The Hall of Presidents: How Walt Disney’s Innovative Imagination Made History

Like a spell, the name “Disney” evokes the image of a blue castle, the sound of talking animals, and the dream of living one’s own rags-to-riches fairy tale. However, the man connected to the name Walt Disney was well-grounded in reality – especially history. Nevertheless, he found it just as fascinating as a fantasy, and he was keen to share it with the world and did so with the Magic Kingdom attraction, The Hall of Presidents.

Disney accomplished this by making history in many senses of the word. He and his Imagineers made history with their ground-breaking inventions and attractions, but they also literally made history. For example, they made Abraham Lincoln the sixteenth president of the United States – and he was only the beginning of a complete presidential collection. Disney and his Imagineers made history so that it could be continually experienced in the present, breaking the barriers of time and space. 

Perhaps the name Disney really is a magic spell!

Revolutionary Imagination

Walt Disney’s legacy is one of big ideas. First conceived in the late 1950s, One Nation Under God was his biggest one yet. Walt had a vision of taking visitors back to 1776 and up through the Civil War, watching Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers construct the constitution before being thrown 100 years into the midst of 1860 cannon fire and Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address.¹ 

Walt wanted to accomplish this time-travel with the help of an early version of IMAX – five screens that would wrap around the audience – and even the smell of cordite (smokeless gunpowder) being pumped into the room during war scenes!² As for bringing the presidents back to life, the initial thought was wax figures, but of course, that was too basic for the imagination of Walt Disney. Motionless, speechless, and one-expression-only wax figures were hardly going to bring the past to life. 

So, Walt was determined to make Audio-Animatronic presidents – presidents who would move and speak. Thomas Jefferson would actually make his mark on the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address would actually emanate from the mouth of Abraham Lincoln. With “living” presidents, Walt and his WED Enterprises team felt they could better accomplish their goal of making an attraction that would “depict growth and progress, the present and future.”³

There was only one problem: money.

A Good Idea Turns into Great Moments

Bringing 34 presidents to life with groundbreaking technology would not be cheap, making sponsors a must. Luckily, the New York World’s Fair was just around the corner, providing the perfect opportunity to collaborate with sponsors. However, this sponsor-filled field wasn’t that easy to harvest with One Nation Under God in mind – after all, it would be difficult to promote modern-day products in a 1776 true-to-history attraction. They couldn’t very well put a cold Coca-Cola into the hands of George Washington, now could they? (Great mental image, though!)

Walt believed the key to convincing a major company to sponsor his attraction would be to show them how impressive it would be. They needed to bring one president to life on their own dime as a spokesperson for the other 33. The choice, for Walt, was easy. He picked his childhood hero: Abraham Lincoln.

As an adult, Walt said he had always had an affection for president Lincoln. Not only had Lincoln been a hero of Walt’s, but he had even been a persona of his for a time: “When he was a young boy, he performed the Gettysburg Address in a full Lincoln costume for his class, and was so well-received that he performed encores for the other classes as well.”⁴ (According to historian Brian Craig Miller, the costume was a combination of Walt’s father’s hat and a “terrible” beard made of dyed cotton balls!) It was a full-circle moment for Walt, his childhood memories colliding with the ambitions of adulthood. 

Walt’s intuition was just as good as his imagination. When Robert Moses, the head of the New York World’s Fair, visited Walt’s studio, he was incredibly impressed by the Audio-Animatronic Lincoln, who, though still in progress, reached out to shake Moses’ hand.⁵ “Moses quickly became adamant that Lincoln be a part of his fair — so much so that, according to biographer Bob Thomas, he once said, ‘I won’t open the fair without that exhibit!’”⁶

After that, the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. Moses started helping Walt with the sponsor hunt and discovered the State of Illinois legislature had established a commission for the fair…and they wanted a Lincoln exhibit. It was a match made in heaven!

And so it happened that in 1964, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln opened under the Illinois “Land of Lincoln” Pavilion at the World’s Fair. Visitors could come to see an original manuscript of the Gettysburg Address, watch the great president himself rise from his seat, and listen as he gave a moving speech (a compilation of “best of” excerpts from his many real speeches).⁷ Lincoln was so realistic, his face having been constructed from Lincoln’s actual 1860 life mask, that children reportedly threw things at the animatronic, believing it was an actor and that they could make him flinch to prove it.⁸ Mr. Lincoln was, unsurprisingly, one of the most popular attractions at the Fair.

The Hall of Presidents: Lone Lincoln No More!

Just as the actions of the real Abraham Lincoln paved the way for the reconstruction of the nation, the success of the Audio-Animatronic Lincoln paved the way for constructing America’s entire presidential history. And just like the real Abraham Lincoln would not live to see the completed reconstruction of his nation, nor would Walt Disney live to see the construction of his idea, One Nation Under God. Nevertheless, both America and Disney’s ideas would move on without their leaders, thanks to the firm foundations they had implemented before their untimely departures. 

The Imagineers kept going, and it was “through their passion and commitment to their late visionary’s dreams that the unprecedented Walt Disney World project could go forward.”⁹ Not only did they continue Walt’s dream of an East Coast Disney World, but they also brought his presidential dream to life, continuing to make history by building The Hall of Presidents based upon Walt’s plans for One Nation. With that, they had completed what, a decade before, Walt had “considered as one of the most exciting projects they had ever undertaken.”¹⁰

The Hall of Presidents was one of Disney World’s inaugural attractions, being opened to the public for the first time, along with the entire Magic Kingdom, on October 1, 1971.¹¹ The Imagineers researched the presidents extensively – not only their heights, weights, and portraits – but also their personalities. The sculptor, Disney Legend Blaine Gibson, said he “learned as much as he could about the leaders as he sought to reflect in his craft the feeling of each president’s personality.”¹²

The attention to detail was incredible, from specially made shoes, watches, and eyeglasses to personal mementos like a Phi Beta Kappa key for Franklin D. Roosevelt to wear on his jacket.¹³ While guests may not see these tiny details, it provides ever-important authenticity to the history Disney has made.

Such attention to detail continues today because The Hall of Presidents is not just a link with the past. It is also a connection with the present. With each new president of the United States comes a new Audio-Animatronic at the start of the president’s term, keeping the Hall of Presidents up to date and telling not only the story of America’s past but also the story of America now. Since 1993, the newest president of the United States has had a recording session with Disney, a tradition of initiation almost as exciting and sacred as the inaugural address. 

Just as Walt had envisioned for One Nation Under God, The Hall of President’s production has a wrap-around screen that shows images from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Great Depression, WWII, and 9/11. The pictures are displayed at such size and with such grandeur, one feels that they are a part of what they are seeing. Abraham Lincoln is still the show’s star, delivering the Gettysburg Address in its entirety while having the stage to himself. Perhaps most evocative of all is the narration, which describes everything in the present tense.

When talking about George Washington and his presidential promise of integrity and firmness, the narrator declares, “that is just what we need!”¹⁴ Later, Washington stands to address the crowd himself, admitting, “no event could have filled me with greater anxiety than that notification on the fourteenth day of April 1789, that you had selected me to lead our nation.”¹⁵ Therein lies the genius of the attraction; for a sparkling moment, the man on the one-dollar bill is not a distant figure of marble or oil paint but a fellow with whom you are communing.

A spotlight falls on each president as his name is called, each responding with a dignified nod. Washington then remarks that every president has taken an oath – a mere 35 words – to care for the nation and gestures to the latest installment in The Hall of Presidents (soon to be President Biden). With each new election, Washington continually passes on the mantle, hopes, and dreams of the United States to the next generation.

As American politics become more polarized, some think it wise to do away with The Hall of Presidents, fearing the attraction will become entangled in the burgeoning hostilities. Nathan Hartman writes in an editorial: “The Hall of Presidents has slowly grown out of sync with the public’s opinion of the office it showcases and the polarizing culture surrounding it,” and the Hall of Presidents fosters a “politically sided gut reaction,” which is why “it’s time to say goodbye to this opening day attraction.”¹⁶

However, this writer respectfully disagrees with Hartman and believes Walt would, too. The Hall of Presidents provides what many history books fail to – inspiration and a direct connection between us and the past – our past. “Walt Disney believed that there is much to be gained by studying history – that the future development of his nation depended on the public’s true understanding and appreciation of its past.”¹⁷

Regardless of one’s opinion of how noble or ignoble the actions of each president maybe, The Hall of Presidents is about the role of the presidency overall and what it entails. As the narrator says, “What we need most from our presidents has never changed – a guiding vision that calls forth the best that America can be.”¹⁸ That is a message and a call that should never go out of style. As long as The Hall of Presidents remains, it will remind the present-day Magic Kingdom guest that we choose the president – “we the people” – and that we must choose wisely so our present may become as good if not greater than the past.

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Although The Hall of Presidents is about bringing the presidents into the present, it is also a monument to the man who respected the presidency and loved his nation so much. As the show begins, the narrator proudly announces that it is “dedicated to the memory of Walt Disney” and “the optimism and goodwill he saw at the heart of the American story.”¹⁹

The narrator recalls how Walt’s favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, once said he wanted to “leave the world a little better place for having lived in it.”²⁰ The Hall of Presidents, as it includes us in the moving account of our nation, inspires us to go out and do the same – to make the world a better place for having lived in it, just like Walt and Lincoln did, because we are making our own history every day.

Have you visited the Hall of Presidents at Magic Kingdom? What are your thoughts on Walt’s legacy pertaining to this attraction? Please let us know in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you!

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Photo: tcwmatt via Flickr

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