TO ALL WHO COME TO THIS HAPPY PLACE: COLD WAR IDEOLOGIES AND THE UTOPIAN IMAGE OF AMERICA’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE IN DISNEYLAND 1955-65 ______

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

California State University, Fullerton ______

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

In

History ______

By

Samantha Self

Thesis Committee Approval:

Professor Benjamin Cawthra, Chair Professor Allison Varzally, Department of History Professor Natalie Fousekis, Department of History

Summer, 2016

ABSTRACT

Walt Disney gave his opening address of Disneyland on July 17, 1955 claiming that Disneyland would “be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.” As

Disneyland opened its gates to visitors from all over the world, the United States and the

Soviet Union were engaged in a Cold War, fighting social, economic, political, and cultural ideologies.

This thesis explores three “lands” located within the Disneyland park and how these lands respectively created sheltered vistas of a utopian society, a frontier past, and visions of a bright future. Main Street, U.S.A. provided visitors with a manufactured version of a “simpler” time in American history by allowing suburban white families a place to feel safe in their gender roles. Main Street, U.S.A. also provided visitors with a new outlet for consumerism that thrived under the disposable income model.

Frontierland provided visitors with a simulated history that demonstrated the

“successes” of spreading American democracy into foreign and uncivilized societies.

Frontierland also used the American film industry’s craze of western films to provide an illusion of “otherness” with stereotypical images of Native Americans and African

Americans.

Tomorrowland created an illusion of a bright future. Centered on consumption and corporate sponsorships, Tomorrowland encouraged visitors to believe in a future full of space travel and devices to enhance home life.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... ii

Introduction DEVELOPING DISNEYLAND IN A COLD WAR WORLD ...... 1

Coming Into the Age of the Cold War ...... 4 McCarthyism, House of Un-American Activities, and Walt Disney ...... 7 Developing Disneyland—An Amusement Park Unlike Any Other ...... 11 Introducing Disneyland to the World ...... 17 Khrushchev’s Almost Visit to Disneyland ...... 20

Chapter 1. MAIN STREET, U.S.A.: AMERICA’S HOMETOWN FOR THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS ...... 26

Architecture, Trains, and Abraham Lincoln: Images of Nostalgia and Predictability ...... 29 The Nuclear Family, Gender Roles, and Sexuality ...... 34 Consumerism and Experiences ...... 41

2. FRONTIERLAND: MANIFEST DESTINY, PATRIOTISM, AND THE CONTINUED SUCCESS OF AMERICA ...... 45

The “Disneyfied” Landscape of American Democracy ...... 47 A Reconnection to a Falsified Nature ...... 50 Davy Crockett and Hollywood’s West ...... 52 Images of Race—Native Americans ...... 56 Aunt Jemima and the Civil Rights Movement ...... 58

3. TOMORROWLAND: A BRIGHT AND DEMOCRATIC FUTURE ...... 63

Walt Disney and the Space Race ...... 67 Autopia and the Interstate Highway System ...... 70 The Circarama, The Kitchen Debates and American Technology in Russia ...... 74 New Technologies and Company Sponsorships ...... 77

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Conclusion THE CONTINUED SEARCH FOR A UTOPIAN SOCIETY ...... 80

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 87

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INTRODUCTION

DEVELOPING DISNEYLAND IN A COLD WAR WORLD

To all who come to this happy place welcome. Disneyland is your land, here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth can savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals the dreams and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. —Walt Disney, The Disneyland Story

On a hot July day in 1955, Hollywood celebrities, invited guests, camera crews, and audiences from around the world heard Walt Disney deliver his welcoming address and dedication at Disneyland. Audiences then watched an hour special on American

Broadcasting Company (ABC) starring Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald

“Ronnie” Reagan, who discussed the wonders visitors could soon experience at

Disneyland. Audiences witnessed the past, present, future, and fantasy of what would eventually grow into one of the greatest theme parks in the world.1 Families all over the

United States dreamed of the day when they could attend this magical kingdom.

What began as an orange grove in a small rural town of Anaheim now evolved into the home of one of the greatest consumer and tourist attractions that California and the United States possessed. While Disneyland welcomed families into its gates, the

United States found itself in the midst of a Cold War against the Soviet Union. The

United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a war of politics, economics, and cultural ideals where American democracy and Russian communism contested each other. During this period of tension, Disneyland provided a place of security, nostalgia, and

1 “Dateline Disneyland” 1955 film, Walt Disney Archives, Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California.

2 predictability. However, it too faced the war of ideals taking place between America and the Soviets. Disneyland’s immense success and popularity amongst American citizens was a direct result of Cold War America. Disneyland’s original purpose as a source of revenue for the Walt Disney Company quickly became more than a money making theme park. Disney’s manufactured narratives of lands within Disneyland provided solutions to problems consumers never knew they had. The unpredictable and unstable world of the

Cold War brought many social, economic, and political concerns. However, Disney’s ability to construct an “ideal” narrative of the past, present, and future instilled a sense of certainty and security visitors had not realized they needed. During a time of widespread uncertainty across the United States, Disneyland served as a manufactured national identity that aided in fueling utopian nostalgia and the promise of a bright democratic future.

The study of three specific “lands” in Disneyland will demonstrate how the manufactured narratives allowed visitors to experience an expression of Cold War thinking. Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland, and Tomorrowland proved to be an outlet for visitors to consume material goods and ideals that allowed them to cope with issues they faced outside of Disneyland. Disney and his developers often put a premium on fantasy instead of truth. While certain themes within these lands such as race, gender, consumerism, and expansion, were all very real, the way they were presented within

Disneyland displayed them as much easier to define and integrate into daily life. When visitors walked through the gates of Disneyland they expected entertainment for the entire family. However, behind the rather thick veil of fantasy and invents histories

3 visitors had the opportunity to found solutions to problems like gender identity, family structures, civil rights, and the atomic age.

Located behind the berm, visitors of Disneyland found five themed lands that all held unique narratives. Main Street, U.S.A., modeled after a familiar turn-of-the-century small town, welcomed back generations who grew up in these locales and introduced younger generations to a life of safety, security, simplicity, and predictability.

Frontierland housed the cowboys and Indians of America’s wild western frontier. Visitors experienced a time when America’s desire to civilize unknown territories and people proved adventurous and successful. Adventureland took visitors to the farthest depths of unexplored regions, bringing them face to face with new worlds. Fantasyland brought classic Disney characters to life. Finally, Tomorrowland launched visitors into the world of 1986 when trips to the moon existed as an everyday occurrence and through the gift of technology, everyday life proved easier than in prior generations. The actual history and future of the narratives found within these lands were more complicated than the lands let on too. However, the “Disneyified” imagery of the stories being consumed by visitors was a much easier pill to swallow than the truth. It is the focus on fantasy and the purposeful removal of harsh facts that aided in Disneyland’s ultimate success.

Every “land” in Disneyland introduced visitors to new and exciting opportunities and experiences, but Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland, and Tomorrowland in particular truly demonstrated how Disneyland reflected the Cold War.2 These three lands presented

2 All original lands in Disneyland held elements of Cold War ideology including Fantasyland and Adventureland. Fantasyland presented what was once diverse cultural fairytales and folklores in an Americanized manner. This spoke to the United States perception of foreign countries during the time of the Cold War. Adventureland contained elements of stereotypical racial images of African people, most notably found in The World Famous Jungle Cruise. Adventureland also demonstrated the wildness of uncivilized cultures that did not adhere to the Democratic system. While both Fantasyland and Adventureland hold merit in the historical discourse of the United States during the Cold War and how it

4 the image American powers wanted projected to the world and to its citizens. During this time American democracy faced questioning by not only the Soviet Union, but by some of its own citizens. Though a bright future seemed impossible, Disneyland stood as a utopian image and an instrument for national identity. In the eyes of Disneyland’s spectators, America still held the potential to remain the greatest political, cultural, and social power in the world. Walt Disney stated in his welcoming address, “Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals the dreams and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”3 The “facts” of

American history presented in Disneyland manufactured patriotism and cultural superiority. Liberties were taken and truth often ignored within the history portrayed in the exhibits and attractions visitors could experience, but they were intended to inspire

American citizens and show the entire world exactly the possibilities that existed under

American democracy.

Coming Into the Age of the Cold War

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941, the

United States entered World War II. As allies with Great Britain and Russia, the United

States continued the war against Japan and Germany until 1945. On May 7, 1945

Germany surrendered its forces to the allies. Following the dropping of atomic bombs on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, these catastrophic events led to Japan’s unconditional surrender to the United States. Shortly after, on October 24, 1945, the Allied powers established the

United Nations to ensure international peace and security, and to present a unified front

influenced Disneyland a more in-depth view of these lands were unnecessary to the specific thesis of this work. 3 Walt Disney, The Disneyland Story, American Broadcasting Company, July 17, 1955.

5 when that peace faced disturbance. These events collectively put an end to the Second

World War with the Allies as victors.4

During the reconstruction of Europe, the United States and Great Britain questioned Russia’s governing tactics over certain territories and how the nation denied several conditions made during the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences. 5 On March 5, 1946,

Churchill and Truman took the stage in the small town of Fulton, Missouri. Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech. He declared, “From Stettin in the Baltic to

Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”6 In this speech, Churchill condemned the communist east and began the drawing of battle lines for the Cold War.7 Nikita Khrushchev, a commissar of the Communist Party and later successor to Joseph Stalin as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist

Party of the Soviet Union, recalled, “that the Cold War had already set in. Churchill had given his famous speech in Fulton urging the imperialist forces of the world to mobilize against the Soviet Union . . . our relations with England, France, the USA and other

4 For an in-depth analysis of World War II see: Max Hastings, Inferno: The World at War, 1939- 1945 (New York City: Vintage Books, 2011), 1-729. 5 Geoffrey Roberts, “Stalin at the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences” Journal of Cold War Studies (2007), 6-40. Before the surrender of Japan, the war came to a close as the Allies proved victorious. Most of Europe found itself devastated by the war; immediate action occurred to handle the continent’s rebuilding. From July 17 to August 2, 1945, Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, Winston Churchill, Great Britain’s Prime Minister, and Harry Truman, President of the United States, met in what scholars termed the Potsdam Conference to discuss how to administer the defeated Germany. They ultimately decided to divide Germany into occupation zones and to destroy any industry with military potential in Germany. The question of Japan went unanswered at the conference. However, President Truman insinuated the development of a powerful new weapon that could be used against Japan. On August 6, 1945 a mere four days after the Potsdam Conference’s conclusion the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan, and then another atomic bomb on August 9, 1945 on Nagasaki, Japan. The use of the atomic bomb on Japan was one of the most influential elements creating a rift between United States and Soviet Union relations—leading into the lasting Cold War. 6 Winston Churchill, “Iron Curtain” speech, March 5, 1946. 7 Fraser Harbutt “American Challenge, Soviet Response: The Beginning of the Cold War, February-May 1946,” Political Science Quarterly (Vol. 95, No.4 Winston, 1981-1982), 631-2.

6 countries who had cooperated with us . . . were, for all intents and purposes ruined.”8 At the time of Churchill’s speech there was no official policy against the United States and the Soviet Union, Churchill’s speech in Fulton proved prophetic that the greatest powers in the world would grow divided against each other.

Taking Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech as a declaration of war, Stalin established

The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, which served as an alliance of

Communist countries designed to ensure they obeyed Soviet rule.9 After learning of forceful communist take overs in foreign countries, Truman addressed congress on March

12, 1947 in which he asked for $400 million in military, and economic aid for Greece and

Turkey for the countries to defend themselves against the communists—an address later known as the Truman Doctrine. Truman declared the United States commitment “to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures,” so as to help them “to work out their own destinies in their own way.”10 This statement represented a significant moment in America’s response to the

Soviet Union’s foreign policies.11 Truman’s statement also committed the United States to intervene anywhere in Europe and later the world that the Soviet Union would attempt to spread its communist ideologies. Ultimately, Truman brought to light fundamental differences between the United States and Soviet Union that manifested since World War

8 Strobe Talbott, Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1974), 353. 9 Richard C. Gripp, “Eastern Europe’s Ten Years of National Communism: 1948-1958,” The Western Political Quarterly (December 1960, Vol. 13, No. 4), 934-949. By 1947, the Soviet Union abolished the monarchy in Romania allowing for a communist take over. In Poland, the Soviet Union promised to set up a joint government of communists and non-communists— but only after political foul play had established a full communist government by 1947. In Romania, efforts came to fruition to overthrow Zoltan Tildy, president of Romania, by communist leader Rakosi. 10 Harry Truman “Truman Doctrine,” United States Congress, March 12, 1947. 11 Daniel S. Margolies, Blackwell Companions to American History, Volume 67: Companion to Harry S. Truman (John Wiley & Sons, 2012), 304-44.

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II. These differences created a political, economic, and cultural divide between America and the Soviet Union.

While it is important to understand the major political events that occurred during the Cold War understanding the culture during the 1940s and 1950s draws the connections between Disneyland and the Cold War. Disneyland and its attractions and exhibits reflect the culture of not only the American people, but also the culture Disney wanted people all over the world to see. Utopian and staged images of race, sexuality, family, and the future permeated throughout Disneyland, but they projected complicated representations that defied their “true” nature. Even before the construction of

Disneyland, Disney actively participated in politics and society and knew exactly how both he and his future enterprises wanted to be viewed by the world.

McCarthyism, House of Un-American Activities, and Walt Disney

McCarthyism, arguably one of the largest social upheavals during the Cold War in America, dealt with more than Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy’s agenda.

McCarthyism represents the longstanding political repression Americans faced during the

Cold War. The takedown of suspected communists within America began in the 1940s and reached its peak in the 1950s. Concurrently, the trials gained national attention as various bureaucracies sniffed out suspected communist threats. It seemed that almost nobody was safe from suspected involvement by the communist party, from Hollywood to everyday American citizens. During this time of national political turmoil, Americans faced expectations to pledge their allegiance to the democratic system and not fall into blacklists and hearsay of Communism.12

12 Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (Little, Brown and Company, 1998), 1-416. Communism in America previously threatened the United States prior to the Cold War. As

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When the United States entered the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the term

“communist” took on the meaning as an enemy to the United States. Whether a person was associated with the American Communist Party as a fleeting interest, had been a member of the party decades ago, or simply had friends that were “communists,” they were branded as an enemy of the American way of life. Being associated, as a

“communist” or “commie” was not so much ideological as it was political. Anyone who chose to go against the political norm was considered the enemy, like that of a Civil

Rights activist or a persons who were active in unions. “Communist” served the nation as the blanket term for anyone who was against the current political order. The era of

McCarthyism, set the United States on a course that would call American’s patriotism sharply into question. Gaining popularity through his inflammatory speeches and exposure via television, McCarthy set the precedent that “communists” posed a threat to

American society and would face immediate removal from the nation.13

early as 1919, the American Communist Party operated as facets of Comintern, the international organization established by Lenin, to coordinate the worldwide revolution that was to take place. The American Communist Party maintained distinct ties to the Soviet Union in its early years and in the 1930s and 1940s when the party peaked at its prime. While no real radical movements took place in the party, it still stood as a political party in the United States. The American Communist Party gained popularity during the American Depression of the 1930s. The party seemed to provide answers and solutions to many problems facing those who joined during the 1930s, as no unemployment existed in the Soviet Union under the umbrella of communism. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the American government moved toward the left, benefiting the members of the American Communist Party. Unions, which played a major role for the American Communist Party, acted more as a commonplace and proved acceptable for many citizens. When many people realized the rise of the Third Reich in Germany, the American Communist Party started to “Americanize” their image as separate themselves from any fascist claims, while still upholding images of Lenin, Marx, and Engels as political figureheads. In 1939, Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Adolf Hitler, leader of the German Third Reich. This relationship created problems for the American Communist Party as the party connected to the negotiations between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. When the United States joined World War II, patriotism and political loyalty hindered any further development of the American Communist Party. By 1944, the American Communist Party dissolved and reformed under the less threating Communist Political Association. 13 Thomas Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture (New York City: Columbia University Press, 2003), 13-7. Joseph McCarthy served as the United States Senator from the state of Wisconsin. Starting in 1950, McCarthy rose as the public face of a witch-hunt against any person associated with communism. On February 9, 1950, during a Lincoln Day dinner speech

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In 1938, the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) came into existence to investigate alleged disloyalties on private citizens and organizations suspected of having communist ties. It is important to understand that, while

McCarthyism grew from McCarthy’s name, the proceedings of HUAC primarily played an instrumental role in the red scare of the Cold War. One of the biggest elements of

American society affected by McCarthyism and HUAC was the film industry. Movie stars, producers, radio personalities, screenwriters, and many others prominent celebrity figures also faced accusations of involvement with communists.14 Witnesses gave testimony to HUAC either pointing the finger at or refuting claims of their own involvement with the communist party. As a result, Hollywood personalities accused of communist ties ended up on a “blacklist” that effectively ended many careers.15

HUAC called upon “friendly” witnesses to identify instances of alleged

Communist activity in Hollywood. Some of these friendly witnesses included Jack

Warner of Warner Brother Film Company; Ronald Reagan, President of the Screen

Actors Guild; and Walt Disney.16 Walt Disney was called on to share his past support of anticommunism and his dissent for labor organizations. Disney dealt with union strikes at his studios and his opposition to unions was no secret.17 His anticommunist sentiments and fervent patriotism reflected in his animation and other products of his company. to a Republican Women’s Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, McCarthy claimed to possess a list of 250 known communists in the State Department. 14 Lary May, “Movie Star Politics: The Screen Actors’ Guild, Cultural Conversion, and the Hollywood Red Scare” Found in Lary May, Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of the Cold War (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989) 128-31. By 1940 nearly fifty percent of all working actors were a part of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) making it the single most powerful union in the film industry. Because of this the SAG union was a major target for anti-communist sentiments. 15 Doherty, Cold War, Cool Medium 13-7. 16 For more on HUAC and friendly witnesses see: Richard Schwartz, Cold War Culture (New York City: Facts on File, 2000). 17 Lary May, “Making the American Consensus: The Narrative of Conversion and Subversion in World War II Films,” Found in Lewis A. Erenberg and Susan E. Hirsch, The War in American Culture: Society and consciousness During World War II (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996) 71-105.

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During World War II the Walt Disney Studios signed a contract with the United States government to produce propaganda films that preached a strong sense of American patriotism. Several films portrayed fascists as bumbling characters not to be taken seriously. Other films produced by the studios included instructional videos for the military branches.18 Disney’s devotion to the government during World War II and his firm handling of union strikes at his studios made him the ideal image of a Hollywood power testifying against communism.19

HUAC chairman H.A. Smith questioned Disney on the state of his animation company, its relationship to foreign markets, labor strikes, and whether film was an appropriate method to disseminate propaganda, and to call out any potential communists in Hollywood. Early in Disney’s testimony he was asked about the potential of communists in his animation studios. Smith asked Disney “Do you have any people in your studio at the present time that you believe are Communist or Fascist, employed there?” Disney responded, “No; at the present time I feel that everybody in my studio is one-hundred-percent American.”20 Disney went on to describe the troubles he had with strikes in the company’s past and who was responsible. When Disney was asked about his opinion on the communist party Disney stated:

Well, I don’t believe it is a political party. I believe it is an un-American thing. The thing that I resent the most is that they are able to get into these unions, take them over, and represent to the world that a group of people that are in my plant, that I know are good, one-hundred-percent Americans, are trapped by this group, and they are represented to the world as supporting all of those ideologies, and it is not so, and I feel that they really ought to be smoked out and shown up for what they are. So that all of the good, free causes in this country, all the liberalisms that really are American, can go out without taint of communism. That is my sincere feeling on it.21

18 Richard Shale, Donald Duck Joins Up: The Walt Disney Studio During World War II (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1976), 22-3. 19 Steven Watts, “Walt Disney: Art and Politics in the American Century,” The Journal of American History (Vol. 82, No. 1, June 1995), 84-110. 20 Testimony of Walter E. Disney before the House of Un-American Activities, October 24, 1947. 21 Ibid.

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Disney further stated that he felt a communist presence existed in all aspects of

Hollywood, which needed immediate attention. Disney gained widespread thanks for his time and honesty throughout the inquiries and called a “good witness” by the Chairman.22

Disney’s testimony before HUAC took place in 1947, eight years before the opening of Disneyland. Yet, his willingness to participate in the hunt for communists in

Hollywood and his strong convictions against communism set the tone for the political undertones later found in Disneyland. Disney’s strong commitment to patriotism appears not only in his testimony, but also in his animated features and theme park. Disney established early on in the Cold War his loyalties aligned with the American democratic system.

Developing Disneyland—An Amusement Park Unlike Any Other

Walt Disney Productions had already made a name for itself with animated feature films, its animated characters, and its dedication to quality and innovation. The legend of Disneyland’s conception is as well known as the park itself. While watching his daughters on the merry-go-round from a bench in Griffith Park, Disney dreamed of a place where families could gather and partake in fun together—unlike any other fair, carnival, park, or amusement center. Disney decided early on that if he created a park like this, it would project an atmosphere clean, friendly, and free from crime and scandal.23

Disneyland would encompass a theme park for families unlike any type of amusement park previously seen in America or the world.

While Disney carried the idea of this kind of place for families for many years, he also envisioned what he did not want his park to be. Throughout Disney’s travels, he

22 Ibid. 23 Bob Thomas, Walt Disney: An American Original (The Walt Disney Company, 2004), 11-2.

12 attended fairs, carnivals, and boardwalks to see what drew people to them. He often found himself displeased by their litter and the crime that took place in them—especially in his time at Coney Island. Coney Island, a seaside resort in New York, served as a place of diversity, both economically and socially, mostly patronized by the working class. In

1905, customers of Coney Island found mechanical rides, shooting galleries, dance halls, freak shows, picture arcades, saloons and bathhouses.24 Sexuality and sexual promiscuity permeated throughout the park as vendors and visitors displayed and encouraged them.

Women especially took advantage of Coney Island’s loose sexual morals. Here a girl brought her friends and found boys to spoil them with treats, games, and entertainment.

Women discovered a newfound sexual freedom otherwise stifled by the modern city and rural towns. The dance halls found at Coney Island encouraged sexual promiscuity from the opposite sex and, in some cases, between the same sex. 25 Homosexual men found

Coney Island as a type of sanctuary where the bathhouses hosted events specially catered toward male sexual interaction. Coney Island provided relief during a time when sexual fluidity and discovery came to fruition.26

Disney swore his park would not resemble Coney Island let alone any other type of carnival, fair, or boardwalk in America. The building of Disneyland introduced a new chapter in outdoor amusement. Unlike Coney Island, Disneyland would not convey a seedy atmosphere that Disney saw in other amusements. The sexual fluidity that was seen in Coney Island had no place in Disneyland. Sexual promiscuity between two unmarried

24 Raymond M. Weinstein, “Disneyland and Coney Island: Reflections on the Evolution of the Modern Amusement Park,” Journal of Popular Culture, June 1992, 144. 25 Eric Avila, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Film Noir, Disneyland, and the Cold War (Sub)Urban Imaginary (University of California Press, 2004), 104-14. 26 George Chauncey Gay New York: Gender Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (Basic Books, 1994) 179-207.

13 individuals was not tolerated during this time. Sexual practices and satisfactions were to remain between a married man and women with the sole purpose of creating a family.27

Disneyland would instead display the charming and tame elements of American every day life by catering to families that adhered to the cultural norms. Even couples experienced Disneyland in a safe less sexually exploitative manner seen in the implementation of “Date Nights in Disneyland.”28 Southern California would later rebrand American amusement recreation.

After Disney’s 1952 announcement for the construction of Disneyland, originally planned for development in Burbank close to the production studios, he decided on a new location. The land in Burbank proved too small and Disney had difficulty convincing

Burbank officials that his park would differ from the typical carny experience.

Developers recommended a location outside Los Angeles County in the small rural town of Anaheim after extensive research.29 In an oral history Charles Pearson, elected mayor on Anaheim during Disneyland development recalls the effort that went into finding the perfect location for Disney and his developers. Pearson stated:

[Disney] hired the Stanford Research group to survey the whole Southern California area to decide which they thought was the best area for them to settle in, and they chose Anaheim area. They had no consulted us, as far as their choice was concerned, so we didn’t know at the time they were making this survey. But when they came to this particular area and decided they would like to recommend it, we cooperated, of course, in any way we could. We knew that they were trying to line up acreage. Twice they came up with an area that they would like to have had. Always there seemed to be some area within the acreage that was hard to get. This was thwarting as far as buying the total acreage was concerned. So in the final analysis, through the chamber of commerce, we were able to influence a group of people, where Disneyland is now, to agree to sell their property. This was done without help from Disneyland at all, solely through the chamber. This area was lined up and the people agreed to sell. We got together with the Disney people and they bought it.30

27 Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York City: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1988), 114-134. 28 Weinstein, “Disneyland and Coney Island,” 160-1. 29 John M. Findlay, Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Culture after 1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992). 30 Charles Pearson, Interview by Richard D. Curtis, Anaheim, CA, April 10, 18, 26, May 7, 1968. OH 29, transcription. P. 83, Center for Oral and Public History, CSU Fullerton.

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Disney, with the support of the city of Anaheim, purchased several acres of orange groves to lay the foundation of Disneyland. Anaheim, located in Orange County approximately eleven miles from Los Angeles, paralleled the planned Santa Ana

Freeway. This Freeway, scheduled for completion in 1955, would bring travelers directly to Disneyland. This new park would soon evolve into one of the most frequented tourist locations of the world.31

It was not just the location of the new freeways that determined Disneyland’s location but the growing economy of Orange County. Disney and his engineers scoured the country for a choice location for his theme park and Orange County was the top contender. Orange County was home to one of the fastest growing economies in the

United States. During World War II military-industrial complexes provided employment for middle class families and drove the economy. Suburbs began to spring up all over

Orange County.32 As political and economic aspects of the Cold War gave way the majority of residents became fervently anti-communist. Soon Orange County gave way to a strong Republican way of thinking driving anti-statism and normative conservatism.

While Disney chose Orange County for its economic prosperity, constantly good weather, and location to freeways the political movements taking place within the county reinforced the ideals the park manifested. A strong anti-communist community full of affluent suburban dwelling families made the ideal neighbors for a theme park that preached strong white, middle class, nuclear family ideals.33

31 Avila, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight, 120-1. 32 Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001) 20-53. Orange County was home to hundreds of ranching families described as “old-timer” families. But the growing economy brought in droves of newer families, which gave rise to suburbs. While there were less affluent sections of Orange County such as Anaheim, Garden Grove, and Buena Park sections north of Fullerton and east of Tustin was home to considerable wealth. 33 Ibid., 20-53.

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While Anaheim was an ideal city for Disneyland to be built, not everyone was as thrilled with its development as anticipated. Many residents worried about what types of people the theme park would bring with it, or how surrounding prosperities value would decrease. Melbourne Gauer was the Superintendent of Anaheim School District during the 1950s worked closely with the city developers and was invited to partake in several developer meetings for Disneyland. Gauer recalls some on the sentiments other residents had regarding Disneyland’s development:

People said that we went over backwards to please Disneyland. The landowners around there said that they wouldn’t be able to do anything with their land, and yet land was going up. The last acres that were sold out there went for $100,000 an acre, so we weren’t doing anything with their land except letting them get richer. We didn’t have to do anything with the land, it was getting more valuable all the time by just sitting there. They finally realized after all, that Disneyland was doing more for the city of Anaheim with the sales tax and with all the rest that they would bring in than anything else could. As a consequence the city prospered.34

Gauer’s memories regarding Disneyland are important because it demonstrates the tone of the citizens during Disneyland’s development. While many citizens’ worries were valid many proved to be unwarranted once Disneyland broke ground.

Disneyland broke ground on July 12, 1954; with Disney’s deadline for completion a year away, developers worked with little time. Development encountered harsh weather conditions during construction and posed problematic situations for the proposed plans of

Disneyland. The soil proved porous for the original plans for the Rivers of America, developed in Frontierland, the construction crew later imported clay soil to keep on schedule. For the jungle in Adventureland, they introduced new plants to the ecosystem,

34 Melbourne Gauer, Interview by Kathy Landis, Anaheim, CA, March 16, 1974. OH 1425, transcription. P. 52, Center for Oral and Public History, CSU Fullerton.

16 which caused even more hardship. However, Disney, meticulous in detail, oversaw all aspects of construction and development with everything up to his standards.35

Disney surpassed his budget because of his extensive plans and ideas he envisioned for Disneyland. Desperate for funding, Disney pitched companies to lease concessions or sponsor various attractions. Coca-Cola, Ford Motors, B. F. Goodrich

Tires, and Kellogg Cereal Company, among others, invested in the development of

Disneyland. The estimated cost of Disneyland was estimated at $4 million. 36 However, by opening day, the cost skyrocketed to $17 million. Disney had already put in a considerable amount of his own money. By this point every business decision regarding

Disneyland could have resulted in the end of Disney’s production company and personal wealth.

By 1949 the film industry was in peril. Box offices sales had decreased immensely and due to HUAC investigations SAG’s membership had lost hundreds of members. Prominent movie stars’ careers had been destroyed due to communist affiliation accusations.37 The advent of the television and its introduction into homes assisted in the declining film industry. Between political red tape and declining attendance releasing feature films became a gamble for many production companies.38

With Disneyland already severely over budget had Disney released a feature film that failed in the box office his production company would experience massive financial loss.

35 Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (New York City: Alfred A Knopf, 2007), 526-7. 36 Ibid., 526. 37 May, “Movie Star Politics” Found in May, Recasting America, 147. Charlie Chaplin was one of several movie stars whose career was destroyed by HUAC. The Federal Bureau of Investigation led inquiries into Chaplin’s activities causing a boycott on his films by several Hollywood unions. 38 For more on Hollywood and its role in American politics see Lary May, The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) 1-348.

17

Gaining revenue from the companies already on board for sponsorship, Disney also looked toward to the newest media medium of the age, television.

In the spring of 1954, Disney became the first leading Hollywood producer to enter into a formal contract with television. ABC struggled to compete with other television companies; in return for signing a contract with Disney, the production company received a thirty-five percent share in Disneyland and a contract for a weekly television series. The Disneyland television series titled “Disneyland” not only promoted the new theme park and what it offered to attendees, but also provided an outlet for other feature films and productions not previously released. The vast majority of Disneyland’s success the first year was thanks to the television series and the audiences it reached.39

After a year of construction, Disneyland opened its gates and welcomed guests to a new future in the world of amusement. While nobody predicted the instant and longstanding success of Disneyland, it easily established itself as something different.

Disneyland operated as a paradise for the American middle class to experience everything American democracy offered to the nation.

Introducing Disneyland to the World

On opening day July 17, 1955, ABC aired the final installment of “Disneyland,” a one and a half hour special live from Disneyland showing the wonders that awaited visitors. The opening day installment of “Disneyland” presented “the greatest concentration of television equipment and operating personnel ever assembled in one place.”40 Hosts of the show included Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald

“Ronnie” Reagan and other Hollywood guests appeared as well as over 250,000 guests

39 Findlay, Magic Lands, 60-1. 40 New York Times, July 3, 1955.

18 from around the world. Disney gave his dedication to Disneyland, promising,

“Disneyland would never be complete” meaning it would continue to expand, change, and grow with the times. It also meant Disneyland remained unfinished, even for opening day. The asphalt had not set, which caused women to lose their heels in the ground, trash piled up, and not all restrooms and drinking fountains operated in the park. Yet, these faults did not discourage visitors from attending Disneyland.41

California Governor Goodwin Knight spoke alongside Disney on opening day. In his welcoming address, Knight stated all of Disneyland owed its building to “American labor and American capital under the belief that this is a God-fearing and a God-loving country.” Knight dedicated a flag to Disneyland on behalf of the people “we do it with the knowledge that we are the fortunate ones to be Americans and that we extended to everyone everywhere the ideals of Americanism, brotherhood, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men.”42 He further declared on television that Disneyland based its foundation on American ideals as part of the best country—America. During their opening addresses, by both Knight and several others, religion played an important role in Disneyland’s dedication. Due to the United States’ dedication to its primary faith and democracy, Christianity in the United States viewed as superior over the “godless” Soviet

Union.43

Following the parade of Disney characters, cowboys and Indians on horseback, and Hollywood celebrities riding Autopia cars, Disney featured introductions to each of the lands individually. In Frontierland, Fess Parker, star of the popular television show

41 Findlay, Magic Lands, 61. 42 “Dateline Disneyland” 1955. 43 For more on Religion and the Cold War see Dianne Kirby, Religion and the Cold War (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003).

19

Davy Crockett, made a special appearance for guests and guided them in a sing-along about his loyal “ole’ Bessie” the musket Crockett uses to kill “red skins.” The Mark

Twain Riverboat, christened on its maiden voyage by the docks of the Rivers of

American, sailed through the waters as Aunt Jemima danced along to the music. Guests ventured to Tomorrowland set in the future of 1986. Here, viewers witnessed the attractions offered in Tomorrowland. They also received a science experiment demonstrating the power of the atom and an atomic chain reaction and a warning to use the science “wisely.”44

Viewers then witnessed the sights of the Autopia attraction where children could drive their own gas-powered car at eleven miles an hour. Whizzing by in the Autopia cars, viewers met Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and several other celebrities. A demonstration of a “rocket launch” and an explanation of the diorama of the rocket ships everyone will eventually take to the moon showed all the viewers the wonders that awaited them in the future located in Disneyland. Next awaited Fantasyland where the ceremonial lowering of the drawbridge from Sleeping Beauty’s castle welcomed children from all over the world to experience the land’s attractions. Finally, Adventureland remained as the final stop for viewers as the World Famous Jungle Cruise took visitors through the rivers of the world. The special concluded with Disney stating his final thanks and welcome to all those who helped in Disneyland’s construction and those visitors and viewers from across the world.45

Televising the opening day of Disneyland played an instrumental role in the ultimate success of Disneyland in years to come. It demonstrated how Disneyland tied

44 “Dateline Disneyland” 1955 45 “Dateline Disneyland” 1955 film, Walt Disney Archives, Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California.

20 into the ideals of the Cold War. As seen by the televising of HUAC hearings, popular television shows, and the daily news, television audiences ventured into a new way of receiving information not previously available before the Cold War. Viewers who watched popular Hollywood icons and families from all over the world experienced

Disneyland on this first day and witnessed that, if they vacationed at Disneyland, they would truly be part of a fundamentally American experience. In the years to come, visitor participation at Disneyland and the popularity it received added to its necessity in

American culture.

Khrushchev’s Almost Visit to Disneyland

By 1959, tensions during the Cold War peaked at an all time high. Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba, installing a communist government. A few years prior, the

Russians successfully launched a man made satellite into space. Social and political tensions spread in both the United States and Russia. In an effort to ease some of those tensions, Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to the United States, specifically Camp David, to engage in a summit about Cold War tensions. Khrushchev agreed to attend, but requested to take a ten to fifteen day tour of the United States. Eisenhower agreed, making Khrushchev’s trip the first time any Soviet leader toured America.46

News of the Soviet Premier’s trip caused uproar in the United States. Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edger Hoover compiled data and claimed that an estimated 25,000 Americans threatened to kill Khrushchev. Whether this estimate is true or not, these figures would later be used as an excuse for not allowing Khrushchev to visit Disneyland. The FBI created an itinerary for Khrushchev during his stay in the

46 Peter Carlson, “Comrade Khrushchev’s American Road Trip,” American History (October 2009, Vol. 44 Issue 4), 38-43.

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United States. Events included Washington, DC for a White House state dinner, New

York to address the United Nations, an Iowa corn farm, a Pittsburgh steel mill, and Los

Angeles to dine with several Hollywood stars and watch the filming of Shirley

MacLaine’s dance scene in Can-Can. The plans also included a potential trip to

Disneyland for Khrushchev. With a full and assorted schedule, Khrushchev would see for himself America’s diversity.47

While the majority of the east coast portion of Khrushchev’s tour seemed uneventful, his trip garnered attention once he reached Hollywood. Twentieth Century

Fox organized a luncheon for Khrushchev along with the filming of the burlesque style film. Hollywood’s top stars attended the luncheon with the Soviet Premier, including

Dean Martin, Ginger Rogers, Krik Douglas, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Debbie Reynolds, Eddie

Fisher, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe. At the luncheon, Khrushchev and his wife

Nina expressed their interest in visiting Disneyland. Several American officials tasked with the responsibility of assuring Khrushchev’s safety while in the United States hesitated in taking him to the Anaheim theme park. Ultimately, local police and officials decided against allowing Khrushchev to visit Disneyland. When Khrushchev learned he was unable to attend Disneyland he responded, “Do you have rocket launching pads there? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters take over the place that can destroy me? Then what must I do? Commit suicide? I cannot find the words to explain this to my people.”48 What can only be described as a temper tantrum, Khrushchev clearly expressed his disappointment in not attending Disneyland.

47 Peter Carlson, “Nikita in Hollywood,” Smithsonian (July 2009, vol. 40 Issue 4), 44-51 48 Ibid., 44-51.

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Many others felt shocked that Khrushchev ventured to many places in the United

States during his tour, yet the United States drew the line with Disneyland in terms of safety. In an article written by Bill McCance in the Anaheim Gazette, McCance expresses his disappointment claiming, “This reporter was kind of counting on seeing the Old

Russian bear himself in person. It would really be something to tell the grandchildren about if we are around to talk about it. The speculation really is that Khrushchev would be exposed to excess danger with the large crowds he would run into at Disneyland.”49

McCance further states, “Whether or not Disneyland officials breathed a sigh of relief with the cancellation of Disneyland from his trip is not known.” He describes

Khrushchev’s disappointment, claiming, “At best, knowing Nikita, how could he resist the fun? After all, could he pass up the opportunity to be the first Russian of note to be photographed climbing the Matterhorn Mountain or jumping aboard one of Disney’s submarines? How could he pass up such an opportunity? The average politician in the

United States can’t.”50 Denying Khrushchev entrance into Disneyland shocked most of the American people but also served as a point of pride that even the Premier of the

Soviet Union was unable to enjoy the majesty located behind the berm that was available to so many others.

News of Khrushchev’s missed opportunity spread widely across the United

States. A Missouri St. Joseph News reporter wrote an open letter to the Soviet leader, commenting, “[Y]ou missed out on seeing a great big chuck of America. Even though you are the dictator of what may be the most powerful country on earth, you are deprived of viewing the things that any American youngster can see if their parents pay a relatively

49 Bill McCance, “Little Notes-Is Nikita Coming?” Anaheim Gazette (September 17, 1959). 50 Ibid.

23 moderate admission price.”51 The shock of Khrushchev’s inability to visit Disneyland lasted many years after the event. In a letter signed by Ake Perlström, sent after the announcement of Walt Disney’s death in 1966, Perlström recalls Khrushchev’s desire to visit Disneyland. The author wrote:

When Khrushchev visited the United States in the mid-fifties, his only real disappointment during his successful encounter with the American people is said to have been that he was not allowed to visit Disneyland, the fairy tale park for large and small created by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California. The F.B.I. did not think it could guarantee his safety among all the miniature buildings and amusements that fills this park. But for Walt Disney, Khrushchev’s loudly expressed disappointment must have been a source of joy; it was a recognition that he had succeeded in telling his stories over the frontiers, to all the world’s people.52

Even though the Soviet leader did not experience Disneyland for himself, the overwhelming media coverage and lasting resentment demonstrated the importance of the connection between Disneyland and the “American experience.” The notion that one of the most important leaders of the twentieth century did not receive access to a theme park and the disappointment that ensued cements the notion that Disneyland truly epitomized the quintessential American product. This product allowed other Americans to experience what, in the eyes of Disney, it meant to personify an American—and what that image should project to the rest of the world.

From Disneyland’s conception through the first ten years of its operation,

Disneyland acted as a direct product of Cold War culture. It created a national identity in a utopian fashion. Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland, and Tomorrowland all demonstrate distinct aspects of Cold War political, economic, and social practices during this time.

While Disneyland primary purpose was for monetary gain Disney knew its success lay with creating a fantasy for its visitors. In these three lands Disney presented solutions and

51 St. Joseph News-Press, January 5, 1960. 52 Letter addressing Walt Disney’s death by Ake Perlström found in “Walt Disney—Showman of the World Vol. 1” Walt Disney Archives.

24 explanations for issues that faced American people in the Cold War era. The fantastical representation of family structure, race, gender, consumerism, and expansion allowed guests to feel at ease with issues they faced outside of Disneyland. All of these aspects of

Cold War history found within Disneyland prove essential to understanding not only

Cold War culture and the ultimate success of Disneyland as a national—and international icon for the United States.

Chapter one will illustrate how Disney created a romanticized society in turn of the century America with Main Street, U.S.A. In the manufactured town unrecognizable as any one place in specific yet designed to be familiar to all through experience or

Hollywood images Disney pays homage to an “ideal” American family structure. Main

Street, U.S.A., reinforced the belief that a family with a patriarchal head and a woman dutifully in the home tending to the children was pivotal to the American way of living.

Although this family structure was contested throughout the Cold War Main Street,

U.S.A., perpetuates that fantasy.53 Main Street, U.S.A. also provided its visitors with a new method of consumption. Here visitors could not only purchase merchandise from the park, but take part in an experience making consumerism at Disneyland a unique experience.

The second chapter will focus on Frontierland as a fantastical image of America’s expansion into foreign territories. The American film industry monopolized on western films, and in Frontierland visitors could live out those roles. The western film genre peaked during the Cold War, playing on the notion of “otherness.” The cowboys and

Indians in the films provided an illusion of fighting communists during the Cold War era.

53 Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York City: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992) 1-391.

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Frontierland not only allowed visitors a means of addressing foreign enemies but also brought them face to face with race and what it meant to be an American citizen.54

Falsified images of Native Americas and African Americans were prominent in

Frontierland. White American citizens witnessed images of race, but because those images were presented with an element of fantasy they were allowed to keep their prejudices in the past while still indulging them in the present. Frontierland was an expression of Manifest Destiny and how at one point in history it was successful. Disney manufactured a history that allowed its visitors to see the benefits of taming an uncivilized society in the past and allowed them to project that success into present day in regards to the expansion of American democracy in foreign countries.

The final chapter will demonstrate how Tomorrowland created an illusion of a bright future. Centered on consumption and corporate sponsorships, Tomorrowland encouraged visitors to believe in a future full of space travel and devices to enhance home life. Tomorrowland’s attractions created a future that could only be possible under

American free enterprise. The future found in Tomorrowland demonstrated that nuclear energy would be an essential part of every day life, even though the threat of nuclear attacks loomed.

54 Richard Slotkin Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century American (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992).

26

CHAPTER 1

MAIN STREET, U.S.A: AMERICA’S HOMETOWN FOR THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS

When you come to the main gate, past the railroad station, down the steps and across the band concert park, straight ahead lies a heart-line of America: an old-fashioned main street. Hometown U.S.A. just after the turn of the century American was growing fast. Towns and villages were turning into cities. Soon the gaslight would be replaced by electricity, but that was still in the future. At this time, little Main Street was still the most important spot in the nation, combining the color of frontier days with the oncoming excitement of the new twentieth century. —Walt Disney, The Disneyland Story

Main Street, U.S.A. was the first area of Disneyland a visitor stepped into at the theme park. The Town Square was where Walt Disney delivered his opening day speech and served as the focal point of all of Disneyland. Loosely based off of Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri, when visitors strolled down Main Street, U.S.A., they entered an exact replica of a small town main street ranging from 1890-1910.1 Main

Street should have been unrecognizable as any town in specific but should have been familiar enough to give white suburban visitors that sense of home. When visitors reached the Central Plaza, otherwise known as the “Hub” they witnessed Sleeping Beauty

Castle. From there they could venture into one of the outlying lands or stories. They could experience Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, or Frontierland. However, it was Disney’s intention that Main Street, U.S.A. allowed visitors to feel truly at home.

Main Street, U.S.A. showed visitors the past; its purpose aimed to reignite a memory of familiarity and hominess from turn-of-the-century. However, Main Street,

U.S.A., introduced generations who had never known those types of towns and provided

1 “Welcome to Disneyland” Park map 1955, Disneyland Inc.

27 them with the opportunity to experience horse-drawn trolleys or nickelodeons.2 Disney intended Main Street to be special and different from other areas of Disneyland. Disney wanted Main Street to be familiar to it’s visitors, while many of them never lived or grew up in small towns like that of Main Street, it had the potential to be recognizable from movies or television shows. Main Street, U.S.A., was designed to feel like a real town, but ultimately like everything in Disneyland, it was a projected fictional image of what

Disney wanted his visitors to experience. Main Street, U.S.A. embodied what Disney believed it meant to be American—welcoming, inclusive, patriotic, and white. Disney’s unique and fantastical view of what it meant to be American demonstrated to its visitors how America could be in a utopian world. Outside of Disneyland people were struggling with what “America” meant to them. Conflicts over race, gender, sexuality, patriotism and politics bombarded citizens. Disney’s manufactured version of the quintessential

“American” town provided white middle class visitors of Disneyland a haven of predictability and comfort not often found outside the berm.

The cultivated image of the “true” American during this time and the actual image of what it meant was vastly different from each other. Coming off the depression and

World War II, the projected image of an American and what an American actually was constantly changing. Main Street, U.S.A. and Disneyland as a whole played an instrumental role in shaping the image of what a “perfect” white, middle-class American citizen should be. American citizens and their national identity were being challenged both within the United States and throughout the world. An American citizen could have been a family man, or a civil right activist, a mother taking or her children, or a political radical. However, during a war of ethics and morals what defined a person as American

2 The Disneyland News “Main Street is a Historical Replica” July 1955, Vol. 1 No. 1, 3.

28 was important. While Disney did not outwardly discriminate on whom could experience the theme park, however, he catered the experience to a very specific group of visitors.

Disney monopolized on the image of a white middle-class family oriented citizen.

Main Street, U.S.A. invoked nostalgia and romanticized a utopian society that attempted to replicate itself in growing suburban landscapes. The Cold War challenged what embodied the democratic American citizen and how the rest of the world perceived that image. The United States found itself enveloped in a bitter political, cultural, and economic war with the Soviet Union as Communism called sharply into question

American democracy and the image of an American citizen. Ergo, Disneyland aimed to provide a safe haven for what the popular notion of Americana was and proved a powerful example in maintaining and consuming the patriotic image necessary to fight

Communism.3

As a town of the past, Main Street, U.S.A. held important relevance during the

Cold War because it created a society that demonstrated a seemly “happy” time in

Americas past. In reality the turn of the century in the United States held great cultural, racial, and political turmoil. Labor unrest, women’s right to vote, Jim Crow laws, and serious economic depression were just some of the struggles taking place during the turn of the century. 4 For Main Street U.S.A. to portray America as “happy” during this time

3 Findlay, Magic Lands, 91. 4 Susan Olzak, “Labor Unrest, Immigration, and Ethnic Conflict in Urban America, 1880-1914,” American Journal of Sociology (May 1989, Vol. 94, No 6) 1303-1333. During the turn on the 20th century an influx of immigrants to the United States caused a rise in ethnic conflicts. Competition in the labor market due to the rise of low-wage labor from immigrants caused decent amongst non-immigrant Americans. This competition in labor created more unions usually made up of white workers. Attacks on immigrant groups, especially black workers were common amongst these unions. The notion of what it meant to be an American worker was not a foreign concept during the time of the Cold War as it had been an issue for several decades previous. Ann Bausum, With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote (Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2004) 1-111. Moving into the 20th century the right for women to

29 was a blatant disregard of actual American history. The manufactured image of Main

Street, U.S.A. provided visitors with an expression of what a proud patriotic citizen should encompass. Disney’s blatant disregard for the true history of turn of the century

America created a sense of nostalgia within a time America had thrived, a notion many visitors did not realize they needed to see. Elements of this were seen in the Santa Fe and

Disneyland Railroad and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln debuting in Main Street’s

Opera House. Main Street, U.S.A. also provided a definition of family. The notion of the nuclear family acted as an important element of Cold War identity. The quintessential

American family included a paternal head of house as the breadwinner with the maternal figure at home raising the children and tending to the home.5 Looking back this image of the American family faced controversy, Main Street, U.S.A. sought to reaffirm that, even during a “simpler” time, this family structure proved absolute and stable.6 Finally, Main

Street, U.S.A. allowed for a new type of consumerism never before seen.7 The beginning of disposable incomes allowed families to vacation, particularly to Disneyland, and to indulge in merchandise provided by the park.

Architecture, Trains, and Abraham Lincoln: Images of Nostalgia and Predictability

When visitors entered the gates of Disneyland they immediately saw the site of a floral Mickey with the Main Street Railroad Station towering over them. As they walked

vote was still being fought. While living in a nation that was supposed to uphold freedoms for all citizens women and minorities were left out of one of the key expressions of the democratic system. What it meant to be an American citizen was a notion that was grappled with well before the Cold War. See also: Leon Litwack, Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow (New York City: Random House Inc., 1998) 1-496. 5 May, Homeward Bound, 1-284 6 For more on challenging the Cold War image of women see the collection of essays Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960 Edited by Joanne Meyerowitz (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994). 7 For more on post-war consumerism see Lizbeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America. (New York City: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003) 1-567.

30 through the tunnel they then encountered the iconic image of small town America known as Main Street, U.S.A., surrounding them with turn-of-the-century buildings and architecture. Disney chose this as the start of the visitors’ experience through Disneyland so they would develop a sense of familiarity and security, even if that community is only familiar because of movies or television shows, before embarking on new and foreign adventures in the four themed lands: Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and

Tomorrowland. The buildings seen walking down Main Street, U.S.A. included the grand

Opera House, the City Hall, the Emporium, a grocery store, fire house, ice cream parlor, penny arcade and various other mercantile shops until visitors reached the iconic

Sleeping Beauty Castle. All the buildings that surrounded Main Street, U.S.A. possessed a foundation built on a five-eighths scale for two reasons, space limitations and to not make the visitors feel dwarfed in its presence.8

Atop the berm separating Disneyland from the rest of the world rested The Santa

Fe and Disneyland Railroad. The magnificent Main Street Railroad Station served as one of the main focal points on Main Street, U.S.A. Disney loved trains and wanted to include them on a grand scale in his theme park. Disney even made his entrance to

Disneyland in the ABC broadcast of Disneyland’s opening day aboard engine no.2 the

E.P. Ripley. The Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad carried passengers around the perimeter of the park “past structures and scenes of historic and cultural interest which will be familiar to those who have traveled the transcontinental Santa Fe between

8 Randy Bright, Disneyland: Inside Story (New York City: Harry N. Abrams Inc, 1987) 62-3.

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California and Chicago.” 9 The train ride allowed visitors to leisurely see the entire park while participating in Disney’s romanticized train history.

By 1955 modes of transportation developed beyond the use of the railroad.

Personal cars were now commonplace, especially in regards to the idea of family travel.

However, the nostalgia of traveling via train still permeated the memory of many

Americans.10 The trains of Disneyland that encircled the theme park created a clear separation from the outside world and the fantastical utopia found inside. A raised bank known as a berm achieved the physical separation of the real world and the park. By fully enveloping the park by the use of this barrier the outside world could not be seen and more importantly no one from the outside could see into the park.11 The trains that circled

Disneyland and the station at Main Street created a memory of a time before highways and air travel when transportation proved simple and predictable.

A turn-of-the-century American town displayed prominently in Disneyland created memories of a time before turmoil, while in actuality this was not the case. Main

Street, U.S.A. romanticized the utopia of a safe and clean community, one where parents wanted to raise their children and couples would grow old together. Attempts had been made to create a safe family friendly community since the early 19th century.12 The idea of a closed community free from crime and scandal was ever increasing in popularity during the turmoil of the Cold War. Modern suburbs and the types of families that lived

9 “Trains to Carry Visitors in Park” Premiere Souvenir Edition: Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom- Disneyland, Register, July 15, 1955, C10. 10 Andrew Berish, Lonesome Roads and Streets of Dreams: Place, Mobility, and Race in Jazz of the 1930s and 40s (Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2012) 1-312. While Disney wanted the image of the railroad to be nostalgic for the parks visitors train travel had different connotations for different races. Train Travel during was a popular method for African Americans to cross from the South to the North. 11 Bright, Disneyland: Inside Story, 7-8. 12 For a history of Americas suburbanization see: Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York City: Oxford University Press, 1985) 1-396.

32 there were often portrayed in television shows. White middle class families could not only identify with the television shows that depicted suburbs but how Main Street, U.S.A. mirrored that community feel families were desperately attempting to achieve. Main

Street, U.S.A. promoted stability and order and allowed visitors to indulge in the fantasy that they could achieve this in the modern era.13

The yearning for a nostalgic and predictable area of the park presented a concept not lost on Disney or the engineers developing Disneyland. Too often Americans confronted an uncertain reality outside of Disneyland, but here families knew exactly what to expect. This predictability existed at the core of Disney’s idea of entertainment ideals. Having recently lived through the unpredictability of the economy with the

Depression and the unpredictability of foreign policies with World War II, and now the

Cold War, Americans yearned to stand still. Evangelist Billy Graham described

Disneyland as a nice “fantasy.” Disney, contested Graham by stating:

You know the fantasy isn’t here. This is very real . . . The park is reality. The people are natural here; they’re having a good time; they’re communicating. This is what people really are. The fantasy is—out there, outside the gates of Disneyland, where people have hatreds and people have prejudices. It’s not really real!14

Disney and his visitors wanted to believe in a community and a world of familiarity, easy to understand, and reinforced their beliefs of a “true” democratic society. However, that

“true” democratic society only applied to certain citizens as many were denied basic human rights as demonstrated in the fight for Civil Rights. The utopian ideals that visitors could experience in Disneyland instilled an idea that the “real” world should resemble

Disney.

13 Avila, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight, 113. 14 Findlay, Magic Lands, 70.

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Built in 1965, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln in the Main Street Opera House provided an essential element in maintaining that predictable and nostalgic reassurance.

Originally used as a lumber mill during Disneyland’s development, it later housed various exhibits until the installation of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Audio- animatronics, the use of synchronized mechanics with sound, made their debut in

Disneyland in Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room found in Adventureland. Due to audio-animatronics amazing success, new developments went into motion to create life- sized entities. The audio-animatronic of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the

United States, went into development for “The Hall of Presidents” for Disneyland. Robert

Moses, developer of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, worked for the New York

World’s Fair of 1964-1965 visited Disneyland. Moses found himself welcomed to

Disneyland by Disney who introduced him to a primitive version of the Mr. Lincoln audio-animatronic. Taken aback by the incredible progress in technology made at

Disneyland Moses insisted Mr. Lincoln make a debut during the New York World’s Fair.

The state of Illinois purchased a pavilion at the New York World’s Fair with Mr. Lincoln to serve as the focal point. Due to the immense success of the audio-animatronic Mr.

Lincoln at the New York World’s Fair Mr. Lincoln received a permanent home in the

Opera House in the Town Square of Main Street, U.S.A.15

Abraham Lincoln’s legacy as being the president who governed a divided country and successfully reunited it held a special place in history and the hearts of Americans.

His amazing oratory skills and devotion to American democracy under times of turmoil stirred a strong since of patriotism and nostalgia for anyone hearing his words delivered in the Gettysburg Address. While Lincoln’s words stood for a country divided by the

15 Bright, Disneyland: Inside Story, 164-71.

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Civil War, they still resonated with Americans during any time of turmoil, especially during the Great Depression and now certainly during the Cold War. The speech Mr.

Lincoln delivered in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln acted as a compilation of several of his speeches throughout history. The theme throughout the presentation stayed true to the fact that Americans needed to stay united under a universal national identity.16 One excerpt from in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln drew from Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 address at a Sanitary Fair. While taken out of historical context, his words still resonated with American people in 1965:

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and our independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts. These are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosoms.17

The presence of a strong patriotic role model such as Abraham Lincoln in the small town image of Main Street, U.S.A. reinforced the belief that for white citizens, even during the uncertain times of the Cold War, the American agenda would prevail.18

The Nuclear Family, Gender Roles, and Sexuality

With men returning home from World War II, the idea of family became important in stabilizing America. Many women who dedicated themselves to the war effort now returned to the home. Men found themselves expected to reemerge into society by working a nine-to-five job. The addition of children rounded out the family

16 Priscilla Hobbs, Walt’s Utopia: Disneyland and American Mythmaking (McFarland & Company, Inc. 2015), 52-3. 17 Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, New York World’s Fair 1964. 18 David Blight, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era (Belknap Press, 2011) 1- 314. By the Civil War Centennial 1960-65 racial tensions in the United States had not eased. African American citizens were drawing attention to how little had changed for them regarding civil liberties and rights since the end of the Civil War. As Abraham Lincoln was being held up as a national icon for freedom many citizens struggled with the perceived image of freedom and the actual lack of freedom they had. The Civil Rights movement during the Cold War called into question the perceived notion of just how far America had come since the Civil War.

35 structure that would lead America into a new civilized age. The nuclear family presented the ultimate expression of the Cold War. The family centered in the home with their own roles to fulfill. But the home was not intended to serve as a cage holding people back from society, but rather an outlet to embrace the new trends in consumerism taking place during the 1950s and 1960s. However, for many citizens, women especially, the home was an instrument of containment holding them back from other ways of integrating into society.19

Walt Disney designed the theme park as a whole with the white middle class

American family in mind. Disney intended to create a theme park where children and their parents could experience fun along side each other. However, families consuming the Disneyland experience held highly specific expectations. The white middle class nuclear family consisted of the majority of Americans who experienced Disneyland in its earliest years. The image of a happy white middle class family consuming Disney’s product reinforced the fantastical world Disney wished to portray. When Disneyland opened, families came, flocking by the thousands to experience this utopia of family fun.20

A Better Homes and Gardens published an article describing just how inclusive

Disneyland was for both parents and children. Journalist James M. Liston wrote, “What is planned as a dutiful pilgrimage for the sake of the children turns out to be an eye-opening day of adult entertainment and education.” Impressed by the attention to detail in the park, Liston writes, “Children who never saw a horse-drawn car or fire wagon are delighted. But adults are literally transported by these vehicles down nostalgic Main

19 May, Homeward Bound, 1-284. 20 Findlay, Magic Lands, 67.

36

Street, U.S.A., and amazed by the scrupulous attention to detail in everything from the glass jars in the apothecary’s shop to the oil lamps in the Santa Fe and Disneyland railroad coaches.”21 The attention to detail and the inclusion of both children and their parents in all elements of the park made for a truly unique experience for the family.

The nuclear family proved pivotal in the success of the Cold War image of

American democracy. Women in particular worked at the forefront of presenting and maintaining the stereotypical family image, especially in regards to their counterparts in the Soviet Union. Made distinctly clear by gender roles during the Cold War, a woman’s place existed in the home as a mother, wife, and homemaker, and she was to be extremely happy about it. American propaganda promoted women in the home as pivotal in the defense of a Russian nuclear attack. Learning basic first aid at home, maintaining a well-stocked pantry, and learning to cook meals in adverse situations all ensured the family’s readiness and safety under the direction of the mother in the event of a nuclear attack.22 However, this image of the “perfect” nuclear family was in itself a fantasy.

Television shows like Leave It To Beaver (1957-63) and The Adventures of Ozzie and

Harriet (1952-66) created a framework for how a typical American family should look and act. Women were encouraged to model themselves after the housewives on television, while men were expected to be the masculine bread-earner for the home.

Disneyland perpetuated those images on the television screen and allowed them to come to life on Main Street, U.S.A. Visitors were encouraged to buy into the fantasy that they

21 James Liston, “The Land that Does Away with Time,” Better Homes and Gardens, February 1956, 62. 22 May, Homeward Bound, 103-7.

37 too could be the perfect American family they saw on television and experienced on

Main Street.23

Material goods and their consumption intended to serve as rewards and influence aspects of women in the home. New technologies and appliances allowed for more efficient and fulfilling work in the domestic sphere. During the Kitchen Debates at the

American Exhibition in Moscow President Richard Nixon and Soviet Union Premier

Nikita Khrushchev argued about what it meant to be a woman contributing to society.

While President Nixon argued that the growing technologies and consumer goods found in homes intended to make the lives of woman easier, Khrushchev argued Russian woman could work for their country effectively both in and out of the home. In the argument that ensued, it became clear the American domestic dream meant a successful male breadwinner supporting female homemakers in affluent suburban homes. To have women working outside the homes, like that seen in the Soviet Union proved unattractive and undemocratic to the American families that bought into the image of women in the home.24

In an article by U.S. News and World Report the subject of Russian women working outside the home takes a clear stance that they were neither feminine nor

“democratic”. The article describes Moscow as “a city of women-hard working women who show few of the physical charms of women in the West. Most Moscow women seem unconcerned about their looks . . . you see many young women [stride] along the streets purposefully, as though marching to a Communist Party meeting.”25 The intended distinction between Russian women and American women was extremely clear, an

23 Coontz, The Way We Never Were, 1-391. 24 Ibid., 17-20. 25 “Setting Russia Straight,” U.S. News and World Report.

38

American women’s place was being an attractive homemaker, whereas Russian women embodied the unattractive radical to American men.

The thought of an attractive, sexually demure, devoted wife, mother, and housekeeper upheld an ideal image of American women during the Cold War, though this was not always the case. Many women challenged the idea of a suburban housewife, and caused social unrest towards a “perfect American family.”26 In Disneyland and especially in Main Street, U.S.A. the nuclear family unit never faced a challenge. Main Street,

U.S.A. provides a sterile, utopian image of what the American family can experience in

Disneyland free from social conflicts. Even dating was an innocent activity free from sexual promiscuity found at other establishments, a way of putting couples on a safe track toward matrimony. Main Street, U.S.A. acknowledged the history of the family and how it remained essential in every historical period, but Disneyland as a whole refused to acknowledge what a family could actually look like outside of a picturesque fantasy.

According to Disney the only changes to the continuing history of the family are its desire to receive more goods and services found along the storefront of Main Street.27

Propaganda created an image of an attractive woman who was dedicated to her home and her family. Sexuality, physical appearance, and the desire for one to maintain that appearance affirmed a woman’s role. Men perceived their wives as sexual beings, but society as a whole was not allowed to that perception of women which makes the fact that in Disneyland along Main Street U.S.A., woman could buy brassieres and torsolettes at the “Wizard of Bras” an intriguing addition to the theme park. Sexualizing a woman in

26 For more on challenging the Cold War image of women see the collection of essays Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960 Edited by Joanne Meyerowitz (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994). 27 Warren Susman, “Did Success Spoil the United States? Dual Representations in Postwar America” Found in May, Recasting America, 19-33.

39 public forum was unorthodox during this time. The inclusion of this type of shop, especially in a family environment goes against the grain of how women’s sexuality was to be perceived.

The “Wizard of Bras” at Hollywood-Maxwell’s Intimate Apparel Shop centered prominently on the right hand side of Main Street right next door to “Grandma’s Baby

Shop.” Even if patrons did not wish to purchase their intimate apparels from Disneyland they could venture inside the storefront to learn all about the history of underwear from the Hollywood-Maxwell Brassiere Co. of Los Angeles. This joined experience for the family reaffirmed the belief that the family unit could have fun as a whole. In the

Disneyland edition of the Santa Ana Register, an article promotes the intimates shop in which it states, “The Hollywood-Maxwell exhibit features the Wonderful Wizard of Bras on a revolving stage, on one side of which is a complete re-creation of the fashion and intimate wear of the 1890s and on the other side a showing of the fashions of today’s inner and outer wear.”28 The shops sold merchandise and act as a history lesson for the entire family.

However, the brassier shop presented a larger impact on guests. In an article written in the Disneyland News it warns of the affect this shop might present on some of its visitors. In the article it address the reactions of some of the shops visitors, “Many men hesitate to enter the shop—especially older gentlemen accompanied by their wives.

It’s the older women who seem to be most anxious to shade their husbands from any

“risqué” experience.” The article describes how the shop demonstrates the progressive nature of its visitors, claiming, “Hollywood Maxwell’s experience seems to lend

28 “Mechanical Wizard Emcees Continual Show of Fashions,” Premiere Souvenir Edition: Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom-Disneyland, Santa Ana Register, July 15, 1955, C6.

40 credence to the belief that Americans are becoming more “liberal” through the years in their thoughts on such formerly “taboo” subjects.”29 While the parameters of women’s sexuality still found themselves contested during the Cold War, visitors could find a tasteful outlet for their curiosities in Disneyland.

Disneyland desired to be different from any other type of amusement park. Sex and sexuality proved a major drive for Coney Island. At Coney Island, advertisements marketed sex, which allowed women a chance for more sexual fluidity not easily obtained in their every day life. Coney Island was chaotic while Disneyland provided order for its visitors. Disneyland marketed a family establishment, one where everyone enjoyed themselves. However, couples were encouraged to have dates in Disneyland, in fact there was an entire campaign designed to draw in couples to experience Disneyland.

Special “Date Night” admission booklets were sold for $6.50, this included two admissions to Disneyland and ten amusement experiences good after five o’clock.30

Every Friday and Saturday Night the park would be open till midnight for couples to experience date night. One advertisement described date night as having “Dancing . . .

Romantic Ride, Fun! Thrills! Excitement! Walt Disney’s fabulous attractions are more fun than ever under the stars.”31 At Disneyland couples would have a chance to court each other in a clean, safe, and fun environment. Many events would take place on Main

Street including football rallies, dances, and live music. Allowing couples to have this experience removed the seediness of sexuality found at other types of amusement parks.

29 “If Hubby Is Shy, Watch Him at Main Street Corset Shop,” The Disneyland News, September 1955. 30 Disneyland “Date Night” Ticket Book, 1956. 31 “Date Night at Disneyland,” Walt Disney Productions, 1957.

41

The events held on Main Street, U.S.A. and date nights in Disneyland promoted the civilized way of dating and contributed to Cold War American family ideals.

Consumerism and Experiences

Along with the “Wizard of Bras” visitors experienced many other shops and restaurants along Main Street. Spectators consider the stores along Main Street as the commercial center of Disneyland. An article published in Orange County Magazine informed readers that “food and merchandise may be purchased from the various stores, most of which will be sponsored by American companies that have been in business fifty years or more.”32 Along the shops on Main Street visitors found themselves expected to indulge in a new type of consumption.

The Depression had caused massive unemployment. World War II created jobs yet left little for purchase due to rationing. Once the war ended and families maintained an income and the ability to spend their money, companies took advantage of the yearning Americans held for consumption. Americans wanted to spend their money and companies all across the United States began to fight for people’s business through advertising. It was made clear to families during the Cold War that spending and consumption was the American way. Not only did families have the money to spend now they also had agency in how and where to spend it.33 Purchasing of products doubled in

1950 compared to 1945. Mass media added to this growth as advertisements now through radio and television proved pivotal in Americans spending ritual.34 Disneyland was not immune to this new way of advertising. On Walt Disney’s Disneyland, which aired on

ABC from 1954 to 1958, Disneyland acted as a unique entity never before seen by the

32 Orange County Magazine (Summer 1955. June 1955, Vol. 3 No. 1.), 2. 33 Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic, 1-567. 34 “1940s War, Cold War and Consumerism” Advertising Age (2005 Vol. 76 No. 13), 38-40.

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American people. By 1955, Disney had already grown into a common household name and merchandise from movies sold characters memorabilia in retail stores almost anywhere. Nevertheless, what he advertised in the television series was the experience of

Disneyland. Not only could visitors see the lands of the past and the future they could experience them and take merchandise from those lands home with a visit to the park.35

Main Street shops at Disneyland sold both Disney products as well as items that exposed visitors to new items found elsewhere. As seen with “Wizard of Bras” intimate apparel and other unique items demonstrated that park visitors paid for the experience within the story as well as the story. Each shop along Main Street served a larger purpose than just a place to buy goods. They acted as symbolic places commonly found in a small town such as a grocery store, a bank, or an ice cream parlor. Each storefront along Main

Street not only sold the merchandise from that specific company, but also allowed visitors to see the history and necessity of the company in American culture.

For example, Disney developed The Swift’s Market House after an 1890 grocery store. Every detail reflected the era, including a pot-bellied stove, an old-fashioned coffee grinder, and saw dusted floors. In an article published in the Register Myrt Westering, manager of the Swift Market House exhibit proclaimed “The Swift Market House is a tribute to the important role of the food dealer in the job of feedings our rapidly growing population and will illustrate the progress that has been made by the food industry as a whole.” Westering further notes, “Today’s food industry is a story of 164,000,000

Americans leading longer and happier lives and with more and better food than ever before. And only one worker out of ten is needed to produce the food we eat, freeing many millions of people to produce the other goods necessary to modern living and

35 Walt Disney’s Disneyland, ABC Broadcasting Company 1954-1958.

43 progress.”36 Visitors to Disneyland could purchase the candy and other food goods sold in the Swift Market House anywhere outside of Disneyland. However, the experience and nostalgia of purchasing something from another era that made the shops along Main

Street so successful.

Main Street, U.S.A. acted as a stepping off point for visitors in Disneyland who chose their own journey in the other lands offered. Visitors felt secure in Disneyland while the future appeared uncertain, especially during the Cold War; they could feel confident that Disneyland offered a predictable experience. Visitors welcomed validation in their current social circles. Suburbs that sprung up during this time attempted to emulate the hometown vibe Main Street, U.S.A provided.37 The shops along Main Street were also pivotal for providing not only the goods that Disneyland had to offer but also the experiences that came along with them. Disneyland originally intended to make money and to cater to families with the ability to spend, but later spending in Disneyland evolved into a unique practice. Main Street, U.S.A created and fulfilled a desire many

American families did not know they needed—validation in their current lives, nostalgia in carefree times, and a hope that one day they could achieve that small town familiarity once again, this time with better products.

Main Street, U.S.A., provided visitors the chance to reminisce about old times they may not have actually experienced themselves but wanted to believe in. However, similarities draw from between the turn-of-the-century town and the attempted utopia of the suburbs. The desire to build families and to bring up children in a safe environment was not a foreign concept to the people of the 1950s. However, to better understand how

36 “Grocery Store of 1890 is Duplicated in Detail” Premiere Souvenir Edition: Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom-Disneyland, Register, July 15, 1955, C6. 37 Avila, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight, 132.

44 these ideas of safety and progress came to be it was necessary for visitors to see how

American progress truly started. Seeing a time of uncertainty like that of the American

Frontier would demonstrate how important the American Democratic system was to their every day lives.

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CHAPTER 2

FRONTIERLAND: MANIFEST DESTINY, PATROTISM, AND THE CONTINUED SUCCESS OF AMERICA

Here we experience the story of our country’s past. The color, romance, and drama of America’s past as it developed from wilderness trails to roads, riverboats, railroads and civilization. Frontierland is a tribute to the faith, courage, and ingenuity of the pioneers who blazed the trails and made this progress possible. —Walt Disney, The Disneyland Story

Walking over the wooden bridge leading to the log fort, visitors entered

America’s rugged past known as Frontierland. This area of Disneyland contained the banks of the Mississippi River with a paddle-wheeler steamboat, painted deserts of the southwest, Native American villages, a steam powered train, and horse-drawn carriages.

Frontierland showed visitors foundational developments of America under the perceived manifest destiny, and the rural living now viewed as passé by 1955. While American patriotism continued to be a foundation of many American citizens during the Cold War,

Frontierland served as a venue for Americans to reminisce and romanticize the 19th century spread of American Democracy, to live out its fantasies of cowboys and Indians as seen in the movies, the connection to nature that many Americans upheld, and more subtly how race determined what it meant to be an American.

One major icon of the American frontier was Davy Crockett. The Crockett craze shed light on how the American people viewed their past as a glorious gun wielding defender of democratic ideals. The Davy Crockett television show provided watchers with consumer goods and merchandise during a time where disposable income was increasing for middle class Americans. Visitors captured the beauty and majesty of

46 frontier nature. The beautiful and harsh nature and landscape of the great frontier promised explorers a new land to live out their dreams. Through the True-Life Adventure series, live action movies that featured America’s nature, and specific landmarks in

Frontierland—including the Rivers of America and the attraction Rainbow Caverns Mine

Train—visitors experienced the natural beauty of America.1 Finally, Frontierland visitors were confronted with images of race and racial identity both in the past and in the present. Representations of Native Americans and African Americans in Frontierland allowed visitors an outlet for viewing stereotypical racial images, while showcasing the realities of the budding Civil Rights movement taking place all across America.

The image and nostalgia of the great American frontier did not develop within

Disneyland. Rather, it has shaped and influenced Americans in prior centuries. In his

1893 essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” Frederick Jackson

Turner argued that moving into the western frontier shaped American democracy. Known as the “Frontier Thesis,” many historians argue it shaped Americans’ image and ideas in terms of frontier and manifest destiny.2 In one section of Turner’s essay he writes,

“American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier.

This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities . . . furnish the forces dominating American character.”3 Turner argues the constant success of America owes to its willingness and need to expand into new territories and spread its democratic ideas. Turner’s thesis became influential in the understanding of American expansion in the postwar period.

1 Bright, Disneyland, 70-3. 2 Mark Bassin, “Turner, Solov’ev, and the “Frontier Hypothesis”: The Nationalist Signification of Open Spaces” The Journal of Modern History Vol. 65, no. 3 (Sep. 1993), 473-511. 3 Fredrick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” 1894.

47

The “Disneyfied” Landscape of American Democracy

The image of the American frontier became one of American cultures greatest success stories and a series of symbols that added up to a useable mythology justifying the past and the present. Because of American ingenuity and dedication to the democratic spirit, Americans “tamed” an uncivilized continent. While America colonized and settled western lands, it now embarked on a new settlement journey within the Cold War. Not only did the United States try to defend its way of life, but it also attempted to promote democracy and defend other countries from the communist agenda. With developing areas of Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa vulnerable to new political and economic ideas as they cast off colonial rule, leaders of America and the Soviet Union fought desperately to spread their way of thinking to these areas. As determined by the

Truman Doctrine it was America’s responsibility to protect these fledgling countries from communist rule. There appeared no better time to expand the American democratic system to new frontiers than when defending these countries against the Soviet Union and communism.4

America’s ambition of spreading Democracy to developing countries served as a major contribution to Cold War ideology. Frontierland in Disneyland provided a space for Americans to see first hand the success of spreading American democracy. While visitors walked around Frontierland among the cowboys and Indians and experiencing nature they could find solace in the simpler times. Americans gained a renewed sense of hope that the cultural battles their country was fighting were just and true. Communism had the potential to spread to other countries, which would cause chaos for the American

4 Robert J. McMahon, The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press: 2003), 56.

48 way of life. While here in Frontierland seeing first hand the success of the spreading of

American Democracy it grew easier for citizens to back America’s political move in foreign countries. Frontierland provided a platform for major themes found in Cold War

America. Hollywood’s western genre became a booming market and in Frontierland visitors took part in the wild west of the silver screen first hand.

An article in the special Disneyland Edition of The Register stated, “A log stockade forms the entrance to Frontierland and the Indian trading post of the right offers authentic Indian merchandise from many tribes. The Davy Crockett museum-theater, on the left, houses equipment of the Alamo period. A replica of Davy’s old gun, Betsy, is on display, as is the Bowie knife, clothing and other items in use at the time. Next door, the ever famous General Store offers merchandise of all kinds for sale.”5 Walking past the mercantile and general store Cowboys and Native American Indians roamed freely.

Visitors found the Golden Horseshoe Review, also known as the “longest little bar with the tallest glassful of pop.”6 Past the Golden Horseshoe Review, visitors came across the breath taking view of the giant Rivers of America containing the crown jewel of

Frontierland, the Mark Twain Riverboat. A 105-foot-long paddle wheeler, the Mark

Twain reemerged as the first riverboat of its kind built in almost fifty years.7 If visitors got hungry, they could eat at Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen “where you can enjoy some of those famous Aunt Jemima Pancakes in an authentic old south atmosphere.”8 In the following years, spectators experienced a shooting gallery, stagecoach rides, pack mule rides, and a

5 Premiere Souvenir Edition: Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom-Disneyland, Register, July 15, 1955, C11. 6 “Frontierland,” Disneyland Map, 1955. 7 Premiere Souvenir Edition: Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom-Disneyland, Register, July 15, 1955, C9. 8 Ibid., C5.

49 scenic journey through the southwest desert landscapes on Mine Train Through Nature’s

Wonderland.9 All of these attractions, shops, and interactions brought attendees back in time to the great American West where the expansion of the United States nation began to unfold.

After World War II, the future seemed optimistic in the United States. Coming off the heels of the Great Depression, families now had an opportunity to settle down as the search for the next great expansion began. In the following decade, this new expansion took the form of the space race with the launching of Russian satellite Sputnik and eventually putting a man on the moon. Tomorrowland encouraged the desire to continue manifest destiny, which fed into the ideals of what the future could hold for America.

Frontierland served the purpose of positive imagery for manifest destiny, demonstrating and romanticizing a time when the spreading of American ideals promoted a positive outcome. Walt Disney held that almost anything could become a reality through a love of nature and the value of hard work, which had been achieved through the settling of the American West. While the “disneyfication” of history is subject to great scrutiny, examining the American public’s reaction to history portrayed in this way can be extremely valuable. Historians, particularly western historians, can benefit from studying the creations of Disney. At face value these creations can be seen as purely entertainment. In reality, they provide a deeper content and meaning in the message presented. Removing Disney as an entertainer from the equation, but rather as a person who aptly captured America’s fascination with the west in service to commercial imperatives, allows for a deeper understanding of the westering experience and how that westering experience could be harnessed for capitalist gain. By focusing on not only

9 Bright, Disneyland, 70-5.

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Frontierland, but all lands within Disneyland and through Walt Disney’s unapologetically patriotic redefining of American history, historians acquire a deeper understanding of how the American public preserved their past and future. 10

A Reconnection to a Falsified Nature

The landscape in which Frontierland took place provided a vital part in living out the fantasy of westward expansion for Frontierland visitors. The Rivers of America and

Natures Wonderland acted as two key geographical landscapes in Frontierland. The frontier acted as an outlet for Americans to live out their manifest destiny ideals. The frontier nature appeared wild, beautiful, and unforgiving. Thick forests, Native American filled plains, and scorching deserts all became images of the old west. Disneyland architects found themselves tasked to find a way to create all these natural backdrops to

America’s frontier in the desert of Southern California. It was the mission of landscape designers within Disneyland to manufacture a natural landscape.

Bill Evans, Chief Landscape Architect of Disneyland, spoke of how creating the natural backdrop for Frontierland was a monumental task. Evans stated, “[W]e wanted to do everything we could to enhance the illusion. We tried to create designs of growing things to look as if you had sort of stumbled across them and found them there naturally.”11 Painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848), leader of the Hudson River school of painting known for the famous series The Course of Empire, believed that great nations began with a close connection to nature but as societies progress they move away from the natural to the metropolis. Cole also believed that when progress went to far there was

10 Richard Francaviglia, “Walt Disney’s Frontierland as an Allegorical Map of the American West,” Western Historical Quarterly (Vol. 30, No. 2, Summer 1999), 161. 11 Bright, Disneyland, 73.

51 a desire to return to nature.12 Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 work Walden elaborates on this concept.13 The purpose and necessity of manufacturing a natural landscape in

Frontierland allowed visitors to reconnect with a natural existence to which they no longer had direct access. It also allowed visitors to feel as if they conquered new territories and inspired them to support efforts to seek untouched territories in their own time.

The True-Life Adventure Series featured a collection of fourteen full length and short subject documentary films produced by the Walt Disney Company from 1948 to

1960. These educational films took viewers all around America’s natural resources and its inhabitants. One installment titled “The Living Desert,” released in 1953, inspired the attraction Rainbow Caverns Mine Train in the park. Rainbow Caverns Mine Train recreated the expansive desert of the American Southwest. This attraction would undergo several renovations and would become Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland in the

1960s.14

The other major landscape in Frontierland rested along the Rivers of America. In front of the river sat the small western town of Frontierland. Once visitors boarded the

Mark Twain River Boat they were transported into the depths of a rural forest where mystery and adventure could come at any moment. Both of these major landscape landmarks in Frontierland served as the backdrop to transport visitors into the world of

12 Peter Rollins and John E. O’Conner, Hollywood’s West: The American Frontier in Film, Television, and History (University Press of Kentucky, 2005), 2-4. 13 Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1845). 14 Bright, Disneyland, 74.

52 the Western past, showing audiences the uncertainty of expansion and the natural beauty that awaited them once expansion begun.15

Davy Crockett and Hollywood’s West

While Frontierland presented the ideal western town and landscape, Disney did not act alone in feeding the romanticized imagery of the American West to consumers.

The American Film Industry played a crucial role in growing this representation in 1950s.

Contemporary western films peaked in Hollywood during the Cold War, where Stetson hats and shoot-outs reigned supreme. In the 1950s, the number of Western films produced superseded any other genre. This allowed any paying guest at Frontierland the opportunity to immerse themselves in cowboy and Indian lifestyle seen on the big screen.

The conquest of the wilderness and the displacement of the Native Americans acted as the backbone of national identity and expansion achievements. According to

American history scholars at the time, the spreading of America’s democratic policy, its growing economy and widespread Christian religious practices made for a more progressive society.16 The expansion and spreading of American democracy represented a staple to national identity since its inception. The outcome of manifest destiny for white

America was an immense success and one that sought to be continued years after the majority of territory settled. Hollywood, with its ever-popular films and television shows that allowed audiences to re-experience the past, now looked to its successes to move into a post-Cold War future.17

15 Bright, Disneyland, 78-80. 16 Slotkin Gunfighter Nation, 10. 17 Richard White, “It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own:” A History of the American West (University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), 613-9.

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The popularity of the western genre rose to the peak of its prominence from 1948 to 1954. The beginning of the Cold War created the golden age of the western. For almost twenty-five years, blockbuster films allowed viewers to see alternative approaches to the ideological and political problems of the Cold War era. Once the Cold War drew to an end so did the hey-day of western films.18 The ideological problems taking place during the Cold War parallel with many themes found in western movies. Cowboys were venturing into uncharted territories such as American politics during the Cold War.

Racial identity and intolerance proved a key plot line in numerous westerns experienced during present times. Sex and sexuality, a major drive to many western films, grew as a topic of conversation as part of the evolving American society. For American viewers to see current social and political issues mirrored on the big screen in a fantastical way proved a cathartic experience.

The ever-growing popularity of western films made its inclusion into Disneyland a clear choice for Disney’s next development, considering the popularity of one of the

Disney Studio’s television shows, Davy Crockett. “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” by Tom

Blackburn became a recognizable tunes and it belongs to frontiersman Davy Crockett whose actual history is drastically different than the mythologized version released by the

Walt Disney Studios from 1954 to 1955. David Crockett, a famed frontiersman, congressman, and Alamo defender, is known as one of the greatest American folk heroes.

While David Crockett’s true history is an important one to acknowledge it is important to

18 Slotkin Gunfighter Nation, 347.

54 understand how the fantasized version of this man known as Davy Crockett came to play such an important role in American culture.19

Davy Crockett, staring Fess Parker as Crockett, featured a five-part series that aired on ABC’s studio television series “Disneyland” in one-hour increments. Disney later adapted it into Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, a three-part series edited together as a theatrical film; the titles of the edited Davy Crockett series included Davy

Crockett Indian Fighter, Davy Crockett Goes to Congress, and Davy Crockett at the

Alamo. Crockett embodied everything a true Westerner should encompass: a frontiersman, a congressman, a fighter as well as a defender of the Indians, and a territorial expansionist.20

Adults and children alike bought into the myth of Davy Crockett. Children of the baby-boomer era rapidly became an untouched demographic within the consumer market.

Disney himself recalled the popularity of Davy Crockett, stating, “We had no idea what was going to happen to Crockett. Why, by the time the first show finally got on the air, we were already shooting the third one and calmly killing Davy off at the Alamo. It became one of the biggest overnight hits in TV history, and there we were with just three films and a dead hero.”21 With the loss of one of the studios greatest televised hits,

Disney sought other western entertainment for his audiences. Shows and movies such as

Westward Ho (1956), Old Yeller (1957), and Zorro (1957) all showed audiences the exhilaration, struggles, and freedom found in the west. Like all these films and television

19 For more information of the true history of David Crockett and his development as a folk hero see: James Atkins Shackford, David Crockett: The Man and the Legend (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 338. 20 Walt Disney Productions, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, 1954-5. 21 Leonard Maltin, The Disney Films (New York City: Crown, 1973), 142.

55 series, Frontierland allowed for a deeper appreciation, and opportunity for consumption of the great American West.

The Davy Crockett museum allowed for a face-to-face experience with some of the items made so popular by the television series. Disneyland targeted both children and their parents; this also became the case for consumerist items including the popular coonskin cap made popular by Davy Crockett, available for purchase in Frontierland.

Across America, children found themselves caught up in the coonskin popularity. Steven

Spielberg, popular film director, not immune to this craze as a child recalled, “I was in third grade at the time. Suddenly, the next day, everybody in my class but me was Davy

Crockett. And because I didn’t have my coonskin cap and my powder horn, or Old Betsy, my rifle, and the chaps, I was deemed the Mexican leader, Santa Ana. And they chased me home from school until I got my parent to buy me a coonskin cap.”22 Allowing children to indulge in and have agency in choosing the material goods shifted the demographic of what represented Americana; as Spielberg did not possess the coonskin hat, he became an outsider to the American way of life.

While the Davy Crockett craze supported the new expendable income economy of the 1950s the show also dealt with another major issue of the Cold War, depictions of race. Throughout the 1950s, and most of the Cold War era, the space race grew into a widespread issue, particularly when determining what defined the American identity. As in relation to Main Street, the American family image embodied the white, middle class nuclear family; conflicts arose on how non-middle class, nor white Americans, fit into

Disney’s image of the United States.

22 J. G. Boyle, “Be Sure You’re Right, Then Go Ahead: The Early Disney Westerns,” Journal of Popular Film & Television (Vol 24.2, Summer 1996), 69.

56

Images of Race—Native Americans

Particularly, Native Americans found themselves caught up in the depictions of race in the United States. The Davy Crockett series showed Davy as both a fighter and defender of the Indians. In the episode Davy Crockett Indian Fighter, Davy fought against the Creek Indians who wreaked havoc on the local, quiet, frontier settlements.

Crockett handled the Indian problem because the Creek Indians “slaughtered” the local settlers. However, Crockett did not hate Indians. In fact, the episode depicted Crockett as racially tolerant, with a hatred for political corruption, and a promoter of social justice. In contrast, the episode displayed Indians as bloodthirsty savages willing to start war with any “white man” they encountered. Crockett, however, does not want war, but rather to reason with the Indians and attempt to find common ground, even at the cost of Indian death. However, after a scuffle with the Creek Chief, common ground emerges between them, which leads to peace between Crockett and the Indian people. Finally, Crockett vows to uphold the laws of the land and defend Indian rights.23 This image of a brutal savage Indian acted as the norm in most Hollywood depictions. Of the few positive depictions of Indians, the primitive hunter-gather served as that representation.

Frontierland featured Native Americans instead as peaceful participants demonstrating arts and crafts, canoeing, and ceremonial dances to white visitors. The

Indian village of Disneyland, originally located within Adventureland in 1955, later relocated by the Rivers of America in 1956, today known as Critter Country.24 While references to “hostile Indians” existed throughout literature in the park, visitors did not

“worry” about their interactions with the safely civilized Indians. The publication

23 Davy Crockett Indian Fighter, ABC, Dateline Disneyland, 1955. 24 The Story of Disneyland With a Complete Guide To: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Main Street U.S.A. copyright Disneyland Inc. 1955.

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Disneyland News emphasized just how close interactions with tourists and Indians could be. “Parents crowd with youngsters and cameras to take picture of the Chief or one of the other brilliant costumed Indians with their children,” the news enthused “Although some hesitate before the strangely dressed red men, they soon lose any shyness before the

Indian’s winning charm.”25 Like everything in Disneyland, Disney paid great attention to detail to ensure the park’s success; this authenticity also applied to the Indians guests encountered. Disneyland News published an article stating “Taken as though bodily from a camp on the American Plains of more than 100 year ago . . . Disneyland’s Indian population numbers twenty full-blooded braves, representing sixteen tribes, [including]

Apache, Winnebago, Shawnee, Hopu, Navajo, Maricopa, Choctaw, Comanche, Pima,

Crow and Pawnee.”26 While the Indians themselves seemed authentic, much fantasy went into the “native” portrayal of these Indians.

The American Indians hired to work Frontierland originated primarily from

Southwest tribes from desert regions rather than the lake environment. In an odd twist of events, the Indians hired for their roles had to be taught how to paddle canoes by white employees who had learned the skill at summer camps.27 While the American Indians learned to canoe from white employees, the fallacy of true Indian guides held up to the

New York Times stated, “One of the most amusing and revealing sights at Disneyland is a score of people straining over paddles in a big Indian war canoe, while a real life brave solemnly steers in the stern—a privilege for which the hard working paddlers have paid

25 Disneyland News, August 1956, 7. 26 Ibid., 4-5. 27 Findlay, Magic Lands, 94.

58

50 cents apiece. But for ten minutes they are Indian warriors.”28 To have this skill taught to the American Indians hired by Disneyland and to charge white visitors to participate in this activity demonstrates how willing visitors were to believe in this fantasy.

Seeing Indians in their “natural habitat” wonderfully constructed behind the safe berm containing Disneyland allowed visitors to live out a “Cowboys and Indians” fantasy so prevalent during the Cold War. This role played allowed guests to live out the fantasy they were already experiencing in every day life, instead of Indians, the enemy instead was communists. The chance to interact with and partake in Indian activities became important for visitors, the contrast in the Indians way of living and the current standards for living, upheld a time old distinction between the white “civilized” way of living and the nonwhite “savagery.”29 The opportunity to participate in, but still remain detached from activities of nonwhite minorities, served as an important part of the Disneyland experience. Visitors lived out their fantasies safely within the realms of history and fantasy, knowing once the novelty wore off, they returned to their white suburban lifestyles and away from any type of racial interactions.

Aunt Jemima and the Civil Rights Movement

During the 1950s and 1960s, the idea of a “free world” rose as the image the

United States wanted to promote nationally and internationally. United States propaganda wanted the world to see their citizens free to choose their economic, political, and social standing. Unfortunately, this reality did not exist for many citizens. The American image of “free” embodied a white middle class family with a patriarchal structure. Many people did not fit this image and were neglected from this American image of freedom. This lack

28 Gladwin Hill, “The Never-Never Land Khruschev Never Saw,” New York Times, October 4, 1959, 22. 29 Ibid., 133.

59 of political, economic, and social freedom is revealed most obviously in the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s. The Civil Rights movement was a social and political movement to access equal rights and opportunities for African American citizens. While these social instances occurred for many years before to the Cold War, the

Civil Rights movements peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. The race-line battles of the Civil

Rights movements made American racism and international liability, especially in regards to the image America wanted to project to its enemies in the Soviet Union.30

The Cold War provided a platform for progressive thinking regarding race.

Obstacles and opportunities existed on both sides that proved integral to the development of the Civil Rights movement. Americans found themselves involved in an ideological confrontation with the Soviet Union where America and its citizens acted as leaders of the “free world.” However, the right of many United States citizens were not recognized in large parts of the nation. This proved as blight on America’s credibility and could prove detrimental to winning the ideological war.31 Yet the Civil Rights movement would need to cautiously stray away from political extremist tendencies in the fear American government would see it as Communist thinking.32

The experience of World War II, called for a change in the way America treated its African American citizens. The best time to challenge the notion of a free democratic society occurred in this movement when foreign powers threated these ideals. The Soviet

30 Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2000), 1-254. 31 Renee Romano, “Moving Beyond “The Movement that Changed the World”: Bringing the History of the Cold War into Civil Rights Museums,” The Public Historian, Vol. 31, No.2 (Spring 2009), 32-51. 32 Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes, 389-395. McCarthyism and anti-communist sentiments created numerous barriers for the Civil Rights movement. Membership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had dropped because of anti-union rhetoric in the United States. Many racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were able to hid behind a more tolerated form of discrimination by allowing them to promote their racist agenda under an anticommunist umbrella.

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Union used negative race relations in the United States against it in various forms of propaganda to undermine America’s stance on free democratic citizenship. In turn, the

United States engaged in an effort to portray a particular story about race and American democracy. The image American government wanted to portray to its foreign viewers encompassed one of progress, moral superiority, and triumph of good over evil. The Civil

Rights movement grew into one of the largest political movements within the United

States during the Cold War.33

The Civil Rights movement affected Disneyland as well. One of the many outcries from civil rights activists was the depiction of African-American people in the entertainment industry. Activists demanded fair and equal opportunities and rights from their government. This, however, proved problematic to a restaurant in Frontierland.

Along the Rivers of America guests dined at Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen, serving Aunt

Jemima’s famous pancakes in a typical southern atmosphere. In one of the articles published by the Disneyland Newspaper visitors experienced a:

Nationally known, vital, living personality known to millions join[ing] Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Peter Pan and the hundreds of other beloved story book characters who dwell in Disneyland when “Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen” opens in Disneyland July 18th . . . the charm will be the key-note as Aunt Jemima herself prepares and serves her world-famous pancakes. Entertainment will be mood music of Stephen Foster and his era plus Aunt Jemima singing songs in her style that has entertained millions on TV, radio, and in personal appearances before audiences throughout the country.34

At the time of the Civil Rights movement, the likening of Aunt Jemima to some of the most well known cartoon characters in the world allowed for a separation of reality and fantasy. In the eyes of Disneyland, Aunt Jemima was not a symbol of any racial stereotype; instead she was familiar, loveable, and fictitious.

33 Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights 12-3. 34 Premiere Souvenir Edition: Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom-Disneyland, Register, July 15, 1955, C8.

61

On a regular basis, an African-American actress dressed in the “mammy” attire that portrayed Aunt Jemima worked within the restaurant ready to receive guests. These actresses existed among the minority of African Americans hired by Disneyland for a while. Aunt Jemima, while one of the few living African American stereotypes found within the park, faced many derogatory depictions alongside other African Americans in the media. Found deep within the jungles of Adventureland, guests viewed attacking tribes of African decent. In Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, located on Main Street, no talk of the emancipation proclamation existed within the show’s subject matter. The lack of diversity amongst its employees and the derogatory depictions of African Americans were contested by some of the parks visitors. The lack of diversity amongst park employees changed in 1963 when the Congress on Racial Equality pressured Disneyland to hire more African Americans. In 1968, the park hired its first black employee for a

“people contact” position.35

The Civil Rights movement spread across the United States during the Cold War.

Through television and print American audiences witnessed the protests against segregation for African American citizens. Race relations and what defined the American identity moved to the forefront of many Americans minds. The constant social unrest many Americans experienced in their every day life regarding race and politics grew unbearable for many citizens. Disneyland’s image of Aunt Jemima and other black stereotypes remained in Frontierland’s past. For the white middle-class visitors of

Frontierland, it became acceptable to indulge in this nostalgic image of “blackness” because it existed as part of the past and avoided the contest for democracy beyond the

35 Findlay, Magic Lands, 94.

62 park’s borders.36 This idea of the “past” proved itself as one of the greatest powers of

Frontierland.

Frontierland presented visitors with a sense of pride and accomplishment that justified manifest destiny. As America began to impose its political, cultural, and economic ideologies onto developing countries to protect them from the Soviet Union, there existed great importance to maintain a place that Americans valued. Hollywood demonstrated the importance of the lore of cowboys and Indians, and how the racial tropes proved instrumental in the Cold War. Merchandise from the western films allowed middle class families to participate in the fantasy produced by cowboys and Indians.

Even though turmoil still surrounded American citizens regarding race relations,

Frontierland served as an outlet for a simpler time for white citizens when all other races remained restricted to stereotypes. Looking to the past by Frontierland reinforced the idea of a brighter democratic future. This future was not far away; in fact Disney would provide his visitors with a vista that would demonstrate exactly what technology awaited visitors for consumption.

36 Ibid., 94.

63

CHAPTER 3

TOMORROWLAND: A BRIGHT AND DEMOCRATIC FUTURE

Tomorrowland is a vista into a world of wondrous ideas, signifying man's achievements, a step into the future with predictions of constructed things to come. Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure and ideals the atomic age, the challenge of outer space and the hope for a peaceful and unified world. —Walt Disney, The Disneyland Story

Tomorrowland was the last, most politically charged, and most difficult of the lands to be developed in 1955. Conceptualizing and constructing Tomorrowland took six months, making it the least thought out and developed land, which resulted in several massive renovations just a few years after the park opened.1 While a great deal of the budget used to construct Disneyland allocated to other lands and attractions,

Tomorrowland’s attractions acquired the majority of the company’s outside sponsorships and lacked the crowd drawing attractions many other lands offered. While some lands dedicated their aesthetic to past, present, and fantasy, Disney believed it as logical and necessary to create a land dedicated to the future. This presented a unique type of challenge for the park and the creation of the land.

Herb Ryman, an artist and Disney Imaginer, drew the initial sketches for Disney’s vision of Disneyland in 1953. Ryman, in an interview about the initial struggles of developing Tomorrowland, stated, “The only problem, which I didn’t enjoy very much was trying to make a stab at delineating something for this land of the future.” He further said, “I didn’t know anything about outer space, I didn’t know anything about rockets, I didn’t know anything about a trip to the moon. It was just a big blank.” Developing a

1 Bright, Disneyland, 86.

64

“future” evolved into massive undertaking. Ryam continues, “You can see when you see the area, it was a very feeble phony attempt at doing the land of the future . . . As a matter of fact, Walt was embarrassed by the land of the future also, but he knew if you showed

Frontierland, if you showed the Adventureland, and the Fantasyland, you’ve got to show the future. So it came about, eventually that there’s got to be a Tomorrowland and it’s worked out very well.”2 While Tomorrowland proved problematic for developers and

Disney alike, like the rest of the lands explored above Tomorrowland’s attractions and exhibits provided key insights into the Cold War.

Tomorrowland reflected contemporary social, economic, and political events from its growing use and development of the Interstate Highways, space travel, modern life, and even to foreign relations. Main Street and Frontierland demonstrated the key social components of the Cold War including family systems, race, and gender and sexuality.

Tomorrowland proved unique because it demonstrated more political and economic elements taking place during the Cold War.

The Interstate Highway System fueled economic and social growth. Not only did

Americans now have time to travel they had the accessibility provided by the Interstate

Highway system.3 This proved essential for Disneyland’s development and success within the first few years. Tomorrowland even had an attraction dedicated specifically to this change in the American way of life in Autopia where children could learn how to drive on the new highway system in their very own cars. Tomorrowland, as a land of the future, helped to further developments and interest in space travel. Frontierland

2 Herb Ryman, interview by Jay Horan, November, 9, 1982, transcript, Walt Disney Archives, Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California, 35-6. 3 Susan Sessions Rugh, Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations (University Press of Kansas, 2008), 3-4.

65 demonstrated the positives of the expansion of American democracy into foreign regions and “uncivilized” societies and how it helped shape America. Now the new frontier of space was up for exploration and America’s need to be the first to explore was palpable.

Here in Tomorrowland visitors could not only see how space travel would change their lives for the better but they could also partake in its exploration. Finally, like the consumerism seen on Main Street, Tomorrowland offered experiences with its products.

But these products were not necessarily commonplace. All of the products available in

Tomorrowland allowed for a better and easier way of life setting American domestic life apart from that of the Soviet Union. Main Street and Frontierland demonstrated how

America’s past shaped the country into the democratic superpower it was in present day, but Tomorrowland propelled visitors into a future that could only be achieved through

American ingenuity and spirit.

All of these developments proved difficult for Disney, however, he ensured the worth of the land of the future of his visitor’s attention. In a guide passed out to all visitors to Disneyland, Tomorrowland was featured as a place to find “the future in the present as you ride a rocket to the moon or board a space ship at the Space Port. In the two exciting exhibit buildings packed with architectural and industrial display, you can see and experience today what tomorrow’s living will be life by operating the push button controls. Whatever your dreams of the future may be, you will find them all realized in

Tomorrowland.”4 Attractions and exhibits of this area constantly changed to keep up with the ever-approaching future it depicted.

4 The Story of Disneyland With a Complete Guide To: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Main Street U.S.A. copyright Disneyland Inc. 1955.

66

Social needs for visitors to consume new technologies in the post-war economy influenced the approach to develop attractions and exhibits found in Tomorrowland.

While Disney made it clear he wanted to develop the park mainly for his own monetary gain, investors and contributors demonstrated the capitalist system on which America was built. Disney marketed a lifestyle and an experience for his visitors. He chose investors specifically based on what they offered to the park. Disneyland proved itself a success because it allowed people to not only escape from the present, but also indulge in the fantasy of a better way of life found in the not so distant future. Tomorrowland specifically celebrated corporations and made them integral attractions in the land.

Contemporary indulgence in an American way of life made Disneyland successful and, in turn, made Tomorrowland so intriguing for the promising future of Americans.5 While

Main Street and Frontierland brought to light Cold War agendas within the United States,

Tomorrowland highlighted contrasts in technology, economics, and way of life to spectators abroad.

The two pay-to-ride attractions offered to guests on opening day July 17, 1955 in

Tomorrowland, Space Station X-1 and Autopia, still operate today. Other attractions that came about in 1955, but missed opening day include The Rocket To The Moon opening on July 22, 1955; the Phantom Boats opening on July 30, 1955; and the Twenty-

Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Exhibit opening on August 5, 1955.6 While

Tomorrowland did not offer many attractions in 1955, several companies sponsored exhibits offered in this area providing education and fun for families visiting them. The exhibits guests experienced included:

5 Findlay, Magic Lands, 55. 6 Walt Disney Archives, “Sequence of Opening of Pay-Attractions at Disneyland.” Walt Disney Production, Dave Smith, August 29, 1974.

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• Aluminum-“The Brightest Sun in the World of Metals” sponsored by Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation • “Bathroom of Tomorrow” sponsored by the Crane company • The Circarama Theater showing “Cars of Today and Tomorrow” sponsored by the American Motor Corporation • Dairy Foods “Today’s Food Builds Tomorrow’s Man” sponsored by American Dairy Association • Oil “Years Ahead” sponsored by Richfield Oil Corporation (Also the main sponsor of the Autopia attraction) • Paint “The Dutch Boy Color Clock” sponsored by the National Lead Company • Rocket to the Moon sponsored by Trans World Airlines • Clock of the World, which allowed guests to see what time it is in any part of the world.7

However, Disney removed or changed exhibits when the land underwent remodeling, which took place quite regularly. Tomorrowland’s original purpose intended to show guests the productivity, ingenuity, leisurely activities, and scientific discoveries that awaited Americans in the future, specifically 1986. While some attractions held more promise of the future than others, all showed the progress American capitalism could achieve.

Walt Disney and the Space Race

Space travel was beginning to makes its way into the minds of not only American people but of the Soviet Union government as well. The ability to be the first country to develop the technology to put men into space would cement them as the most powerful country in the world. Russia made the first advancements into space, but America would be soon to respond. In the emerging Sputnik era, Walt Disney, like many Americans, looked to the sky as his next endeavor. Disneyland’s space-related attractions drew in the crowds and piqued visitor interests regarding space travel and its possibilities. Two opening day attractions dealt specifically with space travel, Space Station X-1 and the

Trans World Airlines sponsored exhibit Rocket to the Moon. Both of these rides, while

7 The Story of Disneyland With a Complete Guide To: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Main Street U.S.A. copyright Disneyland Inc. 1955.

68 not actually simulating space travel or showing actual images of space, proved prophetic in what would come in a few short years for space exploration.

When Russian scientists launched the first satellite Sputnik successfully into space in 1957, the fantasy of space travel soon became reality for the entire world. The

United States government found itself unsettled, as it did not achieve this feat first.

Immediately government funded space programs became a top priority in the race to space with National Aeronautics and Space Administration founded in 1958. This resulted in a “space race” between both the Soviet Union and the United States. As the years went on technology developed placing man closer to space travel. Americans looked to the government to ensuring the nation’s dominance in space exploration. With both the television series Man In Space and space-inspired attractions in Tomorrowland,

Bob Thomas of the Sarasota Journal stated, “The Russians may have gotten the jump on the United States with their high-flying Sputnik, but they didn’t beat Walt Disney.”8 In the years to come, Tomorrowland used their attractions to heighten the American publics interest in the progress toward space travel.

Tomorrowland, however, did not represent Disney’s first venture into space related entertainment. In March 1955, Disney aired three one-hour installments of Man in

Space—a television series that hypothesized space travel and technology needed for humankind to enter space. This series proved itself as a great influence to the

Tomorrowland attractions still under development. The Los Angeles Herald & Express argued, “Walt Disney may be America’s ‘Secret Weapon’ for the conquest of space!

Apparently, and quite by accident, he has discovered the trigger that may blast loose his country’s financial resources and place the Stars and Stripes of the United States aboard

8 Bob Thomas, “Disney Sputnik Was First,” Sarasota Journal, October 16, 1957.

69 the first inhabited earth satellite.”9 Space Station X-1 gave guests the chance to

“experience” space travel by gazing down upon the earth. Guests entered a room designed to look like a space station and stepped onto a platform with viewing windows; beneath the windows stood a curved rotating canvas depicting the earth from fifty miles above.10 While in 1955 no satellite entered space, the chance for people to understand the illusion of what planet earth would look like from space exhilarated many and changed countless perceptions, furthering Americans fascination with space.

The Trans World Airlines exhibit Rocket To The Moon provided another chance for guests to simulate space travel. Rocket To The Moon was designed with two screens, one of the floors and one on the ceiling with rows of chairs arranged in a circle around the floor screen. The bottom screen showed where guests “traveled” to while the ceiling screen showed where they proceeded. Audiences watched as the rocket “launched” from underneath them on the bottom screen; the top screen showed them soaring up to the sky and into the blackness of space. Soon, the moon appeared and, as you circled it, one would hear interesting facts about it and other planets in space. Finally, viewers started their dissent back to earth and a safe landing.11 Guests left the space-inspired exhibit hungry for a time when space travel would be possible.

In 1961, Tomorrowland introduced yet another space inspired attraction, one that used the most modern technology. The Flying Saucers attraction allowed one guest per flying saucer to glide around on an open “launch pad” by using giant fans. Underneath the ground laid a ventilation system that pushed air through little holes and lifted the

9 Steven Watts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (University of Missouri Press, 2001), 311. 10 Bright, Disneyland, 88. 11 “Rocket to the Moon,” Yesterland.

70 saucers a few inches off the ground. The technology used lifted approximately 2000 pounds around with ease.12 Space programs utilized this technology in the Jupiter missile test control. Disney purchased the technology and applied it to fit the purposes of his new attraction. While the Flying Saucers proved more trouble than their worth, resulting in their closure five years later, the technology used to allow their operation served as another step closer to man’s connection to space.

Autopia and the Interstate Highway System

As American culture changed, so did American interests in amusement and recreation. Partly as a result of the lobbying efforts by the oil, automobile, and gas industries, the automobile became a staple in 1950s way of life and travel. The car, becoming a commodity for almost every household, acted as a means for Americans to bring the family together and experience new things. Car ownership among American families grew from 54 percent in 1948 to 77 percent in 1960, and continued to grow into the 1970s.13 Ergo, Disneyland soon introduced an attraction that reflected America’s new pastime and growing car ownership. Autopia served as one of Disney’s most important additions to Tomorrowland. Disney wanted this attraction up and running for opening day and the cameras. He insisted that Autopia’s cars would act as a perfect hook to the young and automobile crazed demographic in American society. To see Hollywood stars roaring past the cameras in miniature Autopia sports cars, instead of in the Rolls Royce and Cadillac convoys that signaled gala premieres, gave a “Disney” touch on a growing

12 Bright, Disneyland, 150. 13 Rugh, Are We There Yet?, 13.

71 need to consume.14 Disney knew of America’s obsession with cars and sought to capitalize on it for one of his most popular attractions.

While freeways and interstates existed prior to the 1950s, the system as a whole proved unconnected, scattered, and in desperate need of renovations. In 1952, the

Federal-Aid-Highway Act authorized $25 million for highway building across America.

While this initially appears as step in the right direction to advance transportation across the nation, America’s roads required more funding and development. When President

Eisenhower came into office in 1953, he wanted to secure legislation for an updated interstate highway system. Unfortunately, the majority of his first year focused on the

Korean War.

However, in 1954 the Federal Aid Highway Act, allocated $175 million for an interstate system. Deaths and injuries that resulted from highway collisions, as well as delays and traffic jams emerged as prominent issues for further development of the system. Furthermore, Eisenhower stated the development of further highways was to address “the appalling inadequacies to meet the demands of catastrophe or defense, should an atomic war come.”15 After two years of research and debate over the legitimacy and need for a more comprehensive highway system, Eisenhower signed the

Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 on June 29, 1956.

Although highways developed under the Federal Aid Highway Act connected more of America, it also proved beneficial in case of an escalation in conflict with Russia occurred during the Cold War. The roads, designed large enough for an aircraft to land in times of emergency, worked as networks for military relief in the event of an atomic

14 Bright, Disneyland, 88. 15 David A. Pfeiffer, “Ike’s Interstates at 50 Anniversary of the Highway System Recalls Eisenhower’s Role as Catalyst,” Prologue Magazine (Summer 2006, Vol. 38, No.2).

72 attack. Impending war with Russia was at the forefront of the mind of the nation when it came to the development and usage of these roads. While Disney never planned on an atomic attack on Autopia’s highways, he knew his version of the interstate would perfectly showcase developments that could only be achieved in the United States.

The growing interstate highway system proved beneficial to Disney aside from its intended purpose as a mere attraction; as a potential new freeway, it would shuttle customers to the steps of Disneyland in droves. After the initial idea of developing

Disneyland closer to Burbank failed, Disney hired Stanford Research Institute (SRI) to find another site for his theme park. Developers from SRI recommended an orange grove approximately 140 acre in the small town of Anaheim, located in Orange County,

California. The land met all of Disney’s requirements and found itself close in proximity to the projected route of the Santa Ana Freeway from Los Angeles. The freeway brought customers and more residential developments, which placed Disneyland at the epicenter of a growing market.16 Now Disneyland is nestled between at least two major freeways proving a lucrative and prophetic design.

Master planner of Disneyland Marvin David developed the first design of the

Autopia attraction. The original attraction was one mile long with a single street wide enough for two Autopia cars. The track these cars would operate on reflected the growing interstate system America was using in real life. This layout included overpasses, twisting cloverleafs, and billboards featuring various company and park advertisements. Roger

Broggie, a mechanical engineer who played a significant role in the development of many

Disney attractions including Autopia, claimed, “Autopia began with the original purpose of giving young children a place where they could learn to drive, the idea being that they

16 Findlay, Magic Lands. Pp 58.

73 would later drive safely on the rapidly growing freeway system.”17 While this original concept to develop children’s safety and awareness of the ever growing interstate system seemed noble, during test runs developers soon realized children took “demented delight” in chasing and crashing into other cars on the road. The original thirty-six cars designed for opening day rapidly reduced to six because of misshapes during test runs. In an effort to prolong the lifespan of the Autopia cars, Broggie developed spring-like bumpers that surrounded each car in the event of collision. This idealistic approach to children learning highway etiquette at the attraction faded away, but gave way to the practicality of protecting cars as everyone just enjoyed the attraction.18

Richfield Oil Corporation maintained sponsorship of Autopia from opening day until the mid 1960s. With the popularity of cars rising in the United States Richfield Oil

Corporation was one of the top oil and gasoline distributors. With their sponsorship of the

Autopia and Circarama in Disneyland, Richfield Oil Corporation held the most unique and sought-after advertising. Starting in July of 1955 various newspapers across Orange

County published articles informing readers via a full-length advertisement promoting the

“New Richfield Ethyl” and proclaiming readers should “Fill up with the official gasoline of Disneyland.”19 The advertisement further gave a description of the new attractions sponsored by Richfield and why all readers should fill up at Richfield pumps. When guests were waiting in line for the Autopia they were greeted by, “ . . . the memorable icon perched above the stations roof . . . the giant blue and white Richfield Eagle. With wings jutting upward, it seemed to stare downward at the kids cars strongly encouraging

17 Ibid., 88. 18 Ibid., 88-9. 19 “Visit These Spectacular Richfield Attraction in Tomorrowland at Disneyland,” Orange County Archives, July 15, 1955.

74 the consumption of Disneyland’s official gasoline Richfield Boron.”20 Richfield Oil was just one of the companies that took advantage of sponsorship within Disneyland.

Sponsorship’s liken to that of Richfield Oil in Disneyland created a connection for consumers. If Disneyland chose Richfield Oil then they should in their daily lives.

The Circarama, The Kitchen Debates and American Technology in Russia

The Circarama Theater, sponsored by the American Motor Corporation, existed as one of the most technologically impressive exhibits found in Disneyland. A Walt

Disney Company press release boasted, “An Advanced motion-picture development,

Circarama, consisting of a continuous image focused on a 360-degree screen, will be introduced at Disneyland Park on July 17 by American Motors Corporation, producer of

Hudson, Nash, and Rambler automobiles, Kelvinator appliances.”21 This 360-degree theater exposed audiences to eight-foot high screens, eleven in total, which circled the theater that were approximately eight feet off the ground. Audiences stood in the center of the room and watched the twelve-minute film A Tour of the West. While watching the film, audiences saw a car traveling through Beverly Hills onto Wilshire Boulevard, then moving onto the Los Angeles freeway in route to the Grand Canyon and Monument

Valley, making a stop of the ever expanding Las Vegas gambling resort.22 One of the most impressive and memorable sequences in it was the race down Wilshire Avenue. One imaginer that had a hand in the development of the Circarama proclaimed, “The effects were astonishing, suddenly we were hot-rodder’s, racing down Wilshire at a hundred miles per hour, jumping out at green lights, and crashing to a stop only inches from the

20 “The Autopia: Disneyland’s Expressway to the Future,” The “E” Ticket Summer 1997. Pp 13. 21 Disney press release, June 27, 1955. 22 Wade Sampson, “A Tour of the West: Circarama 1955 and American Motors,” Mouse Planet. July 29, 2009.

75 cars in front.”23 Audiences were amazed at the technology that allowed them to see motion picture all around them.

Many foreign spectators found themselves impressed with the technology of the

Circarama. In 1959, at the American National Exhibit in Sokolniki Park, Russian audiences found themselves exposed to the wonders of the Circarama. The American

National Exhibit intended to narrow the gap between Soviet Union and American relations. Ergo, Soviet citizens witnessed American technology and consumerism, some exhibits included a beauty saloon for women, a tour of an American kitchen including new technology to aid every housewife, an automobile display, the most popular photo shows of all time The Family of Man photographic exhibition, and Walt Disney

Company’s Circarama technology. With a film specifically designed for this exhibit, audiences viewed a film in full 360 degree of the Statue of Liberty, American cities, highways, churches, grocery stores, and national parks. One American diplomat, with his

Soviet acquaintance, observed and detailed “the overall impact of the Circarama show was to sharpen his longing to visit the United States and see its wonders for himself.”24

While the Circarama was exciting audiences in the United States, it was also working to bridge the gap between the United States and the Soviet Union.

One of the most significant events in Cold War history was the infamous

“Kitchen Debate” that took place between Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev and

Vice President of the United States Richard Nixon at the American National Exhibit in

Sokolniki Park. Nixon served as the official usher to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev for news outlets and publicity of the exhibit. While Nixon led Khrushchev through the

23 Bright, Disneyland, 89-91. 24 Walter Hixson, Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture and the Cold War, 1945-1961 (New York City: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), 204.

76 various exhibits, tension arose and tempers began to flare. When introduced to the

American technology found in the exhibit, Khrushchev, annoyed but impressed with it, stated, “[I]n another seven years we will be on the same level as America.”25 Emotions escalated and finally erupted in the model kitchen, which depicted what a “typical” middle class kitchen in the United States looked like, complete with standing refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, and various other appliances. Khrushchev, fed up with the boasting of American technology, proclaimed, “You Americans think the Russian people will be astonished to see those things. The fact is, that all our new houses have this kind of equipment.” Cameras rolled and reporters watched as an argument between the Soviet leader and the president erupted with Nixon’s comment on Russia threatening the West with its rockets over Berlin. The “debate” lasted a few minutes, resulting in both leaders standing down and Khrushchev declaring that the Soviet Union wanted peace with all nations—America included. While the debate in the kitchen fleshed out real concerns over a Cold War heating up, one can argue the technology presented at the American

National Exhibit served as a trigger to this moment.26

Ironically, this great debate did not happen over artillery or atomic technology, but mere household appliances. The new technologies for homeowners proved impressive and resulted in an easier way of life for many suburban homeowners across the United States. It is important to address that Khrushchev argued against the foundation of the Russian family system. Americans made it clear that, in the 1950s, a woman’s place should be in the home with these new amenities and men should act as the breadwinner of the house. At one point in the debate, Nixon stated:

25 Ibid., 179. 26 Ibid., 179.

77

To us, diversity, the right to choose, is the most important thing. We don’t have one decision made at the top by the government official . . . we have many different manufacturers and many different kinds of washing machines so that the housewives have a choice . . . Would it not be better to compete in the relative merits of washing machines than in the strength of rockets?27

This family structure, with its new technologies, provided the foundation and essence of American freedom—not to engage in military action—but to indulge in consumer items with a distinct patriarchal family structure.

New Technologies and Company Sponsorships

The technology presented at the American National Exhibit commonly found in the standard American home also exists in an attraction that opened in Disneyland in

1957. The Monsanto House of the Future showed guests a model home furnished with appliances that reflected a commonplace in the far off future of 1986. Chemical manufacture Monsanto sponsored both the House of the Future as well as the Hall of

Chemistry exhibit. The House of the Future boasted plastic and the primary material for modern home living in the future as it already found its way into the homes of Americans in the 1950s. The four-wing model home included a living room, dining room, master bedroom, boy and girl bedrooms, and the “Atoms for Living Kitchen.” Visitors to this new model home witnessed how life would continue in a future surrounded by plastic furniture, appliances, and amenities. One of the most impressive amenities found in the kitchen was the introduction of the microwave, an appliance that could be found in some homes in the 1950s, but was not yet commonplace.28 While the technology in the 1980s vastly surpassed the theoretical home living in the House of the Future, it demonstrated

27 Section of the Kitchen Debates from Richard Nixon, Found in: Elaine Tyler May Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York City: Basic Books, 1988), 17. 28 “The Monsanto House of the Future” Monsanto Chemical Company, Plastics Division. Produced by Bay State Film Productions, Inc., 1957.

78 the technology developed in the 1950s for use in the future set America apart on an international scale.

Although major corporations sponsored many exhibits in Tomorrowland from opening day to the mid 1960s, many of them attempted to show the American public the possibilities from the technology produced in their goods. It promoted the consumer culture of post-war America. From the Depression to World War II, American families now possessed a means to participate in the consumer culture it exhibited and witnessed, furthering their own exposure to the American capitalist system. The Kaiser Aluminum

“The Brightest Star In The World Of Metals” exhibit boasted Aluminum metal as the future for home living and future technology. In the aluminum exhibit guests could find,

“[A] talking knight from King Arthur’s court, a present day ‘knight’ in a firefighter’s suit, and the armor-clad spaceman of the future will each tell fascinating stories about aluminum’s benefits from a platform inside a giant aluminum sphere.”29 In the Monsanto

“Hall of Chemistry” exhibit, guests learned about the, “romance of chemistry, how chemically-made products benefit your life, how they can make a new and startling world tomorrow. Your food, clothing, housing, health, and transportation all depend on chemistry . . . and the future holds some exciting, wonderful things in store . . . ”30 With technology constantly changing for the advancement of the American way of life, what better way to promote it than in a place that grew into a staple for all American families.

In 1959, a new technological achievement came to Tomorrowland with the addition of the Monorail System. The Monorail found in Disneyland became the first daily operating monorail system in the West. Modeled after a German monorail system

29 “Giant Telescope Kaiser Exhibit In Disneyland,” Anaheim Bulletin, July 5, 1955. 30 Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1955.

79 found in Cologne, Germany, the monorail and its development and instillation in the park demonstrated—another reason why the technology used in Disneyland made it an unparalleled addition to America’s race against Russia.31

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, Tomorrowland went through drastic changes.

Two major additions to the original land included the Monorail and the 20,000 Leagues

Under the Sea Submarine Voyage in 1959. Company sponsored exhibits came and went with the changing times and demands of the American public. One Disney company newsletter stated:

After going nameless for about six months, what had once been the TWA moon liner received a paint job incorporating the Douglas Aircraft Logo. Space Station X-1 renamed Satellite View of America in the late ’50s, disappeared altogether and became The Art of Animation. The Monorail was extended to connect with the Disneyland Hotel. And Bell Telephone took over American Motors sponsorship of Circarama, introducing a new eleven screen travelogue of the United States called “America the Beautiful.32

A demand for more “futuristic” attractions pushed developers to have ever changing ideas of what the future would become.

In 1967, the entirety of Tomorrowland closed for a major refurbishment that promised new attractions and a fresh outlook on what the future would bring. The early years of Tomorrowland faced many setbacks and difficulties. However, it introduced the

American public to innovative technologies in science, mechanical engineering, space exploration, and domestic growth that encouraged the American lifestyle of the future.

While the United States dealt with many political, economic, and lifestyle changes during the early Cold War era, the attractions found in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland consistently resonated with the current events taking place during the Cold War.

31 Bright, Disneyland, 144. 32 Ryan A. Harman “The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be,” Disney News.

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CONCLUSION

THE CONTINUED SEARCH FOR A UTOPIAN SOCIETY

Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world. —Walt Disney, The Disneyland Story

By 1965, the Cold War brought some of its most intense stand offs the world ever saw. The United States invaded Cuba, the Berlin Wall arose in Europe, and the Cuban

Missile Crisis almost caused the United States and the Soviet Union to enter a full-scale nuclear war.1 No certainty appeared in regards to the safety and security of international peace. By 1965, Disneyland celebrated its tenth anniversary—making it the most popular theme park in the world. Visitors from all over the world migrated to this vista of fantasy experiencing the manufactured utopian image of American democratic society. Ten years after opening day Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland, Tomorrowland, and the other lands under went changes and renovations to their offerings. With the Cold War at the forefront of international politics, one addition to theme park proved relevant to current events.

Along with Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, another attraction originated in the

1964 World’s Fair. It’s a Small World, sponsored by Pepsi and The United Nations

Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), showed audio-animatronic children from all over the world. Originally, developers intended the children to sing their national anthems in unison. However, this proved unrealistic as no uniform melody could harmonize together,

Disney called upon his musical team of Richard and Robert Sherman to devise a song to

1 McMahon, The Cold War, 90-7.

81 fit this new attraction. The song, “It’s a Small World” aimed to unify all national anthems with their respective native languages into a unifying theme.

Visitors to this attraction, both at the World’s Fair and after its installation in

Disneyland in May 1966, experienced it via a boat on water. This boat symbolized “the happiest cruise that ever sailed ‘round the world”2 The countries represented featured scenery, native dress, and dance of the children. While each section reflected the country it represented, the attraction fashioned a cohesive and uniform geometric print to emphasize the similarities of people all around the world.

During a time when the world started to rebuild itself from World War II, as well as in the midst of the Cold War, this attraction attempted to demonstrate a unifying feeling between all countries. By design, Disney demonstrated that America stood out as the beacon of hope for addressing global community.3 The song played throughout the attraction sung by the children in their native languages sent a definitive message:

It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears. It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears. There’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware: It’s a small world after all! ___

There is just one moon and one golden sun, And a smile means friendship to everyone. Though the mountains divide and the oceans are wide, It’s a small world after all!4

When the attraction opened in Disneyland in 1966, Disneyland held a ceremony to welcome it. More than five hundred children and native folk dancers from countries all across the world participated in the parade and opening ceremony. Children dressed in

2 Chris Strodder, The Disneyland Encyclopedia: The Unofficial, Unauthorized, and Unprecedented History of Every Land, Attraction, Restaurant, Shop, and Event in the Original Magic Kingdom (Santa Monica: Santa Monica Press, 2008), 427. 3 Hobbs, Walt’s Utopia, 155. 4 Richard and Robert Sherman, “It’s a Small World (After All),” The Sherman Brothers Songbook (Disney, 2009), CD.

82 the traditional clothes of their countries lined up in front of the new attraction to sing the words of the Sherman brothers’ song, “It’s a Small World (After All).” Water from all the major oceans and seas poured into the water flume of the attraction to demonstrate the

5 unity of countries from all across the world.

It’s a Small World proved an idealistic approach to international unity. From its conception to its final instillation in Disneyland, the world remained divided because of the Cold War. In 1962, the world reached the apex of fear of nuclear war due to the

Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States and the Soviet Union held command of nuclear weapons with the United holding approximately 3,500 and the Soviet Union with approximately 300 to 500. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita

Khrushchev bore no intention of starting a nuclear war. Yet, the possibility loomed on the horizon of both the United States and the Soviet Union.6 Disney believed his attraction would bridge the cultural gap between conflicting countries but the fantastical attraction showed a promise for a brighter future. Using children as a vessel of innocence, It’s a

Small World once again projected a utopian society unique to the Disneyland experience, but still on American terms.

Disney was not alone in the transition to liberal humanism. In 1955 Edward

Steichen curated a photographic exhibit called “The Family of Man” at the Museum of

Modern Art. “The Family of Man” exhibit featured over five hundred images of men, women, and children from all over the world. Themes of unity, brotherhood, and the

5 Disneyland Around the Seasons (Walt Disney Productions, 1966). 6 Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, “The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Nuclear Order of Battle, October and November 1962,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (vol. 68 no. 6, 2012), 85-91.

83 bond of family were portrayed in the exhibit. The exhibits message was one of similarities of people all around the world and the hope of peace amongst human kind.7

Both Disney and Steichen were attempting to shift away from a Cold War binary and move towards a more inclusive look on humanity. Albeit Steichen attempted this concept far earlier than Disney both attempted to highlight the agency and value of human beings both as individuals and collectively. Disney’s It’s a Small World stressed the importance of unity between all countries and Steichen attempted to show how families all around the world are the same. Both had strong messages, however, within them a naïve outlook on the state of humanities attempt at peace and unity. It’s a Small

World and “The Family of Man” exhibit displayed images of people from all around the world; while the mediums were different the theme remained similar. However, both It’s a Small World and “The Family of Man” displayed foreign cultures in an American dialogue. Neither one attempted to look at the root causes of turmoil between countries in history or in the present. Both exhibits were glossy attempts at unity that was immensely unachievable.

Both “The Family of Man” and It’s a Small World were attempts to create a dialogue on a more inclusive existence. Coming from the early years were images of intense American patriotism were all throughout the park to a subtler American agenda was a drastic change for Disneyland. Disney realized that Disneyland could harbor a positive image in regards to change. While peace amongst all cultures was far from achievable the liberal humanistic approach took affect in Disneyland.

7 For a critical review of “The Family of Man” exhibit see: Eric Sandeen, Picturing An Exhibition: The Family of Man and 1950s America (University of New Mexico Press, 1995) 1-212.

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The notion of a utopian society all across the world did not exclusively exist within It’s a Small World. Due to the immense popularity of Disneyland, Disney and his developers devised a community where the utopian dream of unity could become a reality. The Walt Disney Company purchased a tract of land in Florida for a second theme park. The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) would act as a subdivision of this new park. Disney intended EPCOT to serve as a utopian city that would be “a showcase to the world of the American free enterprise system.”8 While

Disney believed a “free enterprise system” to be fundamental towards the success of a utopian society it is worth noting how truly unfair the free enterprise system tended to be.

The Walt Disney company would control of all aspects of EPCOT including public transportation, public sanitation, urban reform, and countless other aspects of daily life.

While idealistic in maintaining a utopian society the caveat to this community would intend to completely do away with democracy. Vague ideals of authoritarianism would act as a backbone of this community. Disney believed EPCOT would lead the world as a shining example of a utopian community that upheld American democracy, unfortunately for Disney he never saw his dream community realized.9

The search for a simulated environment that projected an image of unity, nostalgia, peace, and progress never changed from the Disney business model. Well after the Cold War, it remains in many aspects of the park’s lands and attractions all across the world. During a time when peace and progress never seemed attainable, Disney expected

Disneyland to be the beacon of hope for citizens all around the world. Disney provided

8 Walt Disney, “Walt’s EPCOT film,” Found in Steven Watts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (University of Missouri Press, 2001), 444. 9 Ibid., 444-5.

85 his visitors with solutions to problems they did not know they had when they walked through the gate of Disneyland. Because of this Disneyland’s immense success was dependent on its manufactured and simulated solutions to many of the world’s problems.

Main Street, U.S.A. invoked nostalgia and romanticized a society that Disney desperately attempted to duplicate during the Cold War. The patriarchal family structure gave American citizens a concrete example of how the American family should look.

With women again back in the home tending to children and men returning from war to a nine-to-five job, the hope for a more stable economy and community lay with these new families. Main Street, U.S.A. enabled visitors to experience a simulated community where one could indulge in new types of consumerism provided by the idea of expendable incomes, providing comfort and demonstrating its relevance.

Frontierland mirrored a time when Manifest Destiny proved successful. American politics stretched into new territories in the hopes of thwarting the spread of communism.

In turn, the hope for a new frontier lay ahead in space, another way of asserting American dominance in the world. Frontierland too served as a cathartic method of viewing racial tropes. Whether in the image of Native Americans or African Americans, white

American citizens could keep their prejudices safely in the past while still indulging in them in the present. The immense success of Frontierland lay with the popularity of western films in Hollywood. The western film genre peaked during the Cold War and was a direct result of its political and social issues. Frontierland allowed visitors to experience the fantasy of cowboys and Indians while being grounded in present day issues.

86

Finally, Tomorrowland provided visitors with a glance into a bright American

Democratic future. What lay ahead in 1986 demonstrated the achievements that could only happen in a democratic system. With the looming threat of atomic attacks on citizens throughout the world, Tomorrowland showed positive aspects of the atom and nuclear energy. America’s future exploration of space would solidify its place as the strongest country in the world. Even the expansion of new territories happening in the present day like the development of the Interstate Highway System was already advancing the American economy and society. Disneyland’s placement between what would emerge into two of the biggest freeways in the world allowed for an influx of visitors ready to consume what Disneyland offered.

More than sixty years later, Disneyland still measures as the highest and quintessential standard for theme park amusement in the world. Disneyland as an establishment built primarily for monetary gains owes its success to the political turmoil of the Cold War. Political, social, and economic ideals inspired the park’s main attractions and exhibits, and grounded American visitors in what it truly meant to embody the American identity. The lands, attractions, and exhibits found in Disneyland sought to construct a useful and national identity fueled by utopian nostalgia and the promise of a bright democratic future. At a moment of grave threat, Disneyland reassured visitors that a place where American political, social, and economic democracy reigned supreme would always exist, even if it were built on pure fantasy.

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