Help w/ School Project about Disney Land

[Tinkrbell]

Hi everyone~
I'm hoping that you all would be able to help me with a project I'm working on for school. I'm a high school freshman & its for my history class. Its about the impact of Disney Land on families & society in the 1950's. I know the Disney Land opened in the 50's, but that's the time era we're working w/ right know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Kristin

 

[Yellow Shoes]

The time period you're dealing with is the Baby Boom years, generally considered to be 1946-1964. As my Am. History teacher rather indelicately put it, "Those guys came home from WWII rarin' to go."

One could argue that this was the time period when adults lost power to the children. These parents were Depression babies who had also experienced the deprivations of wartime rationing and the uncertainty of family members at war.

It would seem that their goal was to create the perfect family life and to indulge the children that many of them waited several years to have. <edit> These "indulged" children grew up to become Vietnam war protestors, and draft dodgers, much to the annoyance of their WWII veteran fathers.

Disneyland played perfectly into this mindset because a vacation to DL was completely kid-centered. (Yes, I know that adults enjoy and are passionate about Disney, but for most people, DL is something you do--at least the first time--for the kids)

The immediate area around DL is urban sprawl at its worst. The story is that Walt was very upset that the orange groves around DL became cheap hotels and tacky souvenir stands very soon after DL opened. Because of this, the Disney people made sure to buy plenty of land for the Florida project.

Every detail of the building and opening of DL was documented on the Wonderful World of Disney (a fond Sunday night memory for those of us "of a certain age"). Walt understood the power of the media, especially TV, for advertising.

Don't forget that Walt was always a big believer in merchandising. Davy Crockett merchandise was a must-have 50 years ago. (My great aunt actually owned a car that was "Davy Crockett Tan")

Although there were other theme parks before DL, you could probably make the case that DL is the prototype for all the successful parks that followed.

Main Street is supposed to be a replica of Walt's birthplace, Marceline, MO. No doubt it is romanticized somewhat. Perhaps Marceline was Walt's "Rosebud"????

Good luck with the paper.

 

[Tinkrbell]

Thanks, That'll help a little, but does anyone else have any websites or books that might help me with my project?
~Kristin

 

[zuzudog]

Try this site...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s

It also has some great stuff on Disney history...

bill

 

[Indy95]

Also, if you have time, the book "Designing Disney's Theme Parks: The Architecture or Reassurance" by Karal Ann Marling has loads of info about the times Disneyland opened into.

 

[Jungle Jive]

I did my high school senior thesis on the technological innovations at Disney theme parks. I went to the main city library and local university library and looked up "Walt Disney", "Disneyland," "Walt Disney Company," "Walt Disneyworld" and "Disney Brother Studios," and found more books and resources than I could shake a stick at. In addtion, I bought the "Birnbaun Guide to Disneyland" and "Birnbaun Guide to Disneyworld" which gives some historical background on the parks and their attractions, "Mouse Tales," and some other book I can't remember. Also, The Walt Disney Company's Corporate Headquaters in SoCal has an archive department...which I called Disney Archivist, David Smith, to ask some specific questions regarding park history. He was very nice and extremely helpful in answering my questions.

There's also a magazine called "E-ticket Magazine" that gives background on the development of Disney's original theme park lands and attractions.

With the 50th anniversary coming up, there are so many articles and books being written on the opening of Disneyland right now, you shouldn't have any trouble finding information on the web or in the library.

 

[Tinkrbell]

Jungle~ thanks for the suggestion of looking for articles about because of the 50th anniversary coming up. i just did a really quick search & found a few articles that will help me. Any more help is greatly appreciated. My project is due a week after Easter, so I've got awhile to work on it.

 

[Tinkrbell]

Does anyone else have anymore suggestions for where to look for some more info?
~Kristin

 

[raven]

Does anyone else have anymore suggestions for where to look for some more info?
~Kristin

The Disney Treasures DVD of Disneyland is a good start. It is out of print now but if you can find someone that has it, it has good stuff on there and includes all of the opening day events. Remember that Disneyland was a show on television first to get kids excited about coming to Disneyland when it opened. Kids at that time were devoted to watching The Mickey Mouse Club, Spin and Marty and other Disney shows like Davy Crocket and many Disney movies. So opening Disneyland when they did had a HUGE impact on kids and families at that time. It was a theme park made not just for kids, but for the whole family. It was the first one of it's kind. Hope this helps a little. :wave:

 

[raven]

I wanted to add another thing for you. Marceline, MO was indeed the inspiration for Main Street USA as another member noted. It was Walt's childhood town.

Walt visited Greenfield Village in Detroit back in the late 30's. Greenfield Village is a tourist attraction replicating the "simple American life" back in the turn of the century. Some of the things Walt loved about Greenfield Village was the train (naturally :animwink: ) and the giant paddlewheel boat down the river that circles an island. Later Walt claimed that his visit to Greenfield Village was his inpiration for the Rivers of America, the Paddleboat and Tom Sawyer Island for Disnyland.

 

[Tinkrbell]

The Disney Treasures DVD of Disneyland is a good start. It is out of print now but if you can find someone that has it, it has good stuff on there and includes all of the opening day events.

Thanks. My local library actually has a copy of it, so I reservered it & am going to pick it up later this week.

 

[shoppingnut]

The book on Walt Disney's life is very good too, since it gives you some information on how something he saw became an attraction. For instance, when they were on vacation in South America, they went on a river cruise, that was where the idea for the Jungle Cruise came from.

 

[Yellow Shoes]

Try this:
http://www.transparencynow.com/disney2.htm

I thought your paper was on the impact of DL on American society rather than a strict history of the park.

If so, this article may be of interest.


It discusses that DL is an idealized place with perfect romaticized notions of life in general. We are whisked into a fantasy world where the citizens are always smiling, where trash and disorder are not allowed, and where we can escape not just the bounds of time (Frontierland) but also of physics (rollercoasters and thrill rides).

One could argue that the contrast between the utopia of DL and the real world might spark political and social activism, which was the hallmark of the turbulent 1960s.

Remember also that DL was a celebration of science and technology. (I'm not all that familiar with DL, I must admit, but Epcot Future World is a shrine to technology. And who doesn't have this song stuck in their heads?

There's a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day...

It exudes optimism and a "can-do" mentality. Better living through science. It is, after all, the Carousel of Progress

Sorry to prattle on so long.

Good luck.

 

[Tinkrbell]

It's supposed to be mostly on the impact DL had, but I talked to my history teacher & they said it would be okay if I wrote about the park during the 1950's, too