It usually takes a pandemic for Disneyland to close, but this past week marks the 52nd anniversary of a time when Disneyland was taken over by anti-Vietnam war “yippies” that offers images you don’t expect to see at the Magic Kingdom.
You’ll have to suffer through a couple of ads for the YouTube video below. But please read more details from this blogpost.
From MousePlanet:
During the summer of its 15th anniversary in 1970, Disneyland found itself in a unique situation where it was invaded by roughly 300 counter-culture young revolutionaries who effectively shut down the park for only the second time in its history.
Disneyland has closed for a day a total of five times in its history: after the assassination of President Kennedy, the Yippie invasion, during a 1987 winter storm, in 1994 for an inspection after the Northridge earthquake, and after 9/11. The park didn’t even shut down for the death of Walt Disney in 1966 or Roy Disney in 1971.
The Yippie Invasion took place on Thursday August 6, 1970 and much has been written about it. However some details of that day have also been exaggerated even by some usually reliable sources who were actually there at the time, so the event has become part of urban legend.
It was certainly a major disturbance and a nuisance but basically it was not dangerous or violent until the end. There was some vandalism to landscaping, buildings and cars in the parking lot: some very upsetting language; and filling the Adventures Thru Inner Space attraction with dense marijuana smog. The Yippies openly smoked joints almost everywhere in the park and some were involved with using harder drugs like acid.
While hippies were still an active part of the culture, The Youth International Party (YIP) better known as Yippies had become prominent in reaction to the stereotypes of the hippie movement being co-opted by mainstream marketing, merchandise and the media.
Established in December 1967 by radicals Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, the movement employed street theater theatrics and pranks to advance its anti-authoritarian agenda and protests against the Vietnam War. Its gatherings were often called “Pow Wows” and basically their actions were intended to mock the establishment by doing silly things in public venues. The group was sometimes jokingly referred to as the Groucho Marxists.