![]() “At every point in the design of Disney’s theme parks you feel safe, secure-you feel as though you know where you are in space,” wrote curator Karal Ann Marling, who organized the 1997 exhibition, “The Architecture of Reassurance,” for the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Both Walt Disney World and Disneyland were purposefully crafted to offer a sense of reassurance. One woman told TIME magazine : “Oh, it just makes you want to cry…it’s all so happy here.” A Florida local told the New York Times: “We need a place like this because of the world situation… a place where we can come and relax and forget about all the bad things.”Īnd a place to forget bad things is exactly what visitors found. In a letter, accompanying the banner, the President emphasized “our faith in the American dream which is so much in evidence at Walt Disney World.”Ī pair of Mickey Mouse ears dating to Disney World's 25th anniversary resides in the collections of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.įirst day visitors themselves had nothing but praise for the theme park. They presented Roy Disney with a flag that had flown over the White House. Nixon was invited to the dedication ceremonies, but he sent Haldeman and press secretary Ron Ziegler (who had once worked at its West Coast counterpart, Disneyland, as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise ride) as his representatives. Haldeman updated Nixon on the park's coverage in Time, Newsweek and Life. “They all tried to knock ‘em, but even the cynics can’t," he said. "And the only reason these people are knocking them is that the streets are all clean and the kids are wholesome and have short hair and everybody smiles.” The President of the United States can be heard on the infamous White House tapes discussing with his chief of staff, H.R. Whether they were lovers or critics of Disney World, planning a trip, or promising never to visit, few in America were unaware of its opening. Look magazine reported that the theme park was “thousands of acres of computerized fun.” ![]() Life Magazine dedicated the cover of its Octoissue to the “carefully crafted vision of the American past,” which it called an “intricate, hokey, hugely expensive assemblage of lives and places that never were,” even as its glamorous cover shot was designed to showcase the park. One local official announced to the readers of the Orlando Sentinel that the opening was the “greatest thing since Florida sunshine,” while the Pensacola News expressed concern for overtaxed highways and an end to the “peaceful existence once enjoyed.” Newspapers made predictions of first-day crowds that ranged from 30,000 to 200,000 but about 10,000 showed up, giving the new theme park’s employees time to work out the kinks. Disney, brother of Walt and then C.E.O of the Walt Disney Company, stood elbow to elbow with Mickey Mouse to read from a bronze plaque, expressing the hope for Walt Disney World to “bring Joy and Inspiration and New Knowledge to all who come to this happy place.” When Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom opened its gates 50 years ago this month on 11-square miles near Orlando in Lake Buena Vista, the much-anticipated amusement park was an enticing prospect, promising a whole new “way of life,” where guests could “leave the world of today behind.” And in September, the Attica Prison Riot casts a spotlight on the rights of the incarcerated, particularly for persons of color.īut for those with time and money, October 1 marks the opening of a new vacation resort in central Florida, a place for escape. In August, the first official Women’s Equality Day is recognized. In May, anti-war and pro-peace activists effectively shut down Washington, D.C., and the Chicano Moratorium Movement begins an 800-mile march from the U.S-Mexico border to Sacramento, protesting racial discrimination and advocating for political reform. In March, Frank Kameny becomes the first openly gay candidate for U.S. Both the Cold War and the Vietnam War drag on.
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