On July 17, 2025, Disneyland celebrated its 70th birthday. If the math is correct, this means that thirty years ago they were celebrating the 40th. While the month and date remain the same, there the resemblance ends.
Guests arriving at the Happiest Place on Earth that day found Main Street USA adorned with giant Mickey head balloons and colorful balloon arches. Look closely, and you can see giant inflatable characters atop the buildings.
Upon arrival at the central hub, no one could miss an even bigger decoration.
The Matterhorn was draped with a massive banner. Under the classic Disneyland logo, the banner read, “Happy 40th birthday.” The “40” was in the same typeface as the “40 Years of Adventures” logo that had been placed seemingly everywhere in Disneyland.
Down in front of the castle, a special display had been set up, prominently featuring a container, elaborately decorated to look like Sleeping Beauty Castle. This was the “Time Castle,” and there was scheduled a special ceremony to encase it in a special vault in the castle forecourt. (There will be much more about that in next month’s column.)
Due to heavy media presence and the way that the event was staged, the general public did not get a very good view of the proceedings. There really is an event going on in the upper right hand corner of this image!
Everyone did get a good view of party hats, though.
These conical hats were handed out to each guest as they entered the park that day, along with a piece of birthday cake. Of course, each hat was branded with that ubiquitous logo. They could be seen everywhere, all day long.
Some guests found unique ways to combine their party hats with equally distinctive Disneyland headgear.
I did mention that those hats turned up everywhere?
Meanwhile, in front of the castle, that special ceremony ended with daytime fireworks shot off from the castle itself. A small crane was employed to lift the “Time Castle” off its pedestal and lower it into the specially constructed vault.
As the crane swung toward the east, it seemed to point toward the Matterhorn. As guests watched, an announcement informed them that a special guest was joining them to lead the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Disneyland.
In one of the more unusual promotions in the park’s fabled history of unusual promotions, country superstar Randy Travis stepped out at the top of the Matterhorn to greet the crowd. As the familiar strains of “Happy birthday to you” filled the air, a plane towing a banner appeared and slowly moved across the sky. And, just in case anyone had missed it, the banner was punctuated with the 40th anniversary logo.
Party hats, birthday cake, a Time Castle, and Randy Travis atop the Matterhorn… That’s how they celebrated Disneyland’s 40th, thirty years ago at Disneyland.
