Everybody likes a good mystery. Everybody but me. I like Tex Avery cartoons and meat.
Long ago I was a Disney theme park adventurer! Jumping out of ride vehicles and sneaking in back doors in parks such as Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, EPCOT Center, and Disney MGM Studios. Not anymore. They pretty much closed or changed all of the rides I liked so now I like to sit around, drink beer, watch old Walt Disney videos, and look through thousands of old Disney pictures.
I like to look at WED Imagineering material because I like to see what's in the background of each shot. Artists working on classic attractions, models, drawings etc.Some it was staged for TV but I don't care. There's so much to pick through! Sometimes I come across something that tickles the living shit out of me! Like this!
I've watched the TV show "Walt Disney Goes to the World's Fair" about 47,934,330 times and I thought I caught just about everything 'til one night, something caught my eye. I was always sad that they didn't show the finished Abe Lincoln Audio-Animatronic figure. They only show a couple seconds of someone stretching a Plastisol skin over the animatronic head. OR DID THEY?
Watch the video again. At 27:18 Walt tells us "we might not believe it" and turns to walk away from the model.
LOOK AT THIS! At 27:21 a dude in a checkered shirt comes into view on the left......
IT'S THE ABE LINCOLN FIGURE!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"But he doesn't look that much like the Abe Lincoln figure we know today, Hoot Gibson, you fool". Of course not! He looked like a perfect 1964 model of Abe.
AND without air or hydraulic pressure being pumped into his actuators he would natural slump forward like he was looking at his desk. Walt must have thought that was hilarious to have him there in the background. Notice too that he's the only "Imagineer" NOT moving or doing anything.
Here's a nice comparison. This is the Lincoln figure from the fair. Look at the hair, the brow ridge, the ear size. Same same same.
Walt Disney once said "The era we live in is a dream come true and Hoot Gibson is the smartest man in the world". Here are some other pictures I stole for you to do your own research into why I'm right.. Enjoy!
That is an interesting observation. Good find.
ReplyDeleteActually, doesn’t his left arm move as Walt walks past?
ReplyDeleteIt looks that way but unless somebody who was there (Crump) comes forth with new info, It's Abe.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to believe... but it looks like your "Abe" is a fully functioning human being. He's in the video a bit earlier @ 23:35 toiling away on something (you can see the same yellow monkey and pavilion model next to him, just different camera perspective).
ReplyDeleteYep, while it would be easy to believe they could slip something like that in the background, this specific clip is far too animated to match a 1964 animatronic.
DeleteI just spotted him there, too, but he's BARELY visible in that scene, and while he's actually moving in that scene you can't tell what he's doing.
DeleteThe color photo of Abe but without the flesh was found in a crate years after the 1964 World’s Fair. Nobody knows if that figure was actually used in the Fair. The animatronic one with Walt Disney was used in the World’s Fair.
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