America Sings! This July 4th, Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of a Patriotic Disneyland Attraction

Happy July 4th! Here, for your entertainment today, is 20 minutes of good ol' American songs.

Back before Disney turned woke, indeed exactly 50 years ago, Disneyland and Walt Disney World opened an attraction called America Sings to help celebrate Bicentennial festivities. "It featured a cast of Audio-Animatronics animals singing songs from various periods in America's musical history," writes Wikipedia, and it remains one of my fondest memories during my visit to the Florida park.

Another biggie for me was the Hall of Presidents. (Is anyone besides me wondering what the Joe Biden robot looks and sounds like?) Needless to say, I didn't fully understand the speech chosen for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, even after I grew up to be an adult. (The speech chosen for POTUS16 has since changed, if I am not mistaken [now with a blue curtain background rather than a red one] — probably because the Lyceum Address sounded too close to home for Disney's left-leaning Imagineers, while the Battle Hymn of the Republic sounded too stirring and patriotic…)

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.

The show itself starts at 4:21, but then you will miss Dixie
(a longer version than the Disney version at 6:29).