On this day in 1955, the doors of the original Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California!
Despite how huge the Disneyland brand is today, and despite how complex the running of the resorts has become in recent years, you might be surprised to learn that this opening day, which has since been referred to as "Black Sunday", was far removed from the well maintained machine we know it as today.
See on the opening day the park still wasn't fully completed, having only been in a year of development by that point, and the plan was to only allow guests who had specifically been invited by Disney. You can imagine then the surprise of the park's staff when 28,000 people descended upon the park, with over half of those in attendance showing up with counterfeited tickets, and with others simply jumping the fence to gain entry.
Hoping to garner a nationwide interest in his park, Disney had also agreed to allow TV camera crews into the park to broadcast the event live, which would have been a fantastic idea had it not brought its own problems - specifically the live broadcast kept having technical issues, and guests kept tripping over the wires of the cameras. As if camera wires weren't bad enough though, the asphalt was still fairly fresh, and coupled with the insane heat that day, reaching up to 38c, guests who had opted to wear heels to the event were shocked to discover the heels of their shoes kept sinking into it.
The heat also brought additional problems when a plumbers strike left Disney having to make a decision - did he want running water, or did he want working toilets? He opted for working toilets, which caused mutterings amongst more cynical guests, who assumed the lack of functioning water fountains was a ploy by the company to rack up soda sales, which caused anger with Pepsi, who were sponsoring the park's opening, and of course, are known for selling sodas.
As an added woe for the park staff that day, some of the rides broke down a couple of times during the day, some of the vendors ran out of food, special guests planned to arrive at two hour intervals all turned up at the same time, and parents were witnessed throwing their children over the crowds in order to get them access to the King Arthur Carousel. So all in all, not a great first day - although just to end on a lighter note, the King Athur Carousel which had children being thrown at it was and still is the oldest ride located in Disneyland, with it originally being built in 1922.
With all that in mind then, it's amazing to see where Disneyland is today, and how far it has come since its disastrous first day. The first thing worth mentioning is that when the park opened that day back in 1955, there were only 18 attractions available to crowds, whereas now there are over fifty to choose from. Entry fee for the park in its early years were once at the incredibly low price of $1 per person, however back then your entry ticket didn't grant you access to all of the rides, so the price was technically more if you wanted to go on any rides. Tickets today meanwhile are now around $99 per person, and entry does now include access to all rides - but amazingly this wasn't implemented until as late as 1982.
There have been many changes to the park in its over 50 year lifetime, folk may be surprised to learn that there was a tobacco shop on site up until 1991, and even a lingerie shop which only lasted until 1956. Meanwhile restrictions based on appearance were in effect until as late as 2000, with some of the most amazingly conservative restrictions disallowing men with long hair or moustaches to work at the park, nor were they allowed if piercings, beard, or coloured hair. Long hair was fizzled out around the mid-60s, whereas moustaches were the no-no that made it to the 21st century, and some piercings, tattoos, and hair colours are still banned. Most amazingly of all however, was that if men attended the park as guests with long hair, they would be turned away by staff, again something fizzled out in the mid 60s.
One thing that hasn't changed however is Oscar Martinez, a staff member who has worked at the park since December 1956, and can be found working at the Carnation Cafe. On the topic of staff, Disneyland has hosted some celebrities in staff roles before they hit the big time, including Steve Martin who worked there as a magician, and Michelle Pfeiffer who worked as Alice in Wonderland. Ex-President Ronald Reagan also worked there briefly, providing hosting duties on a live telecast on opening day. Reagan wasn't the only celebrity there on opening day either, excluding the obvious being Walt Disney himself. George Lucas claims he was in attendance the days the gates opened, at the tender age of 11.
And don't get us started on some of the neat facts about the things within the park, coz holy shit, there's a lot of neat stuff to learn about this place. For examples all of the plants in Tomorrowland are edible, there's a basketball court inside the Matterhorn for staff to use, and for some time the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was using real skeletons as props. On the topic of rides, Disneyland's fastest ride is Splash Mountain, the log flume spectacular based on the "family" classic" Song of the South which sees guests reach speeds of up to 40MPH as they plummet off the final drop. Splash Mountain has been more well known as "Flash Mountain" to some guests, as for a while it was a custom for women to flash their fiery biscuits as they went down the drop, allowing the moment to be captured on film and displayed in the gift shop much to the horror of staff. You may also be interested to know that any wishes you make in Snow White's wishing well are collected up and donated to children's charities, and if you ever heard a staff member use the phrase "Code V", that means someone somewhere has vomited. As if staff don't have a hard enough time without things like Code Vs and Flash Mountain to deal with, there is one other issue they face - a tradition people have adopted for spreading the ashes of loved ones on The Haunted Mansion ride. It should be worth mentioning here that if this has sparked an idea for yourself or a loved one - don't go buying your tickets just yet. It is a known fact that any ashes found on the ride after closing are vacuumed up and thrown in the trash, so bear that in mind.
So Walt Disney, the guy who owned the park right, he devised some pretty cool things behind the scenes just to make the whole experience just that much better for himself, and you know what? The guy built fuckin' Disneyland, he deserves some tasty bonuses, lay off him. His most infamous little secret-turned-common knowledge is the super exclusive Club 33, a secret location on Main Street which is the only site on Disneyland that serves alcohol. As the stories go, even if you get invited to join, you need to join a crazy long waiting list that ends with a lucrative payout for membership, followed by continual membership fees equally as high. But, you can then get sloshed on site. Or alternatively, go to Disney World and get sloshed wherever you want there. It's awesome. The other little secret Walt built for himself in the park was his very own private apartment, meaning he could sleep over at Disneyland whenever he wanted, his room located above the fire station on Main.
Were Walt alive today and having his little theme park slumber parties, he might've been able to stay up long enough to witness a pretty weird sight - according to staff, there are 200 feral cats that live on the Disneyland lot, and at night they come out to hunt for mice, meaning the park very rarely has to pay for pest control. If the idea of thousands of, ironically, mice being killed on site every night, you may also find discomfort in knowing that there have been ten documented deaths on Disneyland property, though on a lighter note, there have been three births.
So that's about all the rad shit I have to share with you on Disneyland, admittedly there is plenty more to learn about the place that is really interesting, but you can go find that all out for yourself. I shall leave you with one final piece of trivia though - if you head to the entrance of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, you will find a bench. That bench is the exact bench Walt Disney was sitting on when he thought up the idea of Disneyland, which he later bought and had transferred to the park.
Happy birthday, Disneyland.
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