Carousel of Progress

Magical Mouse Schoolhouse has been featuring a series of Guest bloggers, and today we'd like to welcome our friend Heidi from Reviews and Reflections. Heidi is a fellow homeschooler and the Special Projects Manager for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. She also writes for the Magical Blogorail Orange! Each Friday, Heidi features "Destination Disney," a through-the-alphabet Disney journey. Welcome, Heidi, and thank you for visiting Magical Mouse Schoolhouse!

Originally created by Walt Disney for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, the Carousel of Progress is a 21-minute show that takes place in a revolving theater. Located in the Tomorrowland section of the Magic Kingdom, the Carousel of Progress will take you back to the turn of the twentieth century and walk you through about an 80-year span of history.

Each scene in the Carousel of Progress centers on a typical American family. You’re first introduced to them on Valentine’s Day of 1900 (or thereabout). From there, you move on to the 4th of July sometime in the 1920s, Halloween in the 1940s, and Christmas in what was originally “the future” but is really more like the 1980s. The father, whose name is John, serves as your narrator. The family doesn’t age as you would expect them to; rather, the idea is simply to introduce you to the new technologies of each era.

After the World’s Fair, the Carousel of Progress was reopened in 1967 at Disneyland Resort in California, where it entertained Guests through the fall of 1973. In early 1975, the Carousel debuted at Walt Disney World in Florida. Over the years, it’s seen some minor changes, but the premise of the original Walt Disney attraction is much the same. With its catchy theme song, “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” and its impressive Audio-Animatronics, the Carousel of Progress is an interesting must-see attraction. Not only is it the only attraction in Walt Disney World that has a direct link to its creator—Walt Disney—but it also holds the impressive record of being the longest-running stage show in the history of American theater.

Today’s Takeaway:
Go on an internet scavenger hunt. Divide kids into two teams and have them scour the internet to find the below information. Make it a game to see who can find what the quickest. Assign a point system: 1 point for articles, 2 points for audio links, 3 points for video links.

“There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” is the current theme song for Carousel of Progress, but it’s not the only one the attraction has featured. Find the other. {Discuss:
          Which do you think goes better with the attraction? Why?}

Find out who voices the Grandfather. {Discuss: Where have you heard his voice before?}

Choose an item that is introduced in the Carousel of Progress, such as the gramophone, sewing machine or dishwasher, and find who invented it. {Discuss: When was
          the item invented? Are we still using this item today?}

**ADULT SUPERVISION IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED! Teach kids about internet safety. Remind them that if they wouldn't give certain information to a stranger in real life, they shouldn’t give that information out on the internet either. The best place to do this activity is at your local library, where multiple computers are accessible simultaneously and the internet is filtered.**

Just for fun, next time you ride Carousel of Progress, watch for Hidden Mickeys. Here’s one hint:

SCHOOL SUBJECT: History
SKILL LEVEL: Middle Grades


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