Grandma! Bank to the right!

PATRICIA
Remember Dad’s turkey last year?

GRANDPA
Yeah, that thing really smoked up the place when it burned, didn’t it? 

PATRICIA
We ended up microwaving frozen pizzas.

SARAH
Well, no need to worry about the turkey this year. Not with an oven that will do anything your father tells it to do.

JIMMY (to GRANDMA)
Ooh! Good shot! 

GRANDMA
Did you see that?!

JIMMY
Dad, Grandma’s up to 550 points!

FATHER
Did you say 550? Hey, she’s getting the hang of that thing.

OVEN (Unnoticed by FAMILY)
Temperature increased to 550.

GRANDPA
I can’t believe all the new gadgets they’ve got now. Do you know in my day—

PATRICIA
Oh no! You’re not going to tell us about the old days when you didn’t even have a car phone.

GRANDPA
(Chuckles.) Hey Trish, for a while we didn’t even have a house phone. Not to mention laser discs and hi-def TV. Everything is automated these days, including…

(Toilet flushes offstage.)

GRANDPA
Well, including that.

UNCLE ORVILLE (Offstage)
No privacy at all around this place!

GRANDPA
Sorry, Orville. Anyway, you guys don’t know how good you’ve got it nowadays.

SARAH
You know, my grandpa told me the very same thing when I was a kid.

GRANDMA (to the game)
Take that you nincompoop!

JIMMY
Hey check it out, Dad. Grandma’s up to 975 points.

FATHER
Wow—975!

OVEN
Temperature increased to 975. (Begins beeping.) Overload! Overload! Command overload!

SARAH
John, what’s wrong with the oven?

FATHER
What? Uh…

(Oven door slams open and smokes.)

OVEN
Bake Mode complete. Enjoy your meal.

PATRICIA
Anyone for pizza?

SARAH
Oh, another Christmas turkey ruined.

(ROVER whimpers. GRANDMA’s game ends and her viewfinder lifts.)

GRANDMA
Man, what a game! I really smoked those guys. Looks like I’m resident flying ace now.

JIMMY
Best two out of three Grandma?

GRANDMA
Later kid! Boy that was fun. What will they think up next?

PATRICIA
Who knows? We’ve got a whole new century waiting for us out there.

SARAH
Yeah, and maybe sometime in the new century, your father will learn how to talk to our oven.

FATHER
Well, maybe by then ovens will read our minds. But hey, as long as we’re all here and happy and together for the holidays, who cares if I burned our Christmas turkey?

GRANDMA
I do! I’m starving.

(FAMILY laughs.)

JIMMY
Don’t worry, Dad. Someday, everything’s going to be so automated, you won’t ever have to cook another Christmas turkey again.

(Theatre begins to rotate to exit.)

FAMILY
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
And tomorrow is just a dream away.

SARAH
Man has a dream and that’s the start.

FATHER
He follows his dream with mind and heart.

CHORUS
And when it becomes a reality,
It’s a dream come true for you and me.

So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
Just a dream away.

(Theatre finishes rotating.)

NARRATOR
Thank you for joining us on Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. We hope you’ve enjoyed this tribute to the 1964 Carousel of Progress from the New York World’s Fair. Please gather all your personal belongings and exit through the doors located at the back of the theatre. Have a great big beautiful day, and remember, tomorrow is just a dream away.

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*Sung lyrics in bold.

(Theatre begins to rotate from Act II.)

FATHER & CHORUS
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
And tomorrow is just a dream away.

Man has a dream and that’s the start.
He follows his dream with mind and heart.
And when it becomes a reality,
It’s a dream come true for you and me.

So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
Just a dream away.

(Theatre finishes rotating.)

FATHER
Well, it’s another Halloween here in the fabulous forties. Everything is better than ever now. And we’ve got some amazing new wonders around the house to prove it. For instance, our refrigerator holds more food than ice cubes. And thanks to our automatic dishwasher, I don’t have to dry the dishes anymore after supper. Gives Rover and I more time to enjoy our evening stroll together.

(ROVER barks.)

FATHER
(Chuckles.) Later boy. (To Audience.) Oh, and here’s something else that’s new. I just heard a new term today on the radio. Fella says we’ve go something now called the “rat race.” Did you ever hear that one? Sure describes my life. I’m involved in something now called “commuting.” I drive into the city for work all day and then turn right around and drive all the way back. And the highway is crowded with fellow rats doing the same thing!

GRANDMA (Offstage)
That’s what they call progress dear.

FATHER
(Laughs.) I guess she’s right. But we do have television—when it works. Gives you something to do after you come home. I kind of like it, y’know? Guy named John Cameron Swayze gives us all the news, and then they have all this singing and dancing. A lot of fluff, but it’s fun.

(Lights come up on right diorama, which shows GRANDMA watching the TV while GRANDPA naps.)

FATHER
You know, I predict the day when millions of people will learn Latin and Greek sitting in front of their TV sets.

GRANDMA (to GRANDPA)
Are you awake dear?

(GRANDPA snores, so GRANDMA changes the channel to a boxing match.) 

GRANDMA (to TV)
Give him a left you big lug!

(Lights out on diorama.)

FATHER
Ah yes, a new age of electronic civilization is upon us!

(Lights up on left diorama, revealing JIMMY wearing a werewolf costume and carving a pumpkin.)

JIMMY
Hey dad, what do you think of my jack-o-lantern? 

FATHER (Mock fear)
Oh! Boy is that scary!

JIMMY
That’s ’cause I used my beautiful sister Patty’s picture for a model! (Snickers.)

(ROVER barks.)

FATHER
Down Rover! (To JIMMY.) Jim, Rover appreciates your joke.

SARAH (Offstage)
Now, you’re always kidding poor Patty! She’s certainly prettier than either of you.

(JIMMY howls and ROVER joins in. Lights out on left diorama and up on right diorama to reveal PATRICIA using vibrating exercise machine and talking on the phone.)

FATHER
Ya hear that? My daughter Patty is using that old exercise machine she rescued from the attic. Was all the rage in the twenties. Grandma, of course, had to have one. Didn’t work then; doesn’t work now. (Chuckles.) Consistent at least. Makes a lot of noise and blows fuses. 

PATRICIA (Shaky voice from machine)
As I was saying, Babs, I think college is really swell! You should give it a try!

BABS (On the phone)
Oh Patty, are you going to the Halloween party tonight? 

PATRICIA
Oh, yes! And I’m hoping to lose a few more inches by then since I’m going with that dreamboat, Wilfred.

BABS
Wilfred?! What a slug!

PATRICIA
He’s coming as the headless horseman.

BABS
(Laughs.) It fits. 

PATRICIA
Come on Babs! That clodhopper Howard you’re going with is no Cracker Jack prize!

(Lights out on diorama.)

FATHER
Oh poor Howard. I wonder what they said about me when I was dating Sarah.

(Cuckoo clock chimes and ROVER barks.)

FATHER
(Chuckles.) You’re lucky, Rover—you don’t have to date. Well, we’re caught up in the do-it-yourself craze these days. We’re remodeling our basement as something called a “rumpus room.” And we’re looking forward to a few rumpuses, I tell you—as long as they don’t get out of hand.

(Lights up on SARAH behind the left scrim. She stands on a ladder putting up wallpaper while a food mixer stirs paint.)

SARAH
John, this papering is getting out of hand. I could use a little help!

FATHER
Now Sarah, didn’t I set up that clever automatic paint stirring machine for you?

SARAH
Yes John, you’re a genius… Of course this will ruin my food mixer—not that you’d care.

(Lights begin to fade on the diorama as the mixer gets louder and faster.)

FATHER
Oh, good old Sarah. Always the last laugh.

(The food mixer gets to its loudest and SARAH shrieks. ROVER barks.)

FATHER
What happened Sarah?!

SARAH
Oh, you and your progress! That paint mixer of yours just sloshed paint across my rump—er, rumpus… room.

FATHER
(Chuckles.) Now, how do you like that? I always say, if you’re going to be married, marry a girl with a sense of humor. Well, it’s time to move on. Let’s cheer up Sarah by singing our song. Come on. Everybody!

(Theatre begins to rotate to Act IV.)

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*Sung lyrics in bold.

(Theatre begins to rotate from Act I.)

FATHER & CHORUS
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
And tomorrow is just a dream away.

Man has a dream and that’s the start.
He follows his dream with mind and heart.
And when it becomes a reality,
It’s a dream come true for you and me.

So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
Just a dream away.

(Theatre finishes rotating.)

FATHER
Whew, boy, hottest Fourth of July we’ve had in years. We’ve come a long way, though, since the turn of the century over twenty-some-odd years ago. You know that pilot fella, Charles Lindberg? He’s about to fly a single-winged airplane all the way across the Atlantic. (Chuckles.) He’s never gonna make it. And sports stadiums are springing up all over. And boy, nobody hits that old horse hide like that new fella, Babe Ruth. Jazz music is the cat’s meow, and there’s been ads in the paper for months for a movie starring Al Jolson—and he’s going to talk! And sing! Boy, I’ve gotta see that. (Car horn sounds outside.) Hahaha. There goes Schwartz in his Hupmobile. He sure loves that horn. You know, in my new Essex, I’ve got an electric starter—now I don’t have to crank! We can travel from New York to Los Angeles by train in only three days. And we’ve got a house full of new electrical servants. Mr. Edison sure added life to our home. (All the appliances in the house come to life. To machines.) Whoa there! You’ll blow a fuse! (Lights in the house go dark.) Drat! That’s the third one this week. I buy fuses by the case. (Lights outside the windows go dark.) Uh oh. And I’ve blown the whole neighborhood again!

NEIGHBOR WOMAN
Henry! He did it again! Go over and give that neighbor of ours what for!

(ROVER growls.)

FATHER
Easy, Rover. (Calling offstage.) Jimmy! Hurry up with that fuse!

JIMMY (Offstage) 
Shucks. Every time he has company, he blows a fuse. And guess who always has to change it.

FATHER
I heard that young man! I heard that!

(Lights come back on. They also reveal SARAH behind the right scrim. She is dressed in colonial garb and is sewing a costume.)

SARAH
Oh, well that’s more like it. John, yours is the last costume I’ve got to finish before the parade starts.

FATHER
Sarah’s ladies’ club is responsible for our town’s Fourth of July celebration tonight. She’s got us all roped into performing in their program, and I—

SARAH (Interrupting)
And I’ve decided that we’re going as George and Martha Washington, dear. 

FATHER
Oh, the father of our country! (Chuckles.) That’s a role that really fits me! You know, I—

SARAH (Interrupting)
I’m so glad we installed an electric light fixture here on the porch, because it’s just too darn hot to be sewing inside.

FATHER
Yes Sarah. You know, next year I’d like to go as Benedict Arnold! (Chuckles.)  I—

SARAH (Interrupting)
Wait until you see what I’ve got planned for the fireworks show tonight.

(ROVER barks.)

FATHER
Rover! Don’t interrupt, while Sarah’s interrupting.

SARAH
And guess who volunteered to choose the music for the program?

(Lights out on right diorama and up on left diorama, where JIMMY is standing next to the radio and GRANDPA sits in the chair.)

JIMMY
I did, Pop! Listen to this!

(JIMMY turns on the radio, which plays “Stars and Stripes Forever.”)

FATHER
Oh, that’s a nice tune, Jimmy. (To Audience.) Y’know, with our new Crosley radio set, we can get news and big-time entertainment from all over the country. Even Pittsburgh!

RADIO ANNOUNCER
People are starting to arrive downtown for a spectacular Fourth of July parade and fireworks event tonight. Mayor Reed said…

(RADIO dies down and lights out on left diorama. FATHER addresses right diorama, which is still dark.)

FATHER
Oh, Patricia.

PATRICIA
Yes Father?

FATHER
Better get a move on! The radio says people are arriving downtown.

PATRICIA
Do I really have to go?

(PATRICIA is revealed behind right scrim wearing a Statue of Liberty costume.)

PATRICIA
If my new boyfriend Theodore sees me in this, it’ll scare him away! 

FATHER
(Chuckles.) Well dear, if that happens, you’ll always have that torch you can carry for him. (Laughs.)

(ROVER growls exasperatedly.)

PATRICIA
Oh, father!

(Lights out on right diorama.)

FATHER
Calm down Rover. I was only kidding! (To Audience.) By the way, we have indoor plumbing now! Oh boy, that’s really great on cold nights. Especially for our perennial houseguest, old Uncle Orville.

(Lights up on left diorama, where UNCLE ORVILLE sits in the bathtub wearing an Uncle Sam hat. He has a fan blowing on him over the top of a large block of ice.)

FATHER
Uncle Orville’s taken over the coolest spot in the house, of course, and he’s rigged up a real clever contraption. He calls it “air cooling.” Hmph. Too bad he’s not reading the help wanted ads.

(Lights out on diorama.)

UNCLE ORVILLE (Offstage)
No privacy at all around this place!

FATHER
Sorry, Orville. (To Audience.) You know, considering all the—

SARAH (Offstage)
John, costume’s ready!

FATHER
Oh, coming Martha! (To Audience.) As I was saying, considering all the conveniences we now have, I’ll say that we’re really on Easy Street these days. It just can’t get any better! Just goes to show that…

(Theatre begins to rotate to Act III.)

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*Sung lyrics in bold.

(Theatre begins rotating from Preshow.)

CHORUS
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
And tomorrow is just a dream away.

Man has a dream and that’s the start.
He follows his dream with mind and heart.

FATHER & CHORUS
And when it becomes a reality,
It’s a dream come true for you and me.

So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
Just a dream away. 

(Birds chirping.)

FATHER (Spoken)
Yeah, it looks like the robins are getting ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day today. What year is it? Oh, right around the turn of the century. And believe me, things couldn’t be any better than they are today. Yes sir, buildings are towering now as high as twenty stories. And moving pictures flicker up on a big screen. We have almost 8,000 automobiles in this country, and we can travel by train from New York to California in less than seven days! And I even hear tell about two brothers from North Carolina who are working on some kind of flying contraption. (Chuckles.) It’ll never work. Closer to home, we’ve now got gas lamps, a telephone, and the latest design in cast-iron stoves. And that reservoir keeps five gallons of water hot all day on just three buckets of coal. Oh boy, it sure beats chopping wood. And isn’t our new icebox a beauty? Look at that! Holds 50 pounds of ice. Milk doesn’t sour as quick as it used to. And our dog Rover here keeps the water in the drip pan from overflowing. It wasn’t too long ago we had to carry water from a well. And thanks to progress, we’ve got a pump right here in the kitchen. Of course, we keep a bucket of water handy to prime it with. Yes sir, we’ve got everything we need to make life easier.

(SARAH and YOUNGER DAUGHTER appear behind left scrim.)

FATHER
Say, mother?

SARAH
Mmm?

FATHER
I was reading about a fellow named Tom Edison who’s working on an idea for snap-on electric lights.

SARAH
Electric lights? No more kerosine! No more gas!

FATHER
(Chuckles.) Sarah sure gets to the core of the apple.

SARAH
But we do have this new washday marvel. Now, it takes me only five hours to do the wash. Imagine, it used to take two days.

FATHER
Oh, that’s right folks. Now Sarah has time for other things, like—

SARAH
Like canning and cleaning the oven?

FATHER
Yes dear.

SARAH
Well ovens just don’t clean themselves, you know, dear.

FATHER
I know dear. (Chuckles.) And they probably never will!

SARAH
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get the laundry off the line before it starts raining cats and dogs.

(ROVER barks. Blackout on left diorama.)

FATHER
Ah, don’t worry Rover. She didn’t mean real dogs. Besides, it’s not going to rain today. My lumbago isn’t acting up.

(Lightning and thunder outside as rain begins to fall.)

SARAH (Offstage)
I hate to say I told you so.

FATHER
Oh, look at it come down! All you have to do is put your wash on the line, right? Oh well, the cistern was low anyway.

(JIMMY appears behind right scrim, looking at stereoscope.)

JIMMY
Wowee! Look at that!

FATHER
Now James, I thought I told you to ask my permission before using my new stereoscope. That’s not a toy you know!

JIMMY
Ooh-la-la! So that’s Little Egypt doing the hoochie-koochie, eh Dad?

FATHER
Isn’t she a knockout? She’s the star of the new World’s Fair in St. Louis, and—(clears throat) now you put that away before your mother finds it.

JIMMY
Aw, Dad…

FATHER
You heard me!

(Blackout on diorama.)

FATHER
Well, we have one of those new talking machines. Now that is something. It plays music right here in our home.

(Lights up on left diorama, when GRANDMA sits listening to phonograph with her PARROT.)

RADIO (Singing)
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.

PARROT
(Squawk) She keeps that thing going all day long. (Squawk) Progress! (Squawk. Whistle).

(Lights out on left diorama as they come up on right diorama, where PATRICIA is sitting, half dressed.)

PATRICIA
Oh, papa!

FATHER
Yes Patricia?

PATRICIA
Papa! All these people! I’m… I’m indecent!

FATHER
(Chuckles.) Don’t worry, Patricia. They’re friends. (To Audience.) That’s our teenage daughter. She’s getting ready to go to a Valentine’s dance across town, on one of those new horseless trolleys.

PATRICIA
I think it’s very romantic you’re taking mother out for Valentine’s dinner this evening.

FATHER
Well, you know what kind of sport I am.

PATRICIA
I only hope I have an evening as romantic as yours and mother’s.

FATHER (Sternly)
Now you be home by nine o’clock, daughter. You hear me?

PATRICIA (Dejectedly) 
Yes papa.

(Lights out on diorama.)

FATHER
Well, with all this talking, I’ve worked up quite a thirst. I think I’ll take one of those new-fangled trolleys down to the drugstore soda fountain and meet the boys for a cold sarsaparilla. Oh, haha, I’m sorry, I forgot—we’re drinking root beer now! Same kind of thing, different name. Well, that’s progress for you. And, uh, speaking of progress…

(Theatre begins to rotate to Act II.)

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*Sung lyrics in bold.

(Queue video)

(Music plays over Carousel of Progress logo)

RICHARD SHERMAN, ROBERT SHERMAN, & WALT DISNEY
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
And tomorrow is just a dream away.

RICHARD SHERMAN
Man has a dream, and that’s the start.
He follows his dream with mind and heart.
And when it becomes a reality,
It’s a dream come true for you and me.

RICHARD SHERMAN, ROBERT SHERMAN, & WALT DISNEY
So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow,
Just a dream away.

WALT DISNEY
Well, sounds pretty good—in fact, that’s just the right spirit. Our songwriters, Dick and Bob Sherman of the Walt Disney Studio. The Sherman brothers have written many of the wonderful songs for our motion pictures and television shows, and I think this song—written especially for you—captures the spirit of the General Electric Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. Thanks boys! Say goodbye to the folks.

RICHARD AND ROBERT SHERMAN (Exiting)
Bye-bye.

WALT DISNEY
Well, “a beautiful tomorrow, just a dream away.” That say’s we’re going places. There’s progress ahead, and that’s just the mood we want for the whole pavilion. Here, for example, is a scale model of the General Electric Carousel Theatre—a theatre in which the audience itself moves in their seats around the stages. The actors? Well, they’re not real people, but they are a talented and interesting cast. We call them audio-animatronic figures, and they talk and act like human beings. The Carousel Theatre will present a warm and entertaining portrayal of how life has changed through electrical energy. The same kind of exciting and unique entertainment is what we’re planning for every area of the General Electric Pavilion. So, see you at the fair, and remember…

RICHARD SHERMAN, ROBERT SHERMAN, & WALT DISNEY (Singing)
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…

REX ALLEN (Voiceover)
Hello, I’m Rex Allen. And I had the honor of performing in that original show some 30 years ago. While the show has changed, its spirt of progress is a living tribute to the man who first created it—Walt Disney.

(Music plays over Carousel of Progress logo)

REX ALLEN (Voiceover)
Welcome to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. You may not know it, but this show was originally created for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Designed as part of the Progressland Pavilion, Walt’s idea for this show revolved around the idea of creating a warm and entertaining portrayal of how progress has made our lives better—from the turn of the century to then-modern-day 1960s. Now, since visitors to the World’s Fairs always expect to see the latest innovations, Walt created a revolutionary theatre in the round, where the audience literally moved around the stages and performers. And these were no ordinary performers either. They were the latest innovation in animation from Walt Disney—which he called “audio-animatronics.” Walt and his Imagineers created a cast of 32 talented performers for the show, and what made these actors so unique is that they could perform nonstop all day long without ever taking a break. The whole cast was assembled for a dress rehearsal just two months before Opening Day at the fair. Walt and his crew had to work around the clock to get the show finished on time.

WALT DISNEY
This is the stage for Act I of the Carousel Theatre of Progress. Stages for the other acts are being assembled at other places in the studio for a complete audio-animatronic dress rehearsal. Now this contraption here might look like something from outer space, but it’s actually a control harness for programming the actions and gestures of our audio-animatronic figures. Should we show ’em how it works?

IMAGINEER
Ready, Walt.

WALT DISNEY
This is the Carousel Theatre host. Whatever the man in the harness does, this figure will respond simultaneously in the same manner. Would you care for a light? (Goes to light the FATHER’s pipe) I don’t think we better. (Blows out match) No smoking on stage. He can, oh, read the newspaper. (To FATHER) How about showin’ ’em how you read the newspaper? What’s the date of that thing? (To camera) 1890! The operator of the control harness has to be a bit of a ham actor, as you can see. Now, you know, all of the operator’s actions are recorded on tape. Now let’s hear the theme song of the Carousel Theatre.

FATHER
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day.

REX ALLEN (Voiceover)
Since its debut at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, the Carousel of Progress has been seen by more people than any other show in American history. I’m Rex Allen, and I had the honor of performing in that original show over 30 years ago. And while the show has changed over the years, it continues to entertain audiences today. An ongoing tribute to one man, who never stood in the way of progress—Walt Disney.

WALT DISNEY (to ASSISTANT)
Are you tailing me or something?

ASSISTANT
Ooh, yes, you might say so. There’s two things Walt. First, Mrs. Disney called. She wants to know, since you didn’t make it home for Christmas, do you think you can by Easter?

WALT DISNEY
Tell her I doubt it. But I will see her at the fair.

(Guests move into Carousel Theatre.)

NARRATOR
Welcome to Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. Ah, you’re in for a real treat. The Carousel of Progress was Walt’s own idea from beginning to end—he loved it. He introduced the show at the World’s Fair in New York City in 1964, and it was an immediate smash hit. Millions of people came to see it, and since then, the Carousel of Progress has had more performances than any other stage show in the history of American theatre. You know, Walt loved the idea of progress, and he loved the American family. And he himself was probably as American as anyone could possibly be. He thought it would be fun to watch the American family go through the 20th century, experiencing all new wonders as they came. And he put them together in a show called Carousel of Progress, which we are now about to see. Although our Carousel family has experienced a few changes over the years, our show still revolves around the same theme—and that’s progress. May the century begin.

(Theatre begins rotating and stops in Act I room.)

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