Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Audio-animatronic show in Disneyland, US
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is a stage performance featuring a life-size robotic recreation of Abraham Lincoln at the Main Street Opera House in Disneyland. The figure sits in an armchair in front of a theater curtain and recites excerpts from historical speeches while its head, hands, and torso move.
Walt Disney originally developed the robotic figure for the Illinois Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair and brought it to California after the fair ended. The attraction opened at the park in 1965 and was technically revised and equipped with new program text multiple times in the following decades.
The performance preserves the words of the 16th president of the United States and brings them to life for visitors through a seated mechanical figure dressed in period clothing. Guests experience a kind of time travel to the 19th century while sitting in theater seats inside the opera house listening to the speeches.
The air-conditioned theater sits near the park entrance on the left side of Main Street and offers seating for guests who want to rest. The performance lasts about fifteen minutes and runs throughout the day at regular intervals, so wait times usually remain short.
The robotic figure was one of the first of its kind worldwide and is considered a milestone in the development of movable artificial humans for entertainment purposes. Engineers had to invent entirely new control systems at the time because there were no computer chips yet that could coordinate complex movement sequences.
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