Disneyland and Culture

The success of Disneyland as the world’s first permanent, commercially viable theme park sparked the creation of a number of other parks throughout the world, from Florida to Japan, France, and Hong Kong. But the impact of Disneyland is not confined to the theme park arena. These essays explore a far-reaching ideology. Among the topics are Disney’s role in the creation of children’s architecture; Frontierland as an allegorical map of the American West; the “cultural invasion of France” in Disneyland Paris; the politics of nostalgia; and “hyperurbanity” in the town of Celebration, Florida.

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Kathy Merlock Jackson is a professor of media and communication at Virginia Wesleyan University, where she teaches courses in media studies and children’s culture. She is the author of over a hundred articles, chapters, and reviews and has published thirteen books. She is a former editor of The Journal of American Culture and a past president of the Popular Culture Association.

Mark I. West is the former chair of the English department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has written or edited nineteen books on children’s literature and culture and is a former president of the Children’s Literature Association.

Edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark I. West

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 240
Bibliographic Info: 13 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4372-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8745-5
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      1

The Disneyland Concept
The Theme Park: The Art of Time and Space
Margaret J. King and J. G. O’Boyle      5
Synergystic Disney: New Directions for Mickey and Media in 1954–1955
Kathy Merlock Jackson      19
Animator as Architect: Disney’s Role in the Creation of Children’s Architecture
Mark I. West      29

Disneyland Attractions
Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A., and Its Sources in Hollywood, U.S.A.
Robert Neuman      37
Frontierland as an Allegorical Map of the American West
Richard Francaviglia      59
The Dark Ride of Snow White: Narrative Strategies at Disneyland
Suzanne Rahn      87
Tom Sawyer Island: Mark Twain, Walt Disney, and the Literary Playground
Mark I. West      101
A Southern California Boyhood in the Simu- Southland Shadows of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room
Craig Svonkin      107

Disneyland’s Variations
Disneyland Paris: A Clash of Cultures
Christian Renaut      125
Hong Kong Disneyland: Feng Shui Inside the Magic Kingdom
Derham Groves      138
Hyperurbanity: Idealism, New Urbanism, and the Politics of Hyperreality in the Town of Celebration, Florida
Eric Detweiler      150

Disneyland’s Influence
Theme Parks and Films—Play and Players
J. P. Telotte      171
Of Theme Parks and Television: Walt Disney, Rod Serling, and the Politics of Nostalgia
Douglas Brode      183
Vacation in Historyland
Katherine Howe      195
Autographs for Tots: The Marketing of Stars to Children
Kathy Merlock Jackson      207
Forget the Prozac, Give Me a Dose of Disney
Cathy Scibelli      215
The Disney Effect: Fifty Years After Theme Park Design
Margaret J. King      223

About the Contributors      227
Index      229

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