The Early History and Construction of the

Golden Horseshoe Saloon

Walt Disney once said, “Disneyland will never be completed….” and he was right. Many things have changed over the years, but the one thing that has remained unchanged is Frontierland’s Golden Horseshoe Saloon. Many acts have come and gone, shows have opened and closed, cast members, wallpaper and paint have changed, but the “Golden Lady of Frontierland” remains one of Disneyland’s few original fixtures. This is her story.

The Dream Begins

Walt’s original dream for a theme park began when his daughters, Diane and Sharon were young. Sitting on park benches watching his daughters ride the merry-go-round, Walt dreamed of a clean, safe environment where adults could enjoy themselves as much as children.

In 1945, Walt became interested in model railroads, a hobby shared by a few of his studio animators, like Ollie Johnston and Ward Kimball. In 1948, Ward and Walt decided to take a vacation break from work and attend the Chicago Railroad Fair.

 It was here that Walt’s theme park ideas began to take shape when he visited Henry Ford’s nearby Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Walt began to dream of building a small “themed” park across the street from his Burbank Studios. He would base this park on his most popular creation, Mickey Mouse.

Walt asked animator, Ken Anderson to design a scale model town, while he set about building his own scale model railroad. As often happened with Walt, when he dreamed he dreamed BIG. After completing his third set of scale towns and trains, he told fellow dreamer, Roger Broggie that he was going to build his “town” for real and within a few years, he began to look for bigger property to build his dream on.

The 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair

At a press conference on Thursday, March 27, 1952, Walt announced to the public his dream to build the first themed amusement park and a search for adequate property at a reasonable price began.

By August of 1953, the decision had been made to build his theme park in an orange grove in Anaheim, California. Construction began in the summer of 1954 with a proposed opening date of July, 1955, but Walt was short of funds to begin building.

It was than that Walt struck a deal with the American Broadcasting Company. He would provide ABC with a weekly one hour TV show and ABC would help to provide the funds necessary to build his “dream”.

On Wednesday, October 27, 1954, Walt began broadcasting a weekly Television series on ABC-TV entitled simply “Disneyland”. The first show of that series was a preview of the coming amusement park in Anaheim. During that show, Walt presented his park through a ¼” scale model and original drawings.

Frontierland is founded

As a child, Walt was always fascinated by stories of the old west, so his plans immediately included a themed western area where he could recreate the Old West of his boyhood stories. Among the attractions, Walt dreamed of for his Western Frontier area was a Wild West saloon, complete with a live show and so the Golden Horseshoe Saloon was born.

Original concept art

"Calamity Jane" starring Doris Day

{Notice the architecture in the back ground}

Located in the center of Frontierland, the interior was designed by Harper Goff, the same set designer who had designed the saloon set for the movie, "Calamity Jane" starring Doris Day. Goff was already working on designing exteriors for Main Street USA.

When asked to design an interior for Walt’s Frontierland saloon for his new theme park in Anaheim, Goff simply pulled the movies’ blueprints out of the file and presented them to Walt. Down to the last detail, it resembles a fancy old west saloon complete with a stage, orchestra pit and a mile long bar except that it is in 5/8 scale.

Set Designer, Harper Goff 

The Golden Horseshoe has been a gleaming icon in Frontierland since it’s opening on Sunday, July 17, 1955. The external western motif of the building made this theater an undiscovered gem, sometimes overlooked by the first-time Disneyland visitor. Styled internally after a typical Opera House at the turn of the century, it’s gilded wallpaper, ornate light fixtures and carved wooden accents, provided a luxurious home to the entertainment that creator, Walt Disney envisioned for his park guests.

Original artist's concepts drawing for the Golden Horseshoe were painted by Sam McKim, a Disney WED imagineer since 1954.

Renie Conley [Costumes by Renie] designed the gowns worn by Slue Foot Sue and the Can-Can girls. After leaving Disney, she went on to design costumes at 20th Century Fox. She passed away in 1992. Her window on Main St. is located above the Blue Ribbon Bakery.

Originally called Pecos Bill's Golden Horseshoe Saloon during construction, it was changed before the opening of the park.

Norman "Buddy" Baker composed the scores for many of the songs used in the Golden Horseshoe Revue, but Music for the original show  was put together by Golden Horseshoe pit band leader, Charles LeVere and Tom Adair.

The Golden Horseshoe is Christened

With an opening date of Sunday, July 17, 1955 scheduled, Walt and his crews now had less than a year to complete construction of the newly christened “Disneyland”.

Planning ahead, Walt hired comedian, Wally Boag and singer, Don Novis to co-write a saloon type show that would run on a daily basis in the Frontierland saloon.

Walt and Lilly with daughters, Diane and Sharon on July 16, 1955 at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon.

On Wednesday, July 13, 1955, Walt and Lillian Disney celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary by giving family and special guests a sneak peek at their new park. The maiden voyage of the Mark Twain Riverboat took place during this private party.

Afterwards, the guests went to Slue Foot Sue's Golden Horseshoe Saloon (named after the character in Pecos Bill). Walt’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller remembers that day…. “..... my parents celebrated their 30^th wedding anniversary. It began on the Mark Twain riverboat with mint juleps and then moved over to the Golden Horseshoe saloon for dinner and the “Revue”. Suddenly Dad appeared in one of the balcony boxes on the side of the stage. At this point in the show, Wally Boag, as Pecos Bill, was firing blanks – Dad returned fire with his thumb and forefinger, then began to climb down to the stage. I think everyone got a bit worried – I know I did. When he got to the stage, he stood there beaming at everyone. He was so happy.”

On Saturday, July 16, 1955, [the day before the official grand opening], Walt had the cast  perform of the Golden Horseshoe Revue for corporate sponsor at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon. Wally Boag marks this as his first performance of the show at Disneyland.

D-day, July 17, 1955

From the fort-like front gate of Frontierland, Walt read the following statement and the theater began its long legacy of variety acts, comedy and vocal talent.

"Frontierland is a tribute to the faith, courage and ingenuity of the pioneers who blazed the trails across America.  We find ourselves back in the exciting days when the story of our country's past was being lived.  We will ride a covered wagon to a roaring river town, pay a visit to Slew-Foot Sue's Golden Horseshoe, and then catch the paddlewheel steamer Mark Twain for a trip down the Rivers of America."

That opening day, Sunday, July 17, 1955, found the Golden Horseshoe Saloon ready to open with its newly written show entitled, “Slue Foot Sue’s Golden Horseshoe Revue”. Originally sponsored by Pepsi Co., It was featured in the live broadcast on ABC-TV that day with actor, Robert Cummings. As the doors open, we are treated to four can-can girls dancing on stage. They are joined by singer, Donald Novis, leading lady, Judy Marsh and comedian, Wally Boag. One of the first live TV shows at the time, it was watched by over 90 million television viewers that Sunday afternoon.

Looking from the Rivers of America at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon [right side of picture], 1955

Other Frontierland attractions to open that day included the Stage Coach, the Mule Train, the Mark Twain Riverboat, the Davy Crockett Museum, the Conestoga Wagons and the Mike Fink Keel Boats.

Opening Day photo of the chorus line of Can-Can dancers

Other Pictures

{click on the pictures to enlarge}

A movie still from "Calamity Jane"

Another "Calamity Jane" shot showing the saloon set. The man in drag is the late Dick Wesson, who later became the voice of Disneyland.

The front gate of Frontierland in 1955

Calamity Jane Movie Poster

[in Spanish]

An original painting in Club 33 of

The Golden Horseshoe Saloon

The view from the Mark Twain Riverboat before the tree fell.

 Is the Golden Horseshoe Revue available on video or DVD?

Because I get asked this question all the time, I have provided the following information for visitors to this site. The actual entire Golden Horseshoe Revue has never been released on video to date by the Disney Company. The following options are available though.
 

The Golden Horseshoe Revue was featured for its 10,000th show in an episode of "The Wonderful World of Disney" on September 23, 1962. It was directed by Ron Miller. This video was released on the Walt Disney Treasures Series entitled DISNEYLAND - SECRETS, STORIES & MAGIC. This is currently available through most video store and Disney outlets.

There is a soundtrack album released in 1959 that gives you a complete musical representation of the entire show. It is called The Golden Horseshoe Revue and is still sometimes available on www.ebay.com. It tends to be rather pricey though. Usually between $75. and $125.

A few years ago, Disney released a CD version of this original album that could be purchased at the park. This is no longer sold at Disneyland.  It ran for about $25.00 a CD. Check www.ebay.com for used copies

Wally Boag can be seen on the Walt Disney Treasury DVD entitled "The Mickey Mouse Club". These DVD's feature the first week of shows from October 3, 1955 through October 7, 1955. Wally is seen on this DVD with his "Boag-aloons" balloon creations and also, playing the bagpipes.

Wally Boag is featured on the VHS released episodes from a few years ago on Mickey Mouse Club Vol. #6 making balloon animals for Annette Funicello. Later, in the episode he and Annette dance together. This can usually be found on  www.ebay.com or at sometimes at www.amazon.com.

 
Wally Boag, along with co-stars, Donald Novis and Judy Marsh were taped for an episode of the original Mickey Mouse Club back in the mid 50's. It opens with Don and Judy singing a couple of numbers and features Wally dancing in a nightclub setting. This episode can be found on Mickey Mouse Club Vol. #7 of the re-released Mickey Mouse Club VHS tapes and can usually be found on  www.ebay.com or at sometimes at www.amazon.com.

Wally was also featured on an episode of The Muppet Show that originally showed on May 9, 1981. He recreated a few of his famous Golden Horseshoe routines on this show as well. Wally is featured on Tape number 4 and sometimes you can find this on www.ebay.com as well.

*Note: Wally was also featured on an episode of the Mickey Mouse Club doing his Pecos Bill with Darlene Gillespie and on another episode Wally is featured descending in a hot air balloon. Neither of these episodes has been released on DVD to date.

Attention Former Golden Horseshoe Cast Members and Performers!

If you were a former Golden Horseshoe Saloon performer or technician between the years 1955 to the present, and would like to be included in this [still incomplete] list of

Golden Horseshoe Cast Members,

OR, if you have additional information or corrections to make to this history,

I would love to hear from you.

Please contact Jan Vincent @ janvincent_1313@yahoo.com

Come share your memories of the Golden Horseshoe

and it's shows, entertainers and castmembers at

Memories of the Golden Horseshoe Message Board

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Jan as a South Park Character.

Thanks Sarah!

This website is loving dedicated to

David L. Vincent

1956 to 2005

"The man who taught me everything I know about computers."

I love you, Dave!

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