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"In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room…" Everyone
comes out of this beloved attraction singing that tune for hours.
The Enchanged Tiki Room is a Disneyland icon. Although it might
be a bit outdated and even corny by today's entertainment standards,
it still holds a certain charm to long time Disneyland park guests.
But, did you know…
The original idea concept for the Enchanted Tiki Room was for a
full dinner and show. However, the idea was eventually scrapped
as it just wasn't 'working out.' They later chose to keep the attraction
but to instead turn it into a stand alone show.
The Enchanted Tiki Room first opened in 1963 as Disneyland's first
full audio-animatronic show that originally lasted 17 minutes (it
was later tightened to around 15 minutes.)
There are more than 200 singing birds, statues and flowers and all
of the birds in the show are covered with REAL feathers, giving
them a more life-like aesthetic.
The voices for two of the center stage birds, Jose and Michael,
were voiced by Wally Boag and Fulton Burley, respectively, two performers
from the original Golden Horseshoe Review in Frontierland.
Fritz the bird was voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, one of the most
recognizable voices in all of Disneyland. Thurl's voice can be found
on the Mark Twain Steamboat, Disneyland Railroad, Country Bear Jamboree
and the Haunted Mansion - he was even the voice of Tangaroa in the
Tiki Room pre-show!
In 1963, National Geographic Magazine printed a full two page article
(with three additional pages of photos) dedicated to the Enchanted
Tiki Room and called it a "Tremendous Show"
In the original days of the Enchanted Tiki Room attraction, park
guests needed to purchase a special ticket to the see the show that
cost a whopping 75 cents per ticket. Around 1966, the price was
changed to a regular E-ticket
The 'tiki' song that everyone knows associated with the attraction
was written by none other than the Sherman Brothers who are also
credited with writing the music for It's A Small World and Disney's
classic Mary Poppins!)
The Enchanted Tiki Room was often said to be Walt's favorite attraction
and the idea for the attraction itself was said to be 'hatched'
from Walt's return from New Orleans with a small mechanical bird.
It's been told that he was so fixated on improving the mechanism
that a full show was born from it.
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