Posted on 08/10/2014 8:49:49 PM PDT by WilliamIII
en her phone rang that day in 1963, Alice Davis was working as a seamstress, stitching bras and girdles in the downtown Los Angeles garment district.
Walt Disney, the caller said, wanted to see her.
When she arrived at Disney's office, the theme park pioneer made her an offer: Design costumes for a new ride he was planning for the 1964 New York World's Fair. That ride would be, he promised her, an attraction that would bring joy "to every child from 1 to 100."
"I could hardly wait to get there for the first day," recalled Davis, now 85.
Fifty years later, "It's a Small World" remains one of Disneyland's most popular rides, having ferried 290 million visitors, or an average of 111,000 a week, for half a century.
Small World's technology is outdated, and some say it perpetuates broad stereotypes, with Arab dolls flying on magic carpets and Mexicans wearing sombreros. And the famous theme song is so annoying that a recent online poll ranked it the world's worst ear worm, beating "Gangnam Style" and "Who Let the Dogs Out?"
But at a time when aging theme park attractions are routinely scrapped replaced by expensive high-tech rides tied to big-budget movies Small World is marking another milestone. It's getting its own movie.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Betty was hot, but my heart belonged to Judy Jetson.
Ann Margrock.....SCHWINGGG!
Blasphemer! Looks like a trip to the Enchanted Tiki Room for you..
In the tiki tiki tiki tiki room
In the tiki tiki tiki tiki room
In the tiki tiki tiki tiki room...
(..ducking)
Or Honey West, hubba hubba bubba.
i loved this ride until i returned to Disneyland 28 years after the last time i had been there... i had last gone in 1983 for grad night... went back two years ago with my family... husband and two sons... i insisted we go on It’s a Small World... i remember it being so beautiful and enchanting... ugh! it is pretty much the same as it as always been... it seemed stale, faded, old... outdated... it looked like something elementary-aged kids had designed and put together... i was so disappointed... and my sons did not understand why i made such a big deal about our going on this ride... ha!
The Small World dolls came out when the ride did. My sister got one of the dolls for Christmas and it came with a pen pal address. My sister had a pen pal in Japan and they kept in touch for at least ten years.
My parents took my sister and me to Orlando a year after the park opened. For some strange reason, mom fell in love with this ride. We were there three days and rode on it five times.
Dad loved Pirates and we did that twice. My sister who was ten at the time loved the Dumbo ride the best, I loved Space Mountain best,and the Monorail ride.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the ride breaking down and stopping and being stuck on it, while you are hearing that hideous song over and over. I was by the mermaids when the ride broke down. It’s a small world over and over with bubbles effects...torture for sure! I still can hear it in my head and it’s been over 40 years ago!
Instead of Waterboarding captured terrorists, they should make them go on this ride over and over again. They’ll talk.
Six years? You’re lucky.
Wrong, Wrong ,Wrong. I first rode it almost 50 years ago. LOL!
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