Parting
the Red Sea (1973 - 2006)
(See also Park Lake for information about the period before 1973)
Parting the Red Sea
- photo by Gary Hadley © Universal Studios
The attraction
aims to recreate the epic biblical moment in The Ten Commandments where
Moses parts the waters of the Red Sea.
The tour
guide points out the fact that Park Lake beside the tram
has been used in
numerous films and TV series (e.g. Creature from the Black Lagoon,
McHale's Navy) before preparing us for wet feet as we drive through
the lake. The guests
count down
and
the
waters
magically
part in front of us. (well, quite noisily actually, revealing an aged
rusty metal mechanism).
At it's best,
the effect is very impressive - water cascades past the tram as it
sinks below the level of the lake. However, usually the metal plates
holding the water back are fairly obvious, and also quite rusty to
look at.
The effect was accomplished in Cecil B DeMille's silent The
Ten Commandments (1923) by using a block of blue gelatine melting,
projected in reverse.
And
they say the camera never lies…
I guess the technology
required to repeatedly heat and cool massive blocks of gelatine in
the California sun is too much to contemplate.
The mechanism
was originally a timed effect - the tram only had a certain number
of seconds to cross the lake before the mechanism closed up again.
Needless to say a tram was trapped once as the lake filled back up
again. There are now two safety systems to stop this happening again
- the tour guide has to manually push a button to signal all is clear,
and there are infra-red sensors which can detect if the tram is clear
of the water.
There is still a possibility of some excitement with the Red Sea as
the tram roadway sometimes does not drain fully, leaving some guests
with wet feet. The tour guide will ask you to lift bags off the floor
of the tram for a good reason!
From April 2006, The Red Sea is now just a convenient way of viewing the King Kong "bigature" of the SS Venture approaching Skull Island.
The Bridge
The bridge adjacent to the Red Sea crossing was built in the late 1960's
for Universal's Sweet Charity (1969). In
1979 (below) it's still in it's original state, as a small town river
crossing, whereas the present day bridge (see above) is much more
rough-hewn
from stone.
A GlamorTram traversing
the Red Sea in 1979
(From "Universal
Studios Shows and Special Effects" Viewmaster K74, 1979)
On screen:
The Parting of the Red Sea effect can be seen in...
- The Nude Bomb (1980)
- The History of
the World Part I (1981)
Sequence of stills from Mel Brooks' History
of the World Part I featuring
the Red Sea
Looking back on The Red Sea
(Photo by Chris Mearing, April 2003)
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