The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (66 page)

Main Street Cinema
 
(
Opening Day
Attraction)

[
FastView:
 
Historically important—and adorable, and funny—early
Mickey
cartoons, including
Steamboat Willie
.
]

This is one of the author’s favorite attractions on
Main Street
.  I rarely stay at the
Main Street Cinema
long, but when I visit the park I typically take a moment to breeze past
Tilly
, the mannequin ticket-taker seated in the glass-enclosed ticket booth outside the theater, pass through the old-fashioned turnstile, and watch a few moments of classic
Mickey Mouse
cartoons.

Because that’s what you’ll find on the bill at the
Main Street Cinema
, an
Opening Day
attraction where day or night, early morning or just before midnight, you’ll always see the original
Mickey
cartoons that started it all.  Until the 1980’s there were actual newsreels and silent films shown on the six miniature screens, but then it became all-
Mickey
, all the time.

Walt
owed everything to
Mickey
, and vice-versa.  Although he’d always been a go-getter and creative entrepreneur, and had helmed animation studios since he was in his early twenties,
Walt
had suffered some business betrayals and bad turns of luck that forced him to pull himself up by his own bootstraps more than once.  He’d lost control of the rights to his successful early creation
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
, for example, and had to start over, but
Walt
only needed to learn a lesson once.  He’d never again lose creative or marketing control of his creations.

It was only with the creation of
Mickey Mouse
and the wild success of
Mickey
’s talkie cartoon
Steamboat Willie
(1928) that
Walt
was finally able to found the animation empire whose success later led to many more triumphs in story-telling media as diverse as animated and live-action features, music, theme parks, Broadway, television, and the Internet.

Along with
Mickey’s Toontown
and the
Blaine Gibson
-crafted
Partners
statue in the
Central Plaza
(the
Hub
), the
Main Street Cinema
is one of the places in the park where one feels most keenly the deep, vital connection between
Disneyland
’s creator and his most famous and beloved creation.

The shorts playing in the theater have historical importance in terms of the
Disney Company
history, and in many cases have personal connections to
Walt
. 
Plane Crazy
was the first
Mickey Mouse
cartoon ever drawn. 
Ub Iwerks
drew it and
Walt
developed the story and
Mickey
’s character and essence.

Steamboat Willie
was the first successful synchronized sound cartoon, a landmark in animation history;
Walt
,
Ub
and the animation team created it and sweated over the sound synchronization;
Walt
spent nerve wracking weeks and precious dollars in New York City making sure the soundtrack was properly wedded to the film.  If
Steamboat Willie
had failed, it’s failure could’ve sunk the whole
Disney
enterprise; instead, its stunning success propelled
Walt
and his team forward to ever more entertaining and amazing animation achievements.

As a master storyteller,
Walt
followed the credo “Write what you know.”  Even though his main character was a fictional mouse,
Walt
imbued
Mickey
with his personality and found inspiration for many of the early cartoons’ plots and gags in his own life. 
Mickey’s Polo Team
echoes
Walt
’s interest in the sport; he encouraged a number of his staffers to learn polo, and they formed a studio team.  (Unfortunately, a polo injury would haunt
Walt
for the rest of his life; as he grew older, he would need daily treatments from a studio nurse to reduce the pain.)

Traffic Troubles
had its origins in
Walt
’s being stopped by a police officer while driving;
Walt
’s detailed and increasingly elaborate and humorous account of the incident when he arrived at the office developed into the
Mickey Mouse
short.

It’s easy to admire the
Main Street Cinema
from outside–its little marquee with its period popcorn lights, the colorful vintage posters and stalwart
Tilly
in her ticket booth–but then to hurry past it on the way to more dramatic thrills within the heart of the park.

But with its deep connections to
Walt
and to his animation empire, the
Main Street Cinema
, which concretizes the origin of all things
Disney
, is one of the truest and best hearts of the park.  It’s worth a glance inside, not only for its historical importance, but because those early
Mickey
cartoons of the late 1920’s and early-to-mid 1930’s–they’re darned funny!

In early 2010, the
Main Street Cinema
was sealed temporarily so that it could be refreshed and repainted.  As
Walt
always wanted,
Disneyland
is painstakingly maintained; even its most venerable attractions, like the
Main Street Cinema
, are periodically spruced up.  Guests visiting the
Main Street Cinema
when it reopened found it as fresh and bright as on
Opening Day
.

Did You Know?
 
Marceline, MO
is printed on
Tilly
’s employee name tag.  Although
Walt
was born in Chicago, his childhood was spent in
Marceline
and he considered that his childhood home. 
Tilly
’s name tag is probably the subtlest tribute to
Marceline
at the resort.  Look also for the
Hotel Marceline
on
Disneyland
’s
East Center Street
, and
Marceline’s Confectionary
in
Downtown Disney
.
Did You Also Know?
  Like many elements of
Disneyland
,
Tilly
’s costume gets a makeover for the holidays.  Around September, for example, look for her to be dressed in autumnal oranges and chocolate browns reminiscent of harvest festivals and Halloween.
Did You Also Know?
  From time to time the
Main Street
Cinema
deviates from its regular program.  In celebration of
Disneyland
’s 55
th
anniversary in summer 2010, for example, the
Cinema
presented highlights of
Disneyland
’s
Opening Day
and classic footage of the park’s early years. 
FastPass:
  No.  This is a self-guided attraction that’s rarely crowded, except on peak days. 
Kid’s Eye View:
  [
Whistles theme to
Steamboat Willie.]  I love the
Main Street Cinema
because it’s so cute!  There are a whole bunch of
Mickey Mouse
movies.  The ticket seller lady isn’t very lively.  Try my favorite,
Steamboat Willie
, the first [sound]
Mickey
ever.

Main Street Vehicles

[
FastView:
 
Rest your feet and travel back to bygone days riding one of
Main Street
’s beautiful old vehicles.
]

As the park’s design and attractions make clear,
Walt
liked kinetics, exciting moving elements.  He never wanted the park to be static.  He wanted the
Rivers of America
to bustle with a lot of different types of water craft, from the grand
Mark Twain
to the sleek
Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes
.  The shores of
Frontierland
would be in motion with
Stagecoaches
,
Conestoga Wagons
, and
Mule Packs
.

In
Fantasyland
, the gallant
King Arthur Carrousel
and adorable
Dumbo
vehicles whirled Guests to the limits of their imaginations.  Within a few years of the park’s opening,
Tomorrowland
became the transportation capital of the park, with craft plying land, sea, and air—
Autopia
cars,
Bobsleds
,
Monorails
,
Phantom Boats
,
Skyways
,
Submarines
, and so forth—even at one point
Flying Saucers
!

Similarly
, from the very beginning,
Walt
wanted
Disneyland
’s
Main Street
to be active and alive with period-appropriate transportation. Vehicles of the horse-and-buggy days and the combustion-engine days mingle on the streets of the hyperreal
Town Square
and
Central Plaza
(aka the
Hub
) and all points between.  The vehicles don’t just drive up and down
Main Street
like props, offering only visual interest to passing Guests.  Guests are able to board them, and are ferried between
Town Square
to the
Hub
.

Walt
turned to destined-to-be-a-legend
Bob Gurr
to design the
Main Street Vehicles
, just as he turned to
Bob
to design the
Autopia
cars, just as he would turn to
Bob
for the original
Monorail
designs, the
Matterhorn Bobsleds
, the
Haunted Mansion Doom Buggies
–just about any type of transport, and even non-transport projects like
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
.

Bob
was one of the old-school
Imagineers
who was on board before, during, and after
Opening Day
.  A hard-working and loyal but also funny man, he gave a terrific interview to Doobie Moseley at laughingplace.com on September 10, 1999. 
Bob
described how two small VIP kids he was chaperoning on
Opening Day
egged him into ramming another
Autopia
car, which turned out to contain Sammy Davis Jr. 
Bob
also gave a terrific example of
Walt
’s efficiency and leadership; within a couple of hours after telling
Walt
that he needed a shop and mechanics to keep the
Autopia
cars humming,
Bob
received a little wooden building delivered by a tractor dragging it on skids, and a small cadre of mechanics to repair and redesign the cars.