Today I’m going to talk about the Nikita Khrushchev Disneyland story.
It’s the story of how in 1959 the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, visited
the United States and threw a bit of a hissy fit when he found out that he couldn’t go to Disneyland.
It’s a Disney story that has been told many times over the years.
However upon researching the topic to make my own video on it, I found that it wasn’t
as cut and dry as most retellings make it out to be.
In fact, one reporter, who was a part of the press junket the entire trip, considered it
a “propaganda masterstroke.”
By 1959 Nikita Khrushchev was already leading the Soviet Union for about six years.
It wasn’t the absolute hottest point in the Cold War but we were, without a doubt,
in the thick of it.
The hot topic was the divided Germany and West Berlin, ICBMs were already in play, and
just two years earlier Sputnik would be launched into orbit, kicking off the space race.
US and Soviet relations were, to put it lightly, not great.
There were attempts to try and improve relations, or at the very least keep them from worsening.
One of those attempts included the US inviting Khrushchev to tour the United States over
a 13-day trip in September of that year.
The trip took him from coast to coast and involved very busy days that varied from formal
occasions such as speaking at the UN to touring corn farms.
Now here’s the thing: Americans at the time were generally in favor of the trip if it
meant deescalation.
However his welcome certainly wasn’t a warm one.
There weren’t streets lined with cheering citizens.
Audiences at many speaking engagements were, at best, silent and cold.
Even the Mayor of LA, Charles Poulson spoke out against Khrushchev’s “We will bury
you” phrase during his tour of the city.
For a leader coming from the Soviet Union where that kind of dissent was usually “taken
care of”, it comes as no surprise that he found himself getting disgruntled during the
trip on multiple occasions.
By the time the trip had begun, the idea of a pitstop at Disneyland was already considered
and subsequently ruled out for security and logistical reasons.
However the idea once again resurfaced during the trip and it was while Khrushchev and his
family were flying to LA that their teams on the ground were tasked with making it happen.
Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, who was Khrushchev's tour guide for the trip, reached out to LAPD
Chief William Parker to arrange the security for it.
The issue was, Disneyland was in Anaheim, and so it was outside of his jurisdiction.
So he reached out to the Orange County Sheriff to see if the trip was possible.
The sheriff felt it would be a difficult trip to police.
It was already too late in the day to clear out the park of guests, and with the crowds
Disneyland attracted, there weren’t enough officers to ensure Khrushchev's safety.
Like I said, it wasn't a warm welcome.
This is where the story splits.
As most tell it, Parker would ultimately veto the idea and later that day when told it wasn’t
happening, Khrushchev would throw his temper tantrum, which we’ll talk about in a bit.
However reporter Jim Fain, who was a part of the tour’s press junket, reported that
ultimately “the Orange County Sheriff offered to make available all the policemen he could
spare” and that the final decision on whether or not to make the impromptu trip was left
up to Soviet General Nikolai Zakharov, who was in charge of Khrushchev's safety.
It was Zakharov, alleges Fain, who made the call to veto the trip, which would mean that
it was the Soviets who axed it, not the US.
Later that day Khrushchev and his family would arrive in LA and he would end up touring 20th
Century Fox with his wife.
They got to watch the filming of a scene from the 1960 Shirley MacLaine film, Can-Can.
They attended a star studded luncheon with over 400 guests that
included the likes of Frank Sinatra, Gary Cooper, Bob Hope, and Marilyn Monroe.
Now at this point Khrushchev’s wife, Nina Khrushchev, was informed of the decision to
veto the Disneyland trip, but Nikita wasn’t.
As fate would have it, during the luncheon actor David Niven, chatting Mrs. Khrushchev,
asked if they were planning to visit Walt’s famous theme park.
She explained that they couldn’t make it.
As the tale goes Frank Sinatra leaned over to Niven at that point and supposedly said
“tell the old broad you and I will take ‘em down there this afternoon.”
It was around then, while Khrushchev was going to speak to the crowd, that Mrs.
Khrushchev decided to write him a note dropping the bad news about the Disneyland trip.
That is when he went on his somewhat famous rant about Disneyland.
He said:
“But just now I was told that I could not go to Disneyland.
I asked: ‘Why not?’
What is it, do you have rocket-launching pads there?
I do not know.
And just listen to what reason I was told.
We, which means the American authorities, cannot guarantee your security if you go there.
What is it?
Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something?
Or have gangsters taken over the place that can destroy me?
Then what must I do?
Commit suicide?
This is the situation I am in — your guest.
For me the situation is inconceivable.
I cannot find words to explain this to my people.”
The outburst raises some questions.
Did Khrushchev know that it was Zakharov, who allegedly shut down the plan, or was he
simply misinformed?
LAPD Chief Parker later claimed that the move had to have been political.
Why else would Mrs. Khrushchev wait until that very moment to drop the bad news on her husband?
Why not right after he spoke?
Why not earlier in the day?
Again, this was a trip in which Khrushchev was trying to find every opportunity to boast
about the Soviet Union, and so understandably getting to mock the safety concerns of a Disneyland
trip was a pretty nice target.
As Jim Fain would later put it, “it was a propaganda masterstroke and made headlines.
Only a few of us found time to check out what really happened and the stories we wrote never
really overtook the fast-moving news events of that aerial circus.”
Ultimately it wasn’t that big of a deal and to be honest it was never at risk of being a big deal
and in terms of the cold war it would end up a footnote to a footnote,
but it was an interesting example of how Disneyland occasionally wound end up
as a player in larger stories and it was a testament to Walt’s park that at only 4
years old, it was already such a popular destination for world leaders.
Oh and as for Khrushchev?
A few years later in 1963, during a goodwill tour to the Soviet Union, San Jose vice mayor
Joseph Pace arranged for a copy of the film, Disneyland USA, to be sent to Moscow so that
Khrushchev could, at least in spirit, finally visit Disneyland.