How a Group of 70s Radicals Tried (and Failed)

to Invade Disneyland
Disneyland operates every day of the year, from 8:00 a.m. until midnight. The almost-always open gates are a point of pride for the theme park.
It took a presidential assassination to force the park to close early for the first time in history in 1963. But the second instance was a bit more
head-scratching. On August 6, 1970, Disneyland abruptly shut down about five hours early. Around 30,000 visitors were kicked out of the park,
and it wasnt due to a national crisis. The motivating factor was a group of about 300 young Yippies, who entered the park with grand plans of
capturing Tom Sawyer Island and liberating Minnie Mouse.
Yippies were not quite hippies, but definitely not yuppies, either. The nickname referred to members of the Youth International Party, a political
organization started by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman in 1967. Rubin was a graduate student turned activist who had unsuccessfully run for
mayor of Berkeley on a radical left platform. Hoffman was a psychologist turned activist who was involved with the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Their Yippies were anti-war, anti-capitalism, and anti-establishment. They were known for their theatrical
stunts, which generated tons of media coverage. There was the incident at the New York Stock Exchange, when Hoffman and roughly a dozen
followers marched into the visitors gallery and began throwing dollar bills onto the trading floor. There was also the time they nominated
Pigasus, a 145-pound pig, for president at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In many ways, a splashy demonstration at the number one
destination for wholesome family fun made perfect sense for the Yippies. Except the Disneyland invasion didnt exactly go according to plan.
The date the Yippies chose for their demonstration was significant: August 6, 1970 marked the 25th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
The activists planned to use their time protesting the U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam War. Why specifically did they
chose Disneyland for this? It was the perfect location for
several reasons. For one, the Yippies took issue with a major
park sponsor. Bank of America was doubly offensive to the
Yippies it wasnt just a big, obvious symbol of capitalism but
also, in their minds, a virtual sponsor of the Vietnam War.
According to David Koenigs Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears
Look at Disneyland, the protest organizers singled out Bank of
America in a press release for financ[ing] war machines. This
was a somewhat popular belief among radicals. In March of
1970, the underground newspaper The Berkeley Tribe ran an
Open Letter From the Revolutionary Movement to the Bank of
America. It accused the corporation of raping the
underdeveloped world through affiliations with the defense
contractors Litton Industries and McDonnell Douglas. The letter
was itself a response to the criticism young radicals received
after a group of students burned down a Bank of America
branch in Isla Vista.
But the Yippies also had a contentious history with the park. At
the time, Disneyland had recently relaxed its policy toward long-haired guests. The park maintained a strict dress code for employees that
barred men from sporting mustaches, beards, or long hair. Unofficially, it applied similar standards to visitors. Thats why shaggy-haired Roger
McGuinn, the founder of rock band The Byrds, was turned away in 1964. But the staff was now welcoming long-haired types into Disneyland.
The opportunity was, presumably, too good to pass up.
In the lead-up to the so-called International Pow Wow Day, organizers mounted an impressive publicity campaign. The Yippies distributed
stacks of flyers and got several different iterations printed in underground newspapers. One such flyer, which appeared in the The Berkeley
Tribe in late July, featured Mickey Mouse waving a top hat and a machine gun. But the most oft-quoted flyer listed a schedule of outlandish
events for participating Yippies. As Koenig recounts, it included a Black Panther Hot Breakfast at 9 a.m. at Aunt Jemimas Pancake House, a
womens liberation rally to liberate Minnie Mouse in front of Fantasyland at noon, and a late afternoon infiltration of Tom Sawyer Island.
Declaring a free state, brothers and sisters will then have a smoke-in and festival, the flyer read. Get it over on Disneyland, August 6. YIPPIE!
The police soon caught wind of this coming attraction. They took the yippie threat, in hindsight, far too seriously. Since the Yippies were talking a
big game the Berkeley Tribe flyer speculated that up to 100,000 dope-crazed, bizarro Yippies and Yippie-symps would descend on
Disneyland that day the local police made contingency plans with the park officials for several thousand disruptive guests. The Disneyland
staff would keep an eye out for troublemakers; a few managers would even walk the park undercover. A large police presence would stand just
outside the park, not entering unless called upon.
When August 6 arrived, it wasnt the debilitating scene everyone expected. A few hundred Yippies filtered in throughout the day, but they were
barely organized and, for a while, totally harmless. No Black Panthers showed up for shortstacks. Minnie Mouse remained firmly in the
patriarchys clutches. But at some point, the scattered group began experimenting. They cursed and chanted, Ho-ho Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh
is gonna win! They also smoked a lot of pot. Then, they finally attempted to check an item off their schedule: the infiltration of Tom Sawyer
Island.
After disembarking from the rafts to the island, the Yippies claimed the space for their own. Their Viet Cong flag came out, as did the blunts and
calls to free Charlie Manson, by Koenigs account. Park security frantically halted rafts to the island, trying to shield tourists from the Yippie
menace. But they still didnt call in the police. Not until the Yippies decided to march down Main Street, straight towards Bank of America.
The Yippies returned to Main Street with a new boldness. They tore bunting off the fake City Hall, raised their marijuana flag, and started
getting confrontational. Eventually, fights broke out between the Yippies and less-radical tourists, which is when the riot police stormed in. OC
Weekly puts their numbers at over 100, and those were just the cops who entered the park. There were another 300 waiting just outside to greet
the fleeing Yippies. Once the police had broken up the fights, Disneyland officials closed the park early, sending all visitors home. After they
were ushered past the gates, a rogue group of Yippies attempted to keep the protest going by taking over the Disneyland Hotel, to no avail.
None of them were seriously injured, but 23 were arrested on charges ranging from disturbing the peace to drug possession.
The International Pow Wow Day received ample media attention. But like so many other Yippie events, it did not have a measurable impact on
their target. Disneylands offending sponsors stayed put and families continued pouring in. (Charles Manson also remained in jail.) But the
Yippies bizarre stand that day did provide an amusing chapter in Disney lore.
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