Hidden History & Park Culture

Hiding in plain sight

The petrified tree

On July 11, 1956, two days before their thirty-first anniversary, Walt and Lillian Disney stopped at Pike's Petrified Forest, outside Colorado Springs. Lillian waited in the car. Walt took the tour, paid 35 cents for it, and then paid $1,650 for a stump of petrified wood about ten feet tall and five tons in weight. His brother Roy remembered him coming back to the car with a line for his wife: "Honey, I bought you an anniversary present" (Walt Disney Family Museum).

The stump never went home. Walt's letter to the seller asked for it to be shipped straight to Disneyland. The plaque beside it on the Rivers of America reads "Presented to Disneyland by Mrs. Walt Disney – September, 1957." An early draft of the plaque included the joke "too large for the mantle," but it did not make the final version. The wood comes from a tree that once stood more than 200 feet tall, and it is between 55 and 70 million years old, which makes it the oldest thing in the park (Walt Disney Family Museum).

Other things to look for

The table draws on Attractions Magazine.

From A to E: the ticket books

For its first three months Disneyland had no ticket books. Guests paid $1 at the gate and then 10 to 35 cents for each ride. On October 11, 1955, the park began selling books of coupons. An adult book cost $2.50, and rides were graded A, B or C, with the best rides taking a C (D23; Yesterland).

The grades kept climbing. A D ticket arrived in 1956, and the Jungle Cruise was promoted to it. In 1959 the E ticket was introduced for the year's new headliners (D23; Yesterland).

In 1959 the "Big 10" book cost $3.50 for adults and held one A, one B, two C, three D and three E tickets. The "Jumbo 15" cost a dollar more. By 1963 a single E ticket had a face value of 60 cents (Yesterland).

The ticket books ended in 1982, when Disneyland switched to an all-inclusive Passport. Annual passports reached Disneyland in June 1983, first for Magic Kingdom Club members, then for everyone the next year (D23).

Star Wars before Galaxy's Edge

The partnership began in the 1980s. Michael Eisner, who had run Paramount when it released Raiders of the Lost Ark, came to Disney wanting rides for teenagers and young adults, and George Lucas was interested (CinemaBlend). The first result was Captain EO, the 1986 3D film, a Disney collaboration with Lucas (AllEars).

• 1987: Star Tours. Built by Imagineering with Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic, it sent guests to Endor with a nervous robot pilot, RX-24, who missed the moon and flew a Death Star trench run instead. Disneyland stayed open for 60 hours straight to handle the crowds (CinemaBlend).
• 2006: Jedi Training Academy. A lightsaber show for children became a permanent part of Tomorrowland; it later became Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple (AllEars).
• 2011: Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, with C-3PO at the controls and randomly chosen destinations (Disney Parks Blog).
• November 2015: Season of the Force. Space Mountain became Hyperspace Mountain, and Star Wars Launch Bay replaced Innoventions in Tomorrowland (Wikipedia: Space Mountain; AllEars).

The Tomorrowland chapter has more on Star Tours, and the Galaxy's Edge chapter picks up the story from 2015.

The characters in costume

The first Mickey, Minnie and friends to walk the park did not come from the studio. According to Disney historian Jim Korkis, the earliest character costumes at Disneyland were borrowed from John Harris's Ice Capades (Walt Disney Family Museum).

The first true Disney costumes were designed by Bill Justice, an animator who became an Imagineer. He said he designed more than 130 of them. Casting was part of the job. To find a Donald Duck, Justice went looking around Los Angeles for, in his words, someone with a three-inch neck and webbed feet. His first choice wanted $200 every time he put the suit on, so the job went to a bowlegged performer who, Justice said, looked better in it anyway. Disneyland has had a Donald ever since (Walt Disney Family Museum).

Justice remembered Walt's priorities in order: first the performer's comfort and safety, then faithfulness to the animated character. A costume should move as its character would, so a Donald who kicks like a Rockette is wrong for a duck's proportions. And Walt saw the characters as the park's great advantage over any other: "Only we have our characters" (Walt Disney Family Museum).

Parking through the years

In 1955 the parking lot sat right in front of the gate. Advertising promised room for 12,175 cars, at 25 cents for the whole day. It grew to 15,167 spaces. Lettered sections were later named for characters, and guests found their cars by the high-voltage towers that crossed the lot. A free tram ran to the entrance (Yesterland).

From Yesterland and Attractions Magazine. Yesterland counts 6,500 spaces in Pixar Pals; Attractions Magazine says more than 5,000.

Lifers: the people who stayed

Oscar Martinez, 60 years in the kitchen

Oscar Martinez started at Disneyland on December 29, 1956, about eighteen months after it opened. He bused tables, then cooked on the grills at Fantasyland's quick-service stands. In 1967 he moved to the Carnation Café on Main Street, and he stayed there for half a century. His breakfast potatoes became famous enough to carry his name, and he trained grill cooks for Tokyo Disneyland. His favorite memory was seeing Walt walk through the park. He retired in September 2017 as the longest-serving cast member in Disney's parks. "Oscar has created magic for more than 60 years," said resort president Michael Colglazier (Laughing Place).

Bob Gurr, the man behind the wheels

Bob Gurr joined Disney before the park opened and drove an Autopia car in the opening-day parade on July 17, 1955 (WDWNT). Over nearly four decades at Imagineering he produced more than 100 designs: the Autopia cars, the Monorails, the Matterhorn bobsleds, the Flying Saucers, and the antique cars and double-decker buses on Main Street. He summed up his career in one sentence: "If it moves on wheels at Disneyland, I probably designed it." He retired in 1981 and was named a Disney Legend in 2004 (D23). In 2026, for the park's seventieth year, he was still telling the story of that first parade (WDWNT).

Other long careers run through this guide: Wally Boag on the Golden Horseshoe stage, Tony Baxter from Big Thunder to Indiana Jones, and Herb Ryman from the first drawing of the park to the castle's colors.

Disney adults

"Disney adult" is a name for grown-ups who love the parks, often visiting without children and often many times a year. It is frequently used as an insult. WDWNT traces a recent wave of criticism to a widely shared Reddit thread about a bride who paid for Disney characters at her wedding instead of dinner for her guests, which became the subject of a Rolling Stone article (WDWNT).

The critics' case, as WDWNT summarizes it: the parks are made for children, the hobby looks childish in adults, the most visible fans can afford frequent and expensive visits, and adults crowd lines that families with small children are waiting in. Scholars quoted in the same piece point out that much of the scorn lands on young women, and that fandoms seen as "feminine" are often mocked.

The defenders' case: the parks offer joy and escape, a hobby shared with a spouse or friends, and a safe place. Lehigh University religion professor Jodi Eichler-Levine put it plainly: "Disney fans are not diseased." Cultural historian Sabrina Mittermeier calls the appeal "a lot of escapism" (WDWNT).

Both sides can point to Walt. As WDWNT notes, he designed the park for every age, not for children alone (WDWNT). The guide's opening chapter tells how the idea began on Saturdays when Walt sat on a bench while his daughters rode a merry-go-round, wishing for a place where parents could have fun too.