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Happy Trails, Country Bear Jamboree (1971–2024)
A requiem for an American institution.
A stage show made up of singing, joke-telling robotic bears playing instruments was originally conceived by Walt as an attraction for his failed Mineral King Ski Resort, an effort vanquished by some dang hippies. So he migrated it over to his Florida Project, where it would run on a continuous loop for more than 50 years, becoming the direct influence for Chuck E. Cheese, ShowBiz Pizza’s Rock-afire Explosion, and countless other janky audio-animatronic-animal bands the world over. It’s those sorts of genuinely bizarre notes that made the Country Bears feel like the work of actual, flawed, chain-smoking, midcentury human beings, rather than the overthought, overwrought, focus-grouped brand tie-ins we see now.
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