Before there was the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones, there was Black Sunday at Disneyland. The park’s disastrous opening on July 17, 1955 was so embarrassing that it was years until Disney stopped claiming that the next day was Disneyland’s debut.
The Disney parks are so well known for being finely tuned productions that it’s hard to believe just how bad things were the first day the public experienced the park.
Let’s take a look at the problems that arose during what cast members named Disneyland’s Black Sunday…
7. The broadcast
Image © Disney.
ABC broadcasted the opening of Disneyland live on television with an event hosted by Walt Disney and his Hollywood friends Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald Reagan. Special celebrity guests included Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Thomas, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
It was total chaos. A lot of the guests tripped over the television camera cables, Cummings was caught kissing a dancer by the cameras, and Walt even stopped reading the plaque for Tomorrowland partway through when an off-camera technician spoke to him, forcing him to start over from the beginning. I wouldn’t want to have been that technician!
6. The fake tickets
Image © Disney.
July 17 was supposed to be an “International Press Preview” event only for journalists and celebrity guests, but things went awry due to people’s eagerness to visit the park. The cause of most of Disney’s headaches that day was a skilled forger who sold thousands of fake tickets to Disneyland’s opening day. 28,000 people attended the historic event, but half of those tickets were counterfeit, which is why Disney had only prepared to host his park for half that number.
5. The heat
July 17 was scorching, with temperatures reaching between 101 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on who you ask. It was so hot that women’s heels actually sunk into the asphalt because some of the cement had only been set the night before.
4. The plumber’s strike
Walt Disney had a difficult decision to make when he learned that Disneyland’s plumbers were going to go on strike in the middle of production. Understandably, he chose to focus their efforts on creating bathrooms instead of drinking fountains – but that didn’t stop the complaints.
3. Lack of refreshments
Because of all the extra guests, food and drinks ran out fast across the park. That left people not even able to pay to quench their thirsts.
2. Long lines
The lines for rides and attractions are pretty long at Disney parks nowadays, but they’re nothing compared to the lines on Black Sunday. Disneyland had 18 rides for 28,000 guests on its opening day – and the situation worsened as the day went on.
1. Rides shut down
Image via Flickr by Tom Simpson.
The lines got even longer when rides were forced to shut down. The most serious problem was a gas leak, which forced all of Adventureland, Frontierland and Fantasyland to be evacuated.
Image © Disney.
That first day may have been a catastrophe, but Walt Disney invited the attendees back Monday so they could “experience Disneyland properly” and by 2 a.m. the next morning crowds began to queue up for Day 2. Walt’s brother Roy O. Disney purchased the first official ticket, the first of 50,000 sold that day. Disneyland went on to sell over a million tickets in just 7 weeks, cementing the park as a massive success despite the events of Black Sunday. It took 24 hours longer than anticipated, but Walt Disney certainly fulfilled the promises he made in his opening day speech.
“To all who come to this happy place — welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America… with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. Thank you.”
— Walt Disney, July 17th, 1955
