So perhaps it all did begin with a fair: the World's Fairs and ancient fairs: all combined commerce and fun. What is unfair, as Harris (1997), Nye (1981), and Weinstein (1992) discuss, is that criticizing Disney for being commercial is like criticizing a duck for swimming. Fairs and expositions are part of Disneyland’s ancestry, where commerce was of primary importance, as was the showcasing of technology, especially technologies of the future. At the heart of these exhibitions from the very beginning:

Fairs had a special gift for looking backward and forward simultaneously, for making the pleasure principle acceptable by cloaking it with useful information. They also fed, as nothing before them had, the passion for searching out the next generation of consumables. (Harris, 1997, p. 24)

Harris reminds us that Disney openly catered to the existing taste of his audience as he had in film, instead of aiming for high- minded ambitions. At Disneyland, Walt concentrated on:

popular science, mass amusements, patriotic nostalgia, and industrialized mythology . . . . the Disney parks promoted a form of self-discovery, as revolutionary, perhaps as the Vauxhall experience once had been. The Disney parks… celebrated themselves and their audiences . . . . endowed visitors with new vision of themselves, lending dignity to the commercial culture that had been feeding their hearts and minds for so many decades. (Harris, 1997, p. 27)

Expositions also established another fundamental feature that would be important to Disneyland:

a periodically recurring rhythm of mass movement, a faith in destination as social restorative, a system of travel designed to reaffirm belief—in the future, in the past, or especially for Twentieth-Century Americans, in one another . . . the transforming dream, so long nurtured by the expositions, that search for social happiness remained in place. (Harris, 1997, p. 27)

Later Disney would return the favor, and would create four different exhibits for the 1964 World’s Fair, that would later find homes at Disneyland: "Ford’s Magic Skyway"; "It’s a Small World," sponsored by Pepsi; "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" for the Illinois exhibit; and General Electric's "Progressland." These exhibits really put audioanimatronics on the map—mechanized repetition compulsion!

There was a pause in the international fairs from 1939-1962, and it was during that pause that Disneyland was born. One last influential ancestor needs to be considered, however, before we go to Disney’s more immediate influences, and that is the American amusement parks at the turn of the Twentieth Century. As previously noted, these parks were very much influenced by the expositions, and so, as the Ferris Wheel turns, we will park ourselves in these amusing places.

Amusement Parks

For Nye (1981) amusement parks are many things to many people and are “solidly part of the national experience as a pleasure of the multitudes.” They provide “escape, fantasy, otherworldliness, illusion, drama, total theater, spectacle; a safety zone of enjoyment, absurdity and release from the habits norms and rules of everyday life” (p. 63). The participant is invited into “a world of role-playing and the glories of play in its purest form in modes both ancient and futuristic” through the “dangerous, the absurd, the erotic, the hilarious and the weird . . . .” (p. 63).

Different functions of amusement parks include escape, technological exhibitions, social events, and the ultimate form of play. Nye (1981) views amusement parks as “an alternative world to daily life,” giving people “a chance to be something other than what they are,” and to live in a way that they are not able to outside the park, in a relatively consequence-free environment that allows people to take chances without any real risk. The parks can also be seen as “a fantasy, a stage set, a never-never land where one can walk out of his own world into a much more interesting one”(p. 66): the parks have an illusory and theatrical quality, with “happenings” or playlets occur at times, staged by costumed employees. A carnival spirit is present with strong elements of farce, foolery, and the absurd, causing our expectations to be violated or reversed—resulting in harmless surprise.

Nye (1981) notes that this allows us to experience the absurdity of the world without it being threatening. The illusory or imitative nature of amusement parks also allows us a riskless risk, an ability to take chances without taking them, to feel that we are in immanent danger without actually being in danger—we can experience terror vicariously—with all of the pleasures and none of the blood and guts (p. 72).

Nye (1981) also sees the amusement park as a “harmonious spectacle to be seen and heard and to be participated in with joy: “shapes sounds, movement combined in one great prospect that drew people into it.” As a visitor to Luna Park (one of the turn of the Twentieth Century amusement parks at Coney Island) noted: ‘it simply shouted of joyousness.” (p. 68). Nye notes that amusement parks can also be viewed as an extension of a backyard outing or family picnic in that they can provide a comfortable and safe family experience.

Another aspect of amusement parks is that they allow us a release from conventional behavior, because we become part of the show, and this participatory nature allows people to interact with each other in ways they normally would not, for example: striking up a conversation with strangers, and becoming “in a real sense, part of a collective unit, a partner in the day’s play; the rules of social separation are gradually relaxed, as at sporting events and traffic accidents” (Nye, 1981, p. 70). Amusement parks are founded on the “culture of hilarity,” not the culture of decorum. Steeplechase’s founder George Tilyou summarized it this way: “the spirit of place encourages visitors to cut loose from repressions and restrictions, and act pretty much as they felt like acting—since everyone else is doing the same thing” (p. 68).

If we look at amusement parks as an extension of construction and transportation technology, as Nye (1981) suggests, “they push technology beyond rational limits toward parody” where they are “burlesqued into a child’s game” beyond the rational work a day realm and to enter “the comic realm where they are transposed to nonutilitarian uses of pleasure, excitement, awe, and counterfeit danger” (p. 71). Our technology is released from its conventional behavior and takes us along too, for the ride!

Finally, Nye (1981) sees amusement parks as the “closest approximation to the total play experience” (p. 73). Using Caillois’s categories of games, Nye conjectures that an amusement park is a play field, where visitors come to be both participants and spectators. “It is a place of action, noise, color and confusion which people enter only to play, filled with nothing but devices and situations to help them do so.” He concludes the article remarking: “Nowhere else in modern life may one put together in the space of a few hours and with such minor expenditure of money and energy so complete a play experience” (p. 73).

Coney Island’s Influence

Although Walt Disney distained Coney Island, the modern American amusement park was born at that seaside resort in 1895. Coney Island, once the home of rabbits called “conies,” was a languid seaside resort which became a “frenetic amusement center” as electricity and rides from World’s Fairs’ midways made their way there, along with unsavory elements of all kinds. The area was later fenced in and three amusement parks, Steeplechase, Luna Park, and Dreamland, operating side by side, flourished there from 1904 – 1910. During this “classic period” at Coney Island, Weinstein (1992) notes, the practice of selling leisure as a commodity essentially began. These parks were places of family entertainment—only soft drinks were sold, and attractions were designed with women and children in mind. And boy, were these parks popular! In 1904, there were 10 million paid admissions to Luna Park, the largest and most popular park—almost 100,000 each day—between 1904 and 1910, as many as 20,000,000 people in combined attendance visited the three parks (p. 143).

The parks at Coney Island contributed significant elements to outdoor amusement that would later manifest in full bloom at Disneyland. Sea Lion Park was the first and most short-lived of these amusement parks, opening in 1895. Sea Lion Park contained water rides, trained animal acts, aquatic exhibitions and a ballroom. Its most famous ride "Shoot the Chutes," the earliest large-scale water ride, was retained by Luna Park after Sea Lion Park closed in 1902. Sea Lion Park was an aquacade-marinelife park and its descendents include Sea World and other themed parks that revolve around water.

In 1897, Steeplechase was opened and its owner George Tilyou “linked technology to amusement and commodified leisure to a high degree” and Steeplechase is “the prototype of the modern amusement park.” (Weinstein, 1992, p. 155) This park had the first "Ferris Wheel" and the "Trip to the Moon" illusion ride was also located here before Luna Park opened. Tilyou acquired both of these rides after seeing them at the Columbian and Pan American Expositions of 1893 and 1901 respectively. Tilyou designed, built, and patented the "Human Roulette Wheel," the "Earthquake Floor," "Razzle Dazzle," "Blow Hole," and the "Electric Seat."

Steeplechase, catering to a working-class clientele, was known for its rapid motion rides, which provided a convenient way to break with Victorian standards since people were often jostled together, skirts flying up or hats blowing off. Steeplechase offered sideshows, fun houses, and a wooden racetrack which circled the park. Steeplechase can be considered a carnival-type park. In this carnival atmosphere, there was a feeling of communitas, where essentially everyone is the same and feeling of camaraderie abounded; a characteristic of liminality often seen during pilgrimages, festivals, and initiations: “observed too was democracy at Coney island, a mingling of individuals of all ranks and classes, college men and factory workers dining next to each other, the disregarding of character or station, equality being taken for granted joyfully” (Weinstein, 1992, p. 143).

Perhaps the most influential park that preceded Disneyland was Luna Park, which was built in 1903 and named for the "Trip to the Moon" illusion ride. Luna Park’s owner, Frederic Thompson, a former architecture student and carnival worker, structured Luna Park's attractions in terms of themes—historical, geographic, or cultural. Thompson “realized more than any other showman of his day, the importance of building design, illusion, spectacle and ambiance in outdoor amusement” (Weinstein, 1992, p. 138). Luna Park emphasized physical appearance, and the creation of illusions. Weinstein explicates:

Thompson believed in the spirit of gaiety and emotional excitement in a park must be manufactured—via scenery, lights, shows, and buildings. An “other world,” a fantastic fairyland or dream city, must be created. Something extraordinary should be going on in every part of the park. The crowd should take part in the festivities, people should not want to sit on the benches and admire the physical structures . . . . He sought to maintain decency in the park and required employees to be courteous at all times. Luna Park was the first amusement park to present the live spectacular show, a recreation of some disaster or an actual public event . . . . Such authentic and re-creative exhibitions of death or catastrophe appealed to a turn of the century public’s fascination for horror, desideration for vicarious experiences, and apprehension of very sudden tragedy in a technological world. Luna Park also introduced nighttime entertainment with its 250,000 incandescent light bulbs and late hours of operation. In guide books, Thompson’s creation was called appropriately “Electric City by the Sea.” (p. 138)

Luna Park was copied a year later by Dreamland located across the street, which featured grand architecture, on a scale not witnessed since White City. The Luna and Dreamland parks can be considered the “theme/fantasy branch of the amusement tree” (Weinstein, 1992, p. 156) with which Disneyland has the most affinity. Luna Park’s great contribution was its “structuring of amusements in terms of themes and creation of a fantasy world” (p. 155), which would become mainstays of theme parks beginning in the 1950s with Disneyland. According to Frederic Thompson, Luna Park’s originator:

The park was “pleasure to the multitude.” It should never be serious, but entertaining; it must be “different from ordinary experience”; it must have “life, action, motion, sensation, surprise, shock, swiftness, or else comedy.” Those who paid to get in wanted innocent fun, not morality or education . . . they wanted “elaborated child’s play” the amusement park, he continued should be “frankly devoted to fun, the fantastic, the gay the grotesque” (Nye, 1981, p. 65)

The modern American amusement park was “a place of participation, jostle, light, color, activity,” not a pastoral retreat, but a journey into an intensified version of urban life, mixing with the same crowds in a different context. It was, as visitors described it: “‘catching the full live sense of humanity’ . . . ‘essentially a place of merriment . . . there is no other reason for going there’” (Nye, 1981, p. 65).

Enclosing the park and charging admission allowed operators to establish control of who entered and what went on inside. The “riff raff”—gambling dens, brothels, girlie shows, and other undesirable elements could be kept out and an engineered environment could be created, “carefully planned to manipulate visitors into having fun but also spending money in an orderly safe relaxed atmosphere” (Nye, 1981, pp. 65-66).

Continued on page 3