Does this bug anybody else about Carousel of Progress

[erin1715]

The first scene has 2 daughters and 1 son then we never hear of the 2nd daughter ever again. Of course some have said the 3rd child isn't a daughter but rather a neighborhood child the mother paid to help with laundry or was baby sitting for someone else since they never directly call the child out as being a child of the family. She is just helping the mom with the laundry and is then never seen again.

Wow I've seen this many times and haven't noticed lol. Next time I will be paying closer attention!

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

Speaking of the Daughter.......I always found it quite "odd" that the daughter is getting ready for the evening and she says something like, I am not decent and "dad" says, don't worry they are all friends. Kinda creepy as a father of a daughter.....

 

[hawkeyesparks]

The theater needs a definite renovation(seats). I love the show, but I leave thinking everytime I see it that they need to do something different to the last scene. It's like what people in 1988 thought the future would look like. So it totally screams 80s to me.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I'm kinda surprised anybody is awake enough to notice what's in the last scene.

 

[ucfknight]

I don't care what changes they make as long as they don't remove the late, great Mel Blanc's Uncle Orville.

 

[jpeterson]

2020? Really? I thought the last scene was from the 90's. I do agree with the OP that it's a big leap between the last two scenes.

I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, that scene is supposed to depict the near future. That's why I'm projecting it to be 2020. Although it looks like the past these days.

 

[BrianL]

Well, they could add the scenes to keep it to twenty year intervals through 2020 and therefore make the show twice as long...

I like Carousel of Progress, but not that much.

I do!

But...I don't think that's feasible without replacing the entire show building.

 

[Magpie]

My vote would be to ditch the "future" scene and give us back the original 1964 ending.

Also, I thought it was pretty clear the little girl helping with the laundry was a maid or hireling or some sort, which would be entirely expected for that time period. Most of my turn-of-the-last century Irish ancestors would trek themselves down to the hiring fair, starting at age seven, and spend the next several months living with and working for whichever family hired them. Then they'd get paid, take their earnings home, and a few days later turn right back around and head for the next hiring fair. They were short term household help and farm labourers. Though some, if they got lucky, would end up working in larger households for years.

It was a hard life.

And the point of that scene is to showcase the difference before we had washing machines (and other household conveniences) and afterward, when we became so automated we no longer needed to hire children to work for us.

 

[scottandtisha]

By far my biggest pet peeve is that the vocals of "The Best Time of Your Life" are not synchronized to the music. They lag just enough to drive me nuts!! I had to take it off my Disney playlist!

 

[wilkeliza]

My vote would be to ditch the "future" scene and give us back the original 1964 ending.

Also, I thought it was pretty clear the little girl helping with the laundry was a maid or hireling or some sort, which would be entirely expected for that time period. Most of my turn-of-the-last century Irish ancestors would trek themselves down to the hiring fair, starting at age seven, and spend the next several months living with and working for whichever family hired them. Then they'd get paid, take their earnings home, and a few days later turn right back around and head for the next hiring fair. They were short term household help and farm labourers. Though some, if they got lucky, would end up working in larger households for years.

It was a hard life.

And the point of that scene is to showcase the difference before we had washing machines (and other household conveniences) and afterward, when we became so automated we no longer needed to hire children to work for us.

IDK I come from a massive family in Texas. No way would my great grandma have paid someone else's children to do the laundry. She would have had one of her own help do it haha.

 

[Magpie]

IDK I come from a massive family in Texas. No way would my great grandma have paid someone else's children to do the laundry. She would have had one of her own help do it haha.

Yes, but these people only have one rather indulged daughter, and a son. And they seem to have money.

I bet they did hire help!

Oh... here's an interesting article on the "hired girl" of the last century:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/decline-domestic-help-maid/406798/

 

[wilkeliza]

Yes, but these people only have one rather indulged daughter, and a son. And they seem to have money.

I bet they did hire help!

Oh... here's an interesting article on the "hired girl" of the last century:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/decline-domestic-help-maid/406798/

I know the history of it but I imagine the families who hired kids from the local job fairs would have also been the type to in later centuries have enough for a housekeeper which we didn't see. Just saying just because you jumped to that doesn't mean it is an oh duh automatic for everyone else. Disney gives no official reasoning for the girl so it honestly could be anything. Heck I've heard some mention you see her in the first scene but not others to show the declining family size as the decade grew on or to show how losing a child to something (illness or accident) was not uncommon. I've heard a least 5 different theories on who that other kid could be.

 

[mad hatter fan]

By far my biggest pet peeve is that the vocals of "The Best Time of Your Life" are not synchronized to the music. They lag just enough to drive me nuts!! I had to take it off my Disney playlist!

Isn't the song still "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow"? It was on our last visit about 3.5 years ago.

 

[BrianL]

Isn't the song still "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow"? It was on our last visit about 3.5 years ago.

Best Time of Your Life was used for a time in the MK show when it first moved from Disneyland, but it has been There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow for some time now. The Sherman Brothers wrote both songs, but preferred There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow and it was restored.

 

[Magpie]

I know the history of it but I imagine the families who hired kids from the local job fairs would have also been the type to in later centuries have enough for a housekeeper which we didn't see. Just saying just because you jumped to that doesn't mean it is an oh duh automatic for everyone else. Disney gives no official reasoning for the girl so it honestly could be anything. Heck I've heard some mention you see her in the first scene but not others to show the declining family size as the decade grew on or to show how losing a child to something (illness or accident) was not uncommon. I've heard a least 5 different theories on who that other kid could be.

Well, I certainly didn't intend to imply that it was "oh duh automatic" and my apologies to you, if you took it that way.

For what it's worth, though, the "type" of family to hire a domestic servant in 1900 was decidedly middle class. Which is the exactly the kind of family Disney was trying to portray.

There's a lot of research and history written about it. Domestic servants, even if your great grandma never hired one, were extremely common and definitely not something reserved for the wealthy. The wife would definitely not have wanted to do the laundry by hand, alone, with no help, and it's clear they weren't going to put the daughter of the house to work. The only sensible thing for them to do would have been to hire a child, at least for one day a week.

But yes, you're right - the child doesn't have to be a domestic servant, she could be anything. The girl could be the unwanted stepchild, who is worked hard, dies young and is never mentioned again. Or she could be a feisty street urchin who won a place in the family's heart, bringing love and laughter with her one liners and bon mots. She could be a secret princess!

 

[DWillowBay]

So, I saw Carousel of Progress first in 1964 at the New York World's Fair. Even to the 5 year old that I was at the time, I could understand the amazing innovation that this attraction brought with it. Part of what I love about CoP is the ingenuity that Walt was willing to take a chance on, in such a public venue. The time frames represented are just that...representations of the progress America had seen to that point... and the hope of things to come. When you understand CoP in context, it's not just an attraction, it's a piece of history. ....and that song! It's the song that never ends! ...but that's another thread!

 

[glassslippergirl]

Yes, this is exactly what bothers me. Just updating the last scene will not satisfy me. 1940s to present/future is too jarring compared to the other transitions. The other scenes would need to be redone to be better spaced-- perhaps starting with the 1940s, then 70s or 80s, then 2000-ish, then present/future-- just as an example. Suggestions to just return to the original 1960s ending don't really scream "progress" in the Carousel of Progress, and the idea of calling it "retro" is lazy for Disney, imho.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't see my desired makeover happening. WDW isn't going to invest that much in what is at best a C-ticket/ third tier attraction, and even with a renovation won't be much more to the general public (it is On the surface an attraction about the history of kitchen appliances, which I can't imagine appealing as much to today's iPhone crowd, who can look up historical info with ease). Plus, there's the conundrum that an update is just a temporary fix on an attraction like this-- progress progresses, and today's expensive update will seem dated in another 15, 20, 30 years. Such a reno would also upset diehard Disney fans who don't want to change a classic attraction, especially the parts created by Walt Disney himself. However, I think that view doesn't respect Walt Disney's own view that his parks and attractions would never be complete.

I have fond memories of the attraction. My grandpa had heart trouble but loved WDW, so we spent a lot of time resting in the ac. When the attraction stopped working for some reason, he would always say it was because he was dragging his feet. But even my personal nostalgia doesn't make me love it today, which is sad to me.

 

[wisblue]

Starting with the 1940's would upset a lot of people, including me.

I also saw COP at the World's Fair in 1964-65. Leaving those early scenes as is is a critical part of the attraction's history and to me serves as a tribute to Walt Disney and how innovative that attraction was at the time.

 

[scottandtisha]

Isn't the song still "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow"? It was on our last visit about 3.5 years ago.

You're right, so what am I thinking about? It sounds like the same singer.

 

[IndianaRRT]

I'd like to see the original ending and when swinging around to the exit "position", have some sort of projection something with a short about what the original ending got right, or a montage of new technology, etc. It's shouldn't be that hard to preserve the original (call me a nerd, but I love seeing how we live today through the eyes of the past) and still tie in current events appropriately