January tends to bring the coldest and rainiest days to the Happiest Place on Earth. This was certainly true thirty years ago in 1995 as Disneyland kicked off their fortieth anniversary celebration with a very successful promotion.
After the 30th and 35th birthdays, the powers that were (at the time) decided that every five years there would be a major promotional push at Walt’s original Magic Kingdom. In 1995 the theme was Forty Years of Adventure, in acknowledgement of a huge attraction that would open in early March. But until The Indiana Jones Adventure opened, they needed some way to get people into the park. The solution was… a giveaway, a multi-day giveaway that turned into something of a frenzy. And all over a card. Or rather, a series of cards.
Starting on January 21, Disneyland gave each guest entering the park a collectors’ card featuring one each of the park’s forty years. The first card was for 1955 and celebrated Walt Disney on opening day.
The back of the card gave details about the event depicted on the front. In addition, there was the helpful counter at the top of the card (1/40, card one of forty), as well as the numbered edition size at the bottom (this one is 44,292 of a total edition of 90,000).
Guests were not literally handed a card as they entered, though. They were, rather, handed a voucher which was then surrendered for that day’s card (and that day’s card only). Vouchers could be redeemed at one of six locations:
Crocodile Mercantile (Critter Country)
Perfume Shop (New Orleans Square)
Davy Crockett’s Pioneer Mercantile (Frontierland)
South Seas Traders (Adventureland)
Tinker Bell Toy Shop (Fantasyland)
Premiere Shop (Tomorrowland)
These dated vouchers, along with a dated, paid passport were good for a single card.
The first week or so saw low distribution, as heavy rains kept many people away. Besides, no one had really seen much promotion for the cards (this was, you will recall, pre-internet). Despite this, Disney hoped that the promotion would take off and drive attendance during a traditionally slow time at the park. As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for!
Here are the cards for days 2-4, covering 1956 (Astro-Jets), 1957 (House of the Future), and 1958 (Columbia Sailing Ship). No one knew how the attraction or promotion was selected for each year. 1959 could have been The Monorail or the Submarines, but it was the Matterhorn that was selected.
America the Beautiful (which was actually an upgrade of an existing attraction) appeared on the card for 1960. For 1961 it was a beloved past attraction, the Flying Saucers.
As January wound to a close, the cards covered a pair of what would prove to be long-term favorites: The Swiss Family Tree House (1961) and the Enchanted Tiki Room (1962). The card for 1963 featured a holiday offering, Fantasy on Parade.
January wound up with a big one, the Disneyland Tencennial Celebration for 1965.
By now the promotion had been running for a week and a half, and the word was out. Locals realized it would be possible to assemble a complete set of forty cards, just by showing up every day. Of course, where there are Disney collectibles, there are Disney merchants. In no time at all, day guests found themselves regularly approached for their vouchers. Some locals knew just which trash receptacles to regularly search. There were also a lot of furtive purchases out in the parking lot.
As a band of regulars began finding ways to get duplicates, the earliest cards, which had the lowest distribution, began to go up in trading value. The hub and the entrance to Frontierland became the most popular spots for trading until Disneyland Security deemed it a nuisance. As January came to an end, annual pass holders faced a daunting task: to get to the park every single day for the next month. Of course, there could be far more onerous tasks at hand, during those cold winter months thirty years ago at Disneyland.
