Each time you visit a Disney theme park, one of Uncle Walt’s greatest treasures is hidden in plain sight. When you cross the threshold from reality into the Happiest Place on Earth, the first steps you take are on this path. It’s a tribute to a slice of Americana lost in time, one that arguably didn’t even exist.
This themed land reflects the way that Walt Disney remembered earlier days of his life. Through rose-colored glasses, he watched and learned as a child. When the time came to pass along those experiences to others, he meticulously detailed this place with all the things he could remember, some of which required a bit of artistic license. The fuzzy memories about the communal experiences at the gathering spot of a small town became the inspiration for what’s become the road most traveled at all of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. What follows is the secret history of Main Street, U.S.A., a place many theme park tourists take for granted but one that all of us visit each time we’re at the park.
The Transporter
If a Disney park visit were a movie, Main Street, U.S.A. is what we’d consider the trailer. Here, guests get their first view of the entire park. That initial glimpse of Walt Disney’s majestic creation has a single purpose. When a visitor sees this area, they should feel comfortable, like they’re at home. Disney loves to manipulate emotions, and the themed land just inside the park gates is the best opportunity to start the process. It’s the introductory phase for the rest of a day spent in the alternate realms of a Disney theme park.
At Main Street, U.S.A., the buildings and décor are reminiscent of the halcyon days of yore, a simpler era when towns weren’t so vast, so spread out. Instead, each municipal development had a center, a place where the residents knew that they could go to hang out and interact with their neighbors in a convivial atmosphere. Disney implements the same premise at all of their parks around the world. Independent of the state or country of residence, the concept is still recreated and thereby honored. This themed land is a social setting where everyone starts their day basking in the glow of Disney joy. That sensation is by design.
Have you ever looked at a map of Disneyland or Magic Kingdom from their opening days? All of the paths to new themed lands are possible from turns at the plaza area, the spokes from the hub in park planner parlance. How does a person reach the plaza? They must cross through Main Street, U.S.A.
As open-ended and diversified as a theme park visit is, Uncle Walt dictated this style of park navigation from the start. Guests had to travel down a main throughway to reach everything else. In terms of city structure – and make no mistake that Disney theme parks are functional cities – Main Street, U.S.A. is the capitol, the place where cast members handle the basic tasks of a park day. Uncle Walt always meant for this place to operate as the heart and soul of the theme park experience.
The first themed land past the gate is where Disney transports visitors to a different world, and they achieved this effect by making the first themed land so familiar and welcoming. The town is even transitional in nature, mirroring the transformation of the guest from outsider to beloved visitor. Main Street, U.S.A. embodies that turn of the 20th century feel as Americans moved on from the technology of gas power into the modern age of electricity. The gas and electric lamps throughout the land demonstrate that change. Streetcars and horse-drawn carriages are similarly incongruous today but fitting for the era. During a time of hallmark change, simple pleasures still existed then, and Main Street, U.S.A. celebrates them with that special Disney style.
The Twin Cities
The design utilized for Main Street, U.S.A. is so distinctive that it has unintentionally caused two schools of thought. You’ll occasionally read that the town is an homage to Walt Disney’s childhood city, Marceline, Missouri. In recent years, a different school of thought has attacked that philosophy, arguing that it’s unmistakably a recreation of the architectural wonders of Fort Collins, Colorado. Supporters of this belief maintain that Imagineer Harper Goff handled most of the planning for Main Street, U.S.A. It’s logical that he’d mine his childhood for inspiration. What neither side likes to admit is that both arguments are true.
Walt Disney clearly stated terms to his Imagineer, Goff, about Main Street, U.S.A. He wanted a city from a simpler time, the halcyon days of yore when everyone in town acted friendly to one another and to strangers visiting for the first time. Uncle Walt offered thoughts and recollections about his own childhood with Goff and then moved along to other projects for a time. His Imagineer went to work in bringing those ideas to life.
Goff then returned to his hometown and took a lot of pictures of the memorable buildings there, especially the bank and city hall. When he returned to California, Goff shared the imagery with his boss, arguing that the classic look of these structures would comfort guests walking into Disneyland for the first time. Disney quickly agreed, and that’s how Fort Collins, Colorado, became the central inspiration for the look of several buildings at Main Street, U.S.A. Despite its dominant presence, however, Marceline, Missouri has a place throughout the themed land as well. As the place that defined Uncle Walt’s upbringing, it’s still the underlying reason for the entire theme.
To Walt Disney, Marceline IS Main Street. To Goff, the same is true of Fort Collins. For any person visiting the park, that answer is dependent on where and when they were raised. To them, Main Street, U.S.A. might mean their childhood rearing. Alternately, it might be more of a sign of how their grandparents once lived. The beauty of the construction is that it’s relatable to everyone in some distinct way.
The odd structures contained within
The problem with Uncle Walt’s grand designs for Disneyland was that they all came at a cost. With only $17 million to invest in the total project, Imagineers had to scrounge for change in the couch cushions whenever they could. Their creativity constantly warred against the financial outlay of the best ideas. What happened is that many people involved with construction learned how to stretch their budget. They employed their creativity in new ways, ones involving bargain hunting.
Have you ever admired the magnificent gas lamps that line the streets of Disneyland? They’re the real deal. One of Disney’s Imagineers discovered them in Baltimore, Maryland. The lamps are authentic 19th century antiques. What’s most impressive about them isn’t the style, though. It’s the price. A set designer for Disney who had transitioned to park construction discovered the pieces.
Since they were more than 150 years old back in the 1950s, the lamps were classified as scrap metal, and he acquired the lot of gas lamps…for three cents per pound. Yes, you pay more for light bulbs than Disney originally paid for the historic lamps that add to the idyllic setting of Main Street, U.S.A. As an aside, the person who found this deal was Emile Kuri. Fittingly, he won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea roughly three months prior to the opening of the park. He had a great 1955.
Oddly, the lamp posts aren’t even the strangest or cheapest acquisition that still exists at Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. today. The next time you study the flag pole, pay special attention to the black post that comprises the base. You’ll notice that it has a different style and structure. That’s not accidental. Kuri was driving around town when he noticed a car crash had upended an antique street lamp. It was now junk to any sane person who didn’t win a couple of Oscars for Best Art Direction.
Kuri, on the other hand, saw an opportunity. He offered a whopping five dollars for the displaced street lamp and even did the (literal) heavy lifting himself to carry it away from the scene of the accident. That ornamental lamp is now the base of flag pole. You’ve spent more on a cheeseburger at Disneyland than the corporation did in buying the object.
Windows to the souls of Disney Imagineers
Image: DisneyWalt Disney was a firm believer in the practice of crediting employees for their hard work. Uncle Walt led a team whose everyday triumphs delivered him a great deal of personal satisfaction. One of the ways he noted their contributions was through the windows of Main Street, U.S.A. And he started with a name that meant everything to him.
The second and third story windows of buildings on Main Street, U.S.A. are honorifics to those who helped Walt Disney bring Disneyland to life. In one instance, that’s a literal statement. Elias Disney fathered a boy named Walt, and his son later thanked his dad with a simple word: Contractor. The sign in the window on Main Street, U.S.A. lists the name of Uncle Walt’s father, his job title, and the year which Elias started working at the job that would pay for the upbringing of his children. It’s a humble, elegantly simple sign of gratitude from a son to his father.
More than 60 of these windows at Disneyland reflect the contributions of cast members. Ken Anderson, whose designs are instrumental to the timeless popularity of Fantasyland, is the Bait Co guy. X. Atencio is the operator of The Musical Quill – Lyrics and Librettos. This is a cheeky reference to the fact that Uncle Walt forced Atencio to change jobs, becoming a lyricist. Within a few months at the new gig, the man nicknamed X had already written Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me), a timeless classic still played today.
Some of the windows acknowledge people who never even worked for Disney. H. Draegart Barnard was one of Walt’s doctors who still had an integral part to play in the construction of Disneyland. He helped his friend/patient buy the land needed to construct Disneyland. For this reason, Dr. Barnard’s contribution is described as Real Estate! Houses Bought and Sold!
Image: DisneyFinally, perhaps the most appropriate tribute of all went to someone who never worked directly with Walt Disney and didn’t even join the company until long after Walt Disney’s death. His nephew, Roy E. Disney, recruited a proven Warner Bros. studio boss named Frank Wells to become President of Disney in 1984. For a decade, he worked tirelessly to improve the bottom line of the company. Wells is also credited with redeeming Disney animation after a significant down period. In 1994, Wells died in a helicopter crash, and his partner, Michael Eisner, was never really the same after that. Disneyland pays tribute to the contributions of Wells with a window over the Disneyana store that celebrates his hobbies as an avid adventurer. It reads, “Seven Summits Expeditions – Frank G. Wells – President.” In this manner, Disney continues to recognize the cast members responsible for the creation and upkeep of the Happiest Place on Earth.
Main Street, U.S.A. is a kind of comfort food to theme park tourists. We have a tendency to take it for granted since we’ve walked the pathways so many times before. Still, the sights and smells originating from this area reinforce the fact that we’re at a Disney theme park. Once we enter this themed land, we know that we’re about to leave all the struggles of the outside world behind, entering the Disney Bubble for a few glorious hours of escapism. It’s the place that puts us all on the path to pure joy, and that’s exactly how Walt Disney planned it. More than 60 years later, his design ideas still resonate, yet another credit to his amazing foresight.
