The neon finale of the Main Street Electrical Parade

[mharrington]

When the Main Street Electrical Parade premiered at WDW in 1977 (and returned to Disneyland that same year), it featured a different finale than the To Honor America one. It was this one called the Disney Neon Finale, and it featured "a menagerie of swirling mirrors featuring neon-lit Disney characters," in the words of another thread here. According to resources, the music is the following:

• When You Wish Upon a Star
• Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah
• Whistle While You Work
• Mickey Mouse Club March
• Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf
• Heigh-Ho

I have a question: does anyone know what all of the floats are and what all the characters are on there?

 

[Azerin]

Not sure what all the characters were; however, I think it was basically one long (or possibly two very similar) floats that had the mirrors/neon characters on them. I do have a few pictures of it

A couple more pictures plus some other pictures from the early MSEP can be found here:
Main Street Electrical Parade at Disney Character Central

 

[mharrington]

Well, there are videos of this scene, too, like this one here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ld7b_disney-neon-finale-main-street-elec_shortfilms. And this one, too (wait until 1:45): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpjxhHHite0.

And here's a link to more pictures, too: http://micechat.com/forums/disneyland-resort/26649-one-only-original-disneylands-main-street-electrical-parade-1977-a.html.

 

[spectrodanny]

've always found it interesting how while Disneyland had it in the parade in '77 & '78,WDW only used it in '77 w/ Elliot being the finale in Florida in '78

 

[rodserling27]

Great photos and videos. I kind of wish MSEP still had the Neon Finale in some way, looks pretty neat. (and the small world floats of course).

 

[mharrington]

've always found it interesting how while Disneyland had it in the parade in '77 & '78,WDW only used it in '77 w/ Elliot being the finale in Florida in '78

Really? I never knew that Florida's version once ended with Elliot the dragon. It did in France, but I don't remember it like that in Florida, too.

 

[spectrodanny]

and since my original post, I discovered the float was in both versions for both '77 &'78. perhaps because Florida's parade ran year round they had already bulled the Neon Finale from their version since the drive unit and black bases on the float itself were being rexcycled for the To honor America unit.

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

It has a very similar style to the entrance Units to Spectromagic with the purple and blue lights, mirror diamonds and disco balls.

 

[marni1971]

Hardly.

 

[Lighting guy]

and since my original post, I discovered the float was in both versions for both '77 &'78. perhaps because Florida's parade ran year round they had already bulled the Neon Finale from their version since the drive unit and black bases on the float itself were being rexcycled for the To honor America unit.

The Neon Finale float was built on top of what was the “head cart” that transported the heads of the people of America (backstage) in America on Parade. There was the drive unit (which had one neon tower on it) followed by 5 tracking wagons that each had 2 neon towers. Each tower was a periactoi with a neon figure mounted to clear plexiglass on each of the 3 sides. There were 33 characters in all. Mirrors gave the effect that the characters changed. The float also featured hundreds of mirror balls with pin spots that added more movement. The floats were change out in 1979 to the patriotic finale after surveys said that guests thought the neon float was too bright and distracted from the charm of the lighting of the other floats.