From the moment guests (never "customers") steer their shiny rental cars onto the 47-square-mile property southwest of Orlando, they're part of a monumental production. Show is a key word in the Disney lexicon. Imagineering isn't a bad word for what he does - whimsy, perfectionism, and sleekly efficient capitalism all rolled into one. His job is make sure that Disney's industrial-strength illusions stay convincing enough to keep the crowds coming - and the dollars pouring in - 12 hours a day, 365 days a year. Long, a 26-year Disney veteran, watches the proceedings with the casual intensity of a jeweler. Franklin Roosevelt delivers a rousing rendition of "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." A giant tray that holds every prop and figure used in the show - Long refers to it as "the war wagon" - slides slowly toward the back of the theater. Thomas Jefferson drafts the Declaration of Independence. All around me, latex-skinned icons of the nation's past get their cues from a magnetic tape loop and spring to life.
"America did not exist," intones Ben Franklin, launching into a 30-minute history lesson that Disney has dubbed The American Adventure.
Up above my head, powerful speakers begin to spout patriotic music. Then he gives the cue for two technicians to fire the show before guests begin streaming through the gates of Epcot Center's World Showcase at 11 a.m. "We've got indicators that keep an eye on that, so you don't get hurt by any of the hydraulic lifts going up and down." Long shoots me a look that lets me know I'm infinitely less predictable than his cast of audio-animatronic figures. "Make sure you don't lean over the rails here, or you'll shut down the show," he says. And it's dark down here below the stage, save for the glow from green and amber indicator lights.īruce Long, a Disney Imagineer who is in charge of "show quality" at the company's six theme parks around the world, is standing next to me. We're waiting for the morning run-through to begin. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and a dozen others. It's 10:25 on a steamy, late-summer morning in central Florida, and I'm standing on a narrow steel catwalk surrounded by an old-growth forest of American historical figures: Ben Franklin, Will Rogers, Susan B. The exclusive underground tour of Disney World.
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