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Disneyland Sound and Fury

Sound & Communication Magazine is celebrating it’s 50th Anniversary this year, so I guess it makes perfect sense that they’re doing an article on Disneyland Sounds, since the park also turned 50 this year. The author has been working for the park since 1977 and he’s seen a lot of changes.

The Main Street Electrical Parade featured the first computerized controls:

I was able to talk with (and work with) guys who had originally set up the Disneyland Electrical Parade (perhaps the most viewed parade in history). When it originally debuted in 1972, the parade had the first show-control system in existence. A Berkey Colortran “computerized” lighting console, if I recall correctly, was used to trigger
audio, lighting and machinery to operate the parade.

and, that the groundbreaking Hunchback of Notre Dame Festival of Fools show went from Storyboards to opening day in just six months? There were also some interesting challenges with the stage design.

The whole article provides wonderful insight into how Disney makes the magic (sometimes by the skin of their teeth, as it turns out).

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