Ladies and Gentlemen, the one… the only… Casey Jr., based on the circus train from the film Dumbo, debuted at Disneyland just 14 days after the park opened. Although the little engine thought he could, he thought he could… he just could not run on Disneyland’s opening day due to mechanical difficulties. Until 1956, Casey Jr. was just a train ride with little in terms of scenery, but when the Storybook Land attraction set sail in 1956, the miniature homes and villages that accompanied that attraction proved to be the perfect backdrop for Casey’s passengers. Today, Casey Jr. continues to chug along with the added narration of Dumbo‘s Circus Ringmaster, voiced by Ray Templin. Templin recently told D23, “The Ringmaster voice was great fun, but a challenge because there is no consistency to his accent. Herman Bing was probably just having fun doing the original and not basing it on any particular dialect. ‘R’ is not always rolled and ‘W’ is not always pronounced as ‘V’ for instance. Shortly before leaving Disneyland I got a call from Brian Nefsky in Burbank. He said they were re-doing all ride safety spiels and asked if I could still do the Ringmaster. I went up and not only recorded additions to the 22-year-old original track, but did the Spanish version as the Ringmaster, too. Crazy, huh? Well, (to quote the ride narration) as vee zay to da animals, ‘Daht’s da ent of da lion!'”
