I just got back from a trip out of town, and so
this week I’m taking a break from the normal history video to make more of an op-ed piece
on Disneyland.
It’s an idea I’ve had for a while now, but some recent Disney news has presented
itself as the perfect opportunity to bring it up.
So today I’m going to talk about alcohol at Disneyland.
Just last week Disney released some exciting news about the planned cantina for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
We learned that the location is going to be called Oga’s Cantina
or Oh-ga's or Ooga's. I don't- however you pronounce it
and the press release teases that it’ll be somewhere where you might encounter either a friend or a foe.
However beyond just the colorful backstory and themed detailing, there’s one line in
the press release that has been making the news:
Now over on the east coast, this news isn’t really big news.
We knew a cantina was coming and it’s nice to finally get a name and some concept art,
but there’s nothing here to write home about.
However with the west coast Galaxy’s Edge being located in Disneyland, that last line
is a big deal, because with the opening of the cantina next year it will mark the first
time in Disneyland’s history that alcohol will be sold to the general public.
This decision directly conflicts with Walt’s original edict of keeping Disneyland a dry
park, and that’s upsetting some Disney fans.
Now I don’t want to be one of those outlets that cherry picks one or two angry tweets
and tries to pretend everyone is outraged.
The reality is that in the big picture most people are completely fine with this news.
In fact there are plenty of people thrilled with the idea.
However there are some who feel that Disney is making a mistake in going against Walt’s
wishes, and it’s that idea that I want to address.
In order to do that, we have to go back to 1955 and first ask: why?
Why was Disneyland a dry park?
Was Walt Disney part of the temperance movement?
Nope.
He, like most adults at the time, drank.
In fact not only did he drink, but he wasn’t opposed to serving alcohol at Disneyland during
special occasions either.
Many people like to point to the private club at Disneyland, Club 33, as an example of how
you can get alcohol at the park, but you don’t even have to go that far ahead to find it.
Just days prior to the opening of Disneyland they threw a 30th anniversary party at the
unopened park for Walt and Lillian, and it offered plenty of cocktails.
So we know for a fact that Disneyland wasn’t a dry park because of his personal stance
against alcohol, because he didn’t have one.
No, instead, it was a dry park because of the reputation that Walt was trying to cultivate
for Disneyland.
You see, up until that point, theme parks weren’t a thing.
There were amusement parks and carnivals and state fairs though, and they all carried a
somewhat poor reputation.
So it was important to Walt to make sure that Disneyland wasn’t written off by everyone
as just another another one of those.
Now Walt and his team would ultimately make countless decisions to try and ensure that
Disneyland stood out from the rest as being different, but I want to focus on just two.
One was that it was decided that male cast members at Disneyland had to be clean shaven.
It was the dominant style at the time, and Walt wanted to make sure that there was as
little chance as possible of cast members being looked upon as carnys, or carnival workers,
who were often thought of as being unsavory characters.
The other was the decision to not offer any alcohol at the park.
During an interview in 1956 Walt was quoted as saying: "No liquor, no beer, nothing.
Because that brings in a rowdy element.
That brings people that we don't want and I feel they don't need it.”
That quote is crucial, because it goes beyond just the decision and offers us insight as
to the reasoning behind it.
Let’s be blunt: he didn’t want his Disneyland park crawling with a bunch of drunk idiots,
and really, nobody can blame him for that when that’s part of what you’d get at
carnivals and state fairs at the time.
So the policy made sense.
Now it’s over 60 years later and times have changed.
In short, Walt’s decisions worked.
We don’t typically think of Disneyland as just another amusement park or carnival today.
However beyond that our culture has changed.
The reason I mentioned the rule about facial hair is because it was a rule that was eventually
dropped because we don’t live in a time where having a beard or mustache makes us
think of carnival workers.
We generally don’t think that having a beard means you're somehow untrustworthy or dirty.
Disney, focusing on the spirit of the rule rather than the letter, still requires that
the facial hair is still well maintained and neat.
That’s the right idea, and since beards are less controversial than alcohol, you didn’t
see many instances of people lamenting the loss of Walt’s legacy by changing the rule.
So is Disneyland about to draw in that rowdy element now that the Star Wars cantina is
about to start serving alcohol?
No.
Anyone who has been to the Magic Kingdom since Be Our Guest started offering alcohol can
tell you that much.
And the answer is no because as we’ve seen through Disney’s policies, it’s not a
black and white or binary issue.
It’s proven that you can introduce drinks into the park in a way that reduces the ability
for someone to get drunk and rowdy, whether it’s limiting the drinks to the venue, limiting
the number of drinks per guest, or just slapping the drinks with those typical Disney prices
that would make it prohibitively expensive.
Now some might point to Epcot as a warning, and they wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
The whole tradition of drinking around the world has caused plenty of instances of rowdy guests.
But contrasted to the other parks at Walt Disney World, it just further proves that
it’s the implementation that matters, not the base decision to offer drinks.
As long as Disney remembers that, there won’t be a problem.
And so what we’ve seen Disney doing, and what I hope we’ll see all Disney fans doing
when it comes to these new changes, is worrying less about sticking to the literal word of
Walt’s wishes and decisions when it comes to the Disney parks, and instead focusing
on the spirit of those decisions.
Ultimately, it does a disservice to Walt to cling to old policies and not progress just
because they were his words.
We should being asking ourselves not what he wanted with the rules, but why he wanted them.
It’s only then can we properly adjust the current policies to reflect the spirit of
those rules while still bringing them up to reflect contemporary trends and cultures.
That’s how Disneyland can still remain Walt’s park without feeling antiquated.
Now I'd love to hear what you think on the topic.
Whether you're for the change, or against the change, or maybe you just don't care at all
Let me know in the comments below. Again, this is just my personal stance on the issue at hand
So I want to know what everybody else is thinking and get a dialogue going.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time!