Main Street Cinema Articles
Disneyland Tour Follows Walt Disney's Journey
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A tour of Disneyland from the perspective of Walt Disney ends with the guide quoting a newspaper article describing Disney's success as a "product of luck."
The 180-minute tour, titled "A Walk in Walt's Footsteps," shows that Disney's rise from a struggling animator to Academy Award-winning filmmaker and creator of the most famous theme park in the world had little to do with luck.
The guided ...
California_vs. Paris: Main Street USA
This month, I shall be comparing the Main Street, U.S.A.'s which can be found in the Disneylands closest to my heart (California and Paris).
Both are based loosely on Walt's home town of Marceline Missouri. Anaheim's is set in 1910, as part of the original idea that various Lands were set in years when Halley's Comet could be visible from Earth. According to themed studs in the pavement, Main Street ...
At Disneyland Even The Plants Have A Purpose
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Did you know that the trees and flowers planted throughout Disneyland were as well thought out as the design of the attractions and lands themselves?
I didn't.
In scurrying from one attraction to the other, I must admit that I never paid much attention to the foliage until I took Disneyland's two-hour "Cultivating the Magic" tour during which the guide talked of how the hundreds of varieties of ...
Disney Workers On Set Extras In Wonderland
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Disneyland employees who work on Main Street, U.S.A., got an unusual request: How'd you like to be in a Tom Hanks movie?
"I said, "Attaboy! Put me down,'" said Steve Finley, a 40-year Disneyland employee.
Two Main Street drivers and a balloon vendor were among the handful of Disneyland employees who served as extras in "Saving Mr. Banks," released this month.
The movie, starring Hanks as ...
Disneyland Turns 60 Ranking Its Attractions by Land
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Oh, boy! The Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration begins today!
Disneyland Park opened in Anaheim, Calif., on July 17, 1955, and ever since, it has entertained millions of guests from all over the world. That's no small feat!
"It's amazing to contemplate all that Disneyland has come to mean to so many people around the world," Tom Staggs, COO of the Walt Disney Company, recently told the ...
Disneyland 60 Things You Might Not Know About The Magic Kingdom
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TV show named "Gunsmoke" made its debut, and another named "Make Room for Daddy" won two Emmys. Elvis Presley and Pat Boone had young hearts all shook up, and for the first time, they could listen to those crooners and others on a new gadget called a pocket transistor radio. A new car cost $1,900, gasoline was 23 cents a gallon and rents averaged $87 a month..
It was 1955. On July 17 of that year - a ...
This Day In History Disneyland Opened 61 Years Ago Today
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Disneyland, the only theme park designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, opened on Sunday, July 17, 1955. Construction lasted for exactly one year, and cost only $17 million to complete.
The opening was only intended for about 11,000 invited guests and press, though a total of 28,000 attended due to a rush of counterfeit tickets. The event was telecast by ABC, anchored by actors ...
Every Town USA
The final stop on my lovely tour of Disneyland, at least until "Star Wars Land" is completed, is the entrance to the entire park.
Said to be inspired by Walt's hometown of Marceline, Missouri, "Main Street, U.S.A" is designed to look like the idealized center of a town at around 1910. One of the designers, Harper Goff, showed Walt some pictures of his childhood home in Colorado and Walt liked the ...
12 Fun Things You May Not Know About Disneyland
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Test your Disney trivia mojo here. How many of these items do you already know?
1. King Arthur Carousel. The lead horse on the iconic Fantasyland carousel is named Jingles. Walt Disney wanted all horses on the carousel, and he wanted them all to be leaping, so when a classic carousel was purchased, it was supplemented with other horses and those that had straight legs were redesigned.
2. Main ...
When At Disneyland Let Walt Be Your Guide To His Magical Kingdom
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The first thing most people do when they visit Disneyland is head straight for the rides.
They have it all wrong.
To truly experience Disney magic, you need Walt to be your guide to his kingdom. Here's how a prominent group of Gonzaga alums experienced that for themselves while in Anaheim for Gonzaga's Sweet 16 games.
The key is not to rush, especially right after you walk through the front ...
Still Magic In The Kingdom
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Disneyland is a place where a grown man looks perfectly normal wearing Mickey Mouse ears and where a little girl can feel like a princess.
The first true theme park also is a melting pot where an Indian woman in traditional dress poses for a photo in front of the Small World ride featuring children from around the world and where instructions to ride the Winnie the Pooh attraction are given in ...
Intrepid Kids Of Disneyland
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It was a normal Sunday afternoon at Disneyland. The Gay Nineties show had just broken at the Golden Horseshoe, a make-believe salon located in the Frontierland area. The tourist-packed Mark Twain, a scaled-down reproduction of a nineteenth-century Mississippi river boat, was sailing around Tom Sawyer's Island. Stagecoach passengers were jolting through the Painted Desert, which, until recently, had been an ...
Disneyland Then And Now
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1955
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week in summer; closed Mondays the rest of the year.
Size: 60 acres, plus 100 acres for parking.
Zones: Fantasyland, Frontierland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Main Street USA 18 attarctions
Admission: $1 (including tax) for adults. 50 cents for children. Ride tickets, sold separately, priced from 10 to 35 cents.
Employees: About 1,000
...
Magic Worlds Of Walt Disney
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Disneyland really started more than 20 years ago, when Walt got the idea for an amusement park that grownups as well as children would enjoy.
"I had all my drawing things laid out at home, and I'd work on plans for the park, as a hobby, at night."
At the time, amusement parks were dying all over the country, "I talked Disneyland but no one could see it," Walt recalled. "So I went ahead and spent my ...
Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom
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Twenty years ago," Walt said as we drove toward Disneyland, some 25 miles southeast of central Los Angeles, "I was always trying to think of a place to take my two small daughters on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon - a place where I could have fun, too.
"At an amusement park the only fun provided for a father, besides having his bottom dropped out from under him on the roller coaster, was the same he ...
Onward And Upward With The Arts
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One day last year in Los Angeles, as I was about to step aboard a helicopter that would take me to Disneyland with my teen-aged son and daughter, these two, smiling wanly, nodded toward a tourist poster that gave equal billing to our destination and to Forest Lawn cemetery. Their gesture reminded me that in earlier years they had wasted hundreds of child-hours vainly urging me to bring them on this very ...
A Fantasy That Paid Off
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The place is surrounded by a berm, a high barrow of earth, that insulates it from the external world. There is a single gateway where admission is charged. This, the land of Disney, is more secure than ancient Troy. No Trojan horse will get into Disneyland. Guards at the main gate closely scrutinize all who enter. Not even an unseemly teenager will get past them, much less a Trojan horse.
Disneyland is ...
Your Best Day Ever At Disneyland
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Enjoy a Mickey Mouse flapjack for breakfast, then hit Splash Mountain early. Eat lunch at the Big Thunder Ranch. Top off your day at Disneyland by watching fireworks from a little know vantage point. Those are some of the tips we picked up after visiting Disneyland five times last season. We learned how to tackle the park during its busiest time-summer. We discovered how to cut hours from time spent ...
Disney Drains River Changes Shows This Week
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With the holiday season ending Sunday, the Disneyland Resort is closing attractions and switching shows for the slower season starting this week.
Today, Disneyland plans to begin draining the Rivers of America for the first time since 2003 for refurbishment.
All river attractions will be closed until May: Mark Twain Riverboat, Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island, Sailing Ship Columbia and Davy ...
Disneyland Cinema Closes For Construction
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The Main Street U.S.A. Cinema in Disneyland is set to be closed until next month while crews install new floors.
No new changes are planned for the attraction when it reopens, said Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman. The cinema closed starting this week and is set to reopen Feb. 2.
The cinema, an original attraction from 1955, plays classic Mickey Mouse films on six different screens. ...
Best Spots For Making Tiktok Videos
TikTok has become hugely popular in recent years, with people creating fun 15 to 60 second videos set to music. Disneyland is a prime location for making engaging TikTok content. Guests are allowed to film TikTok videos throughout the Disneyland parks and resorts. When deciding where to film your Disneyland TikTok videos, it 's best to choose locations that are less crowded so you don 't disrupt other ...
Disneyland Cinema Scheduled To Return Early
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Construction on the Disneyland movie house is ahead of schedule.
The Main Street U.S.A. Cinema is expected to re-open Friday instead of early February, said Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman.
The venue was closed while workers installed a new floor.
The cinema has six different screens where classic Mickey Mouse films are shown. Movies include "Steamboat Willie," the first ...
Trivial Pursuit At The Venerable California Theme Park
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Disneyland, the theme park that bills itself as "the happiest place on Earth," filled with people during a recent spring-break April day when the temperature hovered near 90.
People waited for more than two hours for a chance to ride Splash Mountain. Finding a bench to sit for a moment with a napping grandson proved challenging. Lines formed to use restrooms or sinks, purchase a bottle of water or ...
Disneyland From A to Z
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A recent four-night stay at Disneyland proves that this rich, glorious theme park, celebrating its 50th anniversary from now until 2007, is best enjoyed as a planned excursion, not as a whim.
Begin with Birnbaum's, an indispensable annual paperback that's available for around twelve dollars. The goal-oriented guide should be read by every visitor to insure unit cohesion. It answers detailed ...
Tales Of A Disney Cast Member
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It's been pretty well established at this point that I'm a bit of a Disneyland geek.
That fact about me just has a way of coming up, even when I don't say anything.
Perfect example: I proudly have my experience as a cast member tucked onto the bottom of my resume because I just can't bear to leave it off. At one of my internships I didn't say a word about it, I just talked about my journalism ...
Disneyland In 1955 Rides Now Long Gone Weird Glitches On Opening Day
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Disneyland was dedicated during a special preview opening day on July 17, 1955. The public opening was July 18. The dedication aired on ABC at 4:30 p.m. July 17. Some details of the opening:
Park attendance: 6,000 guests were invited for the special preview opening, but an additional 22,000 showed up with counterfeit tickets, making for a total of 28,000 guests that day.
Temperature: 101 ...
Disneyland Converts Classic Attraction Into A Gift Shop
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When walking right down the middle of Main Street, U.S.A. at the Disneyland Resort, guests will find an opening day attraction has been transformed into a store.
The Main Street Cinema, a staple of the small Midwest town-inspired Main Street since the park 's 1955 founding by Walt Disney, has long exhibited classic silent films and cartoons, including 1914 animated short Gertie the Dinosaur - ...
Disneyland Makes Controversial Change To Classic Attraction I Am Livid
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One of the oldest attractions in Disneyland just received an upgrade, but fans are not happy about it. In fact, some of them are actually “livid.”
The Main Street Cinema has been in the park since its opening day in 1955. It was a place where guests could go and take a break while enjoying some old cartoons and air conditioning. While Disney is still showing the old animated films, they have ...
Walt Disney Reveals Just How Disneyland Was Created In Rare Interview
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“Twenty years ago,” Walt said as we drove toward Disneyland, some 25 miles southeast of central Los Angeles, “I was always trying to think of a place to take my two small daughters on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon-a place where I could have fun, too.
“At an amusement park, the only fun provided for a father, besides having his bottom dropped out from under him on the roller coaster, was the ...
Disneyland Stops Selling Merchandise At Main Street Cinema Adds Park Benches To The 1955 Attraction
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Disneyland has completed an initial test using merchandise as an incentive to drive traffic to an original 1955 opening day attraction celebrating some of Walt Disney 's earliest animated films in an attempt to drive more interest in the Main Street U.S.A. location.
For less than a week, Disneyland 's Main Street Cinema sold merchandise inside the vintage movie palace with a Cartoons and ...
20 Surprising Things You Can And Can Not See Do And Taste At Your Next Visit
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Blue milk. Human ashes. Feral cats.
Disneyland may be 85 acres of carefully curated mirth, but even after nearly 65 years of operation in Anaheim, Calif., the vacation destination can still surprise -- as park-goers who 've encountered the blue milk, human ashes and, yes, feral cats can attest.
Before you next pass through the turnstile en route for the old-timey Main Street ...
