To give you a greater historical scope, Disney's California Adventure already has a Hollywood Blvd (with Hollywood Golden Age era facades) that meets up with Sunset Blvd (where the Tower of Terror sits), and a centerpiece theater called the Hyperion, with a facade meant to invoke the old Los Angeles Theater on Broadway.
What they're adding is the Carthay Circle Theater with a small plaza in front, and a stretch of road that will be known as Buena Vista St. That street will also have 1920s inspired storefronts. To connect it all, California Adventure is bringing back the Red Car, just like San Pedro did on it's waterfront.
Fox Carthay Circle on the night of a premier, photo credit LAPL
The Fox Carthay Circle held many premiers in it's day, with bleachers set up so fans could see the various stars arrive. My grandmother has told me stories about being taken to the Carthay Circle by her older relations to see such an event. The Carthay Circle sat on San Vicente between Wilshire and Olympic (not too far from LACMA, West Los Angeles) until it was demolished in 1969 to build an office park.
Carthay Circle 2012, Disney's California Adventure, photo credit Josie Becker
Luckily for this amateur historian, the theater is reborn in 2012, standing tall in California Adventure. So just what is the theater's significance to Disney? Well in 1937 it hosted the premier of Snow White, Disney's first feature length film.
Snow White original run poster
If you look at the Disney Parks article linked above, they have another really neat poster, a photo of the crowd awaiting the premier at Carthay Circle Theater, the playbill, just all sorts of neat stuff. It was a record setting event. The theater had 1,518 seats that sold out for $5 a pop (that's $79.05 in today's money) at a record pace, and 30k gathered outside just to see what was going on.
The film grossed $8.5 million ($134,384,409.72 in today's money) at a cost of $1.4 million (a nice profit) giving Disney the power to make classics such as Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi in the 40s. The enthusiasm about the film, as well as requests for some sort of studio tour, led Disney to begin planning what would eventually become Disneyland.
An early Disney attempt at giving fans an attraction where they could live the films.
Of course, it wouldn't be the Disneyland way to simply stick Carthay Circle in the middle of a modern world. Buena Vista St. and the return of the Red Car will do much to try and transport visitors back to the world of the 1930s (minus the war in Europe and terrible affects of the Great Depression of course). Disney Parks Blog wrote about the return of the Red Car yesterday (link).
The Pacific Electric Red Cars in the wild, headed to Santa Monica.
Before the abundance of freeways, these trolleys were the dominant mode of transportation in Los Angeles. Santa Monica Blvd. had a median in the middle for two sets of tracks (as seen here and in the KCET article). The trains picture in that photo were part of the West Hollywood line, KCET has written about how West Hollywood grew out of a rail yard town named Sherman. Sunset Junction, another key figure in the Gay Rights struggle, also takes it's name from the Red Car system (also via KCET)
So if you go to California Adventure this summer to check out the new Cars Land be sure to give some love to the time that launched the Disney corporation. I know it's what I'm excited about. And as a bonus, here are the costumes that will be worn by Cast Members assigned to this area; as shown at an Annual Passport holder preview. This could also be labeled, Disney goes into my closet.
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