STORYBOOK CIRCUS - AGAIN!

They say that good ideas never die at Imagineering, just put in a draw to come out when the time is right. This recently happened in Walt Disney World. The new Storybook Circus section can trace it’s roots back many years ago at Disneyland. Dumbo's Circusland would be a five-acre area both inside and outside of the berm adjacent to it's a small world. Circus-themed spaces go all the way back to some of the earliest ideas for Fantasyland as penned by artist Bruce Bushman. Animator Ward Kimball also contributed to the planning.
The centerpiece would have been Mickey's Madhouse, a proposed thrill ride geared toward children. Like Space Mountain at Walt Disney World, this ride would have been a wild mouse roller coaster in the dark. Guests would have entered the world of black and white cartoons of the 1930s and travel through an environment where they would be unable to see what is in front of them.  The Casey Jr. train would have been extended and given a second stop within Dumbo's Circusland. A dark ride called Circus Disney featuring Audio-Animatronics Disney characters and a new Pinocchio ride would be squeezed in as well. At the center of the land would be a playful fountain with the fireman clowns from the animated film.


Another early experiment did not turn out as well: the November 11 opening of the Mickey Mouse Club Circus. Walt always loved the circus and thought that was something the park needed. The "world’s largest striped circus tent" was set up at the far north section of the park just behind Holiday Hill, which was the pile of dirt from the Sleeping Beauty Castle moat. The tent was heated. There was a separate fee for the circus. Disneyland GM C.V. Wood tried to talk him out of the circus entirely. He argued, "Walt, you just can’t do this! A circus always plays by itself. The guy comes to Disneyland to stay around for four hours and see what you’ve got. He’s not going to spend two of those hours at a damn circus!” This criticism merely made Walt more determined. 
Ads for the one-hour show proclaimed the circus to be "personally produced by Walt to introduce his Mouseketeers to the public.” Members of The Mickey Mouse Club television show performed circus stunts, accompanied by the March of Toys with all the famous Disney characters along with Santa Claus, Bob-O (the Disneyland Clown), and Serenado the Wonder Horse. The most thrilling act was Prof. Keller and His Feline Fantastics, "an exciting and educational experience with 13 of the World’s most deadly killers!” At one point, the llamas escaped and they made it to the Main Street station and a panther attached a tiger during a parade.
Imagineer Bill Martin complained, "You couldn't tell the animals what to do, though, and Walt wanted more control. That's why we went to Audio-Animatronics later." The circus left town on January 8, 1956, deemed a commercial failure. C.V. Wood had been right. Admiral Joe Fowler said, "That was the first time that we learned this lesson. People came to Disneyland to see Disneyland.” The area that had contained the circus was reshaped in preparation of the Junior Autopia.