Sing it Sam

Disneyland in the early 80s was the coolest place growing up for any kid , They had all the best rides and costumed characters with all the coolest food and drinks kids could want, and i'm sure i wasn't the only boy who dreamed that he could live in Disneyland forever and ever. This got so bad that whenever my family were in the Anaheim area i would drag them along to Disneyland because i knew every time i went something new would await my excitement.

The first time i ever set foot on Disney property was 1980, I was six years old hyperactive and always full of happiness and fun whenever the subject of a visit to Anaheim came into the agenda. My Mom and Dad and Older Brother Jimmy lived in Riverside California about 40 minutes away from Disneyland so we visited the park maybe once or twice every few months and as soon as we came back from a visit i would be crossing the days off on the calendar until we could go back again and this often annoyed my parents but they would do anything to see me happy.

The Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster had recently opened in Frontierland  and had already proved itself a fan favourite and my brother Jimmy would often tease me because i was too young to ride it, He was 11 and i was only six. But i didn't care because there was so much i could go on, My favourite attractions included Mr Toads Wild Ride and the Haunted Mansion alongside the Country Bear Jamboree in bear country, But my favourite attraction of all was America Sings.

America sings was a stage show hidden in the corner of Tommorowland in the old carousel of progress theatre and the show consisted of over 100 Animatronic singing animals who took the audience through a history of American music and the whole show delighted me. Often i would go on it again and again and as it was featured in my E ticket and was a less popular attraction the lines were always so short. There were singing geese and foxes alongside Saddle sore Swanson the turkey and the Boothill boys who were a grizzly duo of singing Vultures. But the character i loved the most as a kid was Eagle Sam who was a six foot animatronic Eagle who stood on a perch and introduced all of the acts and as a kid he was my idol. My parents had to buy me all the America Sings merchandise from the stores especially if it had Sam on it. All my birthdays were spent visiting Sam and his buddies in America sings.

All the way through school my obsession with America sings never ended and although in school i often never talked to anyone about it over fear of being bullied about it. I dont know what it was i had with those Animatronics i just loved them so much that if i went a few months without seeing them i would become deeply heartbroken inside. My parents usually shrugged it off and said i was going through some phase and Jimmy just said i was weird. But i didn't care what they said. by the time i was eleven i had memorised every single line from America Sings and could name every character in the order they appeared in but sadly it was by this time things started to change in Tommorowland and longstanding rides such as the adventure thru inner space attraction had recently been sent to the graveyard , And rumours began to spread about America sings and its declining audiences and popularity and this only added to my fears that soon the love of my life for the last six years was about to become a part of Disneyland History.

For my twelfth birthday of course we went to Disneyland and now my brother Jimmy was seventeen, My parents let us go off round the park on our own while they went to the golden horseshoe saloon which was a popular show for the adults. the first stop on our Disneyland day was of course America Sings and when we sat down in our seats we waited for the curtains to open and Sam to begin his rendition of Yankee doodle dandy, When the curtains opened Sam was there but he looked in terrible shape, His eyes were battered and his animatronic fur was dirty and the part of his mouth seemed to have malfunctioning issues. This upset me as i was beginning to realize that America Sings would be a memory sooner than later, During acts 1 and 2 where the quartet of geese would bleat into a singing of camp town races i noticed that two of them were missing leaving only three geese in two scenes and this puzzled me and only brought to my suspicions that the end was brewing for Sam and i knew i would have to prepare myself for that imminent day. My brother tried to comfort me and tell me that America Sings was going nowhere but i couldn't believe him and knew the time was almost up.