Creation and early development
Audio-Animatronics were originally a creation of Walt Disney employee Lee Adams, who worked as an electrician at the Burbank studio and was one of Disney's original Imagineers. One of the first Disney Audio-Animatronics was a toy bird Walt got in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was a simple mechanical bird, and Walt decided to improve the device that moved the bird. The other was a "dancing man," which Walt himself created by hand.
The term "Audio-Animatronics" was first used commercially by Disney in 1961, was filed as a trademark in 1964, and was registered in 1967.
Perhaps the most impressive of the early Audio-Animatronics efforts was The Enchanted Tiki Room, which opened in 1963 at Disneyland. It was (and is) a room full of tropical creatures with eye and facial actions synchronized to a musical score entirely by electromechanical means. The "cast" of the musical revue uses tones recorded on tape to vibrate a metal reed that closes a circuit to trigger a relay, which sends a pulse of electricity to a mechanism that causes a pyneumatic valve to move a part of the figure's body.
The movements of the attraction's birds, flowers, and tiki idols are triggered by sound, hence the audio prefix. Figures' movements have a neutral "natural resting position" that the limb/part returns to when there is no electric pulse. Other than this, the animation is a digital system, with only on/off moves, such as an open or closed eye.
Other early examples were the "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoin" exhibit presented at the State of Illinois Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Also at the fair were three other pavilions featuring Audio-Animatronics. They were Pepsi/UNICEF's "It's a Small World," General Electric's Carousel of Progress, and Ford Motor Company's "Magic Skyway."