It's a Small World With a Big Story

1964 is typically remembered by Disney fans as the year of Mary Poppins (released in August of that year). It was also the year of many other movies: The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, The Moon-Spinners, The Sword in the Stone, The Three Lives of Thomasina, to name a few. 1964 was also the debut of a beloved Disney Park attraction. It’s a Small World premiered at the 1964 New York World’s Fair on April 22nd, 1964, then opened next month at the Park. To celebrate its 60th anniversary, let’s examine the production that went into the making of this beloved attraction.

Beginning with its artists: Mary Blair created the ride’s overall design and color styling. Blair had previously been an art director on Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953). Walt Disney was very fortunate to have Mary Blair’s talents in both his movie studio and his theme park designing as she was one of the very few women working in the animation industry. The characters in each scene were sketched by Disney “Nine Old Men” member, Marc Davis, and built by WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises Designer, Rolly Crump, who also designed toys and additional figures in each scene. Davis’s wife, Alice, supplied the costumes for each character.

When Walt Disney first began developing the idea for “Small World,” the working title for the attraction was “Children of the World,” and his original plan was to have each of the characters sing their country’s national anthems simultaneously. When Walt discovered that resulted in a cacophony, he summoned his composer/lyricist team Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman and told them “I need one song that can easily be translated into many languages and be played as a round.” They immediately got to work, balancing writing this song with the songs they were writing for “Poppins,” (including “Chim-Chim Cher-ee,” which won the Best Original Song Oscar). As soon as they had written the song “It’s A Small World,” Walt changed the name of the attraction.

The boats in the ride were built by an amusement park design and manufacturing company called Arrow Development, which was founded in 1945 and went defunct in 1981. Besides “Small World,” Arrow Development built Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, King Arthur Carousel, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, and a wide variety of other beloved Disney Park attractions. It is unfortunate that they are no longer in business, but their talents certainly did add to the magic of Disneyland.

“Small World,” opened at the ’64 World’s Fair alongside three other Disney-produced attractions: Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln, The Magic Skyway, and The Carousel of Progress. All four transitioned to Disneyland, though only the primary two are still in operation at Disneyland today.