The History of the Main Street Electrical Parade
I can still here this when I hear the name “Main Street Electrical Parade”:
“Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, Disneyland proudly presents our spectacular festival pageant of nighttime magic and imagination, in thousand of sparkling lights and electro-syntho-magnetic musical sounds. The Main Street Electrical Parade!”
The Main Street Electrical Parade is one of my most prominent memories of visiting Disneyland as a 3-year old. The bright lights, the loud music, and the big green dragon that breathed fire is not something you could forget easily. I believe this is the case for a lot of people everywhere who got to experience the parade before it went away, or even briefly during it’s comebacks. The Main Street Electrical parade opened in Disneyland on June 17th, 1972.
The first version of the Main Street Electrical Parade in Disneyland. Image from: https://www.wdwinfo.com/disneylandcalifornia/a-look-back-at-the-main-street-electrical-parade/
Walt Disney World’s Electrical Water Pageant (1971 - Present)
When Magic Kingdom opened on October 1st, 1971, Disney executives planned other attractions to be added to the park as the month went on. These included the Liberty Square River Boat and the Electrical Water Pageant show. The Electrical Water Pageant show opened on October 24th, 1971, and was a huge hit with the park’s guests. The show consists 7 barges with 14 floats that run along the waters of the Seven Seas Lagoon. Each float includes a 25-foot tall screen with several thousand colourful lightbulbs to recreate different sea creatures. A big green sea monster leads a row of other creatures, like an octopus, a sea turtle, sea horses, dolphins, whales, seals, alligators, and even King Triton. The show currently still runs to this day, as it is still beloved by many.
Walt Disney World’s Electric Water Pageant. Image from: https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2020/12/20/photos-videos-the-electrical-water-pageant-is-back-at-walt-disney-world/
Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade Opens (1972)
Once Imagineers saw how successful the electrical water show was in the Magic Kingdom, they knew Disneyland was lacking that sort of exciting entertainment. Disneyland had been hosting parades since it’s opening, and it was one of Walt’s favourite parts of the park, as he would often participate in them. The idea for the Main Street Electrical Parade came about when Ron Miziker, an entertainment producer and director at Disney, read about how people used to walk down the streets with lightbulbs when electricity was first introduced. Bob Jani lead the whole operation of the creation of the parade. Hub Braden and Ken Dresser began work on designing the new parade floats in February 1972. Sylvestri Light Company, a company in Chicago, was contracted to the construction on the floats, though they weren’t progressing the way Disney executives were hoping they would. Only half of the floats were done by the time they needed them, so they shipped them to the park to be finished by Imagineers. Initially instead of them all being 3D figures, most of them were 2D screens covered in lightbulbs and placed onto rolling platforms.
Much like when Disneyland opened on July 17th, 1955, a lot of the construction on the floats was still being done right up to opening night. It didn’t seem like it would turn out well, as the one rehearsal they were able to have beforehand was a disaster. But, everyone pulled through that night, and it turned out to be a massive hit.
Main Street Electrical Parade behind the scenes. Image from: http://matterhorn1959.blogspot.com/2010/02/main-street-elecric-parade-in-warehouse.html
The Parade Music
Bob Jani, who was responsible for a lot of Disney’s live entertainment at the time, knew that the parade needed music just as the water pageant had. The voice of many Disneyland announcements Jack Wagner believed finding a good electronic song for the parade made the most sense with the theme. Back in the Magic Kingdom for the Electrical Water Pageant, electronic musician Paul Beaver remixed the song “Baroque Hoedown” by Jean-Jacques Perry and Gershon Kingsley and incorporated some Disney music such as “In the Golden Afternoon” and “A Very Merry Unbirthday”. Since this song was already ready to go, it was also used for the parade and became synonymous with it. The original soundtrack was used until 1974 when the parade was replaced with America on Parade.
In 1977 the Main Street Electrical Parade returned with all new upgrades. The 2D figures were replaced with all new 3D floats. The famous Pete’s Dragon float was added to the lineup that year. The music was also updated slightly by Don Dorsey with a new announcement at the beginning provided by Jack Wagner.
Pete’s Dragon. Image from: https://www.latimes.com/la-fi-disneyland-electrical-20170120-photos-photogallery.html
The Audio and Visuals of the Parade
The music played a huge part in the success of the parade. In order for everyone to get the most out of the experience, the town square and main street was divided into sections. Once the front of the parade hit a sensor in the street to dictate a new zone was starting, the introduction and music would begin so that everyone got to see hear the famous announcement. The audio was controlled from one room with several video monitors, so that the operators could see where the floats were.
Each glowing float was driven by someone on the inside. Though it looks like each large mushroom and snail was moving and turning to look at you on it’s own, the drivers on the inside were responsible for making sure each float stayed on track. The smaller floats were equipped with a seat, 4 wheels on each side, and a steering wheel.
600,000 lightbulbs were featured, powered by light weight nickel-cadmium batteries. The struggle to find a power source took a while when they were first developing it, but batteries ended up being the best solution. The batteries could be recharged after the performances each night.
The Alice in Wonderland section. Image from: https://mickeyblog.com/2019/07/05/disney-fans-guide-main-street-electrical-parade/
The Closing of the Main Street Electrical Parade in Disneyland
The Main Street Electrical Parade closed in Disneyland on November 25th, 1996. It was originally meant to close on October 15th, but due to the public’s distress over the announcement, it was extended for another month and a few days. The parade was replaced by Light Magic, another light show parade that didn’t end up being successful.
“The Main Street Electrical Parade ends October 15th. Come see it chime, one last time.”
The electrical parade was brought back into California Adventure the year that it opened in 2001, now called Disney’s Electrical Parade. It ran for another 9 years until it was closed in April 2010. In January 2017, the parade was brought back for the enjoyment of those who loved the nostalgic entertainment. Many guests loved seeing it again, but it was only running until August 2017. It returned again for another limited time run from August to September 2019.
The Main Street Electrical Parade in Other Parks
When Disneyland’s version of the parade was updated in 1977, Walt Disney World introduced their version of the Main Street Electrical Parade. It ran until 1991, when it was replaced by SpectroMagic, a similar parade to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney World.
Once the Disneyland version closed in 1996, it was shipped to the Magic Kingdom to be used in 1999 for 2 years. It was then shipped back to Anaheim to be used in the DCA 2001 run, and once that ended, it was shipped back to the Magic Kingdom to run from 2010 until as recent as 2016.
The Main Street Electrical Parade at the Magic Kingdom. Image from: https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/disney-electrical-parade
Disneyland Paris opened a version of the electrical parade in April 1992, where it ran for 11 years until it was closed on March 23rd, 2003. Tokyo Disneyland also had their own version of the electrical parade that opened in March 1985, and then was replaced by an updated version called DreamLights in 2001. This version of the parade is the only one still operating today.
The Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade. Image by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYAcin-oz0U
The Main Street Electrical Parade is one of Disney’s most memorable and popular forms of entertainment. As said in this quote by Benjamin Rockwell, Disneyland guests were devastated to see it go back in the 1990s. The recent comebacks have been a breath of fresh air for the park, reminding us of the nostalgia that the park can really bring us.
“People started cheering and yelling, while others started drying and sobbing. But the tears quickly moved away as camera crews lead the way down Main Street ahead of the parade. By the time the Blue Fairy had arrived, everyone was celebrating the last chance that they had to see this wonderful parade.”
Reference list:
https://allears.net/walt-disney-world/wdw-planning/electrical-water-pageant/
https://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/attractions/opening-dates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt-ZONeAEiM
https://d23.com/a-to-z/miziker-ron/
https://www.wdwinfo.com/disneylandcalifornia/a-look-back-at-the-main-street-electrical-parade/
https://wdwnt.com/2016/10/complete-history-magic-kingdoms-main-street-electrical-parade/
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Baroque_Hoedown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_Water_Pageant
