Introduction
A basic of Disney theme parks is the Main Street USA zone. This section features highly in all of the parks, usually coming right after the entrance. Key services like Guest Relations are located in this section, inside the "City Hall" (HK Disney Source, 2014). There are a number of elements to the Main Street, USA exhibit, and these will be discussed along with the history of Main Street USA in this paper. In particular, how the different elements of Main Street USA work together are covered. The concept has proven to be long-lasting, even across cultures, because of its magical portrayal of idealized American life, which draws heavily on Walt Disney's own childhood experiences.
History and Background
Main Street USA is a concept that relates to the early 20th century in America. Many towns grew up around a central main street, which often became known as Main Street. These towns in the early 20th century especially were small, and in lot of the country served as the focal point of rural life, providing services for the surrounding rural areas. Over time, Main Street USA evolved into something of an ideal rather than a place (Wasserman, 2012). The ideal revolved around the values of simplicity, honesty and a less complex world – perhaps the idyllic world of childhood. The concept of Main Street USA is especially associated with the Midwest, though these types of scenes can be found in agricultural regions in particular across the country.
Walt Disney developed the concept of Main Street USA as part of his theme parks, starting with the original park in southern California. Walt had grown up in a town called Marceline, MO around the 20th century and it was his childhood memories around which the idea ...
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...se images as a sign of a lost world. Most of Disney's worlds are fantasy worlds, and Main Street USA essentially asks guests to enter a fantasy world by given them something familiar and yet fantastical at the same time. The time travel meanings are no accident – when you enter Main Street you are being transported into Disney's world, and that makes it a particularly effective entrance.
HK Disney Source. (2014). Main Street USA. HK Disney Source.
Retrieved from http://www.hkdlsource.com/park/mainstreet/
Wasserman, E. (2012). America's best main streets. Fodor's/Huffington Post.
Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fodors/americas-best-main-street_b_4556756.html
Younger, C. (2010). Dissecting Disney's lands: Main Street USA. Disneyology. Retrieved May 4, 2014 from http://disneyology.blogspot.ca/2010/06/dissecting-disneys-lands-main-street.html
It would be very hard to not have heard about Disney because he has released so many different kinds of animations, but during the 1950’s Disney began to become less involved in the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his main animators, the Nine Old Men, although he was always at story meetings. Instead, he started concentrating on other things. On a business trip to Chicago in the late 1940s, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusement park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their children. These ideas developed into a concept for a larger enterprise which was to become Disneyland. Disney spent five years of his life developing Disneyland and created a new company, called WED Enterprises, to carry out the planning and production of the park. In March 1952 Walt Disney got permission to build Disneyland. Construction work started in July 1954, and opened in July 1955; the opening ceremony was broadcast on ABC, which reached 70 million viewers.The park was designed as a series of themed lands, linked by the central Main Street, U.S.A a replica of the main street in his hometown of
It was the summer of 2012 and my family was taking another trip to Six Flags Great America. Earlier that summer we went just for me to be disappointed. At the time I wasn’t 54 inches yet and couldn’t ride any of the rides that I wanted to because they were the most popular at the amusement park. But, I hit a growth spurt between trips and we planned to ride all of the big rollercoasters. The one that I was most terrified of at the time was Raging Bull, one of the tallest, fastest, and longest steel coasters in the US. As we started to wait in line for the ride I was shaking with both anticipation and fear and began to rethink my idea to ride the rollercoaster. I decided to stay in line and see what many people thought was a great coaster.
Image borrowed from Waltopia. When is a planned community too planned? Some of the exhibits displayed at the 1939 World's Fair such as Democracity and Futurama influenced many American community planners. The Levittown and Greenbelt projects followed the same guidelines of community that the 1939 World's Fair introduced. These are two of the more well known Garden City projects that took many families away from big cities and brought them to the peace and tranquility of the suburbs. On February 2nd, 1967, Walter Elias Disney announced the plans to create a domed community. This community would be known as the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow [EPCOT]. In this note, I will discuss how Walt Disney planned to create his perfect community, his Waltopia. Disney's experimental EPCOT community attempted to be the city of the future by first providing a controlled climate, second by incorporating many of the garden city concepts, and thirdly by creating a transportation system that brought people back as pedestrians.
"10 Crazy Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World." Budget Travel. Web. 21 May 2014. .
According to the website dreamsunlimitedtravel accessed on November 16 2015, “The park opened with 5 original parks. Those parks are Main Street U.S.A, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland.” The idea for Main Street, U.S.A is derived from a typical Midwest town of the early 20th century. It’s suppose to reflect the Victorian era with a train station, emporium, double-decker buses, and horse-drawn streetcars. Adventureland is designed to recreate the feel of an exotic tropical place in a far-off region of the world. Frontierland recreates the setting of pioneer days along the American frontier. And finally, the Fantasyland was originally styled in a medieval European fairground fashion, but its 1983 refurbishment turned it into a Bavarian village. There have been 3 new parks added to Disneyland since opening day. These new parks include New Orleans square, Critter Country, and Mickey's Toontown. New Orleans Square is based on 19th-century New Orleans, opened on July 24, 1966. Critter Country opened in 1972 and formerly was the area home to Indian Village, where indigenous tribespeople demonstrated their dances and other customs. Mickey's Toontown opened in 1993 and was partly inspired by the fictional Los Angeles suburb of Toontown in the Touchstone Pictures' 1988 release Who Framed Roger
The notion of a artificial or theme park feel has come up as a possible concern. "The town resembles a movie set with the neat-and-pretty homes like facades"(Oilande 5). Disney is taking a community and making it a fantasy of the lost traditional suburb one would see on "Leave it to Beaver" or "Pleasantville". As one visitor of the new community stated, "the minute you drive into Celebration's property, Disney's visual magic takes hold. White fences reminiscent of Kentucky's Bluegrass Country, surround the property. Upon a closer inspection they prove to be plastic. And from a distance, the preview center looks like a classical mansion. It's not. It's a façade. Behind the mansion door is a pre-fab"(Wilson3). This ideal is created in a conference room at a corporate office somewhere and it i...
He paved a new path for entertainment with animation. "His "uniquely American" vision as a creator and an entrepreneur lives on, through his animated and live-action films, music and also in his Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks" (Wasko, Philips, Meehan). Disney 's work used fantasy and imagination to speak of the nation 's most promising dreams and its deepest concerns. He shaped America with his films, that had ideas about multiculturalism, racial diversity, sexuality, political preference, or religious background. "While his accomplishments are remarkable and varied, what made Walt Disney an icon was his ability not only to reflect but to create a truly American culture and influence Americans ' views of their nation" (Disney 's Vision for
It was a beautiful Saturday evening when I decided to walk the neighborhood known as the melting pot of many diverse cultures and social groups. South Street, located in the city of Philadelphia, is home of over 400 different small shops, restaurants, and galleries. Unlike other neighborhoods, South Street isn’t spread over numerous blocks, instead, it takes up one long street that is miles long. This lively and vibrant neighborhood sure does have a personality of its own and examples of modernity are shown throughout this Philadelphia neighborhood in very distinct ways.
The Walt Disney Concert Hall located in Downtown Los Angeles, CA is an example of a worthy public space, this year marking its tenth year being open still reflects and engages Los Angeles like few other buildings. In the beg...
The brand image that is created by the park goes with what they portray as they have set up sections that are comprising of the featured movie or show. The cleanliness aspect and the environment creates and delivers a symbolic difference to the whole theme park (Richard, 1993). The management have made their efforts in maintaining the same feeling, as they employees and the staff is dressed and the procedure so the park is carried out in pure joyous manner. They have the shows that have the characters from the movie, especially the stage shows and they are dressed up in the form of the characters giving a jubilant feel to the travellers and the tourists. As there is advancement seen in all market, people and tourists are getting more informed about the entertainment industry they prefer more to their entertainment package (Golob, 2003). With this advancement, people tend to be wise and more informed, raising the bar of standard and requirement that are offered by the entertainment theme park. As the management staff knows that now people are more vibrant and have gathered data about what they will be offered, they are no more interested in listening to the stories and the fairy tales that are described to them (Ashwell, 2015). They have a tendency to adapt to the environment and want to be the part of the whole story. As this requirement has grown in the market, management has successfully made the changes to the strategies they have been implementing and they have been working on. These favourable changes have resulted in displaying the enjoyable changes to the theme park and helps them to changing market requirement and demand (Vogt & Andereck,
Euro Disney’s decision to open its Theme Park near Paris has caused a negative publicity in the sight of many French politicians. In fact, they have objected the existence of Theme Parks in the center of their French culture since the park has been viewed as a visible symbol of the U.S. culture. Although Euro Disney marketers probably choose this location, in particularly France, due to the fact that is the center of Europe and could most probably be the most convenient place for people to arrive and settle in their hotel to be entertained. For instance, people from all over Europe could travel quickly to Paris due to short distance and travel convenience like people from Germany or Spain could quickly and conveniently arrive in Paris.
The first theme park opening in 1955 was Disneyland in California. After one full year of construction demands and a total investment of $17 million the Six thousands invitations to the grand opening had been mailed inviting people to experience the magic Disney had created but when the gates opened the Disneyland was far from magical. Workmen were still planting trees, the paint was still wet and the asphalt wasn’t set. The food stalls and restaurants ran out of food due to the high number of people because of counterfeit tickets being sold. Walt Disney didn’t know didn’t know what was going on because his attention was on the live broadcast. The rides broke down shortly after use. When Walt Disney World opened in 1971 the
That is to say, Hong Kong Disneyland offers a uniquely western experience within the confines of Asia. The perception of Hong Kong Disneyland as a global brand can vary depending on the social groups that each consumer identifies as. Mainland Chinese visitors that are unaccustomed to western culture and modernity can feel as though they’ve stepped into a separate western sanctuary where they can fully experience another way of life. The more modern and westernised Hong Kong Chinese visiting the park are able to enjoy their visit in a relaxing
In 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland was opened. Before the open of Hong Kong Disneyland, the public always had a heat debate on whether the park would bring any problems to Hong Kong from the perspective of livelihood and economy. However, nobody realized that disneyization has already been affecting our daily lives. In the following essay, shopping centre Langham Place of Hong Kong will be used as an example to illustrate how shopping culture in Hong Kong are influenced by disneyization.
The Main Street station, is the curtains to a large production as if the Magic Kingdom was a theater. As I wander beneath the archway, I notice that above the arch is a plaque that reads: “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy”. As I continue to stroll through the passage on the way to Main Street, there are posters of “upcoming attractions” that line the walls on both sides. I then step into Main Street U.S.A. and begin to hear the Victorian style orchestra playing over the speakers. I notice some Disney pals in Town Square greeting guests as if they were old friends. Then I begin to travel further down the street, and the smell of the caramel apples, chocolate chip cookies, and other sweets walk out of the open doors of the bakery and into the street. At the end of this turn of the century town, sits the one hundred eightyninefoottall, Cinderella Castle. This moment is a pivotal moment in any Disney vacation, because the castle is well known to millions. I get