The Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction at Disneyland began at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. Disney created the show as the centerpiece of the State of Illinois Pavilion. The lifelike “audio-animatronic” figure was groundbreaking technology at the time, and paved the way for many future attractions like Pirates of the Carribean. Lincoln’s face was sculpted by Imagineer Blaine Gibson, who based it on a life mask made of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The photo below shows Gibson and Walt Disney and looking at a copy of the life mask next to Gibson's sculpt.
After the Fair ended, Disney brought the show to his Anaheim park, where it opened in July 1966 and ran continuously until Jan. 1973. The show was brought back two years later and ran until Feb. 2005, when it was “temporarily” replaced with a show called, Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years. However, with the park’s 50th Anniversary long since over, Mr. Lincoln has still not returned.
