The Country Bear Jamboree

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The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction located in Fronteirland.

History

The Country Bear Jamboree opened with the park on October 1, 1971. The plans for the attraction date back to 1966 and Walt Disney himself. In 1966, Walt decided that he would need some sort of attraction for his Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort. He tasked Imageneer Marc Davis with creating a show based on Audio Anamatronic Bears. Davis, and fellow Imageneer Al Bertino came up with many ideas including, marching band bears, mariachi bears, and Dixieland bears. Walt Disney was said to have like Marc Davis' drawings of the bears so much that they made him laugh. The Country Bears would be one of the last attractions that Walt had a direct involvement with.

After Walt's death on December 15, 1966, plans for the bear show carried on. It was decided that the bears would perform at the Bear Band Restaurant Show in the resort and that they would sing with a "country twang". While the Country Bears were still being developed. the plans for Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort were scrapped. Imagineer X Atencio and musical director George Bruns were brought in to write songs for the bears.

When the Country Bear Jamboree opened, it was so popular that another one was built for Disneyland. Starting in 1982, the County Bear Jamboree was given a new show during the holiday season called Country Bear Christmas Special. The show would return annual around Christmastime until 2005. Due to the popularity of the Country Bears, a new show was created in 1986 called the Country Bear Vacation Hoedown. The new show featured the bears in their vacation outfits and featured them singing new songs such as Ghost Riders in the Sky and On The Road Again. Due to attendance struggles the the new show only lasted for six years. In 1992 as part of the Magic Kingdom's 20th anniversary celebrations, the Country Bear Jamboree was reverted back to it's original form.