If You Had Wings
Encyclopedia
If You Had Wings was one of the original attractions at Walt Disney World
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...
. It was a two-person Omnimover
Omnimover
The Omnimover is an amusement ride system used for Disney theme park attractions. Roger Broggie and Bert Brundage developed the system for WED Enterprises, which patented Omnimover in April 1968...
dark ride
Dark ride
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride where riders in guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music, and special effects....
in Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland
- Tomorrowland 1955–1967 :The first Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland on July 18, 1955, with only several of its planned attractions open, due to budget cuts. The construction of the park was rushed, so Tomorrowland was the last land to be finished. It became something of a corporate showcase,...
in the Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...
, sponsored by Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...
. The ride featured travel destinations throughout the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and elsewhere, all of which were, in keeping with the ride's sponsorship, serviced by Eastern. The ride had an eponymous theme song by Buddy Baker
Buddy Baker (composer)
Norman "Buddy" Baker was an American composer who scored many of Walt Disney's films, such as The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The Shaggy D.A., The Million Dollar Duck and The Fox and the Hound.Baker was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, and got his degree in...
.
History
If You Had Wings was located across from what originally was Flight To The Moon but later became Mission to MarsMission to Mars (attraction)
Mission to Mars was an attraction located in Tomorrowland at Disneyland and at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.-History:The show was originally named Flight to the Moon and it opened in 1955 along with Disneyland. In 1975, the destination was changed to Mars because humans had already been to the...
. It was free, when admission tickets were required of rides in the park.
If You Had Wings was an undisguised promotion for the then-giant Eastern Air Lines. Eastern's initial investment in the ride was reportedly $10 million.
If You Had Wings was a four-and-a-half-minute dark ride based on Disney's Omnimover system. The ride moved at a leisurely pace throughout. It was structurally similar to the Disneyland attraction Adventure Thru Inner Space
Adventure Thru Inner Space
Adventure Thru Inner Space, presented by Monsanto Company, was an attraction in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. It was the first attraction to utilize Disney's Omnimover system....
, which might be considered its predecessor; both were designed by Claude Coats. The theme music was written by Buddy Baker
Buddy Baker (composer)
Norman "Buddy" Baker was an American composer who scored many of Walt Disney's films, such as The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The Shaggy D.A., The Million Dollar Duck and The Fox and the Hound.Baker was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, and got his degree in...
with lyrics by X Atencio
X Atencio
Francis Xavier Atencio , also known as X Atencio, is a former animator and Imagineer for The Walt Disney Company....
.
The ride began with a vaguely-simulated "takeoff" in which the ride ascended a slope, while projections of animated silhouettes of seagulls and airplanes swept past on the walls, enhancing the feeling of motion and gently suggesting flight. Riders passed through a series of colorful theater-like sets with embedded small screens looping rear-projected short filmed scenes, while their cars swiveled on their bases to afford good views throughout. In all, thirty-eight 16mm projectors were used in the attraction. The scenes showcased various Eastern destinations and appealed to potential tourists with straw-hat markets, fishermen, limbo dancers, steel drum bands, and more. Many scenes had their own special sound effects. The omnipresent theme music featured a chorus of singers tunefully chanting,
If you had wings, if you had wings,
If you had wings, had wings, had wings, had wings.
The music did not succeed in masking the clicking of the hidden projectors, which was clearly audible throughout most of the ride.
The following locations were represented: Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, the Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
(where a tropically-attired traffic cop blew a whistle to direct a flock of flamingos in one direction, pedestrians and vehicles in the other), Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
(where the ride's only 35mm projector showed a
pod of bathing-suit-clad young people clambering up the rocks at Dunn's River Falls
Dunn's River Falls
Dunn's River Falls is a famous waterfall near Ocho Rios, Jamaica and a major Caribbean tourist attraction that attracts thousands of visitors each year.About high, the waterfalls are terraced like giant stair steps of which some are man-made improvements...
), Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, and New Orleans (where shadows of blowing jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
men flickered on the wall). Eastern Air Lines had, not coincidentally, a vested interest in travel to all of these places.
Having viewed this sequence of site sets, riders entered the speed room, an ellipsoid onto the interior of which were projected snippets of first-person movies of an airplane taking off, a train, water skis, motorcycles, airboats, and a few other scenes. The clips were projected on the walls by a 70mm projector. The ovoid screen encompassed the viewers' peripheral vision. Furthermore, the vehicle reclined in the speed room, and a breeze was blown on riders. The wraparound images, in combination with the motion and reclining angle of the vehicle and a blast of air, arguably constituted an early attempt at virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
. The images were to some extent blurry and distorted, unlike Disney's sharper Circle-Vision 360 technology; it rather resembled the fuzzy Cinema 180 shows featured in many contemporary amusement parks. Nevertheless, the projection effect combined with the motion of the ride produced a genuinely exhilarating sense of speed, and the long, egg-like shape of the room allowed plenty of time to experience the effect.
The speed room was followed by the mirror room, where two more 70mm projectors produced images of snow-covered mountains appearing on large screens and were reflected in enormous floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and the music became a wordless symphonic swell of harmonies.
Riders "descended" after exiting the mirror room, and the buttery baritone voice of Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
assured riders
You do have wings.
You can do all these things.
You can widen your world.
Eastern: the wings of man.
At the time of the ride's inception, "The Wings of Man" was the slogan of Eastern Air Lines. In later years, this passage (spoken by someone other than Welles; perhaps Disney vocal warhorse Peter Renaday
Peter Renaday
Peter Renaday is an American voice actor.-Film:*The Aristocats as the truck driver*Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost as Mr.McKnight-TV series:*Angel as The Beast's Master...
) ended with the less grandiloquent, "Eastern: we'll be your wings."
Soothed by these concluding bromides, riders disembarked to an area containing an Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...
reservation desk. Agents stood ready to assist riders, presumably inspired by what they had just experienced, with travel arrangements. Few seemed to take advantage of this opportunity.
In 1987, Eastern withdrew its sponsorship and the attraction closed on June 1 of that year. Eastern itself would go out of business just four years later. Although remembered affectionately by many, a fan website devoted to the attraction notes, "If you can't remember the public uproar surrounding the closing... one possible reason is that there was none."
It is worth noting that as an original part of WDW, If You Had Wings met the standards of the park's creators, not far removed from Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
himself, who shared a well-defined vision for the character of the park. As such, even though it was not one of Disney World's main attractions, IYHW was part of an elite group, many of whose members are now lost to history.
Interaction with the WEDway PeopleMover
Large diorama windows, two on the right and one on the left, allowed the MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, and Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
scenes to be visible to riders on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority
Tomorrowland Transit Authority
The Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover , formerly known as the WEDWay PeopleMover until 1994 and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority until 2010, is a PeopleMover system in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort...
(then WEDWay PeopleMover). The window on the left was removed when If You Had Wings was replaced with Delta Dreamflight
Delta Dreamflight
Delta Dreamflight was an attraction located in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom inside the Walt Disney World Resort, and was sponsored by Delta Air Lines...
(see below).
Successors
After the closing of the original attraction, new attractions were created to inhabit the same space.If You Could Fly
Subsequent to the closing of IYHW, Disney removed all references to Eastern, changed the name of the ride to If You Could Fly, and re-opened it on June 6, 1987. The sets and films were intact, but the theme music had been replaced. For many fans of the ride the absence of the infectious original music had taken much of the fun out of the attraction, and the opening scene which originally had a film about Eastern had been replaced with footage of flying birds. On January 4, 1989, If You Could Fly was permanently closed.Delta Dreamflight
Soon after, Delta Air LinesDelta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
took over sponsorship and made plans to update and remodel the attraction. The replacement was Delta Dreamflight
Delta Dreamflight
Delta Dreamflight was an attraction located in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom inside the Walt Disney World Resort, and was sponsored by Delta Air Lines...
, which made use of the same ride system and floor layout, but all new scenery and music.
Disney's Take Flight
Delta dropped its sponsorship in June 1996. WDW removed all references to Delta and renamed the attraction Disney's Take Flight. The ride lasted two years, closing in January 1998.Unlike the wholesale musical change from If You Had Wings to If You Could Fly, Take Flight 's music was the same as Dreamflight 's except for some tweaks to the lyrics.
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Disney decided to use the ride space to promote its popular film, PixarPixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
's Toy Story
Toy Story
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen...
. The new attraction, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, again makes use of the original ride system and floor plan, but now riders can control the rotation of their vehicle via joysticks, and are armed with "laser cannons" to shoot at targets stationed throughout the attraction.
Influence
The influence of If You Had Wings was clearly felt in EPCOT Center's World of MotionWorld of Motion
World of Motion , sponsored by General Motors, was the former tenant of the Transportation pavilion at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort...
and Horizons dark rides, both of which featured Omnimovers in settings similar to the speed room mentioned above. (Both those rides are permanently closed.)
The El Rio del Tiempo
El Rio del Tiempo
El Rio del Tiempo was a dark ride housed within the pyramid-shaped Mexico pavilion, in EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The ride carried passengers on a slow boat ride through various scenes from Mexico's history...
boat ride at the Mexico
Mexico (Epcot)
The Mexico pavilion is part of the World Showcase within Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort.-Layout:The Mexico pavilion resembles a Mesoamerican pyramid. The nightly fireworks show "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" is controlled from a small office atop the building...
pavilion at World Showcase, which has since been modified into the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros is a dark ride housed within the pyramid-shaped Mexico pavilion, at the Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States.-Synopsis:...
, includes films projected onto small screens embedded in elaborate sets. This ride, with its persistent music, miniature movies all around, and dancing dolls, is essentially a Mexican-themed hybrid of IYHW and It's a Small World, and the closest experience to IYHW that can still be had at Walt Disney World.
Any ride that simulates a greater degree of movement than it actually has, including Star Tours
Star Tours
Star Tours is a motion simulator attraction currently operating at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris. The ride is based on the successful Star Wars film series created by George Lucas, making it the first Disney attraction based on a non-Disney produced film.The first...
, Body Wars
Body Wars
Body Wars was a ride at the Wonders of Life pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort's Epcot. Body Wars is a simulator ride where the riders are "shrunk" and carry out a mission inside a human body. The ride is based upon the Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulator...
and Soarin', is indebted in part to IYHWs speed room.
External links
- Widen Your World Detailed and affectionate fan site featuring a wealth of prose, maps, photographs, and audio recordings.
- Claude Coats An official appreciation of the late Disney animator and ImagineerImagineerImagineer may refer to:* Disney Imagineer, a position at the Walt Disney company* Imagineer Systems, a visual effects software company* Imagineer , a Japanese video game, mobile, software company...
Claude Coats. - Photo of the attraction's exterior.
