This past month, The Walt Disney Family Museum commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. To complement the public program, Walt Disney: A Giant at the World’s Fair, and Open Studio activities, July’s Spotlight Talks highlighted one of the Disney exhibits for New York: the Illinois Pavilion. Also referred to as "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," this pavilion featured a lifelike figure of America’s sixteenth president.
These World’s Fair exhibits were created, in part, from Walt’s desire to add new attractions to Disneyland and to test the waters for something permanent on the East Coast. He already had his Imagineers working on a number of projects, including an attraction called Hall of Presidents. Featuring a short film about American history, this attraction was slated to be home to lifelike figures of every American president. To bring those figures to life, the Imagineers used a new form of robotics called Audio-Animatronics®. On display at the museum is a blueprint of various mechanical valves and an armature, which housed a portion of the machinery.
To create Lincoln’s appearance, the Imagineers were able to access a life-mask of Lincoln. Created in 1860, the mask was the handiwork of sculptor Leonard Volk, who persuaded the Illinois politician to sit and endure wet plaster, as it was applied and later, hardened on his face. More than a century later, the Imagineers used this mask to create a model of Lincoln’s head. With this model, which is also on display, historically accurate latex masks of Lincoln’s face could be created, and then, fitted onto the mechanical figure’s head.
As the work progressed, Walt gave a tour of the Imagineers’ workspace to Robert Moses, the head of the New York World’s Fair. Upon seeing the Lincoln figure in action, Robert insisted on including it at the fair. Due to the amount of time before the fair was to open, Walt decided to scale back the attraction to focus only on Lincoln.
As the start of the fair loomed, Mr. Lincoln and the Imagineers made their way to the fairgrounds in New York. Unfortunately, the Lincoln figure was soon plagued by mechanical difficulties upon its installation. Walt’s team worked feverishly all the way up to the night of the preview, but to no avail. In front of a packed auditorium, Walt stepped onto the stage and informed the 500 invited guests that the performance was cancelled. As he broke the news, Walt summarized the problem, while emphasizing his commitment to putting on the best show possible or no show at all.
Over the next several days, the Imagineers continued to work and, eventually, they succeeded in getting the Lincoln figure to perform perfectly. Fairgoers responded quite favorably to the Illinois Pavilion, in addition to the other impressive exhibits Walt’s team created. Mr. Lincoln was so popular that a second version was installed at Disneyland before the fair concluded in late 1965.
A half-century later, this attraction continues to enchant and to inspire guests from all over the world. To learn more about Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and Audio-Animatronics, please check out the World’s Fair exhibition, located at our museum’s Gallery 9.
Jeffrey Moffit Museum Content Specialist