The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (136 page)

After recovering from the shock of stepping unexpectedly onto
Buena Vista Street
–tumbling down the rabbit hole, stepping through the looking glass, crash-landing in
Oz
–whatever metaphor you prefer–my sister and I realized we were not
quite
the only Guests there.

There were a few, a very few, other Guests scattered throughout the land, gazing about as dazedly as we.  The beauty and detail and depth of the land exceeded all expectations.  It seemed to take everyone who entered
Buena Vista Street
a moment to gather their wits.

No doubt at this point, some reader is shaking their head, thinking “For crying out loud, how astonishing could it
be
?  The
Imagineers
post maps and sketches and descriptions in advance.  Guests
had
to have had
some
idea of what to expect–especially
Annual Passholders
.”

And it’s true the
Imagineers
give sneak peeks of upcoming lands and attractions online and through venues in the parks.  But viewing a map here, a sketch there–it doesn’t begin to give you a sense of the perfection of this new land.

Sunshine Plaza
was
such
a kitschy mess–in a fun way, of course, and it had its glorious elements (the vast mosaic or the vintage
California Zephyr
rail cars) but it was nothing at all like the carefully planned, immersive lands one expects at a
Disney
park.

Buena Vista Street
was an amazing contrast to predecessor
Sunshine Plaza
.  At
Buena Vista Street
, everything flowed seamlessly into everything else.  Shape, color, texture, line, mass, architectural style–everything was exactly where it belonged, and the whole was as pleasing as any single detail.

The
Imagineers
had done what they do best, when given the budget and the freedom.  They had brought a dream to life to tell a story.  They had gutted
Sunshine Plaza
.  They had painstakingly researched the landscape of 1920’s & 30’s Los Angeles and Hollywood, and they had painstakingly researched
Walt
’s history during that era.  They had taken the styles, the landmarks, the materials, the music, the patterns, the history, the achievements, the flavors of that lost world, and fitted them together in a three-dimensional collage of that time, place, and man.

Buena Vista Street
envelops us, but it is not a real street.  It is an artfully constructed dream, a mosaic of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne and vivacious jazz, of the places
Walt
lived and worked when he was a very young entrepreneur and mogul.  The
Imagineers
have in some sense injected us into
Walt
’s memories of that time.

It is a tremendous accomplishment.  Not every Guest will understand it–nor do they need to. 
Some will grab a sandwich and coffee at the café, and listen to the jazz band, and buy a
Red Car Trolley
T-shirt at the department store, and be oblivious to the deeper echoes and meanings surrounding them.  But they will
feel
it.  They will sense the land’s deep authenticity, and it will enrich their time at
DCA
.

My sister and I
wandered slowly through
Buena Vista Street
, not wanting to miss a thing.  There was an old-time service station on the outskirts of
Buena Vista Street
, named
Oswald’s
in honor of
Walt
’s original break-out animated character,
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
–the character whose loss forced
Walt
to create
Mickey Mouse
.  When you see a business called
Oswald’s
, you know we are going deep here; we are going back to the beginning with
Walt
.  We are making a pilgrimage through his origin story.

This is small-town L.A. and Hollywood,
before
they blossomed into the glamour of the late 1930’s, 40’s & 50’s, and well before their decay from the late 1960’s onward.  This was the landscape
Walt
found when he arrived in 1923.  It was a small town that was going to do big things.  It was the perfect place for an almost-penniless genius from the Midwest to follow his dreams.

Next to
Oswald’s
, we saw the
Chamber of Commerce
(akin to
Main Street
’s
City Hall
), and then the
Los Feliz Five & Dime
.  A five-&-dime store was the only place
Walt
and older brother
Roy
could shop in the early, struggling days, and they briefly lived and worked in the
Los Feliz
area.

Across from the
Los Feliz Five & Dime
is a trolley stop for the
Red Car Trolleys
that evoke the
Big Red Cars
that
Walt
and his youthful employees would have ridden; also,
Kingswell Camera Shop
;
Kingswell
was the site of the first real
Disney
studio (1923 – 1925).  And there is
Julius Katz & Sons
–a nod to one of
Walt
’s early characters–and a sign for
Atwater Ink & Paint
, referencing a neighborhood adjacent to
Walt
’s early stomping grounds.

Above the
Five & Dime
is a sign for
Hollymont Realty
, another of this land’s many tributes to
Walt
’s origins; the original
Disney
studio on
Kingswell Avenue
was located at the back of
Holly-Vermont Realty
.

Next to the
Los Feliz Five & Dime
is an elegant department store called
Elias & Co.
, as fine an accolade as one could imagine for
Walt
’s father
Elias Disney
, an ambitious entrepreneur who never quite made it in business, but who lived to see his youngest son built an empire.

Very g
enerally speaking, the farther one travels along
Buena Vista Street
, the more one travels forward in time and the deeper one delves into
Walt
’s achievements as he worked his way along the road to success.

There is
Mortimers Market
(
Mortimer
was an early name for
Mickey Mouse
).  And there is
Clarabelle’s Hand-Scooped Ice Cream
;
Clarabelle
was a co-star, well, perhaps more of a supporting player, in the original
Mickey
cartoons.

And the
Fiddler, Fifer, & Practical Café
reminds us of the
Three Little Pigs
, an animated short with a hit song that, after the
Mickey
cartoons, was crucial in cementing the success of the
Disney
studios.

Finally, one reaches the southern end of
Buena Vista Street
, the
Carthay Circle Plaza
, where a lovely period fountain splashes, and an uncanny replica of the
Carthay Circle Theatre
soars to the sky,
DCA
’s new castle.  We have reached 1937, and the premiere of
Snow White
, the final masterpiece of
Walt
’s youth, the first masterpiece of his feature length-animation empire.

In the shadow of
DCA
’s
Carthay Circle Theatre
, and under its twinkling marquee lights, Guests listen to the
Five & Dime
jazz troupe, or the
Red Car News Boys
, who sing about
Walt
’s arrival in L.A. with “a suitcase and a dream”.  Guests visit the
Storytellers Statue
, where young
Walt
,
Mickey
balanced on his suitcase, looks ready to spin a yarn and weave a dream.

If you now look north on
Buena Vista Street
, as we I did on that first amazing visit (although the
Storytellers Statue
and the shows were not yet in place), you grasp Walt’s early history communicated in visual and aural collage. 
Walt
began with
Oswald
and five-&-dimes and the little
Kingswell
studios.  By the time he was in his mid-thirties, he was the toast of the town, attending premieres at Hollywood’s Carthay Circle Theatre, and dining at swank establishments not unlike
Buena Vista Street
’s
Carthay Circle Restaurant & Lounge
.

Guests
have reached 1937.  Where does
Walt
’s story continue?  Outside
DCA
, across the plaza, in a charming little theme park called
Disneyland
.

* * *

By the time we left
Buena Vista Street
that day (to return on many, many occasions, with diverse family and friends), we knew that
DCA
had a hit on its hands. 
Buena Vista Street
connects
Disney California Adventure Park
to
Walt
and evokes real
Disney magic
.

No expense ha
s been spared, no detail overlooked, from the period-correct tiles and ornamental reliefs of the buildings, to the 1920’s fonts.  And the
Imagineers
have included many benches, and many shady trees, both of which had been lacking in
Sunshine Plaza
, and which now give
Buena Vista Street
the feel of a genuine, established community.

As 2012
continued,
Buena Vista Street
grew increasingly lively with shows and local characters, and even a period-clad
talking Mickey
who, unlike previous masked characters, can talk, sing, and interact with Guests.

Guests thronged the area, strolling along the main street, browsing in the shops, resting on benches in the circle, sipping coffee at the café while chatting with loved ones and leafing through the local paper,
The Buena Vista Bugle
.

By holiday time,
Buena Vista Street
felt like Bedford Falls, with its vintage lights and decorations, and a classic
Santa Claus
listening to children’s holiday wishes at
Elias & Co
.  Cocoa clutching-Guests in scarves and parkas filled the streets and shops.

In 2013,
Buena Vista Street
remained extremely popular and well-attended.  Guests love to spend time here.  The community settled into a groove, acquired a slight patina of day-to-day wear, became ever-more a real place, at the same time that it remains a kaleidoscopic dream of
Walt
’s past.

Summer or winter, when you step back and look at
Buena Vista Street
, it’s a Rockwell picture.  It’s a journey through
Walt
’s early years, and the early 20
th
century in California and America.  It’s a home town–
our
home town.  Welcome home! 
Did You Know?
 
DCA
’s main entrance, which leads Guests directly into
Buena Vista Street
, was unveiled on July 15, 2011, less than one year prior to
DCA
’s rededication (and
Buena Vista Street
’s grand opening) on June 15, 2012.  The main entrance evokes the famed
Pan Pacific Auditorium
, resurrecting the gorgeous green-and-white Streamline Moderne structure that opened on Beverly Boulevard in 1935 and burned to ash in a May 24, 1989 conflagration. 
Did You Also Know?
  The
California Zephyr
train cab that used to grace
Sunshine Plaza
was removed and donated to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California on August 6, 2011. 
Did You Also Know?
  Although a young man when he arrived in California,
Walt
had already seen a good deal of the world.  Born in Chicago,
Walt
and his family moved to bucolic
Marceline
,
Missouri
when he was a small child, and it’s
Marceline
that
Walt
fondly remembered as his childhood home town.  When
Walt
was eight years old the family moved to the much larger
Kansas City
,
Missouri
. 
Walt
missed
Marceline
but loved the bustle and electric excitement of the city.  When he was just a teenager
Walt
, always a patriot, joined the American Red Cross and served in France as World War I concluded.  After his tour of duty he returned to
Kansas City
and became an animator, launching his first animation studio,
Laugh-O-Gram
films.  The young entrepreneur was soon bankrupt; having learned valuable business lessons, he headed west to Los Angeles in the summer of 1923.  This is where
Buena Vista Street
picks up the story. 
Walt
was just 22 years old when he arrived in Hollywood, the nascent capital of the world of moving pictures, and the home of Charlie Chaplin, one of
Walt
’s heroes. 
Walt
wanted to be a film director, but the studios weren’t biting–they saw him as too young and too inexperienced.  Instead, he continued to create animated short films and his popular
Alice
series that incorporated a live-action
Alice
(young actress
Virginia Davis
) in an animated world.  Although
Walt
was always hard working, ambitious, and optimistic, in his early Hollywood days he could have had no idea that he would soon meet the love of his life,
Lilian
, (at his own small studio, no less), and that within fourteen years his company would release a full-length, full-color masterpiece like
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
.  But that’s how it unfolded. 
Did You Also Know?
 
Buena Vista Street
is the street on which
Walt
and
Roy
built their big studio in 1938. 
Snow White
had been such a stunning success, and promised such a stellar future, that the
Disney
brothers were able to borrow enough money to build the large new studio on 51 acres in Burbank.  For years they had operated in a tiny studio complex, funneling all of the profits from their successful animated shorts back into the productions to keep innovation and quality at high levels.  At the
Buena Vista Street
studio,
Walt
and
Roy
finally had decent offices, and the staff had more room and better technology for working their animation magic. 
Walt
showed the same organizational genius and attention to detail in crafting the big studio complex that he would later display in crafting
Disneyland Park
.  The studio buildings were designed to be earthquake-safe, and there were recreational facilities and a pleasant and reasonably-priced dining facility for the staff. 
Did You Also Know?
  The centerpiece of
Buena Vista Street
is a replica of the
Carthay Circle Theatre
.  The real Carthay opened in 1926 at 6316 San Vicente Boulevard.  An Art Deco and Spanish Baroque masterpiece, the glamorous theater hosted glittering premieres for many movies, including
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
.  The
DCA
replica of the
Carthay
is one key to communicating the unique, bygone elegance of Hollywood’s early heyday, the period when
Walt
and his talented team were revolutionizing animation and establishing the foundations of what would become the
Disney
entertainment megalith. 
Time Vision:
  On February 25, 2012,
Imagineers
and Cast Members buried a time capsule in
Buena Vista Plaza
.  The time capsule contains items related to
DCA
; it won’t be unearthed until 2037! 
Teen’s Eye View:
  It’s much nicer [than
Sunshine Plaza
was], and the little shows are cute.  It seems very fun.