Disney’s 50th Anniversary Celebration from 1973
How did the company celebrate Disney’s 50th Anniversary?
By showcasing fifty years of family entertainment!
I’m always intrigued with how Disney represents and celebrates its own heritage. Anyone that lived through the 18-month long Millennium (1999-2000) and the 17-month long 100 Years of Magic (2001-2002) celebrations realized that Disney is no slouch when it comes to parties. Specifically parties that cause guests to return frequently (and stay in hotels). Before the two celebrations, the average Walt Disney World vacation lasted a week and most families visited once every 4-5 years. The Millennium Celebration changed that for most guests and created a culture of yearning to visit more often.
Back in 1973, Walt Disney Productions demurely celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the company founded by Walt and Roy. One of the promotional pieces was the cover of the Disney News: Official Magazine for Magic Kingdom Club Families from the spring of 1973.
Disney News Cover Story
COVER STORY: This past January, Walt Disney Productions began a year-long celebration of its 50th Anniversary, a celebration which will be highlighted by exciting new motion pictures, special television programs, special entertainment events at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and, on a somewhat smaller scale by comparison, this special Anniversary issue of Disney News.
Beyond my fascination with the year-long celebration of the anniversary of the company, the cover artwork is astounding. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is at the top of the image, which is an interesting choice for the company seeing as how they didn’t own the image or the character. From there, you see a litany of characters from the animated films, television and motion pictures. Tinker Bell and the Disneyland Castle appear close to the top (surrounded by dwarfs and dogs) and Herbie the Love Bug (one of the company’s most successful post-Walt productions) gets a lot of real estate.
To the right of the 1973 is Cinderella Castle and the iconic Contemporary Resort with a monorail beam and a striped sailboat. In 1973, the promotional message of Walt Disney World was still as The Vacation Kingdom of the World and they took every moment to promote the outdoor activities.
Most of the characters are represented stylistically as they appeared. Mickey and Minnie seem to be victims of (then) current fashion trends.
Still, it’s a fascinating image of what the company thought was important to celebrate from the past fifty years.
What do you think about the 50th Anniversary cover image?
Disney’s 50th Anniversary material from 1973 is a reminder that the company knew exactly what it was doing even then: celebrating the past while quietly selling the future. That Disney News cover crams fifty years of characters, films, TV, and theme-park iconography into one loud, confident collage, and it’s fascinating to see what got the “center stage” treatment. The Oswald placement is especially wild in hindsight, since Disney didn’t regain the character’s rights until decades later, which makes his inclusion feel like a wink at the company’s origin story. And the Walt Disney World touches (Cinderella Castle, the Contemporary, the monorail, the sailboat) underline how hard the Vacation Kingdom branding still pushed outdoor recreation in those early years.
Now your turn: what detail on the cover jumps out first, and what do you think Disney left out that deserved a spot? Drop a comment and let’s compare notes.
Check out this video on the construction of Walt Disney World!