Authors: Leslie Le Mon
The summer of 2012 was an outstanding example of how, as important as
Disneyland
is to the local economy,
Disneyland
is
not
the same entity as
Anaheim
or the
OC
.
Yes, visitors to
Anaheim
see
Disney
images
everywhere
; even the buses that roll down
Anaheim
’s streets are cloaked in giant advertising wraps sporting images of
Pixar
characters and
Mickey
and the
Disney princesses
. But
Disneyland Resort
, although a powerhouse driver of the tourist economy in
Anaheim
and the northern
OC
, remains a world apart from its surroundings.
In the summer of 2012, w
hile dumpster fires were burning in the streets outside the park, and residents were tweeting messages like “It’s a war zone!” to friends and family, inside the resort order prevailed and the fireworks and water extravaganzas were performed on schedule.
While
Anaheim
was embroiled in chaos,
Disneyland
was unveiling its newest lands and attractions and having a peaceful, banner season.
Disneyland Resort
’s crowd control, security, and social engineering methods are legendary.
Disneyland
hosts tens of thousands of incredibly diverse strangers, every day, with a scarcity of violent incidents.
And, make no mistake,
Disneyland
is
incredibly
diverse. Guests and Cast Members represent every gender, age, race, ethnicity, orientation, religion, class, and ability that one can imagine.
Disney
’s official corporate mission is to create happiness for
everyone
everywhere, and
Disneyland
seeks to include
everyone
in its mission to create joy.
It’s a philosophical viewpoint—and it’s just plain good business. While i
t may sound corny, for a variety of reasons
Disneyland
embraces and celebrates everyone. Sometimes there are friction points re: the specific methods used, however, and those instances play out in the media (and sometimes in court).
On a stroll through the park, one
will hear snippets of Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Armenian, Farsi, Hindi, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and the Queen’s English, to name a handful of the languages spoken, not to mention sign language and dialectic variations from across the United States.
I’ll never forget
hearing the thick New York
patois
of a woman ordering French fries for her kids near
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
. When you’re an easterner with ancestral roots in New York City, hearing a beautifully chewy slice of “Noo Yorkeze” on the west coast is a rare treat. (Unfortunately, in this case the woman was browbeating her family about their food orders; she seemed to be in the throes of what our family calls a
Disneyland meltdown
.)
You’ll hear flat Midwestern twangs
at the resort, and the cadences of “Minnesota nice” (“you betcha!”), as well as the sweet-molasses crawl of Southern drawls, the dropped “r”s and “wickeds” of eastern New England, and the Valley-speak and surfer lingo of Southern California.
There are Indian Guests in
turbans and
saris
, Muslim Guests covered head to toe by
abayas
and
hijabs
, as well as westerners in shorts and T-shirts. There are ambulatory Guests and Guests in wheelchairs, elderly Guests and infants, whites, blacks, Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, and Native Americans all rubbing elbows and often jammed together in long queues for food or fun. It’s a big, contemporary melting pot, where all are welcome, not an exclusive bastion stalled in 1955.
* * *
The more I visited
Disneyland
, the more I became intrigued by its history and its operational models and methodologies. How did the resort hit all the right buttons? It was entertaining, fun, and creative; it was relaxing and refreshing; it was clean, courteous, and efficient, democratic in its spirit, and a benevolent dictatorship in its flawless execution.
Who wer
e the teams of geniuses behind
Disneyland
? How (and why) did they summon the inspired audacity to build their own railroad lines and freeways and castle, their own euphoric society, to carve their own formidable mountain range?
I began a voracious reading program, devouring
books about the resort, the other
Disney
parks, the
Disney Company
, and (of course) that astonishing storyteller and entertainment mogul,
Walt Disney
himself—because
Disneyland
never would have existed without
Walt
.
Disney
’s history, its management and customer service principles, and its artistry and engineering all made for fascinating reading. At the back of this book, you’ll find a section called “Resources & Recommendations” that lists
Disney
-related books I’ve read, CDs I’ve listened to, and DVDs and websites that I recommend.
Whether you’
re planning your first visit to
Disneyland
, or your fiftieth visit, whether you’re a business person, customer service rep, manager, artist, scientist, carpenter, accountant, student, writer, or homemaker – whatever your profession or your interest in
Disney
, you’re sure to find something of interest on that list.
* * *
In retrospect, my middle-aged fascination with
Disneyland
makes sense. In my youth, I’d always been a fan of playgrounds and fun parks. It was an interest I’d lost as an adult, but its roots were deep.
M
y siblings and I were lucky to have parents and an aunt who brought us not only to museums, art galleries, observatories, plays, and other educational venues, but also to fun parks, from Taunus Wunderland in Germany, to the alpine slides and amusement parks of New England and Pennsylvania, not only to the big sites but also to the modest county fairs and small travelling carnivals.
We had our challenges like any family, but in some ways we were Rockwellian. Dad was always gainfully employed both in and out of the Army. Mom was home during most of our childhood, baking Toll House cookies
, “cakey-pudding” (molten chocolate cake) and blonde brownies.
Every weekend we piled into the family car for trips t
o one of the local movies houses or Sunday drives after church. We drove along the rivers and through the woods and tobacco and corn fields of rural Massachusetts. Air conditioning was a rolled-down window.
Every summer we took trips around New England. We stayed at
the Howard Johnson in Hyannisport, on the western end of Cape Cod, and we stayed on the Cape’s tip, at Wellfleet, in a little beach cottage called Bonnie Dune.
We spent time in the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
We were lucky to glimpse the “Old Man of The Mountain” granite face back in the 1970’s, long before it disintegrated and slid down the mountain in an avalanche. Now you can only see the noble profile of the “Old Man” on the reverse of the New Hampshire quarter.
We explored the Flume Gorge and the Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves, where we almost lost our little sister to what seemed like a bottomless pit in the vicinity of the pitch-black Lemon Squeeze cavern.
Once we even drove north, all the way up into Quѐbec and Montreal in eastern Canada. In Quebec we strolled the narrow little old-world alley where
plein air
artists paint at their easels, and visited the Citadel, that grand old fortress on Cap Diamant. I remember being wowed by what in retrospect was a pretty primitive diorama; when you pushed different buttons, areas of the city lit up with gun and cannon fire and a narrator explained a historic battle.
Every
August we’d celebrate my birthday with a visit to Riverside Park (now a Six Flags park) in Agawam, MA, where our favorites included the Fun House–a genuine, old-fashioned, walk-through fun house with sliding and undulating floors, startling air jets and a rolling barrel–Laff-in-the-Dark, the Wildcat roller coaster, the Spider, and the Rotor.
Ed Carroll Sr. and his son Ed Carroll Jr. were the visionaries who owned and helmed
Riverside Park, growing it from the 1940’s through the 1990’s while keeping it family friendly and fun. Carroll Sr. found
Disneyland
inspirational, and introduced rides such as a
Monorail
and
Jungle Cruise
to Riverside Park, modeling them on the original
Disneyland
attractions.
Riverside Park was sold to Premier Parks in 1998, the same year Premier Parks acquired Six Flags. Many of Riverside’s charming rides are gone now, replaced largely by thrill coasters as tall as the Himalayas and as sprawling as L.A., along with other thrill rides and a water park
. The good news? The Scrambler, Tea Cups and 1909 Carousel survived.
When I was eight, our family took a once-in-a-lifetime trip to
Walt Disney World
in
Orlando
, Florida, and around that time we also visited Hershey Park and Amish country in Pennsylvania. Hershey Park was delightful, but
Walt Disney World
won, hands down. I couldn’t have put it into words then, but in retrospect I understand it; Hershey Park was colorful fun, but
Walt
Disney World
was
magic
.
* * *
For generations during the last century,
Disney
entertainment has captured the hearts of children around the world. My siblings and I were no different.
I was three
years old when I first saw a re-release of
Disney
’s 1959 animated feature
Sleeping Beauty
at the Army cinema in Darmstadt, Germany. Dad took me and my little brother to see the prince battle the dragon and wake the sleeping princess. My brother and I were terrified by villainess
Maleficent
, but riveted by the film’s lush colors and music and its comical and heroic themes.
Like most children then and today, our lives were saturated by
Disney
. There were no videos or DVDs in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but Dad took us frequently to see new and re-released
Disney
movies. We had
Peter Pan
records to play over and over on our kiddie turntable. A favorite record was
Walt Disney Presents The Story of Hansel and Gretel
, an example of
Disney
’s deftness at blending fairy tale archetypes with
Disney
creativity and storytelling methods. I had a non-
Disney
fairy tale book that I loved; Mom read it to me at bedtime, and the fairy tale archetypes sifted into my consciousness.
As was typical for most families in the
1960’s and 70’s, every week we gathered together in front of the television set to watch
The Wonderful World of Disney
. It was always exciting when
Tinker Bell
waved her wand and sprinkled pixie dust to kick off the program, one of those
Disney
touches that built anticipation, signaling that something very special was about to happen.
Although
Walt Disney
had passed on in 1966, he frequently appeared on
The Wonderful World of Disney
in segments that were filmed before his death, whether introducing a re-broadcast program, or appearing in the program itself.
H
is warm personality came across just as well on television as it did in person. He always had a twinkle in his eye and a delighted smile when he introduced whatever film or show was airing. There was something fatherly, grandfatherly, avuncular about him, and at the same time something childlike. You could tell that to
Walt
, whatever cares he had or challenges he faced (and for a media mogul, they were many), the world truly was a wonderful place, full of boundless fun and possibility.
Like most other kids,
my siblings and I went to see the
Disney
live action films of the 1970’s, the
Witch Mountain
movies,
The Apple Dumpling Gang
, etc., and re-releases of masterpieces like
Mary Poppins
, and we never missed re-releases of the classic animated features. Some
Disney
films were better than others during that era—after
Walt
’s passing, quality and vision could be rather slapdash in the film division, without
Walt
at the helm—but they were always funny or thrilling, and had relevant human truths at their heart. For those of us that grew up with those movies, they were part of the soundtrack, mythos, and texture of our lives.