Mass tourism

Disneyland, the “happiest place on earth,” opened on July 17, 1955. Fifteen thousand invited guests and a sizable television audience anxious to catch a first glimpse of the park joined company founder Walt Disney (1901–66) and hosts Art Linkletter (1912–2010), Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), and Bob Cummings (1910–90) for the event. The program spoke volumes about tourism as it then looked. In particular, family and young people were everywhere. Cummings and Linkletter both brought their wives and children and the little ones were more than passive participants. Linkletter asked his kids which area of the park they were most anxious to see. Diane, his six-year-old, was itching for Fantasyland, “where Sleeping Beauty is.” Sharon, aged eight, hoped to see Frontierland, “when [sic] Davy Crockett fights the Indians.” The youngest, Robert, was set on a boat trip down “the Congo.” The eldest daughter, Dawn, dreamed of “a cruise to the moon in the rocket ship.”1 All of these things were possible.