BACKSTORY (1955—Present): Designed by Imagineer Harper Goff, Disneyland City Hall was inspired by the old courthouse of his home town Fort Collins, Colorado. City Hall functions as Disneyland's Guest Relations department. Cast members answer all kinds of questions here as well as with maps in English and a variety of other languages, entertainment schedules, special assistance passes for guests with disabilities, and directions to attractions outside the Resort. The hosts/hostesses can make a guest's visit even more special by allowing them to talk with Disney Characters on the Telephone, dial up a special Disney character for a child's birthday, and get autographed photos of characters.
Back in the day, guests might have heard:
"[insert name], Please call the Disneyland operator".
"[insert name], Please call the Disneyland operator".
One reader recalled hearing that over the PA system in the park, but had no idea what it referred to.
Thanks to Cox Pilot, the mystery is solved:
Those "names" were actually codes for security and cast members to set situations or alert security to go to a certain area. Security did not have radios the early days days.
Many thanks to Cox Pilot for another great story from Disneyland's history!
Recently, a friend sent me a link to a YouTube video titled, “Disneyland’s Abandoned Police Station — And the Mystery Hiding Inside” from Hey Brickey! The video breathlessly begins with the ginger-bearded Brickey dramatically discussing the topic:
Friends, you have walked past it, in fact every single one of us has ignored this building. Just through Disneyland’s left entrance tunnel, there is a building that almost nobody notices. This building was the Disneyland Police Department, and when Disneyland opened 70 years ago, it opened with a real Police Force. As we learned, there were real crimes happening! But how could one of the very first buildings that you see when you walk into the Park end up being one of the least documented buildings in Disneyland’s 70 years?
Wait a minute…a Police Department building at Disneyland? How did I not notice this before? Brickey goes on to give my site a nice little credit:
When you have an idea for a video, and you go over to davelandweb.com, probably the largest public collection of vintage Disneyland photos and you realize good old Dave doesn’t have any photos of the Disneyland Police Department, you know you’ve struck obscure gold!
One of the photos Brickey uses from my collection in his video is this previously posted shot of a Security Officer at the Park in Town Square (photo #1 below). I ended up going down a rabbit hole one evening that lasted until midnight, as I combed through every shot I could find of the Disneyland Police Department office which was on the left-hand side of City Hall in Town Square. It’s really not all that shocking that this small portion of City Hall was rarely photographed. In 1955, who would enter Disneyland and say, “Hey, I can’t wait to photograph the Police Department!” The answer would be: nobody. As Walt intended, guests were focused on the Castle as soon as it came into view in Town Square. A tree planted in front of the Disneyland Police Department made it nearly impossible to capture, and if you only have a roll of 20-24 exposures on your 35mm film camera, you’re not going to waste it on that! While I appreciate being alerted to this building by Brickey, his video does have a few fallacies to it. He attempts to say that the Keystone Kops were basically undercover cops. Not really; they were professional musicians. No overlap there, folks.
Images #2-5 below are from July 1955, #6 is from October 27, 1956, #7 is from 1957, #8-9 are from September 1958, #10 is from December 1959 and shows the sign removed, and #11 is from April 1965, showing the Tour Guide Office signage.
Daveland reader Lynda recalls the day that The Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, visited Disneyland in 1961:
It was a beautiful. warm day. There was security, but it didn't interfere with people moving about as normal. I remember being fascinated by the whole thing. Imagine, seeing Mr. Disney (as if that wasn't exciting enough) but a world leader from a far away land as well. The world was a much larger place back then. Indira Gandhi was there as well. We saw them several times, through the day. I remember that we heard a full band playing Dixie on the Mark Twain riverboat, and there standing on the deck were Walt Disney and Nehru waving to everyone. My dad had his tripod along with him that day (much to my mom's annoyance) and we had to stop while he got some footage. It appeared that Mr. Disney saw my dad and gave him a wave, at least by Dad's account.
