Midway to Main Street | How Disney's Anniversary Made "Something out of Nothing" @MidwaytoMainStreet | Uploaded February 2018 | Updated October 2024, 20 hours ago.
These days we see every park celebrate an anniversary every five years, and it’s become so common that we really don’t think twice about it. For many businesses it’s not normal to make a big deal out of these in-between anniversaries. Disney does it though, and it all started on Disneyland’s 30th anniversary.
Disney War by James B Stewart
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Now I might sound like a broken record to regular viewers of the channel, but when Michael Eisner stepped in as Disney CEO in 1984, the company was not in a great spot. They were in financial trouble, and part of resolving that meant increasing attendance at the Disney parks.
This lead to a number of initiatives by Disney, a few of which I’ve done videos on. One initiative was whipping up a celebration event where there otherwise wasn’t one. 1985 was right around the corner, and that meant Disneyland was about to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Now to be clear this wouldn’t be the literal first time Disneyland celebrated one of these in-between milestones. 15 years prior they’d celebrate their 15th anniversary. However like the milestone itself, the celebration was fairly mild and amounted to not much more than a few extra musical guests and a little ceremony. That wasn’t Eisner’s style however.
In an unusual move that deviated from Disney’s usual practice of using their own in-house team for marketing, the new CEO turned to two of his former Paramount colleagues over at Young and Rubicam Inc, a marketing agency in New York City. They were given Disney’s account and were put in charge of planning a five million dollar year long campaign for the anniversary.
Disney kicked off the year-long event with a two-hour prime time TV special in February of 1985 that was co-hosted by John Forsythe and Drew Barrymore and highlighted all of the prizes and events in store for the year. It worked, because that very same month hotels in the Anaheim area began to report record bookings, all due to the birthday celebration.
Disney partnered with General Motors and together offered perhaps more prizes in one year than we’ve ever seen at a single celebration. Every 30th guest at Disneyland that year won an unlimited use passport ticket for the park. Every 300th guest won a Mickey and Minnie plush toy collection. Every 3,000th guest won a special 30th anniversary wristwatch. Every 30,000th guest won a 1985 Pontiac Sunbird Chevrolet Cavalier. Every 300,000th guest won a 1985 Buick Century Custom Sedan or Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera LS and every 3 millionth guest won a 1985 Cadillac Sedan De Ville.
As a result Disney was giving away an average of two new cars every single day that year. That summer Disney would also celebrate the park’s 250 millionth guest with perhaps the biggest prize package that year.
On Saturday August 24th, Brooks Charles Arthur Burr of Seattle was the lucky 250th millionth visitor, and for it he won a 1985 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, 30,000 airline miles from PSA Airlines, a trip for two to Tokyo Disneyland, and two lifetime passes to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Oh yeah and Brooks? He was also three years old at the time he won. Talk about getting the most out of lifetime passes.
In addition to all of the prizes, the year long celebration was marked by a return of the Main Street Electrical Parade, a lineup of bands every night between the end of June and beginning of September, including musicians such as Cab Calloway, and a 24-hour celebration on Disneyland’s actual anniversary, July 17th.
During the ceremony that day 30,000 balloons were released into the sky, and the frequency of new cars were bumped from every 30,000 guests to every 3,000 guests. The anniversary was attended by Michael Schwartner and Christine Graes who 30 years prior were the first two children admitted into Disneyland. The anniversary was even celebrated outside of the park, with a charity concert held that August at the Hollywood Bowl for the Los Angeles Children’s Museum.
All in all, the year long event succeeded at bringing up park attendance. That summer the one-day record of 82,000 visitors was shattered. Even the local competition benefited, with Knotts Berry Farm seeing a rise in attendance that they attributed to the celebration. All this from a celebration that otherwise might have been looked over.
As one anonymous Disney executive put it when talking about the campaign: “We are making something out of nothing. Nobody celebrates 30th birthdays.” Yet that something out of nothing turned out to be one of the many ways in which Disney dug itself out of financial hardship and established itself as the powerhouse it is today.
These days we see every park celebrate an anniversary every five years, and it’s become so common that we really don’t think twice about it. For many businesses it’s not normal to make a big deal out of these in-between anniversaries. Disney does it though, and it all started on Disneyland’s 30th anniversary.
Disney War by James B Stewart
📚amzn.to/2stnghh
New here? Be sure to subscribe!
🔷goo.gl/x17zTL
My Patreon!
❤patreon.com/RobPlays
My Disney Podcast!
🎧ttapodcast.com
Follow me on Twitter!
📱Twitter.com/RobPlays
Now I might sound like a broken record to regular viewers of the channel, but when Michael Eisner stepped in as Disney CEO in 1984, the company was not in a great spot. They were in financial trouble, and part of resolving that meant increasing attendance at the Disney parks.
This lead to a number of initiatives by Disney, a few of which I’ve done videos on. One initiative was whipping up a celebration event where there otherwise wasn’t one. 1985 was right around the corner, and that meant Disneyland was about to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Now to be clear this wouldn’t be the literal first time Disneyland celebrated one of these in-between milestones. 15 years prior they’d celebrate their 15th anniversary. However like the milestone itself, the celebration was fairly mild and amounted to not much more than a few extra musical guests and a little ceremony. That wasn’t Eisner’s style however.
In an unusual move that deviated from Disney’s usual practice of using their own in-house team for marketing, the new CEO turned to two of his former Paramount colleagues over at Young and Rubicam Inc, a marketing agency in New York City. They were given Disney’s account and were put in charge of planning a five million dollar year long campaign for the anniversary.
Disney kicked off the year-long event with a two-hour prime time TV special in February of 1985 that was co-hosted by John Forsythe and Drew Barrymore and highlighted all of the prizes and events in store for the year. It worked, because that very same month hotels in the Anaheim area began to report record bookings, all due to the birthday celebration.
Disney partnered with General Motors and together offered perhaps more prizes in one year than we’ve ever seen at a single celebration. Every 30th guest at Disneyland that year won an unlimited use passport ticket for the park. Every 300th guest won a Mickey and Minnie plush toy collection. Every 3,000th guest won a special 30th anniversary wristwatch. Every 30,000th guest won a 1985 Pontiac Sunbird Chevrolet Cavalier. Every 300,000th guest won a 1985 Buick Century Custom Sedan or Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera LS and every 3 millionth guest won a 1985 Cadillac Sedan De Ville.
As a result Disney was giving away an average of two new cars every single day that year. That summer Disney would also celebrate the park’s 250 millionth guest with perhaps the biggest prize package that year.
On Saturday August 24th, Brooks Charles Arthur Burr of Seattle was the lucky 250th millionth visitor, and for it he won a 1985 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, 30,000 airline miles from PSA Airlines, a trip for two to Tokyo Disneyland, and two lifetime passes to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Oh yeah and Brooks? He was also three years old at the time he won. Talk about getting the most out of lifetime passes.
In addition to all of the prizes, the year long celebration was marked by a return of the Main Street Electrical Parade, a lineup of bands every night between the end of June and beginning of September, including musicians such as Cab Calloway, and a 24-hour celebration on Disneyland’s actual anniversary, July 17th.
During the ceremony that day 30,000 balloons were released into the sky, and the frequency of new cars were bumped from every 30,000 guests to every 3,000 guests. The anniversary was attended by Michael Schwartner and Christine Graes who 30 years prior were the first two children admitted into Disneyland. The anniversary was even celebrated outside of the park, with a charity concert held that August at the Hollywood Bowl for the Los Angeles Children’s Museum.
All in all, the year long event succeeded at bringing up park attendance. That summer the one-day record of 82,000 visitors was shattered. Even the local competition benefited, with Knotts Berry Farm seeing a rise in attendance that they attributed to the celebration. All this from a celebration that otherwise might have been looked over.
As one anonymous Disney executive put it when talking about the campaign: “We are making something out of nothing. Nobody celebrates 30th birthdays.” Yet that something out of nothing turned out to be one of the many ways in which Disney dug itself out of financial hardship and established itself as the powerhouse it is today.
