Extinct Attractions: Davy Crockett's Frontier Museum
Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I took a look back at an opening day attraction from Disneyland that was one of the first to include IP.
This past weekend, Zootopia 2 moved past Inside Out 2 to become the highest-grossing animated film out of Hollywood ever. It doesn’t seem like it will quite have the steam to reach the unbelievable run of Ne Zha 2, but like its counterpart, China played a huge role in its success with Zootopia 2 passing Avengers: Endgame to become the biggest non-Chinese movie ever in the country. But for today’s attraction, we are sticking stateside to arguably the most American of attractions and lands.
Via Disney Wiki
Before Disneyland first opened, Walt Disney got into the television game with a show aptly titled Disneyland in which he would introduce elements of the upcoming park. While that was exciting to theme park nerds like myself, Walt knew that he needed some more narrative entertainment, too. With that in mind, a set of Davy Crockett episodes were put into production and proved to be such a success that they are often credited with helping to turn Crockett into the legend that he is today. The shows were even packaged together and released as a theatrical film, conveniently released just a couple of months before Disneyland opened.
Walt Disney was always mindful of any chances for synergy, so with the skyrocketing popularity of the character, it was a must to have representation for the character on the park’s opening day. The show’s star Fess Parker came out to Disneyland for the festivities on July 17, 1955, appearing on the television broadcast itself.
Via Disneyland Guru
It made seem odd by today’s standards, but when the park first opened, Davy’s Crockett’s Frontier Museum was the only attraction based off of IP that wasn’t located in Fantasyland. Calling it an attraction was a bit of a stretch, however, because at its core it wasn’t much more than a lightly themed walkthrough.
Lining some of the walls were rows of rifles along with art that depicted the time period as well as a flag from the time of Davy. Of course, there was a model of the Alamo as well, along with another arcade shooting game and some small shops.
Via Facebook
The highlight of the museum was a wax figure recreation of a meeting between Davy Crockett, his friend George Russel and former U.S. President Andrew Jackson. In fact, that marked the first time that a President appeared in a Disney Park, largely known for including them in droves.
If that doesn’t feel like there was that much going on, you’d be exactly correct. It was a relatively bare bones operation, only remaining as it was until October of 1955. At that point, it was rebranded the Davy Crockett Frontier Arcade, with very few changes at first, except for the fact that it was now considered more retail than attraction.
Things really fell apart when the wax figures of Davy and George were moved in June of 1956 over to Fort Wilderness on Tom Sawyer Island, becoming a part of that area’s mystique until its closure to the public in 2003. It was cool they got a home of their own, though the arcade stayed in place until 1987 when it transitioned into the Pioneer Mercantile store that it is today. While it may not have been much, it was really interesting seeing how early Disneyland integrated intellectual property into the park from day one.
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!