Monday, February 18, 2008

Happy (Hall of) President's Day!

What kid wouldn't want to go home and relive all the fun and excitement of The Hall of Presidents via a stereophonic 33 1/3 long-playing record album? This record from 1972 actually expands on the material presented in the Liberty Square attraction and gives us fully dramatized accounts of some of the events mentioned in the show. The recording concludes with a roll call of all 36 Presidents and then a speach from President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln here is once again voiced by Royal Dano using some of the same audio from the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction at the 1964 World's Fair. This track can also be found on the 1980 record/cassette The Official Album of Disneyland/Walt Disney World.



As with many Disney records, the album jacket itself opens up to reveal a "magnificent full-color illustrated book." Inside you'll find reproductions of some of the specially created murals used in the attraction's 70mm film segments. The book's introduction attempts to describe the attraction for listeners who may not have experienced it: In The Hall of Presidents, the Imagineers of Disney have combined the magnificence of wide-screen film storytelling and stereophonic sound with the amazing Audio-Animatronics system of life-size, likelike animation. The result is a panorama of 200 years of our nation's history featuring those men who have led our country since its founding...the Presidents of the United States.


The narration was written by James Algar and performed by Lawrence Dobkin, Original score composed and conducted by Buddy Baker.

One more thing about the attraction, the gift shop right outside the exit of the theatre is called Heritage House and is one of the more unique gift shops in the Magic Kingdom.







2 comments:

Disneyana World said...

I bought this in December.

Keep an eye open for my post about the Disney section of the local record store.

Anonymous said...

These were great souvenirs! I still have mine - The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, HoP. I'm still looking for The Country Bears album.