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As our bus turned the corner tears welled up at its sight. The bright light of the Florida sun don’t showcase her best side but she looked so beautiful to me. The rippling strings of red, white and blue bulbs simply glistening in the sun while the parade is at rest like any other nocturnal creature. Our bus continued past the Eagle and flag, the Cinderella coach to a large building whose door read…
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As a longtime Disney fan I have no idea how many times I’ve sat on Main Street completely enthralled by the electro-synthomagnetic musical sounds and thousands of sparkling lights of the Electrical Parade. It was a special finale to many family visits to Disneyland and the 1996 farewell evening at Disneyland was among the first times I met other fellow Disney fans – who remain close friends to this day – and most magically bumped (quite literally) into Doobie who I married a year later. And in a dream come true this summer we will be sitting on Main Street with our son. Words fail to describe how excited I am about its return to the Magic Kingdom.
Picture from the final night of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland. Doobie is on the far left in red. John Frost of The Disney Blog is in brown.
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Stepping inside the Main Street warehouse my eyes were immediately drawn to the illuminated train and drum that typically carry Mickey and friends. Looking around the room I spotted numerous dormant units. Unlit they reminded me of butterfly cocoons and I couldn’t wait for them to open. With a dash of pixie dust from Tinker Bell herself, the room was filled with an instantly familiar glow. And yep, you guessed it, I teared up again.
Electrical Parade warehouse
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Making their Magic Kingdom premiere – the Pinocchio segment and Tinker Bell unit with brightly colored flowers
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Doobie went around to interview the creative team while I wandered around in a fog. I was tasked with photographing her but didn’t know where to begin.
Can already picture the donkey-eared boys of Pleasure Island dancing alongside
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Pixie dust ala LED lighting swirls alongside
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The ballroom dancers
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The speedy twirling critters are a fan favorite.
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My wandering led me back to the pirate ship, a special favorite of mine thanks to the Backstage Disney special that featured behind the scenes clips of Don Dorsey showing how the parade unit melodies are woven with the parade’s main theme “Baroque Hoedown”
Watch at about the 3:50 mark
I couldn’t believe when a nearby cast member invited me to step aboard for a photo. Later on I even convinced Doobie to pose for a photo, too.
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Walking around Elliott I noticed the driver door was open. Empowered by my adventure aboard Captain Hook’s ship I took a peek inside and was surprised by how clearly I could see the people walking around the warehouse and the other parade units.
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The material shimmers on the outside and the lights reflecting off that color make it more difficult for guests to see into the unit, but on the inside it’s a thin black material and thanks to those lights on the outside all the faces along the street are illuminated. How simple and brilliant.
Snail and Elliott the Dragon. You can see the light of the open door through the fabric on the turtle’s face and note each light is housed in a plastic flower shaped shell.
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The design kept the close quarters within a bumblebee from feeling confining. Getting in is a bit tricky due to the close quarters. The bug brain is directly above my head.
Firefly
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As Doobie was conducting the interviews we quickly realized that the parade’s return is near and dear to the creative team as many of them cited a long history of involvement with Electrical Parade performances in a variety of roles. As the morning event began to wrap up, Gene Harding taught me how to operate a whirlybug. The controls are so sensitive that its reactions reminded of the ease in guiding a Segway. Learning how to spin and my favorite whirlybug wobble were a delight. The power for the unit was a simple switch under the seat and I was surprised to learn that the snails head bows with a simple lever to the right of the driver’s leg.
Turtle and whirlybug mechanism
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Rebekah goes inside the Firefly and learns to operate the whirlybug
My whirlybug instructor Gene began his Walt Disney World career as a Main Street Electrical Parade performer back in 1985 and has gone on to assist in bringing the parade to Disneyland Paris and to New York City as part of the production team. He is currently a producer for Disney Creative Entertainment in Florida and led the team in moving the parade back across the US. While talking with Gene I was thrilled to learn that the parade will be introduced by Jack Wagner’s vocoder work announcing the Main Street Electrical Parade. Knowing the important role that Jack Wagner played in the genesis of this parade it gave me goosebumps to know that he is still a true part of the performance. (Click here to read Don Dorsey explaining the history of the Electrical Parade including Jack Wagner’s role)
The news was met with excitement from another member of the creative team, Reed Jones, who performed in the parade during the summer of 1979. As the media were told the bus had arrived to carry us away from this magical place and off to another, a delightful older gentleman whose name tag read Forrest Burbank CA joined the conversation adding his personal fondness and remembrance of Jack Wagner. Forrest Bahruth is a 39 year Disney cast member but that only tells a part of the story. Growing up around the Disney Studios he recalls at the age of four meeting Walt Disney and was involved in the early days of Disney live entertainment. My head began to swirl with questions and my heart began to race at the amazing stories he must have but it was time to end this particular adventure with the hope that we’d encounter each other someday. Shimmering lights, unforgettable sounds, new adventures and the spark of future discoveries … once again the Electrical Parade had worked its magic and it’s surely not done yet.
A moment I never expected
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