First Person: Disneyland Disneyanamania

Published July 19, 2005

By C. W. Oberleitner

Back from a week in Anaheim covering the events leading up to, along with covering all of, Disneyland's big 50^th birthday bash,o-meon.com correspondent and editor C. W. Oberleitner checks in with his own unique look at this milestone event in American culture.

Video Supplement: Disneyland Disneyanamania

Video highligths of what it was like to be part of the Happiest Birthday on Earth Sunday July 17, 2005. QuickTime 7 is required and an enhanced dial-up or broadband connection is recommended for optimal viewing. Click here, or on the title above, for QuickTime 7 video. Click here to view in QuickTime 6.

Question: When is a pop-culture website intended for grownups without kids, who are probably just big geeky kids themselves, like a Steven Spielberg movie?

Answer: When it's this website trying to cover a massive event like Disneyland's 50^th birthday, and when the movie is Steven Spielberg's latest blockbuster, War of the Worlds.

It's no secret that when it comes to "field work" here at o-meon.com, I'm pretty much on my own.

This means that our coverage of big events like Disneyland's 50^th birthday party is usually from my own point of view, much the same way Spielberg chose to tell his version of War of the Worlds from the perspective of the Ray Ferrier character, played by Tom Cruise.

Because they can send several writers and photographers to a single event, there are Disney fan sites that are very capable of doing wall-to-wall coverage of events this size. We're not one of those sites. I'm going to save Pat Holtz, my editor, the trouble of inserting his favorite little note and tell you that I've prepared a list of these sites, with links, to what I feel is some of the best coverage of Sunday's events. The list is at the end of this column.

March of the Sleepy Theme Park Fans

It's 3:00 a.m. on a cool but very pleasant Sunday morning in Anaheim, California. I'm chugging up the sidewalk on the east side of Harbor Blvd. as fast as my fat, middle-aged legs will carry me without first inducing a heart attack. I'm late; I intended to be in line by 2:00 a.m., but instead of setting the alarm on my cell phone to wake me at one o'clock, I set it to auto-dial a friend on the east coast at 6:30 in the morning.

As I was leaving my motel, I said goodnight to the deskman who was taking a break in front of the motel lobby. We chatted briefly, and I confessed that as a writer I was curious as to whether I was about to be a small part of history or if I'd find myself almost alone among a few people as terminally nerdy as myself.

"Oh you won't be alone," he said with a smile.

I asked if he'd seen a few people waiting in line at the Disneyland gates when he came into work at midnight.

"More than a few," he said, his smile turning into a broad grin.

To my surprise, there were almost as many people waiting to cross the street to enter Disneyland's East Entry Plaza at three in the morning as there had been at midday most days of the preceding week. The real surprise was waiting inside the plaza.

The "end of the line" was very near the Harbor Blvd. entrance to the plaza. As I took my place, I was amazed to see what looked like seven or eight lines of people three and four abreast zigzagging snake-like up and down the width of the plaza. The line moved steadily, but slowly. It took an hour and forty-five minutes to snake my way up to the single security checkpoint being used to admit people to the resort. There were a variety of contraband items stacked up outside the checkpoint.

Disneyland authorities had said there would be no overnight camping, and most of the abandoned items, which I was told owners could reclaim from Lost and Found as they exited the park, were various forms of camping gear. Nevertheless, once I cleared bag check and entered DCA, I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

At exactly 5:00 a.m., I passed through the turnstiles at the entrance to DCA. Long lines at a Disney theme park are nothing new to anybody who's ever visited one. The line of people already inside DCA was unbelievable. As I was given my golden mouse ears, commemorative park map, day planner, and yellow wristband, I heard a cast member (CM) shouting out to all of us just entering to make our way to the Paradise Pier section of the park.

[For those not familiar with DCA, Paradise Pier is in the far southwest corner of the park at the very boundary of the property, and about as far from the entrance gate as you can get.—Editor]

As I walked through DCA's Sun Plaza, past the Bountiful Valley Farm and then the winery, I was amazed at the site of hundreds, if not thousands, of people spread out on the ground asleep, curled up on the concrete, covered in blankets, sweaters, and jackets. Enterprising guests smuggled, in backpacks and baby strollers, inflatable mattresses, and pool floats. Still others had blow-up camping chairs. The whole scene looked more like a refugee camp than a theme park.

To be sure, not everyone was sleeping on the ground. Groups of people were playing board games and cards. More than a few had brought battery-operated DVD players. One young man and his girlfriend were watching a collection of Donald Duck cartoons.

At the entrance to Paradise Pier, I still didn't see anyone wearing a yellow wristband, or anything resembling the end of the line. I walked past DCA's big coaster, California Screamin, past the boardwalk shops, Sun Wheel, Maliboomer, Orange Stinger, Pizza Mow Mow, McDonald's Burger Invasion, and up to the edge of the mad mouse ride, Mulholland Madness. There I sat, in a chair from the Burger Invasion food court, and witnessed something that never in my life had I expected to see: sunrise over Disney's California Adventure!

Throughout the four hours it took to actually make it into Disneyland, I noticed that everyone around me seemed to be having a good time. People were freely striking up conversations with one another. We all agreed that we must be insane to wait hours on end just to get into a theme park for a free cupcake, and we all joked this was the biggest crowd any of us had ever seen in DCA.

By chance, I ran into a friend of mine at the Burger Invasion food court. He observed that many of the conversations taking place around us were rumors about what was going to happen next, how we were going to be led out of DCA, how long it would take, and so on.

"The whole thing reminds me of that scene in (Spielberg's) War of the Worlds," he said, "where Cruise's character is leading his family to this river ferry, and all along the way you hear all these people spreading wild tales about the war."

"'I hear that in Osaka they've found a way to bring them down,'" he said, quoting a line from the movie.

Judging by the majority of conversations I had with my fellow line-mates, Disneyland fans are obsessed with numbers. We all wanted to know how many people were in DCA, how many more would be held at the gates, how many would get in before Disney was forced to close the gates, and, of course, how many people would visit the park that day.

Disneyland Resort does not publish attendance figures. If you just can't get enough of this sort of thing, I'll post my estimates at the end of the column.

At a little past 7:00 a.m. my group, "The Yellows!" as we called ourselves, crossed the east side of the Esplanade from DCA to Disneyland. We could see that this large plaza between the two parks was full, just as it was on May 5. I could also see past the security checkpoints out to the East Entrance Plaza, which appeared to be just as full as it was when I arrived four hours earlier.

To the best of my knowledge, the gates of Disneyland may have only been closed once during the day. A CM told me that the gates had to be closed just before the 10:00 a.m. rededication ceremony. So many guests had lined Main Street and gathered in Town Square to watch the ceremony on large screen monitors that all traffic into the park came to a halt, thus making it impossible to admit anyone for nearly an hour.

Other than that one reported closing, the gates to Disneyland appear to have remained open all day. In fact, by early afternoon many turnstile stations, as they would be on any summer day, were closed, and there were no significant lines of people waiting to enter through the open stations.

This does not mean that Disneyland wasn't packed—to the contrary. I was in Disneyland on May 5, opening day of the 50^th Anniversary, Happiest Homecoming on Earth celebration. More than 62,000 people were in the park that day. From my perspective, even with the increased operating capacity made possible by the return of Space Mountain, July 17 looked and felt a lot busier than May 5.

I suspect that hundreds of sleep-deprived guests left the park after the rededication ceremony, either for the day or to return later after a much needed nap.

A Tale of two Disneylands

Once I got to the end of Disneyland's Main Street, I, along with everyone else pouring in the gates, was faced with a Hobson's choice: grab a ride on Space Mountain, snag a place up close to the castle for the rededication ceremony, or journey to the Festival of Fools Arena on the far side of Disneyland for the merchandise event and a chance of getting one of only 5,000 free commemorative pins.

We Yellows knew that 5,000 people had preceded us into the park, so that pretty much killed the pin idea. My friend and I were just trying to decide between breakfast and standing in line for the ceremony when we ran into Jeff Lange, a photographer and correspondent for JimHillMedia.com.

Jeff and his group, all Pinks, had already snagged a spot just a few feet from the end of the rope line on the west side of the Hub, to the left of the stage set up in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle. It was just 7:15 in the morning.

For the next three hours, we sat, stood, stretched, and baked in the California sun waiting for Disneyland's rededication. In the crowd of park guests around us, I could see the faces of people I recognized from several other media outlets.

True to their word, Disneyland kept the focus on their guests. The seats directly in front of the stage, usually occupied by the press, were now filled with guests who had purchased tickets, some for as much as $1,995, to a special 50^th Anniversary merchandising event.

From the beginning, on May 5, 2004, I've been uncomfortable with all the staged Happiest Homecoming on Earth events held in Disneyland. It's bad enough that they are played to the cameras and not the park guests—this past Sunday marked the first time that guests in both Disneyland Resort parks could watch one of these events on TV. But what really bothers me is how devoid they are of, well…Disneyland.

Not once during all three of these beautifully staged events did anyone from Disneyland play a role, other than singing and dancing in costume. It was as if Matt Ouimet, Disneyland Resort President, and his Disneyland cast didn't exist.

To be fair, at each of these events newly appointed Disney Company CEO Bob Iger has acknowledged the efforts and contributions of the Disneyland Resort's management team and cast, as has current CEO Michael Eisner. Not once, however, have they so much as asked anyone from the resort to stand up and take a bow, much less come up on stage to invite and or welcome visitors to the party. It's as if there were two Disneylands, one beloved by guests and cast members, and the other a backdrop to be used by the executive wing of the Walt Disney Company on the evening news.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Prior to opening for the big day, Disneyland's cast—past, present, and future—got a long overdue honor. They received their very own window on Main Street, an honor bestowed on those who have helped make Disneyland the truly wondrous place that it is.

Before the park opened, there was a ceremony dedicating the Cast Member Window held on Main Street with Disneyland Resort President Matt Ouimet reading the dedication. I'm sure his remarks were prepared; there was, however, no mistaking that he spoke from the heart. You could hear it in his voice, see it in his eyes, and in the faces of those Disneyland cast members assembled for the ceremony. The joy and emotion was real.

As thousands of guests poured into Disneyland from DCA, we were greeted by many of these same CMs. Laughing, cheering, clapping—they welcomed us and wished us a happy birthday on behalf of Disneyland. It was a pure Disney moment, the kind that will live in memory for years.

I did not attend the Window on Main Street dedication—I was over in DCA waiting to get in. I was able to see it because it was on one of the many film and video clips broadcast throughout the day on the big-screen monitors set up around the resort. If you didn't stop and watch for a while, you would never have seen it.

Touching and genuine as this brief ceremony was, it was not a part of the official ceremony commemorating Disneyland's milestone 50^th birthday. The video of this celebratory moment in Disneyland history was not part of the official dedication ceremony, and Bob Iger only briefly mentioned it during his opening remarks.

I don't think I'm alone in finding the official rededication ceremony somewhat cold and wanting for the kind of emotionally bonding moments so many seemed to have hoped for that day.

The speakers for the official Disneyland rededication ceremony were Messrs. Iger and Eisner, Art Linkletter, who hosted the July 17, 1955 opening day Disneyland TV special, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Walt Disney's surviving daughter Diane Disney Miller.

As each of these famous people was introduced, they received a warm welcome and round of applause. Governor Schwarzenegger was booed and jeered by a group of protestors, who, I'm told, were quickly escorted out of the park by Disneyland Security, but not before visibly distracting Michael Eisner who stopped paying attention to the Governor and turned and stared in the opposite direction several times as Governor Arnold plowed on.

Perhaps the most telling moment came when Diane Disney Miller was introduced. Not only was the response from the audience in my immediate area longer and louder than for any of the previous speakers, for the first time I could hear the roar of thousands of Disneyland guests watching the proceedings on the big-screen monitors placed around the park.

Polite as everyone was, it soon became clear that most of the guests who had come to celebrate Disneyland's birthday didn't really care about how "Fantastek!" Disneyland was for "Kali-fornia's" bottom line. Like me, these folks had come for that one electrifyingly emotional moment when our memories would be made manifest, and for one brief moment the Disneyland of our childhoods would come to life and Sunday nights with Uncle Walt would be real again.

That moment did, of course, arrive when Diane began to read Disneyland's original dedication, "To all who come to this happy place: Welcome!" she began. Just as she got to that point, the big screen monitors segued from the live image on stage to the old kinescope of Walt Disney reading Disneyland's dedication.

From where I was standing, I'm almost certain I heard Diane's voice break ever so slightly with emotion as she transitioned from the dedication, looked up at the huge video screen, and called out her father's name.

Aftermath

Once the ceremony ended, people dispersed throughout the Magic Kingdom. If you didn't know what day it was, you might have confused it with any summer Sunday in the park. That is, except for a few noticeable anomalies.

I can't remember when I've seen so many people sleeping around Disneyland. I'm not talking about Granddad nodding off in a chair at Coke Corner after a long day of being dragged around the park by the grandkids. I'm talking about men and women of all ages flat out on the ground, curled up in chairs, and stretched out on benches, faces covered…sound asleep.

In addition to the weary, this particular Sunday probably had the highest concentration ever of Disneyland Premium Annual Passholders in the park at one time. As a result, the smooth and orderly flow of guests from land to land and event to event was altered.

Shortly after lunch, I was walking past the Sleeping Beauty's Castle along the edge of the Hub and saw a sight that, for the second time in one day, reminded me of a refugee camp. There on the sidewalks were dozens of people, blankets spread, stretched out on the ground waiting for that evening's performance of the Remember Dreams Come True fireworks show.

It was two o'clock in the afternoon. The fireworks show wouldn't take place for another seven and a half hours.

There was one last official event. The kinescope of Walt's original dedication of Disneyland was to be rebroadcast throughout the resort exactly fifty years after he first read it.

I joined what looked to be thousands of people who had assembled in Town Square, the site of the original dedication. At 4:45 p.m. PDT, the voice of Walt Disney dedicating Disneyland rang out throughout the park. Town Square was filled with cheering as hundreds wiped tears of joy from their eyes.

Predictions Do Come True

Earlier, during the wee hours of July 17, as thousands of us speculated on what our day would be like, I made a prediction.

Disneyland had ordered tens of thousands of birthday cupcakes that they were going to be giving away throughout the day. Cynic that I am, I said to a friend, "Watch. Somebody's going to have these things up on eBay before we get home."

Check out this link.

There was one prediction I just couldn't make come true. After the evening's fireworks, I threw in the towel and ended my day at the Happiest Birthday (Homecoming) on Earth and headed back to my hotel.

Geek Out

Here, after consulting various oracles and bribing (just kidding) several CMs, are my best "guesses" as to how many people showed up for what part of Disneyland's 50^th birthday.

Between 8,500 and 11,000 people spent most of the wee hours of Sunday morning either in or waiting to get in to DCA.

Both inside and outside of DCA, how many people arrived at Disneyland before the park opened? I'm going to guess that figure is between 25,000 and 30,000 guests.

My best guess for Sunday's total attendance figure is in the neighborhood of 70,000 guests.

My next question is: Why do we all care? My answer: I really don't know. We just do!

C'ya real soon!

For More Information

If you haven't already visited some or all these sites and still want to know more about Disneyland's big 50^th birthday party, check out these Disney fan sites. They are in no particular order:

MousePlanet.com - A great ground game with perhaps more bodies covering the event than any other fan site.

MouseInfo.com - Pages and pages of pictures. It's as if you're there, but without the heat and crowds.

JimHillMedia.com - My hat's off to my colleagues at JHM, not just because I used to work for them but for the great job they did despite not being one of the lucky four websites to get credentials for Sunday's events. Photographer Jeff Lange rose to the occasion and writer Cory Mitchell knows how to tell, and finish, a story.

LaughingPlace.com - Probably the best home on the web for dedicated fans of pixie dust.

MiceAge.com - Another one-man, first-person account of Sunday's events from a slightly different point of view.

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