Last month, I posted a 1974 newspaper ad for Disneyland's newest attraction, America Sings. Here is the reverse side of that advertisement. It just happens to have another Disneyland ad on the other side of it. Note that the park hours were until 1 a.m. everyday during the summer. I remember when they used to be open that late! I don't have an exact date for this advertisement, but since the theater ad above it states that the play, Mack & Mabel ends August 17th, this ad had to be dated some time before that, but after June 29th when America Sings opened to the public.
That artwork from 1974 was used again three years later, in a color ad from 1977. This is a page from the February 1977 issue of the Auto Club News. Gee, during the month of March, it was only $6.00 for admission and unlimited rides with your Auto Club card. It costs three times that much now....just to park your car! Sheeeesh!
Here's the cover of that magazine:
And just to compare what prices were five years later, here is a page from another issue of Auto Club News. This one is dated February 1982 and shows that the prices for Auto Club members during "Auto Club Month at Disneyland" had only gone up $2.25 in five years.....not bad! And just look at those hours. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays and open only until 7:00 p.m. on the weekends. I liked Disneyland better when it had an "Off Season"!
Here is the cover of that issue. Sorry about the waviness at the top of the scan! I scanned this about seven years ago and then put the magazine away without noticing that it was a bad scan.
Does anyone know if Disneyland even has an "Auto Club Month" anymore? It would be so nice to pay a discounted price of say, maybe $103 for the day instead of that dreaded $105! ;-)
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7 comments:
I was talking to a friend about how the park seemed to almost always be open until midnight or 1 AM when I went as a kid; now I see that it sometimes closes at 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock, or some other “early” hour. Even now that it is June, the park closes at 11:00 every night except Saturdays. What gives? $6 for admission and unlimited rides… it almost makes you wonder how they could stay in business!! I seriously doubt that there is even an “Auto Club Day” now…
Major, they probably realized that they don't need to keep the park open and pay all those additional salaries to the cast members. I bet it started during the Eisner era. I believe that is also when they started keeping the shops on Main St. open one hour past park closing. "We won't let you ride anymore rides, but feel free to spend whatever money you have left in our shops on your way out." Remember when the Emporium was the only shop that stayed open past park closing? And even then, you had to be in there within 10 or 15 minutes after the park closing time or else they closed their doors and you couldn't get in. Tokyo Disneyland still operates that way today.
Maybe I'm wrong here but I thought the "Open til 1 AM" was pretty common in the summer even through the Eisner era but changed to 11 PM or Midnight once Downtown Disney was built and established as a way to shift the business to the various nighttime offerings at the various eateries/nightclubs of DTD. Even though I loved the late hours, it doesn't make much business sense to keep the theme parks open til 1 AM with the DTD business to support. The one thing I notice most about operating hours is that the theme parks are open every day. There seems to be no downtime for Disneyland anymore. Not like in the old days when the park had an off-season with the Mon-Tues non-operating days. Or was it Tues-Wed when Disneyland was closed in the off season?
Love the graphics on the 70's magazines. And the style of wording and descriptions are always fun to read too. Thanks, TM!
Ken, I just checked "Jason's Disneyland Almanac", and it appears that the park stopped staying open until 1 a.m. in mid-summer of 1996. After that, it looks like the park never stayed open later than 12 midnight in the summertime with the exception of the Fourth of July weekends.
And Disneyland was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in the off season. Knott's was closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. When I worked at Knott's, they told us they did that on purpose so that anyone that might be in town only for a day or two, would at least be able to visit one of the two parks and not find them both closed for the day.
I have "Jason's Disneyland Almanac" too. Shame on me for not checking in it before chiming in about the hours. For some reason I thought it was when DCA and DTD opened. Anyway, I stand corrected.
That's also some very interesting information about Knott's and Disneyland being closed on different days so visitors weren't left without a park to go to. Thanks, TM!
I could dig staying at the park every evening until 1 am. And I certainly wouldn't mind those vintage prices (or the vintage price increases). The good ole days.
SWA, Yep, those were the days, my friend!
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