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Great Moments in Disneyland History

August, 1970 -- The Yippie Invasion (The Diorama)

From the New York Times:





Naturally, I had to put those cops in front of my nearly complete Disneyland castle model...




This comes from the City of Anaheim's web page:

Civil disobedience during the late 1960s and early 70s was prevalent throughout the United States. The City of Anaheim was not spared their share of these disturbances. On August 6, 1970, Disneyland was the unlikely location for an event referred to as "Yippie Day." Towards the summer of 1970, thousands of flyers were being distributed, and advertisements were placed, in the Los Angeles Free Press inviting "Yippies" to attend the First International "Yippie Pow Wow."

Publicity in the underground newspaper was high and approximately 100,000 leaflets were distributed throughout the nation.

According to Police investigations, the leaflets were distributed and the event was coordinated from a residence in the 1200 block of West La Palma Avenue in Anaheim. Hippies were encouraged to attend this non-sponsored event "to liberate Minnie Mouse, have free rein of the park and infiltrate Tom Sawyer's Island." Warned that Disneyland would not allow the Yippies admission to the park without a ticket, the coordinators encouraged people to "tear down the walls." The LA Free Press warned its readers to prepare for a confrontation, advising that Anaheim Police Officers were under going riot training and may be heavily armed. With this information, the Anaheim police Department prepared for a major confrontation, working with their strategy for the unauthorized visitation of an anticipated crowd of 20,000 plus Yippies to the Magic Kingdom.

Officials with the Anaheim Police Department and other Orange County police agencies began training their officers in crowd control. On the morning of August 6, 1970, Anaheim Police and Disneyland personnel were prepared for the Yippie take-over. As the gates opened, 300 Yippies made their entrance into the park. Anaheim Police waited in riot formation behind Main Street while Disneyland administrators and cast members dealt with the small group of unruly hippies. Once inside the park, the Yippies received an unexpected confrontation from regular park guests. Disneyland personnel handled these minor confrontations as hundreds of police officers remained in the back lot. It appeared that Disneyland personnel had things well in hand and the day would remain relatively peaceful. As the day wore on, so did the emotions and tempers of the paying park guests and Yippies. The Yippies assembled on Main Street and tried to gain unity in an attempt to disrupt park activity and cause damage to the park. As security officers attempted to gain order, one of Disneyland's security officers was assaulted. At that point the police were called upon to evict the Yippies from the park. As park guests watched and cheered, hundreds of police officers marched onto Main Street in formation and began their slow and deliberate sweep to clear the unruly crowd.

Instead of departing, the Yippies broke up and spread throughout the park. Police remained in formation on Main Street as Disneyland personnel cleared the park section by section and declared the park closed for the day.

Disneyland was officially closed at 7:10 p.m. but police continued to deal with confrontations with Yippies on surrounding park properties, including the Disneyland Hotel. It was not until 11:50 p.m. that they were allowed to leave.

Aside from the Anaheim Police Department, over 200 additional police officers were utilized as the Orange, Westminster, Fullerton and La Palma Police Departments. Jailers, Cadets and Explorers assisted in booking prisoners and manning the command posts. The California Highway Patrol took charge of traffic surrounding the park, and other local police agencies remained on standby alert. Security in and around the Anaheim Police building was heavy, with armed officers standing guard at all entrances. Each police agency providing assistance incurred their own costs for providing personnel in this mutual aid response. Cost to the Anaheim Police Department alone came to a grand total of $62,930.

A firsthand report here:

(From CIA Files, Unnumbered Memorandum, 29 July 1970)

Subject: Hippie Action in Los Angeles
6 August 1970 is the anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima. On this date the Hippies plan to "take over Disneyland" and do their thing. The local police and security authorities are watching the situation most closely.

(Narrative) David Sacks was one of the founders of the West Coast Yippies. Inspired by Abbie and Jerry, Sacks and his friends organized their most famous action--the Yippie invasion of Disneyland. Leaflets were distributed that promised, among other things, a Women's Lib rally to free Tinkerbell and a Black Panther hot breakfast at Aunt Jemima's. The only event that actually transpired was the smoke-in on Tom Sawyer's island. After some spontaneous pot smoking, the Yippies left the island and started marching down Main Street.

David Sacks

"The people who had gotten off these first two rafts--that's about what it was, it was two raftloads of people--decided to march down Main Street in Disneyland, singing various odes to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and marched on down to the city hall of Main Street, Disneyland where they have the American flag on a flagpost. And there was an empty flagpost. Someone pulled out a so-called Yippie flag, red and black with a green marijuana leaf, and started to raise it on the flagpole, OK? And some Orange County redneck came storming up to them and said how dare you raise that flag next to the American flag. And someone else went to the other flagpole as this guy was trying to rip down the Yippie flag, and said 'If you rip down our flag we'll rip down your flag.' He started to try to untie the American flag to bring it down. At which point fisticuffs broke out and Orange County's finest appeared out from behind all the buildings of Disneyland, 800 police in brand new yellow riot gear--this was the first chance that Orange County had had to test out their new riot gear. These guys looked like something out of a comic book. It looked hi-tech before that was even a word. All of a sudden, all of Main Street, the whole circle promenade there, was circled with these police. I come out and I see all these police in riot gear, I knew something had happened. They start making an announcement over the bullhorns, 'Due to the unfortunate actions of a few people, Disneyland must close for the day.' Now you gotta realize there's 20 to 25,000 people and there may have been 200 Yippies there, OK. Of the 200 quote Yippies, I'd say 100 of 'em were just freaks who were really apolitical but thought it would be fun to come to Disneyland and trip around that day, with the idea of liberating Tom Sawyer. They liked the sense of humor rather than any political statement. So I'm standing there, my hair's halfway down my back. And they're making these announcements will everybody start moving towards the exits, OK. And so all of a sudden this policeman comes up to me and says 'You! Get your ass moving!', and just jabs me right in the ribs with his nightstick.

"We got picked up by either Time or Newsweek and there was an article in there about the events that were on our flyer, as if they actually happened. The headline in the LA Times the next day was 'Yippies Close Disneyland.'"