'America did not exist,' intones Ben Franklin, launching into a 30-minute history lesson that Disney has dubbed The American Adventure. Up above my head, powerful speakers begin to spout patriotic music. Then he gives the cue for two technicians to fire the show before guests begin streaming through the gates of Epcot Center's World Showcase at 11 a.m. 'We've got indicators that keep an eye on that, so you don't get hurt by any of the hydraulic lifts going up and down.' Long shoots me a look that lets me know I'm infinitely less predictable than his cast of audio-animatronic figures. 'Make sure you don't lean over the rails here, or you'll shut down the show,' he says. And it's dark down here below the stage, save for the glow from green and amber indicator lights.īruce Long, a Disney Imagineer who is in charge of 'show quality' at the company's six theme parks around the world, is standing next to me. We're waiting for the morning run-through to begin. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and a dozen others. It's 10:25 on a steamy, late-summer morning in central Florida, and I'm standing on a narrow steel catwalk surrounded by an old-growth forest of American historical figures: Ben Franklin, Will Rogers, Susan B.

The exclusive underground tour of Disney World.

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