60 Days to 60 Years of Disneyland - 1978

Welcome to my contribution to 60 Days to 60 Years of Disneyland. As we move towards Disneyland's 60th anniversary on July 17, we continue to look at what happened year by year at the park. 1978 was rather an uninspired year for Disneyland, but in this entry we will look at an event that happened that year that is still impacting Disney Parks and Resorts division to this day! But more of that later.

First, you have to know how Disneyland (and then Walt Disney World) has been a part of my family's consciousness since - well, the beginning. (Be sure to click on the links along the way.)

I was two and a half years old (because at that age, half years are important) when Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, so I really don't have a memory of watching the TV special - though I am told that we did. But I do remember watching the Disney Sunday night TV shows through all of it's name and network changes and clearly remember that my favorites were those which featured Disneyland. It seemed all so wonderful - but living in NYC it also seemed all so far away. A place I would never get to. Flying to go on vacation was not yet common. So for now I would enjoy Disneyland through the magic of black and white TV.

Then came a series of shows on The Wonderful World of Color describing some new attractions that WED Enterprises (today known as Walt Disney Imagineering) was developing. These shows weren't going to Disneyland - at least not directly - but would be featured at the New York World's Fair of 1964/1965! Right in my "back yard!" I would get to experience Disneyland style attractions for myself! And in April of 1964 I did just that during the first of many visits over the next 2 years.

We saw the Ford exhibit with its history of man - though what we most remember of that were the dinosaurs. We drove past the cavemen and the dinosaurs which we had seen on Sunday night as Walt showed off his World's Fair shows. We sat and listened to Lincoln give a speech and we paid our 10 cents to take a boat ride while being serenaded by the children of the world. However, the one attraction which stood out for me was General Electric's Progressland! Imagine ... the line for this was consistently 3 hours or more! Remember, no one had seen human audioanimatronics before the fair ... and this show had lots of them ... and a theater that revolved around the stage.

After two years the fair was over and I thought that was it for Disney attractions for me. Then in the summer of 1968 my parents (teachers with 10 weeks of summer vacation just like us kids) announced that we would be driving cross country from NY to California and would be visiting Disneyland. (And a lot of other places ... but ... DISNEYLAND!!) So in 1968, I actually got to go to The Happiest Place on Earth!

Of course, I once again saw the Disney shows which thrilled me so much at the NY World's Fair. The Ford dinosaurs could now be seen from the Disneyland Railroad ... The Pepsi/UNICEF boatride still serenaded you in It's A Small World ... Lincoln still orated at Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln ... and the theater still revolved around the decades at Carousel of Progress (relocated now to the east coast and which remains a favorite of mine).

We did that again in 1969 - and I got to experience that year's new attraction, which continues to be my all time favorite ... the Haunted Mansion. But still, Disneyland was too far from us for frequent visits. Then we heard rumors that Walt would build a Disneyland on the east coast. Could it be true? It was, and on December 25, 1971, my family and I walked through the gates at Walt Disney World in Central Florida for the first time. (Did you know that until Disney started televising the Christmas Parade that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were the least crowded days of the year at the Magic Kingdom?) Now we could visit more often and we did.

But in 1978, Walt Disney Studios (as the company was still called) was in deep financial trouble. The movies that were released were lackluster to say the least, and the company was about to come under attack for the purpose of takeover and probably having its parts sold off. (Can you imagine Disneyland being owned by Six Flags for example? Most people don't know, but the original Six Flags park - Six Flags over Texas - was Disney inspired. Following a visit to Disneyland, wealthy real estate developer Angus G. Wynne, Jr. decided that his home state of Texas should have a local park for entertainment.) For the first time Disney reached into its vaults and released a few titles on laserdisc. (When I was able to obtain a laserdisc copy of Disney's Song of the South, I promptly went out and bought a laserdisc player!) Disneyland (along with Walt Disney World) was suffering as well. Not much new was happening in Disneyland with the exception of the Matterhorn bobsleds reopening after a rehab which saw new sights - three abominable snowmen and a glowing ice cave - added. An adult ticket with 11 attractions would cost you $6.75. And, oh yeah, Mickey Mouse celebrated his 50th birthday in 1978. Attendance was down at both parks ... DL and WDW (which only had the Magic Kingdom at this time). Part of the problem, at least as far as the parks were concerned, was that Disney, now led by Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller as company president and Card Walker as CEO, was still blindly continuing most of Walt's policies. One of those policies was to do no advertising for the parks. Walt and Roy didn't think it was necessary, and the powers that be at the Walt Disney Studios were timidly sticking to the old ways. WDW did get some exposure, however, when it was announced that a new park would be built, to be called EPCOT Center ... a permanent world's fair type park.

It would not be the EPCOT that Walt described as his Florida Project. Roy had never bought into that, but when two separate ideas for the new park were put together in what would become Future World and World Showcase, Walt's Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow was revived as the name of the soon to be second gate at Walt Disney World.

But wait ... at the beginning I mentioned that something would happen in 1978 that is still impacting Disney Parks and Resorts. If not the announcement of EPCOT, then what could that be?

On July 26, 1978, my daughter was born! So how does this affect Disney Parks and Resorts? First of all, you have you realize that with parents (yes, my wife fits into this as well) who are huge Disney fans, she and my son would have no choice but to be as well. They started being regular visitors to Walt Disney World at a very young age, and have even made the pilgrimage to the west coast to visit Disneyland.

As she prepared to enter high school, she auditioned for the marching band since she knew that each February they travelled down to WDW to perform. Two years later, my son took the same path. During the trip in her senior year I overheard her telling a friend that after college she would work in Disney World. That same trip she ran into a former band member who was working in EPCOT on the College Program. In her senior year in college she interviewed for and was accepted to the Walt Disney World College Program (WDWCP) and would take part the autumn after graduation. Unlike her brother who did the College Program two years earlier (he worked in the Haunted Mansion), she planned on staying on at WDW. That was 15 years ago. After working at Conservation Station in Animal Kingdom, and then at the front desk at Caribbean Beach Resort (with brief stops at All Star Sports and Grand Floridian), she has spent most of her Disney career in the IT Department where she is now. If you have ever been checking in at a Disney Resort and the front desk agent had a problem with the check-in computer system and called for help ... there is a good chance that your check in was facilitated by her.

Then in August 2011, she got married in a Disney Fairytale Wedding. (You know how many dads will tell you that their son-in-law is goofy? Well, I have the pictures to prove it.) (At least he was a while ago, he has since moved on.)

The family tradition continues and my son's twin 5 and a half year old boys (that half year is still important!) have been to WDW four times already (and while they don't yet know it - are returning in less than 2 months), and my daughter is about to have her own Disney Princess this summer ... and no doubt that WDW will be her playground.

So there you have it ... why 1978 was crucial to Disney Parks and Resorts ... at least in my humble opinion.

For more entries in 60 Days to 60 Years of Disneyland, click on the links below.

An InLinkz Link-up

My First Time

Going to Disneyland that is ... did you think I was going to talk about something else?

Like most kids my age - in the US at least - I grew up knowing that my Sunday nights would mean watching Walt Disney and Ed Sullivan. Naturally I was more interested in Walt than Ed, though I did enjoy Topo Gigio. But of course it was a different mouse that I looked forward to seeing, and that was Mickey. Over the years Walt Disney's presence on Sunday night was legendary. Although the name of the show changed many times, my favorite segments were always those that showed Walt's little park, Disneyland. I loved watching all of the rides and attractions, and the people enjoying them. The only problem was that Disneyland was on the totally opposite side of the country, so while I enjoyed watching the shows about Disneyland, I never seriously thought I would be there. People really weren't in the habit of flying for vacations yet. And this being the fifties and the sixties, there was only one Disney park.

I watched with great excitement as Walt talked about four new projects though. He told us that a lifelike Lincoln who would stand up and speak was being developed. And how about that ride where you would drive a car through history, from the dinosaurs to the caveman to the present and the future? Or that other history ride where you would sit in a theater which moved from scene to scene from the beginning of the twentieth century to the very modern present of 1964!! And finally he told us about a boat ride through the countries of the world - with little children singing a wonderful Sherman brothers' song. (Shhhh ... I heard that!)

What made this so exciting for me was the fact that I would actually be able to experience all of these attractions! They were being prepared for the State of Illinois, Ford Motor Company, General Electric and Pepsi/UNICEF. They were going to be at the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair, and since I lived in New York City I knew I would see each of them a number of times. And I did.

And then, before school was out for the summer of 1968, my parents (teachers by profession) informed me and my brother and sister that we would spend our summer vacation driving cross country. You know what that meant? We would be in California ... and Disneyland was in California. (Oh yeah, a few other things as well, but ... Disneyland!!!)

The end of June came ... school was out for the summer ... and we were on the road! Yes indeed we saw some great things on the way out there, but Disneyland was the "wienie" as Walt would have put it. And then, on July 26th, 1968 the day came that I finally got to go to Disneyland. (I just realized for the first time that 10 years to the day later, my daughter - a current Walt Disney World Cast Member - would be born.) I remember the excitement as we saw the Disneyland sign from the highway ... the highway which had no signs about the park. How exciting it was to finally be in the parking lot, about to have my parents buy that booklet with the ABCDE tickets in it? The wonderful things I saw on my black and white television (we wouldn't have color TV until late in 1969) now appeared before me (as they would say on TV) in living color ... ready to capture with the same Ansco Cadet camera that I had used at the NY World's Fair!

As we walked into the park and underneath the Disneyland Railroad, Main Street and the castle (The Castle) appeared before us.

I couldn't wait to walk down the street and look into all the stores which I had seen on Walt Disney's Sunday night television shows.

How many times had I seen an animated Tinkerbell (who I still insist is a jealous/murderous sprite ... a strange choice as a corporate spokesfairy) splash the front of the castle in an array of color to start another Sunday night Disney show? To me it looked so large and amazing standing there at the end of Main Street - the famous "wienie" Walt wanted in the center of the park.

But of course, the most exciting things were the attractions. I wanted to ride the Jungle Cruise, which I had seen so much of on TV. I had to experience something that was still unique to Disneyland back then - the steel rollercoaster type ride that was the Matterhorn. I couldn't wait to ride the traditional dark rides which were not super scary as they were back home in Brooklyn (at Coney Island), but much more family friendly with Disney characters. And what about Walt's fleet of submarines - or the skyride ... or the monorail ... and the other rides and attractions that I had seen for so long?  I had to do it all. But I think the attraction that I wanted to see the most, was the newest. I watched it take shape over the years on the Sunday night tv program, and now I would get to see it in person ... The Pirates of the Caribbean! And I wasn't disappointed. (The Haunted Mansion, which became my all time favorite - and still is - wouldn't be open until my 1969 visit. My son would be working in the Walt Disney World version at the moment 1999 became 2000.)

I also had to see the four World's Fair attractions which I had experienced just a few years earlier back at home; Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (Illinois), The Grand Canyon Diorama on the train trip around the park (Ford), Carousel of Progress (General Electric) and It's a Small World (Pepsi/UNICEF).

It was exciting finding out which type of ticket each attraction required, then ripping the appropriate one out of the booklet for admission. And as always ... the day ended much too soon. I would be back the next summer, and again a few times since I have been married, but nothing can match the excitement of that first time.

Today, as a frequent visitor to Walt Disney World, I get a completely different feeling upon walking in to that first park - whichever it is on that trip - from the excitement of my first time in Disneyland. Today is more of a comfortable "I'm home again" feeling.

But that first time in Disneyland .... ahhh ... that was something special!

Will you share with us your first trip to a Disney Park?

(this was reprinted from Thoughts From The Dark Side from the days before Reporting From Disney World was born.)

   

Wordless Wednesday - Walt Disney

This week's Wordless Wednesday's theme is Walt Disney.
Thanks to Deb for hosting this blog hop - why don't you stop by and join in.



Today, December 5, would have been Walt Disney's birthday, so here is a look at Walt and one of his most lasting legacies ...

Here is Walt announcing his Florida Project, the focus of which was to be the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT).

Unfortunately, he never lived to see it even started.

So it was up to his brother Roy, whom Walt made promise to see it created. Here is Roy along with Mickey Mouse at the dedication of the revised version of Walt's Florida Project ... a little place we know today as Walt Disney World.