Disney has announced that “The Disneyland Story, Featuring Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” will reopen later this year. Every since the show was removed four years ago during Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary celebration,
Disney purists had wondered when and if Mr. Lincoln would ever return. Now the attraction is scheduled to reopen in conjunction of the celebration of the 200th anniversary year of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.
The current Opera House presentation, “Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years,” will go on hiatus beginning Monday, March 16, in preparation for the new and improved “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” show. Once the Lincoln show is live, “Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years” will be presented as part of the “Disneyland Story” display of art, models and mementos in the Opera House lobby.
Also planned for fall 2009 is a prominent new home on Main Street, U.S.A., for The Disney Gallery. Formerly located above Pirates of the Caribbean in New Orleans Square, The Disney Gallery houses treasured Disney artwork and collectibles representing creative efforts from throughout The Walt Disney Company.
The Disney Gallery’s new home will be in the Bank of Main Street building, located next door to the Main Street Opera House and currently serving as the headquarters for Disneyland Resort Annual Passport processing. The Bank will continue to operate as an Annual Passport center until mid-summer 2009. After that, Annual Passport processing will move to the Plaza Pavilion, near the entrance to Adventureland.
The original “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” was created by Walt Disney and his Imagineers for the State of Illinois Pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and featured the world’s first fully animated human Audio-Animatronics figure, built by Walt Disney Imagineering. The show, made its Disneyland debut in the Main Street Opera House on July 18, 1965.
