Deborah Gail Stone

Disneyland is known for being the happiest place on Earth! However, it is also known for some horrible accidents that have happened. One of the most known accidents was the death of Deborah Gail Stone.

Deborah Gail Stone, who also went by Debbie, was an 18 year old hostess at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California back in 1974. During her time working there, a new attraction called “America Sings” opened up.

The new attraction known as “America Sings” opened up on June 29, 1974. The structure of the attraction was basically a carousel theater. The building the attraction was in had an outer ring of theaters connected by the walls and as each act of each play would end, the stage would basically rotate to another act in a counter clockwise direction. This occurred every 2 to 4 minutes during the attraction. The different acts of the attraction included a singing cast of animatronics, including a bald Eagle named Sam and an owl named Ollie.

Only 9 days after “America Sings” opened, tragedy struck. Debbie was working as a hostess that day on the attraction. During the times of 10:35 p.m. and 10:40 p.m. the fatal accident occurred.

WARNING ⚠️ graphic detail below

Debbie was accidentally crushed to death between two walls of the building. As the rotating theater walls were coming around, Debbie either accidentally stepped or fell back and got stuck between the moving wall and a stationary wall. An audience member reported hearing Debbie scream and notified a staff member. She was pronounced dead at 11:00 p.m. due to her injuries.

“America Sings” was temporarily closed down after Debbie’s death, but opened only 3 days after the incident. There were safety lights put in the theater and the walls were remodeled to break away just in case any similar incident occurred.

Debbie’s parents filed a lawsuit against Disney for her death, with resulted in a small settlement for them. “America Sings” did stay open for a while longer after Debbie’s death, but closed for good on April 10, 1988 and was replaced by the attraction “Carousel of Progress” and later replaced again by “Innoventions” and finally “Star Wars Launch Party” in November of 2015. This final replacement has a walk through concept now, so hopefully no horrific accidents like what happened to Debbie will occur again.

It is unfortunate that Debbie died in such a horrific way. Hopefully this accident has taught many theme parks to create extra safety precautions to protect both their staff and their customers so these types of accidents don’t happen because it can be avoided.

Resources-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_Sings

https://youtu.be/YDVoSwjjaog