Disneyland, 1955: Just Take the Santa Ana Freeway to the American Dream Author(S): Karal Ann Marling Reviewed Work(S): Source: American Art, Vol
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Disneyland, 1955: Just Take the Santa Ana Freeway to the American Dream Author(s): Karal Ann Marling Reviewed work(s): Source: American Art, Vol. 5, No. 1/2 (Winter - Spring, 1991), pp. 168-207 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3109036 . Accessed: 06/12/2011 16:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press and Smithsonian American Art Museum are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Art. http://www.jstor.org Disneyland,1955 Just Takethe SantaAna Freewayto theAmerican Dream KaralAnn Marling The opening-or openings-of the new of the outsideworld. Some of the extra amusementpark in SouthernCalifornia "invitees"flashed counterfeit passes. did not go well. On 13 July, a Wednes- Othershad simplyclimbed the fence, day, the day of a privatethirtieth anniver- slippinginto the parkin behind-the-scene saryparty for Walt and Lil, Mrs. Disney spotswhere dense vegetation formed the herselfwas discoveredsweeping the deck backgroundfor a boat ride througha of the steamboatMark Twainas the first make-believeAmazon jungle. guestsarrived for a twilightshakedown Afterwards,they calledit "Black cruise.On Thursdayand Friday,during Sunday."Anything that could go wrong galapreopening tributes to Disney film did. The food ran out. Thereweren't music at the Hollywood Bowl, workmen enough drinkingfountains. A gas leak backin Anaheim,some twenty-three temporarilyshut down Fantasyland,site miles away,struggled to finish pavingthe of many of the twenty-twonew Disney- streetsthat would soon lead to Fantasy- designedrides the crowdhad come to land,Adventureland, Frontierland, and inspect.It was terriblyhot, too. Main Tomorrowland.Last-minute strikes had StreetUSA melted, and visitors'high compelledthe buildersto haul in asphalt heels stuck fast in the freshasphalt. The all the way from San Diego. nervousproprietor (who had spent the The invitation-onlypress preview and night in the park)accidentally locked dedication,broadcast over a coast-to-coast himselfin his apartmentabove the turn- TV hookup on 17 July, was a disaster of-the-centuryfirehouse near the front from startto finish.At dawn,with gate.As the moment approachedfor the carpentersand plumbersstill working boss to welcomea vast, stay-at-home againstthe clock, trafficon the freeway audienceto his Californiakingdom was backedup for sevenmiles, and throughthe magicof television,Walt gridlockprevailed on the secondaryroads Disney (1901-1966) was nowhereto surroundingthe formerorange grove be found. And somehow,ABC's twenty- along HarborBoulevard. Studio publicists four live camerasmanaged to coverall had issuedtwenty thousand tickets to the glitches:the ladieswalking out of reporters,local dignitaries,Disney theirshoes; "Davy Crockett," star of employees,corporate investors, and Disney'snew weeklyseries, drenched Hollywoodstars-including Eddie Fisher, by a hyperactivesprinkler system as Debbie Reynolds,Lana Turner, Danny he thrashedabout on horsebackin Thomas,and FrankSinatra. By mid- Frontierland'swestern scenery; the regal The Carolwood-Pacificline, the morning,however, more than thirty IreneDunne showeringannouncer Art railroadtrain in the gardenof Linkletterwith and sodawater while new Hills thousandpeople were alreadypacked glass Disney's Holmby the to christenthe Mark Twain house, was the realinspiration inside earthenberm that was supposed attempting for Disneyland. to seal off Disney'sdomain from the cares on televisedcue. 4'^ i I ,j i'i TW IX ! ^ ". x ts ? k* f h I1 1 ;l* A souvenirmap of Disneylandin the 1950s showsthe various . ,: ,r "lands,"the peripheralrailroad, L and the controlledaccess to the parkthrough the stage-setre- creationof Main StreetUSA. i !~~~~~~~~'4~ Bob Cummings and Ronald Reagan And too reverential, too much like "the shared the network hosting duties-and a dedication of a national shrine." whole range of maddening "technical Cummings, for instance, repeatedly difficulties"-with Linkletter. Sometimes assured viewers that cultural history was the screen simply went blank. Audio and being made in Orange County before video transmissions winked on and off at their very eyes: "I think that everyone here will. When the voice-over described will one day be as proud to have been at Cinderella's coach at the head of a passing this opening as the people who were there parade, the picture showed Roy Rogers at the dedication of the Eiffel Tower." and Dale Evans. Linkletter strolled And the commemorative plaque, which blithely through the portcullis of Sleeping Disney read aloud during his segment of Beauty's Castle and emerged from the the broadcast, was both portentous and other side, seconds later, without his vaguely imperialistic in tone: microphone. Walt Disney accidentally appeared on camera ahead of schedule, To all who come to this happyplace... chatting with the crew and wondering Welcome.Disneyland is your land. Here, aloud how the show was going. "'Dateline age relivesfond memoriesof thepast, and Disneyland,"' concluded the New York hereyouth may savor the challengeand Times,had "captured some fun and promise of thefuture. Disneyland is dedi- fantasy, the elements ... that are sup- cated to the ideals, the dreams,and hard posed to make the place tick." But despite facts that have createdAmerica... with the such flashes of honest spontaneity, the hope that it will be a sourceofjoy and tightly scripted ninety-minute program- inspiration to all the world.' like the whole Disneyland enterprise- had serious flaws. It was entirely too Park officials, of course, had no time to "Hollywood," according to the Times: brood over iffy reviews: the real opening, slick, commercial, star-studded, glitzy. for the general public, was less than twelve 170 Winter/Spring1991 Hosts of the televisedopening, hoursoff, and, if Sunday'smobs were any Hollywood,and her seven-year-old 17 July 1955: RonaldReagan, portentof things to come, Mondaywas cousin, MichaelSchwartner, of Bakers- Bob and Art Cummings, going to be wild. Dave McPherson,a field.Although the childrengot all the Linkletter.The presenceof these seniorat BeachState media the clear of small-screenstars of the Long College, attention, majority period stationedhimself at the ticketwindow at those who followed insidewere signaledthe importanceof Disney 2:00 televisionto the genesis,iconogra- A.M., just about the time the state grown-ups,determined to experiencefor phy, and formaldesign of police beganto reportabnormal traffic themselveswhat only the elite had been Disneyland. volumesbuilding along the peripheryof privilegedto enjoy the day before.They Anaheim. By 8:00 A.M., two hours before swarmedover the park,eating everything the posted startof business,eight thou- in sight, droppinggarbage everywhere, sand merrymakershad alreadyqueued up tossingtheir kids from hand to hand to behindMcPherson, and the hundred-acre get them a seat on the KingArthur parking lot was almost full. At 10:00 A.M., Carousel,nearly swamping the Mark Walt Disney appearedand personally Twainin their eagernessto clamber greetedthe firsttwo kids in line: little aboard.But they came, they had a ChristineVess, age five, from North wonderfultime, and, in defianceof 171 AmericanArt strong negative criticism from travel my subsidy.I mortgagedeverything I own writers, influential columnists, glossy andput it in jeopardyfor this Park. news magazines, and itinerant intellectu- Commercial?... They'recrazy! We have als, they kept on coming in enormous lots offree things [here]. No otherplace has numbers, more than a million of them in as high a quality. I stand here in the Park the first seven weeks alone, exceeding all and talk to people. It's a mostgratifying estimates and giving backers reason to thing. All I've gotfrom thepublic is believe their risky, $17 million investment thank-yous.3 might someday pay off. Indeed, even before the previews Middlebrows continued to carp about began, speculation about costs and profits the potential profitability of Disneyland, all but overshadowed discussion of the as if capitalism were an unfamiliar park's entertainment value. And while the concept or Disney's park, by virtue of its press did not fail to wax eloquent about use of charactersthat all Americans knew The steamboatMark Twain the chronic traffic tie-ups around and loved from his cartoon features, plies the Riversof Americaat Disneyland, most of the first-year com- ought to have been in the public do- Disneyland,carrying visitors plaints came down to dollars and cents. main-free, or almost free, like a national backinto a 1950s special, "Walt's dream is a nightmare," wrote one park or national shrine. With few excep- versionof Americanhistory. particularlydisillusioned member of the tions, highbrow critics of the 1950s fourth estate. despised Disneyland for similar reasons. Writing for the Nation, the novelist Julian To me [the park]felt like a giant cash Halevy took exception to an enterprise register,clicking and clanging, as creatures that charged