Walt Disney Used Nuclear Weapons Technology to Bring the Tiki Room to Life | Eater LA

"Since its 1963 debut inside the theme park, this Polynesian‑themed animatronic show—famous for singing parrots, dancing flowers and other robot performers—has remained a popular attraction. KCET’s research reveals that its early mechanics repurposed 1950s U.S. nuclear‑weapons‑era technology: Walt Disney enlisted Wernher von Braun as a technical advisor and adapted the Polaris submarine magnetic‑tape control system to keep the birds in tune and to coordinate lights and music. Massive computers under the floor originally ran the show and produced so much heat that it became the park’s first air‑conditioned attraction. Though the control systems have since been modernized (now run by the equivalent of a MacBook, per KCET), those ballistic‑missile‑era innovations—combined with Disney’s earlier animatronic experiments in film and at the 1964 World’s Fair—made the moving, speaking animal kingdom possible." - Mona Holmes