Happy 53rd "Re-Dedication" Day - July 17th, 2008

[MrLiver]

So what was the "Opening Day" for....

OK you've offered up a lot of evidence for why the 18th should be celebrated as the birthday.

Obviously it isn't going to change anyone's mind - so Darkbeer why don't you tell us why it is you think that everyone celebrates the 17th instead of the 18th?

[Rex Dopey24]

And my favorite OFFICIAL Pin from Disneyland...

wow look how cheap that ticket was.

[Wendygirl]

I want a pin like that!

Too bad we did not know back in 1955 that we should have saved all the stuff we got when we went

[HMF]

wow look how cheap that ticket was.

I wish prices were still like that.

[VeganPrincess]

I wish prices were still like that.

If ticket prices were $1 for general admission, Disneyland would have to declare bankrupty. Then, there would be no more anniversaries/re-dedication/birthdays to argue about.

[disneytim]

I have a really hard time believing the counterfeiting story. Much like the colorblind bulldozer story, it sounds like something that was totally made up and somehow passed into the realm of fact.

From Neal Gabler's Walt Disney, The Triumph of the American Imagination:

The day bloomed bright and hot and less festive-seeming than restive. (Project director) C. V. Wood had printed fifteen thousand invitations, which was the estimated capacity of the park at any given time, but he soon discovered that people had counterfeited tickets. One man even leaned a ladder against the fence and let people over for five dollars a head. The staff tried to regulate the crowd by opening the gates and then closing them at twenty-minute intervals, but even so the press of people overwhelmed the facility.

Michael Barrier's The Animated Man, A Life of Walt Disney and Bob Thomas's Walt Disney, An American Original make similar references to tickets being counterfeited. Thomas put the actual first-day's attendance at 33,000, Gabler at 28,000.

BTW, all three authors refer to July 17, 1955 as opening day.

[Rex Dopey24]

I wish prices were still like that.

Yeah I know lol. It seems like it was easy back then and cheap.

[1FoolishMortal]

There isn't but his argument was that the company chooses to celebrate it on the 17th, end of story and I think that's a bit oversimplified and if we're going to look at it that way I'll counter back that when walt was still alive it was celebrated on the 18th so end of story =P

But our beloved LA Times (which people seem to quote all too often as a "respectable" source), states in its article that DL switched to celebrating on the 17th in 1965. Lest the history books lie, Walt passed away in the winter of 1966, making him still living when they "changed" the date.


While I'd love to believe a conspiracy against marketing, Walt still being alive when they "changed" the date makes me less inclined to believe such a far-fetched theory.

[Darkbeer]

But our beloved LA Times (which people seem to quote all too often as a "respectable" source), states in its article that DL switched to celebrating on the 17th in 1965. Lest the history books lie, Walt passed away in the winter of 1966, making him still living when they "changed" the date.


While I'd love to believe a conspiracy against marketing, Walt still being alive when they "changed" the date makes me less inclined to believe such a far-fetched theory.

Check out the Orange County Register articles I have posted in this thread...

Disney on July 17th, 1965 premiered a new parade in honor of the Tenth anniversary. It was on a Saturday and made sense to do it then instead on Sunday the 18th. And the very specifically said it was the day of "Re-Dedication" and not its Birthday.

But Mr. Lincoln officially opened on the next day, July 18th, 1965.

And then the first version of the "New" Tomorrowland opened on July 18th, 1967. So that makes Disney celebrating Opening Day on the 18th for at least 12 years, and after Walt Disney passed on.

[Darkbeer]

First off, tried to find the LA Times article that states the date was moved in 1965 but couldn't find it. Could somebody please place a link here... Thanks in Advance.

But I did find another official Disneyland Document from 1955...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miehana/2678889709/

[Steve DeGaetano]

I think that everyone here will one day be as proud to have been at this opening as the people who were there at the dedication of the Eiffel Tower.

--Bob Cummings, speaking on camera at Disneyland
July 17, 1955

Someone should have told the people at the opening of Disneyland that it really wasn't the opening.

[fo'c's'le swab]

--Bob Cummings, speaking on camera at Disneyland

July 17, 1955

Someone should have told the people at the opening of Disneyland that it really wasn't the opening.

Considering that they were not invited in, I think the people really didn't need to be told.

[MrLiver]

BTW, all three authors refer to July 17, 1955 as opening day.

The 50th Movie that plays in the opera house, as official as you can get, makes numerous factual errors.

In fact I'm sure we could find many books that reference the colorblind buldozer story which has recently been debunked, along with the golden spike at the center of Disneyland and Walt placing his family crest above the castle. None of these are true at all.

So again, I have a hard time believing the counterfeiting story.

[disneytim]

The 50th Movie that plays in the opera house, as official as you can get, makes numerous factual errors.

I haven't seen the movie in a while. What are they?

In fact I'm sure we could find many books that reference the colorblind buldozer story which has recently been debunked, along with the golden spike at the center of Disneyland and Walt placing his family crest above the castle. None of these are true at all.

None of the sources I cited, including Bob Thomas's "official" biography of Walt, make any mention of the bulldozer story. It's an anecdotal urban legend that legitimate Disney historians have either debunked or ignored completely. I haven't finished checking, but I don't believe any of the books mention the golden spike or the family crest stories either.

So again, I have a hard time believing the counterfeiting story.

Then how do you explain all the uninvited guests who got into the park that day? Since invitations were sent to a considerable amount of people in the media and the entertainment industry, it seems pretty obvious that a lot of them had access to printing equipment.

After 50+ years, it would be quite easy for Disney to say (or for historians to discover) that simply too many guests were invited to Disneyland's grand opening. There's no evidence to support the idea, however, giving the "counterfeiting story" that much more credence.

[VeganPrincess]

In fact I'm sure we could find many books that reference the colorblind buldozer story which has recently been debunked, along with the golden spike at the center of Disneyland and Walt placing his family crest above the castle. None of these are true at all.

Um...haven't we all visited the golden spike under the castle? Then, what is the supposed crest above the castle?