If you happened to be at Disneyland last week—well, first of all, our sincerest apologies, that can't have been too pleasant.
In any event, it was the park's 67th anniversary last week, and apparently they're trying to make a clean break from their past:
The celebration of Disneyland's 67th anniversary turned sour over the weekend as some fans noticed that the Mouse House left out a nod to its controversial founder, Walt Disney.
Fans took to social media to call out the company for omitting Walt's iconic opening day speech, which has featured every year since 1955 at the Anaheim, Calif., theme park.
"Why did Disneyland cut Walt Disney's opening day speech from today's anniversary celebration?," asked one fan on Twitter.
Well, gee, why would Disney's leaders opt to axe a speech that has been a mainstay of the park for decades? Let's take a look at it, because—improbable as it may seem—it's one of the great speeches in American history:
To all who come to this happy place – welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.
Now, you might be asking yourself: "Wait, what? Is there more to the speech? That's it?"
It's beautiful.
Let's consider why this speech—some brief remarks at the 1955 opening of a corporate theme park—is so magnificent and so uniquely American:
- It's quick. American rhetoric has always been famed for its eloquent brevity: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Reagan's Challenger speech, Patton's extremely profane, foul-mouthed address to the Third Army—America has most assuredly had countless fantastic lengthier speeches, and yet we have always done more with less than most other oratorical traditions. Many if not most of our great speeches have been quite short. And still Walt's speech here blows them out of the water: it's about 20 seconds long, from start to finish.
- It's simple. No frilly language, no $10 words, absolutely no corporate gimmick-speak or focus-group-tested pablum. It's easy, accessible, understandable language, immediately intelligible to even the least educated listeners.
- It absolutely packs it in. If this were a mere speech about the opening of a mere theme park, it wouldn't be anything special. But it's much more than that. In about 1/3 of a minute, Walt manages to sum up the great animating principles of America ("ideals, dreams, hard facts"); he paints a touching, beautiful picture of the seasons of human life (age "relives fond memories of the past," while youth "savors the challenge and promise of the future"); and he extends the takeup of these principles and experiences to "all the world," in true American fashion.
In an era where our rhetorical choices are mostly either bombastic rhetoric or anti-American claptrap, Walt's 1955 Disneyland opener stands as a timeless testament to how much a speaker can accomplish by effectively using minimalism in form and maximalism in ideas.
This speech tells you everything you need to know about Walt Disney—and Disneyland's dropping it from their lineup tells you everything you need to know about what's become of the company he created.
What a waste.
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