ANAHEIM, Calif. – Thanks to a Mickey-Mouse stunt pulled by some 300 youths calling themselves “Yippies,” Disneyland is no longer Open to longhairs – of any age or political persuasion.
Disneyland, the man-made tribute to both an unnatural high as well as to its namesake, Walt Disney, is located in the midst of Orange County, hard-hat heartland of California. Until just before the “yippie” invasion, the park’s officials had relaxed a long-standing ban on longhairs. For just about a year, you could get wiped out and, as long as you weren’t barefoot or shirtless, could then visit the world’s most fantastic playground.
But on August 6th. around noon, a number of people began celebrating “Yippie Day” (as declared by some local underground papers), gathering near Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Then they followed the Disneyland. Band down Main Street, chanting cheers for Ho Chi Minh and Charles Manson. Cops scattered them, but they re-grouped, won Tom Sawyer’s Island, ran up the Viet Cong flag, and started smoking dope. For hours, they had control of the island. Then an attempt to take over Disneyland’s City Hall was stopped by police, and fights broke out when the celebrants tried another march on Main Street, this one peppered with “fuck you’s” shouted at the mostly tolerant spectators.
Finally, the park was closed at 7 PM, six hours early, and the 30,000 visitors were given free passes for admission on another day. By now, riot cops had been called, and the final count of. youths arrested was 18, two of them for possession of weed and one for “assault with a, deadly weapon.”
Also, the new “grooming policy,” as one Disneyland official put it – with security guards stationed at the entrances to help turn away anyone with long hair or “unorthodox” clothes on. One officer said Disneyland was now drawing the line “at just about crewcut.”
Which is too bad, as Disneyland manager Donald Tatum said. “We went out of our way to show that two widely differing groups could have fun together at the same place. And only a couple of hundred spoiled it for everyone”.
After the ruckus, another group of 50 persons had to be chased away from Disneyland Hotel, which they were trying to occupy. As they took off, several slowed down enough to snap off radio antennae from parked cars nearby. Really revolutionary stuff.
