The six-decade journey of the Country Bear Jamboree animatronic band that got its start in a Sierra Nevada ski lodge with tour stops along the way in Orlando, Anaheim and Tokyo will add a new chapter to their tale as the proprietors of a new Disneyland barbecue restaurant.
Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree will bring a thematic, musical and menu overhaul to the Hungry Bear restaurant when the refurbished eatery opens on Oct. 25.
The backstory for the refreshed restaurant finds the Country Bears bringing back a menu of barbecue favorites discovered while on tour with a music soundtrack featuring the band’s greatest hits.
The Country Bear story begins in December 1965 in California’s Sequoia National Forest.
Walt Disney had just announced plans to build what would become Disney World in Florida when he unveiled a proposal for Disney’s Mineral King ski resort anchored by an early version of the Country Bear Jamboree attraction.
The U.S. Forest Service had awarded Walt Disney Productions the right to develop a $35 million alpine village in the Mineral King area of the Sequoia National Forest about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to Yesterland.
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The year-round mountain resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains planned to offer skiing, hiking and other outdoor activities — but Walt knew the project would need something extra to convince visitors to stay into the evening and spend the night at the Disney-designed lodge.
Walt tapped legendary Disney Imagineer Marc Davis to come up with a Disneyland-style attraction to entertain the 2.5 million people he expected to visit Mineral King Valley every year.
One of Walt’s Nine Old Men, Davis worked on the Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s a Small World and Enchanted Tiki Room attractions at Disneyland.
“Walt thought maybe we should have a show that had something to do with bears,” said Davis, according to “The Nickel Tour” by Bruce Gordon and David Mumford. “Lots and lots of bears.”
Davis came up with an early version of the Country Bear Jamboree attraction with animatronic musical bears entertaining diners in one of the restaurants planned for Disney’s Mineral King resort.
After an initial burst of fanfare, the alpine village soon ran into hurdles — the biggest being the death of Walt Disney in December 1966.
Environmentalists’ concerns over the untouched wilderness area — which promised to tie the project up in the courts for years — ultimately scuttled plans for the Mineral King resort in 1973.
By then, Imagineering had already made Country Bear Jamboree one of the marquee attractions of Florida’s new Magic Kingdom theme park that had opened in 1971. The “Disneyland East” project included many rides imported from the Anaheim original — including the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and It’s a Small World.
Country Bear Jamboree became the first Disney attraction to travel in the opposite direction — with a West Coast version debuting in 1972 as the centerpiece of the $8 million Bear Country at Disneyland.
The musical variety show starring a troupe of foot-stompin’, knee-slappin’ and rip-snortin’ animatronic bears featured a lineup of country songs that included “My Woman Ain’t Pretty, but She Don’t Swear None,” “Mama, Don’t Whup Little Buford,” “Pretty Little Devilish Mary” and “All the Guys that Turn Me On Turn Me Down,” according to Yesterland.
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A string of storefronts at the dead end of Disneyland’s Bear Country included Teddi Barra’s Swingin’ Arcade and Ursus H. Bear’s Wilderness Outpost gift shop — both named for characters in Country Bear Jamboree.
The popularity of Big Al, Ernest, Wendell, Zeke and the other Country Bears persuaded Imagineering to include a new version of the animatronic show in Tokyo Disneyland when the park opened in 1983.
But Disneyland’s E-Ticket attraction that proved popular in the 1970s was soon struggling to attract an audience by the mid-1980s. Disneyland attempted to update the Country Bears with a Christmas seasonal show in 1984 and a Vacation Hoedown makeover in 1986.
The Bear Country name disappeared in 1989 with the opening of the new Splash Mountain log flume ride that forced Disneyland to broaden the land’s name to the more animal-inclusive Critter Country.
By the end of the millennium, the writing was on the wall for Country Bear Jamboree — not even the upcoming “Country Bears” movie could save the Disneyland attraction.
Disneyland shuttered Country Bear Jamboree in 2001 following repeated attempts to infuse new life into the animatronic show.
Henry, Trixie, Teddi and the other Country Bears were replaced by a new bear who moved into Critter Country.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh family dark ride took over the former Country Bear location in 2003. Teddi Barra’s Swingin’ Arcade was replaced by an expansion of the Pooh Corner gift shop.
It’s been two decades since the Country Bears last roamed the northwest corner of Disneyland — if you don’t count the stuffed busts of Melvin, Buff and Max secretly hanging in the Hunny Heaven scene of the Pooh dark ride.
But soon, the Bears will be back in the newly renamed Bayou Country.
The reimagined Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree restaurant actually traces its history back to the 1972 debut of the Golden Bear Lodge when Country Bear Jamboree premiered as the centerpiece of Disneyland’s new Bear Country themed land.
The 1970s quick-service eatery serving a menu of hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and salads was renamed Hungry Bear restaurant a few years later.
While the updated restaurant will feature a Country Bears soundtrack, don’t expect to find Ursus, Henry, Trixie or any of the bear band members at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree.
Disneyland has no plans to feature Audio-Animatronics bear figures at the Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree restaurant, according to Disneyland officials.
Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree won’t offer character dining with meet-and-greet opportunities with the bear band.
Fans of the original Country Bear Jamboree can still find the animatronic show in Florida and Japan.
The updated Country Bear Musical Jamboree returned in July at the Magic Kingdom with a new soundtrack of country-western versions of “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin,” “Kiss the Girl” from “Little Mermaid,” “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from “Toy Story” and “Try Everything” from “Zootopia.”
Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree will be part of the new Bayou Country themed land that officially debuts on Nov. 15 along with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
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