Edison Square was one of the earliest planned expansions of Disneyland. Set to be a new land off of the hub and Main Street USA, it would be based at the turn of the century, but focusing on different aspects of American culture than the famous Entrance land.
Last time we explored Edison Square, the never-built land of Disneyland, but today we are exploring its main attraction, Harnessing the Lighting. Be sure to check out the Never Built Disneyland series so far here.
Edison Square would have followed a small American city at the dawn of the electrical age, when innovation and new technology. Like Main Street USA it would not take place in any specific location in the United States, but instead, be an amalgamation of generic and idealized architectural trends from across the country.
The main attraction of the land would not take place in the same time period, however. It would be an elaborate walk-through experience taking you through the impacts of electricity on the first few generations of the American family.
You would start in a hall displaying various inventions from the time period before continuing through a series of show scenes featuring the American family in various decades following the advent of electricity.
This attraction would be canceled along with the entire land when Disney decided to put all of its efforts on new attractions for the 1964 World's Fair as opposed to new additions to Disneyland, and the budget to build this land simply evaporated.
It would, however, end up inspiring one of the attractions Disney would bring to the fair, Carousel of Progress. The general concept of the attraction was attractive to General Electric, who had Disney alter it to feature more of their products along with the original theme of the progression of the American family through time. They would give it a new ride system, being a rotating theater attraction as opposed to a walkthrough attraction.
It would even eventually open up at Disneyland, but as a new attraction in Tomorrowland not in a new land.
This ride still operates at the Magic Kingdom to this day, having been updated throughout the years to keep up with the times. It was never built as initially intended, but it may have actually been improved by switching forms from a walkthrough to the carousel theatrical attraction it is today.
The proposed location for this attraction would eventually become home to the attraction building of Star Tours, making for an entirely different experience that could never have possibly been imagined at the time.
Thanks for exploring this with us, and be sure to check out the rest of this series so far here. Never Built Disneyland is now a weekly series here at TPE, so be sure to come back every a week when we explore new attractions, including next week when we explore the never built Hollywoodland expansion of Disneyland.
Comments
Post a Comment