Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

[Titanfreak46]

Was anybody their that day? Does anybody have any great stories to share or pictures that they have? That mix between Disneyland and the counter-culture movement fascinates me.... I realize that David Koenig wrote something on it and their is this one site that has a few pictures that day but i wish someone was their or knows someone that was their to give personal insight.

[Radiobarry]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I wasn't there but I certainly remember news accounts of what happened that day. A summary -

http://travel.syl.com/thefirstinternationaldisneylandpowwowforyippies.html

Prior to this, Disneyland had strict grooming standards for guests as well as CMs...men with long hair and beards were routinely denied admission to the park.

--Barry

[Opus1guy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I was there. Watch a lady whack one of the yippies over the head with her Kodak Instamatic tethered by a strap. Shattered into a million pieces.

http://www.studiolo.org/Email/DISNEY.htm

The next day the Daily Pilot (a local SoCal rag) had a pretty scary shot of the police lined up in formation right across Town Square with the castle in the background.

Made it look a lot worse than it was.

[barfownz]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I was there. Watch a lady whack one of the yippies over the head with her Kodak Instamatic tethered by a strap. Shattered into a million pieces.

http://www.studiolo.org/Email/DISNEY.htm

The next day the Daily Pilot (a local SoCal rag) had a pretty scary shot of the police lined up in formation right across Town Square with the castle in the background.

Made it look a lot worse than it was.

You were really there?

[Koutesu]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I heard the Yippies were actually pretty well behaved until the afternoon when instigators from within the group started to rile everyone up and start causing trouble. I always found hippie activism to be a real turn off.

[Goofy Daddy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I would be soooooooooo not happy if I went on a trip with my family and my day was ruined by some childish crap like this.

I'm not saying the Disneyland policy of discrimination against people based on length of hair or facial hair was a ok, I just know I would be pissed off if a day at the park was cut short by this kind of stuff.

[Goofy Daddy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I heard the Yippies were actually pretty well behaved until the afternoon when instigators from within the group started to rile everyone up and start causing trouble. I always found hippie activism to be a real turn off.

That's a standard story for almost any large "civil disobediance" incident. Protestors claim everything was peaceful until A) "the cops just started messing with us for no reason man" or B) "A few people that aren't in our group, they were just with us but we didn't know them, started causing trouble."

Usually the "B" scenario is actually true. A few hard core folks will mingle with a larger group and then instigate and prod the crowd into a mob mentality. It's unfortunate really.

[MickeyMania]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

The problem was it wasn't much of an invasion. But their promotion of the event in flyers around town leading up to it promised total anarchy and an overwhelming crowd. So, naturally, officers from basically every precinct that region of Southern California were all called in as a cooperative security force.

When the group came, it wasn't nearly as big as expected, and while they did have some antics I think Lohan & Friends got away with worse last year. Being stalked by the security everywhere made them nervous, and so they eventually disbanded and ran off every which way.

With the group dissolved and hiding in different places, the only way to flush them out was to just shut down the whole park and try again tomorrow.

[DisneyIPresume]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I was there. Watch a lady whack one of the yippies over the head with her Kodak Instamatic tethered by a strap. Shattered into a million pieces.

http://www.studiolo.org/Email/DISNEY.htm

The next day the Daily Pilot (a local SoCal rag) had a pretty scary shot of the police lined up in formation right across Town Square with the castle in the background.

Made it look a lot worse than it was.

I'm surprised Disney didn't call in those cops when they kicked out that Goth woman. lol

We were living in LA County in 1970 so I never did get that Daily Pilot article. We moved to Huntington Beach in 1972 and started getting it then. Those were the good old days when the paperboys would deliver it on their bicylces, and would go door to door collecting the subscription money... Ah, the memories!

Just so you know, the Daily Pilot now comes a couple times a week as an insert with the Los Angeles Times.

[Opus1guy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

You were really there?

Well...that's what I said.

Here's what I remember about that day from my little narrow vantage point.

Everyone knew they were coming. A memo had been distributed to all Park managers and lessee locations the day before. Nobody knew if it was going to be a dud with only a handful of the hardcore...or if thousands where going to show up. The memo basically said Disneyland was prepared...special ComCon center(communication & command) was being set up. Special radio frequency numbers. Dedicated phone numbers to call for assistance. That sort of thing. Costumed Cast was basically instructed not to take any matters into their own hands, but to call for assistance if they experienced trouble.

It was basically a "all hands on deck" kinda day anyway...being a peak summer day. But I think every high-school gym coach in Southern California was dressed as a "Jolly Blue Giant" (Cast nickname for uniformed security in those days) that day. A very high presence of Disneyland Security everywhere.

The real "cops" were there, but staying out of sight. They were being amassed backstage just behind the east Main Street parade gate. I recall some Cast friends would occasionally come up to "spread the news" about what was going on throughout the Park, and would say stuff like, "There must be 500 cops behind Tomorrowland stage right now!"

It looked to me like Disneyland had decided to let them in...and hope for the best and hope they could keep a lid on everything without police assistance. But they were clearly prepared for the worst.

We heard that a lot of the activity had moved to Main Street, and so my buddy and I (he was a Monorail pilot, off duty at that moment) took up a position on the steps to the Train Station to get a better view, and no sooner had we got there, when things sort of boiled over at Town Square and Main Street. There were protesters that were calm and standing in one spot, and there were others running all around shouting...up and down Main Street, around Town Square, through the shops. We later learned that apparently a Disneyland Security person was shoved to the ground, and so that was it. The cops were called and out they came in force and formation.

Every time the cops would nap someone, the crowd of regular Guests would send up a big cheer of approval. The Yippies started chanting something that had some rather inappropriate-for-Disneyland language in it, and soon the crowd of Guests decided they would drown them out and started up singing the Star Spangled Banner or America The Beautiful (don't recall which). We felt a bit like spectators at some sporting event, pointing this way and that at all the action. A Yippie was evading pursuing police and running by fairly close to the flagpole and that's when I saw the lady Guest just swing her Kodak into action, and BLAM! Credit for an "assist."

I'm pretty sure that's why Disneyland decided to close the Park: They were losing control of the Yippies and the regular Park Guests! These regular Guests were not at all pleased that these Yippies were ruining their day...and they were clearly starting to express themselves very strongly.

Anyway...as the Yippies fled out the exits, the fun spilled out into the Parking Lot and the surrounding hotels and streets. Saw some protesters standing on the tops of cars yelling and waving flags or shirts.

But until that brief boiling point at Town Square...it really didn't seem that big a deal to me. I heard there were some problems elsewhere in the Park, but I didn't seem 'em. But it sure came to a fast flashpoint at the end there in Town Square.

There was a lot of discussion afterwords if the police presence was way too big for the job, and might have lead to the flashpoint. I mean...the number of cops was designed for thousands. Yet only a couple of hundred showed up. When the cops poured out in formation...I think that might have really fired the protesters up even more than they had been. But hey...hindsight is always 20/20.

There was plenty of television and newspaper Press in the Park that day...that lead many to believe that Disneyland participated in a staged event that was planned to send the word out to other organizations that Disneyland was not the place to stage your protests. I have no opinion or information one way or the other on that.

Of course the real victims weren't Disneyland or any Yippies. It was the regular Guests that got short-changed that day.

[DisneyIPresume]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

Wow. They should put Disney in charge of the Department of Homeland Security!

[Koutesu]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I would be soooooooooo not happy if I went on a trip with my family and my day was ruined by some childish crap like this.

Sorry. I just totally thought of Oprah when she was there in 2005.

[Goofy Daddy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

Sorry. I just totally thought of Oprah when she was there in 2005.

Did she protest and stand on cars too? )

[Opus1guy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

A few posts above I wrote:

The next day the Daily Pilot (a local SoCal rag) had a pretty scary shot of the police lined up in formation right across Town Square with the castle in the background.

Made it look a lot worse than it was.

The Opus Archives just belched out my copy of that newspaper headline and photograph. Too large to embed the image here, so click on this thumbnail:



...for the big guy.

[The Mad Hatter]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

Lol...I saw the subject and thought of a cheer. Like 'I'm going to Disneyland, Yippie!'.

[I Heart Disneyland]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

They look like everyone (including myself) that I went to high school with in the mid 70's! ha!

[Opus1guy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

The Opus Archives just belched out my copy of that newspaper headline and photograph. Too large to embed the image here, so click on this thumbnail:



...for the big guy.

And the Opus Archives just now chucked-up the inevitable humorous follow-up...courtesy of Mad magazine:

[BigThunder]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I remember watching all of that on TV. Didn't the Yippies take over Fort Wilderness on TSI and raise the Soviet flag or something? My memory is a little sketchy.

[Opus1guy]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

I remember watching all of that on TV. Didn't the Yippies take over Fort Wilderness on TSI and raise the Soviet flag or something? My memory is a little sketchy.

Click on the newspaper thumbnail in Post #14 and read the story. You'll read what flag it was there.

[BigThunder]

Re: Yippie Invasion of Disneyland

Click on the newspaper thumbnail in Post #14 and read the story. You'll read what flag it was there.

Oh, that flag. Thanks.