Rarely, if ever, do we hear about workers getting injured at Disney or people, in general, for that matter (I'm not counting that week where Disneyland (Anaheim) was being monitored closely from a slight measles attack brought in by some idiot who- like half the parents of kids who are sick in grade school- decided to stop on in (or in the parents case- drop their diseased kids off at school) and spend a day in the most magical place on Earth). Okay, I have to address that before I get any further. One, what idiot brings their sick kid to school- or any public place for that matter?! Do they secretly want to get everyone else sick as some sick (literally) and twisted way of revenge on society? Two, the news throws tons of time and effort into a small measles outbreak when there is genocide and war going on out in the world- innocent people dying. Let's get real here people.

Wow, that was really off-topic. Sorry there, back to the actual point of this chapter. My point? Digging up old Disney crap is hard but rewarding. Why? Because you can find Debbie Stone.

Debbie Stone was an 18 year old high school graduate (an honor student too) who got a job at Disneyland (Anaheim) to help get funds for her new college education at Iowa State University. The year is 1974 and Disneyland was doing some re-vamping in order to keep public interest, since the same old Matterhorn (See later chapter) and coasters were starting to bore everyone to death. I mean it was fun, but they needed to mix it up every so often or it'll become just like (excuse me for bringing up an non-Disney reference...) Six Flags New Orleans. And yea... just no.

So why not take a classic and re-vamp the heck outta this thing? (Not actually what they thought but I'm referring to this like I was actually there and not.. Oh ya know, un-birthed) And so, they did.

Taking The Carousel of Progress, a Disney original since the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, and turning it into a all new themed attraction- all while leaving the structure and basis of the Carousel. Cue, America Sings! An all new ride that was developed from the old. Instead of having the typical American family and their lovely dog, America Sings! had various birds- lead by a bald eagle- teach the audience about the different eras of music the United States had gone through. The ride was quite successful- that is, for the first few years.

America Sings! opened on June 29th 1974, replacing the General Electric-sponsored Carousel of Progress (which was moved to the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida during the year of 1973).

As stated by Wikipedia: 'America Sings used the same Carousel Theater that its predecessor vacated, with its outer ring of six theaters, all connected by divider walls, that revolved mechanically about every four minutes around the six fixed stages in the center of the building.'

The show differentiated from Carousel of Progress by not only content but that the Carousel rotated clock-wise and America Sings! rotated counterclockwise. A second difference is that Carousel used both levels of the Theater while America Sings! only used the lower level, leaving the upper level for other failed projects to circle through, such as the SuperSpeed Tunnel (which was later changed to the Game Grid from Tron) portion of the Peoplemover.

America Sings! is very much like Country Bear Jamboree, since they both were/are known for having singing audio-animatronic animals. The Masters of Ceremony were Sam the Eagle and an unnamed owl, of which some people have said its name may be Ollie.

The ride was exactly like Carousel of Progress, being that the alpha and omega of the ride was unloading and loading the guests into and out of their seats, directing them away from and to the other rides outside the air conditioned theater. The four other 'acts' or 'scenes' were different eras of music (same goes for the Carousel, except it was with eras as in 1920, '40, '60, etc.).

According to Wikipedia and other guest accounts, 'However, [for America Sings!,] the identical load and unload theaters each featured a small curtained gazebo with a backdrop showing a park. The curtains would open to reveal Sam and the owl standing on a two-level podium, with Sam standing on the higher level, introducing or closing the show.

Between each act, as the theater rotated, the lights blacked out, and the theater illuminated with flashing stars; during the rotations, Sam sang about the next era the audience was about to enter, reprising the chorus of "Yankee Doodle".[1]

Also, at some point in each act, the Weasel would suddenly appear on the scene, spouting the title line, "Pop, Goes the Weasel!" for a total of five times. At the very end of the show, he changed the line to, "Goodbye, Goes the Weasel!".'

The characters in America Sings! were all based upon an animated movie that Walt scrapped in the 1960s called Chanticleer.

The four acts were divided as follows (songs were selected by Norman 'Buddy' Baker who was in charge of showing a panoramic view of the music featured in America):

Intro-

"Yankee Doodle" - Eagle Sam

"Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair" - Eagle Sam

"Pop Goes the Weasel" - 'Ollie' Owl and the Weasel

Act 1 - The Deep South-

"Dixie" / "L'il Liza Jane" / "Camptown Races" - Geese Quartet

"My Old Kentucky Home" - Colonel Houndstoothe (Bassett Hound in rocking chair)

"Polly Wolly Doodle" - The Swamp Boys (Gator trio, frogs and harmonica-playing raccoon)

"Lord I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again" - Mother Possum with babies

"Down in the Valley" - Coyote

"Down by the Riverside" - Hens, Foxes, Swamp Boy Frogs

Act 2 - Headin' West-

"Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" / "I've Been Working on the Railroad" / "Fireball Mail" - Geese Quartet

"The Old Chisholm Trail" - Saddlesore Swanson

"Who Shot The Hole in My Sombrero?" - Sombrero-wearing dog

"The End of Billy the Kid" - The Boothill Boys (vulture duo)

"Home on the Range" - Tex Ranger (dog)

Act 3 - The Gay '90s-

"She May Be Somebody's Mother" / "The Bowery" / "After the Ball" - Geese Quartet

"Where is My Wandering Boy To-night?" - Geese Quartet & Mother Rabbit

"Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey" - Showgirl Pig

"Sweet Adeline" - Blossom-Nose Murphy (goose) & Geese Quartet

"The Old Gray Mare" - The Old Gray Mare & Geese Quartet

"Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage" - Bird in a Gilded Cage and Fox

"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" - Bird in a Gilded Cage, Fox, Storks, Geese Quartets (male and female), Pig, Eagle Sam and 'Ollie' Owl

Act 4 - Modern Times-

"Ja-Da" / "Darktown Strutters' Ball" / "Singin' in the Rain" - Geese Quartet

"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" / "Boo-Hoo" - College Quartet (male wolf, male fox and two female cats)

"Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" - Piano Pig

"Hound Dog" / "See You Later Alligator" - Rooster, Stork, Porcupine, Hound Dog and Alligator

"Shake, Rattle and Roll" - Rooster and Frog

"Twistin' U.S.A." - Motorcycle storks

"Joy to the World" - Modern Times cast (except Piano Pig)

Epilogue-

"Yankee Doodle" (reprise) - Eagle Sam

"Auld Lang Syne" - Eagle Sam and 'Ollie' Owl

Exit music: "Stars and Stripes Forever"

Now, to the scary. To the graphic horribleness.

Debbie Stone (Deborah Gail Stone) had recently gotten a job at Disneyland in Anaheim to help with the bills that would soon come up when she started college in the fall. She was assigned to America Sings! and was a greeter. She helped the people to their seats; bid them hello, goodbye, and to have a magical day; and she also told them of the safety precautions and how the seats move so I'd be best if you stayed seated than rather risk injury. Debbie had a bright promising life, especially since she was, in fact, a honor student.

But as soon as everything was going good, it went extremely bad.

On July 8, 1974, nine days after the attraction opened, an eighteen-year-old Disneyland cast member named Deborah Gail Stone was killed when operating America Sings!

Debbie died when she was crushed between two walls of the building. A narrow channel between a stationary wall and a rotating wall was open and Debbie happened to walk through this space as the rotating wall began to move. One of the audience members, hearing what was thought to be a scream, notified the park staff as soon as the ride was over with. It turned out, that it was Debbie's scream, as her body was found crushed in between the walls soon after. Debbie's parents attempted to sue Disney for the death of their daughter, which resulted in a small settlement.

After the death of Debbie, America Sings! was abruptly closed down and remained closed while safety lights were being installed. Later on, the walls in the theater were remodeled so that they would break away in case a similar accident ever happened again.

America Sings! closed in 1988.

For ten years, the lower level was used as office spaces while the upper level- the Peoplemover- remained untouched. Once the ten years were up, the building remained vacant for years after as people hoped for a new ride to occupy the empty space where props and sets were collecting dust. The outside of the ride remained the same with the exception of a Sorcerer Mickey poster proclaiming 'Sorry, we're closed to imagineer a brand new attraction.' Talk of an outer space attraction similar to the Carousel of Progress in Florida, and the once beloved America Sings! was proposed but never put into motion for Disney had just finished building Disneyland Paris and was millions in debt. As for the audio-animatronics, they were either, as a trio of geese had been, re-purposed; scrapped; or, as the rock 'n' roll stork had been, turned into a final test to see if future Imagineers in training were ready to become new Animatronics programmers.

From the time it was closed to 1996, the theater remained empty and desolate- save the brief period the offices located in the building were used. In 1998, a version of a popular Epcot ride of the same namesake, Innoventions, made its new home in the theater. And it remains there to this day.