THERE'S A GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW

Theme of GENERAL ELECTRIC'S CAROUSEL OF PROGRESS
Lyrics and music by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman 

There's a great big beautiful tomorrow
shining at the end of every day.
There's a great big beautiful tomorrow,
and tomorrow's just a dream away.

Man has a dream
and that's the start.
He follows his dream
with mind and heart.

And when it becomes a reality,
it's a dream come true for you and me.

So, there's a great big beautiful tomorrow
shining at the end of every day.
There's a great big beautiful tomorrow,
just a dream away!

THE CAROUSEL OF PROGRESS AND "THE SONG"

"Walt called us over to a meeting at WED," remembered Richard Sherman, half of the song-writing tandem known as the Sherman Brothers (then staff writers for Disney). "He wanted us to come over and look at a mock-up of the Carousel of Progress." Robert Sherman illuminates, "He wanted a song, something that was a certain amount of seconds, so when they moved the audience to a different stage it would coincide with the time in between the move -- it was a technical job."

Walt had a great deal of confidence in his two song writers. He knew that they could create the kind of song he wanted. Richard discusses Walt's request, "He wanted a song that would fit in each style of the show -- a ragtime for the 1920s, swing for the 1940s, and a sweet Mantovani sound for the 1960s. Another challenge was that he wanted it to talk about progress. You know, G.E. is always looking for new ways to make life better -- but a soft sell. A singing commercial without mentioning the product. We kind of understood what he wanted, because we felt the same way about things. We always believed in what we were doing."

The Sherman brothers set out to accomplish Walt's assignment. "First, we worked back and forth with the writers of the script -- there was a lot of give and take -- but our job was to give Walt this theme song," recalled Richard. "Then we went away for a couple of weeks, and we thought, and we played, and we finally got something that we really liked -- the title. And then we wrote the song. We devised a way of talking about the idea of man looking for new and better ways to live, and it was just a dream away -- you know the idea of dreamers being the ones that dream up these things."

The now famous "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," was the result of this creative collaboration. "We finished it, but we would play it for Walt first," remembered Robert. Richard continued, " He came down to our office on the third floor of the animation building, and said 'What do you got?' We played it for him and he said 'That will work fine. Can you play it like ragtime?' So I played it like ragtime, and then I played it like a swing, and he said 'Okay, we'll get the orchestraters in and that will be fine.' That was his reaction." What may appear as a vague response on Walt's part, was anything but. Robert explains, "He was not one with superlatives. Once he said, 'That will work,' that was a big compliment coming from Walt Disney.

-- Just a Dream Away --

Walt assigned Disney staff writers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman to write a tune that told the story of the Carousel without giving away what was to happen. The first music to be completed for G.E.'s Carousel was a song entitled "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow." Written in late February, 1963, this jaunty tune was quickly arranged by staff composer Buddy Baker into the variety of styles called for by the Carousel of Progress script. Though it seemed impossible to isolate audio within each of the six sections, or theaters, of the carousel as it rotated, Buddy Baker turned this hurdle into an advantage. Working with the Sherman Brothers, he planned the five musical transitions required to cover each rotation of the carousel to start simultaneously, play in the same key, and be exactly the same length. They were based on "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," and each variation reflected the time period, or purpose, to which the carousel was turning, i.e.: 1890s, 1920s, 1940s, 1960s, and Finale. On March 6, 1963, several of these were recorded using eleven musicians. The Overture interpolating "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," was followed by arrangements in musical styles of the 1890s, 1920s, 1940s, and 1960s, as well as in Waltz, Marching Band, Swing, Future and Dixieland versions. Rex Allen recorded the vocal for "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," and the patter for the carousel show. With music and dialog edited together into a rough cut, this early version of the Carousel of Progress provided the Disney creative team with the basic idea of the show's timing and sound, and gave Walt a "dog and pony show" to pitch to G.E. The show continued to evolve with Walt and his Imagineers focused on the script and technology of the carousel, leaving any required musical changes until the show was closer to being locked. Although music budgeting continued non-stop as changes were made to the G.E. Pavilion, no further music was recorded until November 11, 1963.

-Alexander Rannie, Author

 The use of scrims in the Carousel of Progress

The highly reflective nature of a scrim can be seen in this flash-photo of the 1940s kitchen. Even though the action is lighted behind the scrim, the flash reflects off the scrim the way normal stage light does to obscure the action behind it.

GATEWAY TO FUTURE PROGRESS

and

GALAXY OF SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

the route to the Skydome Spectacular

Source - (Photo & Description): Science Digest, Vol. 54, No. 6, December 1963

 The Time Tunnel and The Corridor of Mirrors

The Carousel of Progress, which was the first portion of Progressland, was on the second floor of the pavilion. When the audience was invited on stage in the final act ... they entered a moving ramp that would take them up to the third floor's show ... The ramp developed into a tube enclosed in special mirrors which created a kaleidoscopic montage by reflecting activities in the area at the top of the ramp. This was a natural progression, because when the audience emerged on the third floor, they would find themselves in the 160-foot long "Corridor of Mirrors."

Visitors file out of the Finale theater and up "The Gateway to Future Progress," as the "Time Tube" moving ramp came to be known.

Source: Photo Network © 2002 Photo Network, All Rights Reserved

Something that G.E. expressed interest in having in the Pavilion was an exhibit(s) that would showcase their employees and the job they were doing. "We wanted something so that our share holders could see what we were doing and be proud of," expressed [Pavilion Manager] Steve Van Voorhis. "The Corridor of Mirrors," the early working title, was the result -- the name was later changed to the "Galaxy of Science and Engineering." It featured hundreds of simulated stars twinkling overhead, as constantly changing color photographs of G.E.'s research, development, and engineering activities were projected on screens etched in the huge mirrors. Each project area was in the form of a symbol aligned with basic sciences.

After walking through the mirrored corridor, the audience would come to the second big show planned and designed by Disney, "The Skydome Spectacular."

General Electric shows the progress of presentation by projection

General Electric's Fair pavilion includes a free-flow area dotted with reflected, ever-changing photographs. This "corridor of mirrors" is known as the Galaxy of Science and Engineering

Projected photography produces [a] Progressland highlight -- the Galaxy of Science and Engineering. Silvered from floor to ceiling, this free-flow area is a "corridor of mirrors" dotted with reflected, ever-changing, photographs of actual General Electric scientists and applied engineers doing basic and applied research and development -- research in space, in electronics; research for electric utility companies and for industry, for the home and for the nation. The walls and ceilings of the corridor are embellished with Technamated abstract designs.

16 Screens

Captioned color pictures appear in 16 various-shaped "screens" (about six by six feet in size), linked by animated elements. They stay on the plate-glass mirror screens from three to five seconds, are wiped away by a warm flood of complementary color (rather than going to harsh white), and are replaced by other pictures.

The screens rotate from two to six pictures each, out of synchronization with one another, so that the effect is that of pictures fading on and off in seemingly endless vistas.

Concealed behind the lenticular no-fall-off screens are the sources of the pictures, 16 2000-watt Bodde rear-screen projectors. Each has been equipped by the Disney organization with a prism that produces the wipe effect mentioned above.

Bounce Projection

Some of these units project their 4x5 slides directly onto the etched glass screens they serve. However, most, because of space limitations, project onto first-surface mirrors, which bounce the images to the screens. In the case of some, a triple throw is involved: projector to mirror to mirror to screen.

Because of space limitations, most of the rear-projected Galaxy pictures are thrown onto mirrors, which bounce the pictures to the screens.

Both the projectors and the mirrors are securely anchored, so vibration is no problem. Air-conditioning filters out most of the dust that might settle on the mirrors and cause distortion. The rest is blotted off with chamois cloths and distilled water.