Disney Confirms Temporary Closure of This Classic Magic Kingdom Attraction

This Walt Disney World opening day attraction will be this month.

Hall of Presidents

Located in Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square, the Hall of Presidents has been a part of the fabric of the park since Walt Disney World opened in 1971. Described by Disney as a place where you can “behold all 45 Presidents of the United States in a stirring show tracing the nation’s history.” However, no one will be able to do so for two days in June.

In perusing the Walt Disney World calendar, we noticed that the Hall of Presidents will be unavailable on June 9th and 10th.

Disney

Since the show hasn’t been added to Disney’s refurbishment calendar, and showtimes are lasted as normal for the days leading up to and following the 9th and 10th, we lean towards thinking that the attraction’s closure is due to a special event utilizing the theater.

Disney

On a perhaps not-so-coincidental note, a collection of paintings by former President George W. Bush premiered EARLY in EPCOT on June 7.

©Disney

The Hall of Presidents was a longtime passion project of Walt Disney’s, even predating the “Florida Project” that would become Walt Disney World. In fact, the development of the show would actually lead to arguably the most important mechanical breakthrough in Disney Imagineering history: Audio-Animatronic human figures.

Initially, the show that would solve into Hall of Presidents was known as “One Nation Under God,” and planned for a never-built extension of Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. called Liberty Street at Edison Square. The show was originally planned to feature wax figures of each president. However, Walt eventually decided he wanted the figures to be animated. Due to time, cost, and technological constraints, this initially proved impossible, so Disney had his Imagineers narrow their focus to just one former U.S. leader: Walt’s boyhood hero Abraham Lincoln.

©D23

After a long period research and development of, the Lincoln figure debuted at the 1964 New York World’s Fair as part of the Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln show, and immediately changed the course of Disney history. The realistic, almost lifelike figure amazed patrons, and paved the way for Animatronic-heavy attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion, which in turn have paved the way for almost every major Disney attraction you know and love today!

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

In fact, the breakthroughs achieved by work on Lincoln were so great that by 1971 – 7 years after the fair and 5 years after Walt Disney’s death – the founder’s dream of a show consisting of every U.S. President in full robotic glory came true with the Hall of Presidents. The show has been updated several times since, with each new president added as they’re elected.

The animatronic U.S. Presidents.

While the Hall of Presidents will be closed on June 9th and 10th, we have no reason to believe that Walt Disney’s dream show won’t remain part of the Magic Kingdom for a long, long time. Stay tuned to DFB for more news on Disney World closures and refurbishments.

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