history can be traced to Buffalo Bills Wild West Show, it can also be said that it was perfected by Walt Disney and his 1955 masterpiece called Disneyland. Once again blending fact and fiction and relying on simple, thematic presentations that were easily digestible to a similarly eager crowd, Disneyland was the continuation of the history of the west started by Cody in 1883. The history taught by Disney was multifaceted and is easy to misinterpret. It seems, to me at least, that Disney as history, at least in the 50s and 60s before they were forced to accept the changing face of America in general, and L.A. in particular, was really a Turner-esque creation of a new society after the frontier had been conquered. Disney offered a society that was clean and safe and free of the racial, social, and economic strife that so dominated the eastern cities like New York, or the cities of the Old World, like London or Rome, where many Americans had their roots. Just as Turner saw the frontier as the slow process of rebuilding civilization, so did Walt Disney see Disneyland as the creation of a better society. If Buffalo Bill embodied the values of individualism and a romance with the wilderness, Disney offered a civilization based on western progress, as an alternative to the east. Buoyed by the interstate highway system, Disney sought to create a destination point where people would be entertained and spend vast amounts of money. This was not going to be a melting pot, salad bowl, or any other mixing of classes and races. His plan, simply put, was to bring middle class America together, feed them middle class values and dummied-down history, and then, as they cheer how great it is that history is explained just how they see it, separate them from their money. Inherent in his vision was a level of control not seen in theme parks of the east. Disney sought to abolish the chaos associated with such hallowed places as Coney Island in New Yo...
