Presidential Task

08.04.09 - In the fall issue of Disney twenty-three, Editor in Chief Carmen Esquer wrote about the recently refreshed The Hall of Presidents attraction at Magic Kingdom. For the article, she spoke extensively with Senior Show Writer Pam Fisher; although Carmen was unable to use all of what Pam shared with her in her story, we wanted to publish the full interview for Disney.com/D23 readers.

"Seeing all of the Presidents on stage really makes [guests] think about the presidency," says Pam Fisher. "And how in the entire history of our country, only a small number of men have led it! They love seeing them all together, just the mix of costumes and modern suits. So we set these goals for ourselves to enhance the elements that the guests love, to focus on the story of the presidents, to create more of an emotional connection."

CARMEN ESQUER: When the idea to refresh The Hall of Presidents come about, what are some of the first things you considered?
PAM FISHER: The first thing that we always do is we look at what is it about the attraction that makes people come back, generation after generation? And so we did some interviewing of people at the park and research and the thing we discovered is that people really love the presidents. Seeing all of the Presidents on stage really makes them think about the presidency. And how in the entire history of our country, only a small number of men have led it! They love seeing them all together, just the mix of costumes and modern suits. So we set these goals for ourselves to enhance the elements that the guests love, to focus on the story of the presidents, to create more of an emotional connection.

CE: What were some of the challenges you faced during this process?
PF: I'm not a presidential historian, so we had to go search for one and we landed on Doris Kearns Goodwin. She's a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and she also wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Roosevelts. From a Disney standpoint, we really responded to her unique ability to see beyond the historical events and to see beyond the president to the person inside.

CE: What did you learn from your conversations with her?
PF: That the story of the presidents is really a story of us. The thing that really struck us is something she said. All great Presidents forged a link with the people. And that was a key for us to help us develop the story. We looked for those times in our history that we went through hard times as a nation, but that unique bond between people and the President helped bring us through those hard times. So the re-imagined Hall of Presidents puts the spotlight on the part of the show that has thrilled generations and the new film focuses on how the bond forged between the Constitution, between the president and the people, has overcome wars, poverty, and division.

CE: What is one of your favorite moments in the new show?
PF: There's a passing of the torch from George Washington to the newest president, and it's a really special Disney moment that sets what we do apart from what anybody else could do.

CE: What are other highlights?
PF: It's all digital, so it's beautiful. There's not a flicker on that screen. This was actually a show that was first conceived by Walt Disney himself. He had the dream, but not the technology. But Disney would always say, no good dream ever completely dies. It either gets incorporated or grows. But that dream finally did come true.

CE: How is the new show more kid friendly?
PF: There are scenes that are a little bit lighter in spirit, something that kids may get a kick out of, and again make them more curious about the presidency.

CE: Do some moments remain untouched?
PF: There's the great Abraham Lincoln speech, "I see the storm coming; I know his hand is in it. I know that he hates slavery and injustice. If he has a place for me, I believe that I am ready. I'm nothing, but truth is everything. With God's help, I will not fail." And it's just the greatest speech, and it's been in every version of the show from the beginning. So it's just one that we couldn't lose.

CE: What else are you doing different with the show?
PF: The previous versions have always had Abraham Lincoln give a speech at the end of the show, and it's always been sort of a compilation of a lot of his speeches that sort of speak to the theme of whatever the story was at that time. ut we thought, how powerful would it be if we have the Audio-Animatronics® figure appear during the part of the show that is about the Civil War, and allow him to give possibly the greatest speech in the history of the presidency, which is the Gettysburg Address. And so we devised a system where we could actually raise that center screen and reveal the Lincoln Animatronic figure as if he actually were at Gettysburg. And he will stand and actually give the Gettysburg Address in the middle of the film, and this again is a moment that Doris really helped us to, really brought a lot of meaning to the scene for us. This was such a heartbreaking moment for America, and a half a million people had been killed. When he appeared that day on the stage at Gettysburg, what he did is he gave meaning to our sacrifice. And so we thought bringing him to that moment in history and then allowing him to give the speech really shows how he reached out to the people during that time.

CE: What can you tell us about the voice of Lincoln?
PF: The original Lincoln is an actor named Royal Dano, and Walt Disney actually directed him in his first, because at the time they were working on the World's Fair. And as you probably know, Walt had worked on an exhibit for the State of Illinois, and it featured our first Audio-Animatronics® figure of Lincoln. And so for his voice, they cast Royal Dano, and Walt Disney actually directed that recording session. And there's a great story about how he really wanted to feel that Lincoln was so heartbroken by the fact that the country had split apart and that we were going through this terrible time, and he really wanted to feel that sense of heartbreak and defeat in his voice, and so he kept making him do the speech over and over and over again, until the actor, Royal Dano, was just exhausted. But he did get an amazing performance out of him. And it's always been a voice that all of us here at Disney is just Lincoln. He is the voice of Lincoln. So Royal Dano is back. They dug the original recordings out of the Archives, which we're very happy about. And what was unique about him is that he really embodies this bold, new spirit, because sometimes, like Doris said, sometimes presidents do reflect the spirit of their generation, and this was very much that moment in time. And then one of the things, again, another thing that we think kids will be interested in is the White House wasn't really called the White House until, officially, until Theodore Roosevelt was in the presidency, and he started calling it the White House officially and putting it on the stationery and everything.

CE: Why?
PF: 'Cause it was just a big white house. And so we clued that little story in our film, and so I think kids will get a kick out of that. And then as we go to Theodore Roosevelt, we say, 30 years later, his distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would occupy that same White House and lead America through its greatest trials since the Civil War.And then the section on Franklin Delano Roosevelt is really very much one of conversations between FDR and the people, again another great bond between the people and the Presidency that brought us through a hard time. He would very often give fireside chats on the radio. And after he would give one of these fireside chats, he would get mountains of letters from people. He really spoke to people, and they really felt like he was in their living room and that they really want, he really wanted to hear back from them. And so he would get, we have pictures of just desks at the White House, just piled high with letters, I'm sure very much like Barack Obama's email in-box, piled high with email. So this section will be, you'll hear a bit of one of his fireside chats, and then you'll just hear the voices. We found copies of letters that people had written to him, and here are some of the examples. We're just modest, middle-class people, having lost what little we have. Now we know we are not fighting alone. And so you'll just hear snippets of their letters in their own voices. And then, but he reached out to them in this calm and clear voice and sort of convinced people to, he sort of convinced them that there was hope, and with that hope, we came through that time in our country's history. And then we take you to JFK, 16 years later, a President who, again, reached out to the people to usher in this era of citizen activism that was pretty unprecedented in our country's history. And then we end the show with the fact that the history books are filled with the things that Presidents do in terms of policy, et cetera, but very often you miss these moments where they speak the words that are already there in our hearts, especially in times of tragedy. And this is a montage of those moments. You'll hear Johnson speaking after the death of Kennedy. You'll hear Reagan speaking after the Challenger disaster. You'll hear Bill Clinton speaking after the Oklahoma bombings, and then finally George Bush at Ground Zero.

CE: In the new show, the George Washington figure speaks?
PF: Yes, which it's never done before, and it's a beautiful figure, but he's never spoken before. And so he'll stand, and we found a speech that he'd actually given on the occasion of his second inauguration, where he was talking about his first inauguration, where he said, no event could have filled me with greater anxiety than that day that I received word that you had selected me to lead our nation, but it was with a confidence of my fellow citizens that I took an oath, an oath repeated by every American President throughout time, throughout our history. And at that moment, he will turn to the Barack Obama figure, and the Barack Obama figure will take the oath of office. And then after he finishes taking the oath of office, again Morgan Freeman will come back. Ladies and gentlemen, President Barack Obama. And then he will give a speech, a very nice speech about the essence of the American dream, basically. And then as he finishes his speech, the patriotic music will begin to swell, and it will eventually build to a version of "America the Beautiful," sung by a choir.

CE: What do you wish for this attraction to accomplish?
PF: I hope that it will really touch kids and help them to get curious about some of the presidents, and maybe through some of those presidents, get more curious about history.

CE: That's a good goal.
PF: It's a mission. This has always been a show that parents love to bring their kids to. And so our hope is that it's becoming a show that kids will want to bring their parents to.