by Jim Denney, author of Walt’s Disneyland
In the early 1950s, as Walt was planning to build Disneyland, everyone told him it couldn’t be done. His brother Roy, the financial wizard of the Disney organization, argued that Walt’s theme park obsession would bankrupt the company. His wife Lillian told him that amusement parks were dirty places run by unsavory people, and she begged him to stick to making cartoons.
When Walt contacted amusement park operators for advice, they unanimously told him to forget it — the kind of clean, beautifully landscaped park he envisioned could never be profitable. Imagineer John Hench recalled, “Every amusement park operator we talked to said it would fail. And Walt would come out of those meetings even happier than if they’d been optimistic.”
When Walt publicly announced the Disneyland project, the press dubbed it “Disney’s folly.” Critics claimed that Anaheim — then a little farming village surrounded by orange groves — was too far from major metropolitan centers. Nobody would drive to the middle of nowhere for a day at a “kiddie park.”
But when Disneyland opened in July 1955, people from around the world descended on Anaheim to see the kingdom that Walt built. By the end of 1957, after two and a half years of operation, the Park had welcomed its ten-millionth visitor. Adult visitors outnumbered kids by more than three to one.
Among the first dignitaries to visit Disneyland was the sitting vice president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon. He took his family to the Park on August 11, 1955, just three weeks after it opened. Nixon said that Disneyland was all his daughters Julie and Tricia talked about. He called the Park “a paradise for children and for grownups, too.” The Nixon family would return in June 1959 to take part in ribbon-cutting ceremonies for three new attractions, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Disneyland Monorail, and the Submarine Voyage.
Former President Harry S. Truman visited Disneyland with his wife Bess in November 1957. The Disneyland Band greeted him with an up-tempo rendition of “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and the lilting “Missouri Waltz.” Truman remarked that Disneyland’s Main Street USA reminded him of his hometown of Independence, Missouri.
The former president enjoyed the Park with childlike glee, grinning broadly the entire time. He strode so briskly from one attraction to the next that his Disneyland guides and reporters had to run to keep up. In Frontierland, Truman took the wheel of the Mark Twain steamboat. And in Fantasyland, a reporter asked Truman to pose for a picture on the Dumbo ride, but the former leader of the Democratic Party declined to be photographed riding an elephant.
Harry Truman especially loved Tomorrowland. Stepping out of the TWA Flight to the Moon, he offered advice to his successor, saying that President Eisenhower “should take that ride. It might prove an inspiration.” Truman also rode in the engineer’s cab of the Viewliner Train of Tomorrow and took the Skyway to Fantasyland (his acrophobic wife waited for him on the ground).
Other early visitors to Walt’s Disneyland included President Achmed Sukarno of Indonesia (with his 12-year-old son Guntur in June 1956) and Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy of Pakistan (July 1957). In November 1961, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited Disneyland with his adult daughter Indira (who would one day become prime minister herself).
King Mohammed V of Morocco visited Disneyland in December 1957 — twice in one day. Walt gave King Mohammed a four-hour guided tour of the Magic Kingdom, replete with a welcoming ceremony, reporters, and photographers. The Moroccan entourage left Disneyland in the early afternoon.
The king, however, was captivated by Disneyland and wanted to see more. He and his aides changed into American-style clothing, returned incognito, paid their admission, and enjoyed the rides. When a Disneyland exec recognized him, the Moroccan monarch said he wanted no security guards, no photographers, and no attention. He wanted to enjoy the Park as an average tourist — and he did.
In November 1959, presidential primary candidate John F. Kennedy chose Disneyland as the site of a meeting with an African head of state. Senator Kennedy was 42 at the time and his opponents said he was too young and inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief. He needed a photo op with a foreign dignitary to increase his presidential gravitas.
During a campaign swing through California, JFK (who headed the Africa Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) arranged to meet with Sekou Toure, president of the newly independent West African nation of Guinea. Kennedy helicoptered from Riverside to the Disneyland helipad. He met President Toure on the Main Street platform of the Disneyland Railroad, then escorted the African leader to City Hall for a half-hour meeting with reporters in attendance. Afterward, JFK toured the Park, flashing his famous smile and introducing himself to prospective voters.
In December 1961, less than a year after leaving office, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower took his wife Mamie, son John, daughter-in-law Barbara, and his four grandchildren to Disneyland. He sat in the driver’s seat of Bob Gurr’s Main Street Fire Engine and waved a fireman’s hat to the crowd. Midway through their Disneyland stay, Ike and Mamie rested in Walt’s apartment over the Fire House. Eisenhower claimed he enjoyed Disneyland even more than his grandchildren did.
Over lunch one day in the mid-1960s, writer Ray Bradbury urged Walt to run for mayor of Los Angeles. Walt laughed. “Why should I be mayor,” he said, “when I’m already king?” Walt Disney truly was a king. That’s why kings and presidents and prime ministers beat a path to his kingdom.
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To learn more about the history of Walt’s Disneyland, read Walt’s Disneyland: It’s Still There If You Know Where to Look, available at Amazon.com; Paperback $15.99; Ebook $5.99. And for more stories about Disneyland history, visit https://waltsdisneyland.wordpress.com/.
Jim Denney is a Columnist for the Boardwalk Times.
