Did you make a trip to Disneyland back in the day? (Photo: Loomis Dean/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images)
On Sunday, July 17, 1955, the “Happiest Place on Earth” opened. To mark the 60th anniversary of Disneyland fun in California, we’ve collected your photos and memories of opening day, magical mishaps, and even meeting Mr. Walt Disney himself!
A Mechanical Hippo Ate My Sword!
In 1957, I was nine, and my family took a road trip from Montana to California to visit Disneyland. It was our first day in the park, and I remember almost immediately buying a Zorro sword at the souvenir stand. One of our first adventures was going on the Jungle Cruise. As you’re going down this river maze, crocodiles and other animals come off the shore and rise out of the water with their jaws wide open. When a hippo came up, our boat operator pulled his revolver out of his holster and shot into the hippo’s mouth; the hippo plunged under the water again. I was in the back of the boat when a hippo popped up with his open jaws. I jabbed him in his mouth with my Zorro sword, but before I knew it, the sword had been pulled out of my hand, and the hippo went back under with my sword still in his mouth. I was devastated that that crummy hippo stole my sword, and I never did get a new one.
–Steve Matz, Billings, MT
My Magical Train Ride With Mr. Disney
In 1955, Walt Disney was everything to a five-year-old. This was the man who’d brought us 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and that wonderful Nautilus. How could one person bring all of this to people our age? And to top it off, he was building an amusement park in California! As great as it sounded, Disneyland in California seemed as unreachable as nirvana to a little kid in Denison, Texas.
To my shock, Dad announced that we were going to the opening of Disneyland. It was too much for me to comprehend, but one morning, we were up before the sun and headed west.
The week after the VIP opening found us sitting in a vast parking lot with about a dozen cars scattered here and there. Eight o’clock came and went, and those of us in the lot just kept looking at one another. Nothing was happening.
Finally, someone came out and waved us through the entrance. I hit the ground running. From the minute we got inside, I was in a fantasyland. It was a living, breathing movie set, and I was right in the middle of it! Main Street led to a plaza with a futuristic clock that was so popular in the ’50s. We walked down a lane with a river on our left and saw the large riverboat pull away. Just ahead was the princess’s castle. I begged Dad to shoot everything with our Kodak Brownie.
Meanwhile, I was keeping an eye out for other surprises, and lo and behold, I saw him! There he was, sitting on a built-in bench, puffing on his pipe, and just looking around with this big grin on his face: the Walt Disney.
I couldn’t approach him. That would be like approaching the Wizard of Oz, except Walt was real. After I pestered, my dad finally walked up and asked him, “Excuse me, but my son seems to think you’re Walt Disney.” Mr. Disney stood up, smiled, and stretched out his hand. “Well, he’s right. How do you like my park?” From then on, it was a blur. I shook his hand, and he said hello to my mother and older sister. I was too dazed to remember anything else for a while, but luckily we captured this photo of my mom, me, and the man himself.
But it got better: As we stood in line to ride the real steam-engine train, Walt Disney walked up and asked Dad if it would be all right if I rode up in the engine cab with him. Dad said sure. It was Walt’s train, after all! Mr. Disney slowly pushed the throttle forward, and the beautiful steam engine began to puff. I sat in Mr. Disney’s lap, with my hand also on the throttle, as he pointed out things in the park he was particularly proud of getting finished before the opening. We made one complete circuit, and then Dad and I said our goodbyes to Walt Disney.
–Larry Williams, Tomball, TX
Oops! I Dropped My Purse
In 1961, on our family trip to Disneyland, we were waiting in line to go on the Jungle Cruise. I let my daughter, Dawn, hold my purse, but before long, she dropped it in the murky water. It sank like a rock. I notified the attendants, who said a diver would retrieve it. We waited about an hour, and finally, a man dressed in a wet suit came along and jumped into the water in front of us. The pool turned out to be only two feet deep and came up to his knees. My husband, Tom, said that if he had known the water was that shallow, he would have jumped in himself!
–Dorothy McMaster, Lake Havasu City, AZ
It Must’ve Been Magic
When I was a kid, we used to visit my grandparents in the Los Angeles area, and we really looked forward to trips to Disneyland.
When you’re a child, you think everything is real. It never occurred to me that the Matterhorn was a fake mountain—it was tall, and there was snow on it, so of course it was real! You see things with different eyes as you grow older, naturally, and somewhere along the line, it dawned on me that the submarine ride didn’t actually go into the ocean and under the polar ice caps. But even as I moved into adulthood, Disneyland stayed a magical place to me.
Once, when I was in my 20s, I went to Disneyland with another adult friend. As it got dark, parents were leaving in droves with their tired kids, so rides that had had long lines were now wide-open. We were standing in line for the It’s a Small World ride, and there was a woman on what looked like a lifeguard tower overseeing the ride and directing people into the boats. I heard her say, “You can get into the boat now, Peggy!”
Immediately, I was flushed with joy. It really is magic here; they even know your name! My friend brought me down to earth by pointing out that I’d bought Mickey Mouse ears earlier in the day, and my name was written on the back of the hat. I think it says a lot for the Disney experience, though, that a college-educated, responsible adult’s first impulse was magic, not logic.
–Peggy Oels, Glendale, AZ
The Osmond Brothers Sang to Me
In the summer of 1962, when I was 22 years old, my brother-in-law decided we should visit Disneyland. My favorite memory occurred during our burger lunch at the playhouse. Some boys were performing there that day, so my brother-in-law called them over to our table, and they sang two songs for us. They were cute and had wonderful voices, so it was very special. Later that fall, we saw them again, on The Andy Williams Show, and it turned out they were the Osmond Brothers! Another customer at Disneyland had caught their act and told Andy Williams about them; the rest is history.
–Roxanne Wieken Larsen, White Bear Lake, MN