America Sings

On July 8, 1974, nine days after the attraction opened, an 18-year-old hostess, named Deborah Gail Stone, was accidentally crushed to death between two walls of the building between 10:35 p.m. and 10:40 p.m. A narrow channel between a stationary wall and a rotating wall was open and Stone either fell, stepped backwards, or tried to jump from one stage to the other as the rotating wall began to move (it moved every 2 to 4 minutes, which was how long each act was). Her death was pronounced at 11:00 p.m., when the carousel was being reset for a new cycle. One of the audience members heard Stone's screams and notified park staff. By the time the audience member and the staff got to her, it was already too late. Stone had died from her injuries. Stone's parents sued Disneyland for the death of their daughter, which resulted in a small settlement.[4][5]

Following Stone's death, the attraction was abruptly closed down, remaining closed while safety lights were installed and the area where the incident occurred cleaned. Later, the walls in the theater were remodeled so that they would break away in case a similar accident happened. The attraction reopened three days after the incident on July 11.

America Sings was born out of the company's desire to celebrate America's Bicentennial. It didn't quite fit the theme of the land, but its relevance to that period in America made it appropriate. However, once the Bicentennial was over, the attraction became more misplaced, in a land dedicated to all things futuristic. Disney's Imagineering team began dreaming up new ideas for Tomorrowland, that included a new show in the carousel theater more fitting for the land of the future. Separately, in the summer of 1983, the idea for a log flume attraction that would become Splash Mountain was conceived by Imagineer and Disney Legend Tony Baxter.[6] Knowing America Sings was eventually to close for a more appropriately themed show, the idea developed to give most of America Sings' audio animatronic figures a new home in Splash Mountain.

In 1986, roughly two years before America Sings' impending closure, two audio-animatronic geese were taken out of the attraction. Their "skin" was removed, leaving only the robotic skeletons. Their heads were then replaced, and they were used as two talkative G2 droids in the queue to Star Tours, which would open in early 1987.[7] One of them (named G2-9T) still sings a modified "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (retitled "I've Been Looking at the Same Bag") in Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. As a result, the geese quartets in Acts 1 and 2 became trios until America Sings closed for good.

Show sponsor Del Monte having already ended its sponsorship, America Sings officially closed on Sunday, April 10, 1988. Within days, crews began to move most of the Audio-Animatronic animals to Splash Mountain, which opened in the summer of 1989. The rock and roll stork in the finale is now used by Imagineers for training new Animatronics programmers, acting as a final exam of sorts. The remainder of the show's Audio-Animatronics were recycled.

The Carousel Theater was used as office space for ten years. During this time, the carousel theater's external appearance was unchanged, and the upper level continued to house the Tron tunnel for the PeopleMover until that attraction ceased to operate in 1995. A large sign in front of the building showed Sorcerer Mickey alongside text reading, "Sorry, we're closed to imagineer a brand new attraction." This gave guests some hope that a new attraction was in the works, but the building was not touched for nearly a decade. For many years guests wondered what the new attraction replacing America Sings was going to be. For a few years, during the planned "Disney Decade" started by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, a new audio-animatronic show called Plectu's Fantastic Intergalactic Revue was to open. It was to have been an outer space-themed musical-variety revue featuring a troupe of Audio-Animatronics itinerant alien musicians whose spaceship had landed in Tomorrowland. The idea was part of the original "Tomorrowland 2055" plan and was planned to open around 1994. However, Disneyland Paris, which opened in 1992, ended up costing the Disney company billions of dollars putting them in debt, so "Tomorrowland 2055" was scrapped due to budget considerations.

From its closure until 1996, the inside of the lower level of the Carousel Theater was used for storage and office space leaving only remnants of deteriorating sets and backdrops as well as the empty, unused theater seats. America Sings was finally replaced by Innoventions, a version of the Epcot attraction of the same name, in 1998 as part of the Tomorrowland update of that year. The building was then redesigned and reopened in 2015 as the Tomorrowland Expo Center, hosting the Star Wars Launch Bay.[8]

• "Yankee Doodle" – Eagle Sam
• "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" – Eagle Sam
• "Pop Goes the Weasel" – Ollie Owl and the weasel

• "Dixie" / "L'il Liza Jane" / "Camptown Races" – Geese Quartet (later Geese Trio)
• "My Old Kentucky Home" – Colonel Houndstoothe (Bassett hound in rocking chair)
• "Polly Wolly Doodle" – The Swamp Boys (gator trio, frogs, and harmonica-playing raccoon)
• "Lord I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again" – Mother Possum with babies
• "Down in the Valley" – a fox
• "Down by the Riverside" – Hens, Foxes, Swamp Boy Frogs

• "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" / "I've Been Working on the Railroad" / "Fireball Mail" – Geese Quartet (later Geese Trio), a rabbit and a coyote
• "The Old Chisholm Trail" – Saddlesore Swanson (turkey)
• "Who Shot The Hole in My Sombrero?" – Sombrero-wearing dog
• "The End of Billy the Kid" – The Boothill Boys (vulture duo)
• "Home on the Range" – Tex Ranger (dog)

• "She May Be Somebody's Mother" / "The Bowery" / "After the Ball" – Geese Quartet
• "Down In The Licensed Saloon" – Geese Quartet & Mother Rabbit
• "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey" – Showgirl Pig
• "Sweet Adeline" – Blossom-Nose Murphy (goose) & Geese Quartet
• "The Old Gray Mare" – The Old Gray Mare & Geese Quartet
• "Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage" – Bird in a Gilded Cage and Fox
• "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" – Bird in a Gilded Cage, Fox, Storks, Geese Quartets (male and female), Pig, Sam and Ollie

• "Ja-Da" / "Darktown Strutters' Ball" / "Singin' in the Rain" – Geese Quartet
• "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" / "Boo-Hoo" – College Quartet (male wolf, male fox and two female cats)
• "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" – Piano Pig
• "Hound Dog" / "See You Later Alligator" – Rooster, Stork, Porcupine, Hound Dog, and Alligator
• "Shake, Rattle and Roll" – Rooster and Frog
• "Twistin' U.S.A." – Motorcycle storks
• "Joy to the World" – Modern Times cast (except Piano Pig and College Quartet)
• “Yankee Doodle” (reprise) – Modern Times cast (except College Quartet)

• "Yankee Doodle" (reprise continued) – Eagle Sam
• "Auld Lang Syne" – Eagle Sam and Ollie
• Exit music: "Stars and Stripes Forever"