Ford's "Magic Skyway", 1964

The Ford exhibit was one of the highlights of the 1964/65 New York World's Fair, due in large part to Walt Disney's "Magic Skyway". "Seated in late-model Fords, visitors are carried along a track on the rotunda's exterior for a sweeping view of the Fair, then on to the spectacular scenes in the main exhibit hall."

Here's a quote from the VIP souvenir book: "Bringing the prehistoric world to "life" was achieved by Mr. Disney and his WED Enterprises staff by developing a remarkable technique called "Audio-Animatronics" -- animation powered by sound and controlled by electronics. Movements and sounds of the cavemen and animals are programmed onto magnetic tape. As the tape sends signals into a caveman's body, for example, each sound impulse triggers an air valve, shooting highly compressed air through plastic tubes connected to an intricate system of springs and levers that act like muscles, thereby controlling actual movements.

One final touch of realism. The chemically processed "skin" of the cavemen has the touch of human skin, "perspires" as a human and even "bruises!"

Back to me again! The plastic skin "perspires" and "bruises"? I'm sorry I never got to see these sweaty, contused cavemen in person.


This next scene is reminiscent of the one that you still view from the Disneyland Railroad as you pass through the "Primeval World" segment. The World's Fair version is tropical, while Disneyland's shows a land that has turned into a vast desert (much like the scenes from Fantasia's "Rite of Spring"). These dinos look pretty crude, even compared to the ones at Disneyland that barely move (or don't move at all, in my recent experience).