The Tech Secrets Behind Disneyland's 'Enchanted Tiki Room'

SFGate spills the secrets of Disneyland's 'Enchanted Tiki Room' and its lifelike animatronic singing birds — Jose, Fritz, Michael and Pierre — 'whose movements were perfectly synced with the audio track.'

'Beneath the room, the heartbeat of the attraction is a $1 million installation of electronics equipment, operated by a roll of 14-channel magnetic tape,' the Orange County Register wrote upon its opening. 'It is the same system which programs the U.S. military's polaris missile.' That system also ran very hot. To keep guests from overheating, air conditioning was installed throughout the building, making the Tiki Room Disneyland's first attraction to be fully air conditioned...

Or, as another article puts it, 'While Disney did not delve into the speculative science of cryogenics to preserve his life, he did borrow the mechanical brain of a nuclear missile to simulate life, creating a new type of entertainment in the process.'
The article remembers how Wernher Von Braun became a technical advisor (and on-camera presenter) for three Disney-produced TV episodes about space travel — at the same time Von Braun was working as technical director for the U.S. Army rocket program that produced the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile, plus the first submarine-launched ballistic missile with its ground-breaking launch control mechanism:
An important aspect of the Polaris launch system hinged on the fact that the conditions under which the missiles might be launched were constantly changing. Different underwater currents, temperatures, and flexing of the metal hull all contributed to the difficulty of a successful launch. In order to minimize human errors and to automate the sequence as much as possible, scientists developed an audio control system. A magnetic audio tape with a series of prerecorded cues precisely timed to account for the submarine's movement, controlled the launch machinery.

This new technology, invented to deliver nuclear destruction, proved exactly what Disney needed for his wonderland developed for children.

The article concludes that Disneyland engineering 'transformed Von Braun's military technology' to the point today where 'what was once controlled by the artificial brain of a nuclear missile is now run by the equivalent of a MacBook.'

SFGate delves deeper into the attraction's strange origins — and how it all came full circle 63 years later...
At the intersection of Main Street and Adventureland, a restaurant called the Pavillion — now the Jolly Holiday — bridged the gap. Under one roof, it served food to Main Street guests on one side and Adventureland diners on the other. The inelegant transition created an eyesore that Walt despised... The need for the Tiki Cafe 'appeared to be less about food and more about aesthetics,' Ken Bruce writes in Before the Birds Sang Words, a comprehensive history of the attraction.
In 1961, Walt gathered with park designers about the concept. The sketch made by legendary theme park designer John Hench was remarkably thorough, with much of its design incorporated into the final product... When Walt saw a plethora of birds in the sketch, he famously exclaimed, 'We can't have birds in there... because they'll poop in the food.' Hench hurriedly ad-libbed that the birds would be mechanical, a concept that Walt adored...

Although its powerful air conditioning may be its biggest draw today, many attractions you love owe their existence to the flock of singing birds. Disney engineers' work on the talking flora and fauna laid the foundation for much more complex Audio-Animatronics (a word that Walt Disney coined). Without Jose, Fritz, Michael and Pierre, there would be no Haunted Mansion, no Pirates of the Caribbean, no Rise of the Resistance. Next year, in celebration of Disneyland's 70th anniversary, the park will unveil one of its most sophisticated animatronics yet: Walt Disney himself. It will be the first time Walt appears in a Disney attraction anywhere in the world, completing a journey that started with a mechanical bird and ends with an immortal homage.

Their article also reveals that a year after the Tiki Room opened, one of the birds was programmed to say 'Come, there's an island there for you in Hawaii. Soaring birds of United Airlines fly there too!' Because Disneyland had signed a sponsorship deal with United Airlines...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.