Main Street Electrical Parade
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The Main Street Electrical Parade was a regularly-scheduled parade, created by Bob Jani, long time Disney theme park entertainment leader, that is most famous for its long run at Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort most summers between 1972-1975, 1977-1982, and 1984-1996. It featured floats and live performers covered in thousands of electronically-controlled lights and set to a synchronized soundtrack triggered by radio control along key areas of the parade route. The parade was also spun off many other versions that ran or continue to run at Disney parks around the world.
Origin
The predecessor to the Main Street Electrical Parade is the Electrical Water Pageant, a show made up of seven 25-foot (7.6 m) tall screens with electrical lights placed on them. The screens are placed on a string of seven barges which travel around the Seven Seas Lagoon just in front of the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, beginning at 9pm at Disney's Polynesian Resort, or immediately after the fireworks if they are scheduled for 9pm. The Electrical Water Pageant still shows today. The Electrical Water Pageant has been showing since October 26, 1971, just weeks after the Walt Disney World Resort opened.
The MSEP had counterparts of the same name and layout at the Magic Kingdom which ran from 1977 to 1991 when it was replaced by a similar parade called SpectroMagic. From 1999 to 2001 the original Disneyland parade also appeared at the Magic Kingdom, before returning to Disneyland for the final run. The Disneyland Paris version ran from 1992 till 2003, when it was replaced by "Fantillusion", a nighttime parade from Tokyo Disneyland, which had earlier replaced the Tokyo version of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Tokyo Disneyland's current Electrical Parade, Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights was a return to the style of the original updated with new music and floats.
In 1972, when the Main Street Electrical Parade debuted, the engineers who helped create the parade also created the first show-control program in existence. This allowed the 2000-foot long parade route to contain multiple radio-activated "trigger zones". Using radio-activated triggers as each float entered a new zone, the audience would hear float-specific music through the Disneyland audio system. Each zone was between 70-100 feet long, and the zoned system meant that every person along the parade route would experience the same show, no matter where they stood along that route.[Article describing the creation of MSEP audio technology]
The Main Street Electrical Parade was so popular that light bulbs certified as having been part of the show were sold to collectors. The 2001 opening of Disney's California Adventure immediately across from Disneyland proved to be the perfect venue for resurrecting the original parade, now titled simply Disney's Electrical Parade since Disney's California Adventure has no "Main Street, USA." The floats were from the original Disneyland parade (sans Pinocchio segment), which ran at the Magic Kingdom afterwards for a short two-year run, and was returned to Anaheim to help bring in crowds at the new park. The parade has been running year-round since July 2001 except on off-season evenings when the park closes at 6:00. The costumes and floats were used in the Walt Disney World version starting in 1999 and were shipped to the Southern California facility after the show's run ended. It finished its 9-month hiatus during the 2005 off-season at the Disneyland Resort, which allowed all of the floats to get new lights, and for the drum to say "Disney's Electrical Parade, Presented by Sylvania". The parade has run nearly every night since its opening, except for late 2001 through early 2003, when tourism was down from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Music
| Disney's California Adventure park |
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| Disneyland's 50th Anniversary |
| Hollywood Pictures Backlot |
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| "a bug's land" |
| Bountiful Valley Farm |
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| Flik's Fun Fair |
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| Golden State |
| Condor Flats |
| The Bay Area |
| Golden Vine Winery |
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| Grizzly Peak Recreation Area |
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| Pacific Wharf |
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| Paradise Pier |
| Entertainment |
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The Main Street Electrical Parade's theme song, "Baroque Hoedown" by electronic music artists Perrey and Kingsley has even been covered by two famous musical groups: They Might Be Giants and Reel Big Fish. In Japan, Walt Disney Records released a CD called DJ Digs Main Street Electrical Parade which featured the theme music remixed by Japanese DJs. The version used in the parade was arranged by [Don Dorsey].
The soundtrack to the parade has been released numerous times.
Here are a few releases that contain the multiple versions of the parade:
- Main Street Electrical Parade (1973 LP) (Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort)
- Main Street Electrical Parade (1977 LP) (Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World)
- The Main Street Electrical Parade (1999 CD) (Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World)
- Les Parades En Musique (2000 CD) (Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort Paris)
- Disney's Electrical Parade (2001 CD) (Disney's California Adventure, Disneyland Resort)
- Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights (2001 CD) (Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Resort)(Features both Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights and Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade)
- Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights Show Mix Edition (2001 CD) (Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Resort)
- A Musical History of Disneyland (2005) (Disneyland) (the only version to have character voices included)
Baroque Hoedown was also incorporated into Light Magic in Disneyland.
Jack Wagner (announcer) was the voice that was synthesized for the intro and outro to the parade, until Don Dorsey took over after Wagner passed away, as noted by Dorsey in a documentary about the parade: From One Lightbulb To Another.
- A remix of the Electrical Parade (called the Retro Future Remix) was released on DDR Disney Mix, and contains audio resamplings from the Apollo 8 reading of Genesis.
Show facts
All Resorts
- '''Music: Baroque Hoewdown
Disneyland Resort
- Main Street Electrical Parade
- * Park: Disneyland
- * Original Run: June 17, 1972 - November 25, 1996
- * Sponsors: Energizer - 1985 General Electric - 1996 Farewell Season
- Light Magic
- * Park: Disneyland
- * Original Run: May 23, 1997 - September 8, 1997
- Disney's Electrical Parade
- * Park: Disney's California Adventure
- * Original Run: July 3, 2001 - Present
- * Sponsor: Sylvania (2006 - Present )
Walt Disney World Resort
- Main Street Electrical Parade
- * Park: Magic Kingdom
- * Original Run: June 11, 1977 - September 14, 1991
- * Second Run: May 28, 1999 - April 1, 2001
- SpectroMagic
- * Park: Magic Kingdom
- * Original Run: October 1, 1991 - May 21, 1999
- * Second Run: April 2, 2001 - Present
Tokyo Disney Resort
- Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade
- * Park: Tokyo Disneyland
- * Original Run: March 9, 1985 - June 21, 1995
- Fantillusion
- * Park: Tokyo Disneyland
- * Original Run: July 21, 1995 - May 15, 2001
- * Sponsor: Nihon Unisys, Ltd.
- Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights
- * Park: Tokyo Disneyland
- * Original Run: June 1, 2001 - Present
- * Sponsor: Nihon Unisys, Ltd.
Disneyland Resort Paris
- Main Street Electrical Parade
- * Park: Disneyland Paris
- * Original Run: April 12, 1992 - March 23, 2003
- * Sponsor: Philips (1992 - 2002)
- Fantillusion
- * Park: Disneyland Paris
- * Original Run: July 5, 2003 - Present
References
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