DISNEYLAND, WORLD’S BIGGEST ENTERTAINMENT SUCCESS

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32382, 22 August 1970, Page 5

DISNEYLAND, WORLD’S BIGGEST ENTERTAINMENT SUCCESS

(From MAtiKICt ADAMS, in ■New York)

The Sydney Opera House existed only in dreamland when America’s most extravagant attraction, Disneyland, was opened 15 years ago amidst predictions it would be a big flop.

The sceptics and the pessimists «re no longer around, Mickey Mouse, symbol of Disneyland, has since given birth to a Mighty Mountain in attendance and profits, in entertainment value and world-wide reputation.

It is recognised today as the world's biggest and most imaginative entertainment attraction.

Tens of thousands of Australians landing in California have been among the 88 million people from all over the world who . have marvelled at the make-believe world of Disneyland since- it was opened In July, 1955. Kings and Queens, presidents and prime ministers, princes and princesses have mingled with kids and housewives; and weary fathers have spent hours and days roaming around Fantasyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Main Street, U.S.A. and other attractions forming Disney’s 73-acre “Magic Kingdom." The famed cartoonist’s original investment of $l7 million' is now worth $126 million, bearing out Disney’s optimism. “We did it in the knowledge that most people thought . it would be a financial disaster, closed and forgotten within its first year," he said just before his death in 1966. Staked Everything It's no secret that we were staking just about every cent we had on the chance that people would really be interested in something totally new and unique in the field of entertainment.” Years before, when some people would deprecate Disneyland as pure fantasy devoid of reality, Disney would say, “You have it all wrong. This is reality. The people are natural here. They’re having a good time. It’s the outside that’s the fantasy.”

Disney executives and others see the Disneyland phenomenon based wholly on harmless, whimsical fun and clean-cut patriotism, and fuelled by a new generation of motorists who have more spending money and leisure time than ever before. ’ Visitors, who shun city streets with their hippies and pollution and traffic jams, love Disneyland for its “clean” atmosphere. Even the park’s landmark, the 14-storey Matterhorn (a bobsled thrill ride) looks laundered. No Beer Males with long hair are allowed in, provided they look well-scrubbed. Bare feet or shirtless males are excluded. The park demands that its 6000 employees, particularly those who come into contact with visitors, have that “AllAmerican clean and natural look without extremes.” No beer or alcohol is served inside the park, except in a businessmen’s club which is closed to the general public. Security e guards screen out most bottle-carrying patrons, including those who attend the park’s special youth or other party nights. “We get much of the same thing you’d get at any public place with the hangers-on, guys looking for some action, and now narcotics,” said a security official. “But considering the size of our attendance, there’s remarkably little trouble.” The park offers something for everyone. Some like Tom Sawyer’s Island, where one can break loose without the need of tour guides or queuing up to visit an exhibit. Lincoln Popular Others are impressed most with Abraham Lincoln’s attraction, which was one of Disney’s pet projects. An electronically-operated figure of Lincoln seems almost human on the Disneyland Opera House stage, and “speaks” selected passages, such as on defending the spirit of liberty. Critics view the Lincoln attractions as typical of Dis-

ney’s inoffensive, bleachedout version df history that avoids any hint of social or political controversy. But park executives recall, as one of them put it, that “Walt always told us to play to the public, not to the critics. It’s the public that counts. That’s what this thing called acceptance is." Fantasy or legend, Disneyland has been such a fabulous success that a second, much more ambitious “Disney World” is being created in central Florida at a cost of about $3OO million. This will link the amusement park features of California’s Disneyland with an

“experimental prototype community of tomorrow,” its own airport, industrial park, residential community, vast hotel, sport and recreation facilities that will make it a veritable “cosmopolis of fun.” This second “Magic Kingdom," expected to be open to the public in October, 1971, sprawls over 27,000 acres—twice the size of Manhattan. Its organisers expect no fewer than eight million visitors in the first 12 months.

The new and major feature of the Florida park will be an attraction called “One

Nation Under God.” Here all 37 Presidents of the United States—not only Lincoln—will “speak” and “move” thanks to electronic animation. And, Florida being the State now also known for the Kennedy Space Centre, Disneyland will have a “space mountain” with rocket sleds inside and out. No doubt the critics will continue to jeer at the “plastic world of Disneyland,” but all the Disney faithful, by the millions, are apparently ready to fork out their dollars to escape a few hours into the fantasy dreamland of Mickey Mouse.