The West Side of the Kingdom
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Rick West and his grandfather, Joseph West, in 1972

"46 Years of Dreaming"

Happy Birthday, Disneyland! It’s a day late, but what can you do?

Can you believe that the Park that many of us are so familiar with is 46 years-old? My gosh, that is older than most of you reading this column right now.

While most of us are younger than Disneyland itself, it’s interesting how we’ve all taken this thing that was envisioned by folks that are no longer with us here on Earth and have turned it into something that is ours; something that we take very seriously and personally.

Forget the politics and the let-downs of late at Disneyland due to its management. If you look at the big picture, people like Michael Eisner, Paul Pressler and even the seemingly-popular Cynthia Harriss are merely players in a story that will be only vague memories in the years ahead.

Disneyland means so many things to so many people that it’s difficult to comprehend. There are Cast Members and managers right now that feel they are the end-all authority on the Park. God knows, I certainly fit that bill when I worked at the Park in the late ‘80s. The funny thing is, there were Cast Members in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s that felt that way too; the earlier years just didn’t have the Internet to help fuel their reputations or egos! Can you imagine having LaughingPlace.com when the Flying Saucers were around? I wonder if people would get all fired up and blame WED for being cheap because the design was so troubled and a pain to keep maintained at Disneyland, much like the Rocket Rods. We’ll never know the answer to that one, although it might make for good discussion on the Message Board here on the site.

The Flying Saucers
(c) Disney

There were no industry journalists and columnists around either for a long time. I think back and cringe when I imagine of all the pictures, video and history that could have been preserved had we been around or had the means when Disneyland was younger. Can you imagine being able to download an MPEG of Walt Disney testing the Matterhorn for the first time, or a complete digital flow-through of Adventure Thru Inner Space?

Better yet, imagine LaughingPlace.com covering the Opening Day of Disneyland, interviewing executives and video taping the parade down Main Street USA?

When you think about it, we’ve missed a lot because the technology wasn’t there, folks; nor was the overwhelming demand for such things. Had I published a Feature Issue of Theme Park Adventure Magazine topping 200 pages on the making of the Jungle Cruise when it opened, would it have been popular at all, or would people have scratched their heads and wondered why someone bothered to document the ride so carefully? I mean, in 1955, the Jungle Cruise was brand new; Disneyland was brand new. Why bother documenting this type of thing?

Only now, do we think into the future. Or do we? How carefully did any of us document the Rocket Rods while it was open at Disneyland? Obviously, there is a LOT more video and there are many more images taken by fans out there, but did we prepare for the attraction’s early demise? I know I didn’t, although I knew the end was coming sooner than later for the ride.

Now that Lincoln has been changed, how many fans or journalists out there fully documented the lobby and the show itself? Luckily, TPA has about four hours or so of video and still video images of the show and lobby from years ago, when it was in danger of being removed for MuppetVision. Of course, those tapes are locked away somewhere in storage and the quality isn’t going to be as nice as our current digital video cameras provide; but at least it’s something.