A Cultural History of the Disneyland Theme Parks
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A Cultural History of the Disneyland Theme Parks A Cultural History of the Disneyland Theme Parks Middle Class Kingdoms Sabrina Mittermeier Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA First published in the UK in 2021 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK First published in the USA in 2021 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA This ebook is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Copy editor: MPS Limited Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas Production manager: Helen Gannon Typesetter: MPS Limited Hardback ISBN 978-1-78938-222-8 Paperback ISBN 978-1-78938-327-0 ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-246-4 ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-245-7 An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-1-78938-245-7. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. fm.indd 4 24-02-2021 16:08:42 To all who come to read about this happy place, welcome. Contents Foreword and Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Cultural Relevance of Disneyland 1 Part I: The American Disney Theme Parks 13 1. An Orange Grove in Anaheim: The Original Disneyland (1955) 15 2. Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (1971) and the Age 59 of Fracture Part II: The International Disney Theme Parks 81 3. “Is There Really a Disneyland in America?” – The Unique 83 Case of Tokyo Disneyland (1983) 4. A “Cultural Chernobyl?” Euro Disney (1992) and the 106 Theme Park Public 5. Hong Kong Disneyland (2005): A Site of Local Pride 148 and Conflict 6. “Authentically Disney, Distinctly Chinese” – Shanghai 167 Disneyland (2016) 7. Middle-Class Kingdoms: Then, Now, and Forever? 188 Bibliography 195 Index 215 vii Foreword and Acknowledgments This book originated as my doctoral dissertation in American Cultural History at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany. I had never actu- ally planned to end up working in academia, and yet here I am, almost incapable of imagining doing anything else – I owe this book, and the people that helped me write it, this much. Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher, then a writer, then an actress; academia allows me to put on all of these hats. The job is brutal – or less so the job, as I love teaching, I love writing and I love traveling for research, giving talks and digging into archives. But the job situation is, and the hours we have to put in for the compensation we receive. So, to every grad student that may find them- selves reading this, I want to pass on one crucial piece of advice: find your people. Find those that will support you, whether it is mentors, or friends, or partners (in crime, or otherwise). Nobody can go it alone. While only my name may appear on the cover of this book, in reality, it is a great many people that have contributed to not only improving this work, but assuring its existence in the first place. First and foremost, I would like to extend my gratitude to my thesis advisor Prof. Dr. Michael Hochgeschwender. Long suffering, he always had an open door and ear for this slightly obnoxious Bachelor’s, turned motivated Master’s student, and eventually, doctoral candidate. Over many a beer or the occasional whiskey sour, he shared wit, wisdom, and advice for which I will be forever grateful. With- out him, it is doubtful I would have ever even considered writing my thesis, and consequently, you would not be holding this book in your hands – and I would not be allowed to call myself “Dr.” whenever I book a flight and then live in fear of someone needing medical attention I cannot provide. I truly thank you for everything, Michael, including that I can still show up announced in your office and share the newest gossip, surrounded by those familiar stacks of books. My thanks also go to my second advisor, Prof. Dr. James T. Campbell, for his kindness to take the chance on a grad student whom he had never met before. On two occasions – once in Munich, Germany, and once on the other side of ix A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE DISNEYLAND THEME PARKS the world, at Stanford University, California – meeting with him resulted in newfound clarity. His genuine interest in my work encouraged me, his advice proved to be spot on. I am happy to still call you a friend now, and to continue to be able to rely on your guidance, whether we find ourselves on the same continent or not. PD Dr. Sascha Pöhlmann, who served as a third advisor, always made me feel welcome, provided a unique perspective and more than once, reassured me of my path. I am grateful for the time and kindness he offers me, and everyone else, so effortlessly. Consciously or unconsciously, I have modeled myself on the great example you set. My thanks are also due to Prof. Dr. Filippo Carlà-Uhink, PD Dr. Florian Freitag, and Ariane Schwarz. As part of the DFG-funded project “Here You Leave Today – Ästhetische Eigenzeiten in Themenparks” I was not only able to sustain myself financially through most of my writing process, but also found a second academic home as part of the JGU Mainz. The opportunities I received are invaluable, and I would have hated to miss the times we spent researching in theme parks or meet- ing in many a German, or the occasional international, city. I am glad our journey together as theme park researchers is not yet over. As part of the larger family of this research project, I would also like to acknowledge Prof. Dr. Jutta Ernst, who kindly invited me to her colloquium in Germersheim on several occasions and readily gave her advice. Dr. Michael Bies, whom I met in his function as SPP coordinator, deserves my thanks for his effort in organizing several conferences and for his help to secure funding for an invalu- able research trip to the IAAPA Attractions Expo in November 2016. Another important research trip to Berkeley was made possible by the LMU-UCB Research in the Humanities program and by Dr. Andrew Shanken who invited to his seminar and discussed his work on themed environments with me. An additional source of funding over the last few months of my work was the LMU Graduate Center’s Abschlussstipendium as part of the Zukunftkonzept LMUexcellent, without which the completion of the thesis would have not been possible. My gratitude also extends to the hardworking archivists and librarians at both the Anaheim Heritage Center (here, most notably Jane K. Newell) and the Orlando Public Library, for making possible two short but productive visits to both institutions in 2017. A conference on interdisciplinarity I co-organized with Dr. Veronika Keller in April 2016 at the LMU Munich also provided me with invaluable insights – I would like to thank everyone involved, and especially Katharina Hülsmann who was kind enough to share her expertise on Japanese culture with me and made sure I did not misrepresent it in my chapter dealing with Tokyo Disneyland. x FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS When it was time to turn this thesis into a book – and technically, even before that, as I approached him before I had even written one word of it – it was another James Campbell, this one at Intellect, who helped me get it to print. Thank you for championing me all along the way. My gratitude also goes to Alex Szumlas for designing an amazing cover, and the lovely Helen Gannon for her help in getting this manuscript published, especially under the time constraints and other pecu- liarities of the German academic system. Representative for the amazing network of Americanists all over Germany, and especially the many inspiring young scholars I met over the last few years, I would like to acknowledge Mareike Spychala, who was one of the co-organizers of the fantastic PGF conference in 2015 in Bamberg. Nothing makes you become friends faster than a shared love for, and rage over politics, pop culture, and academia – a friendship that has since led us to boldly go where no academics had gone before. The Amerika Institut at the LMU Munich and its members that have come and gone since I began my Bachelor’s degree in 2009 has always been a true academic home for me. Years as a student, member of the Fachschaft, and eventually, a regular visitor of the Oberseminar and Kolloquium, accompanied by lots of pizza and beer every Monday night, have left me grateful to many. In addition to those already mentioned, I would especially like to thank PD Dr. Charlotte Lerg, Prof. Dr. Martin Lüthe (who once encouraged me to write a dissertation), Prof. Dr. Ursula Prutsch and her husband Prof. Dr. Klaus Zeyringer (who both also gave input on my chapter on Euro Disney), as well as Max Reimann. My personal support system (or as we once liked to call it, the academic people’s front), also grew out of this special place in Munich’s Schellingstraße. Without Penny Kemekenidou and her “common sense,” I would have never made it through my Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees – I am forever grateful.