Did you know that in 1959, for just a few moments, Vice President Richard Nixon was
"kidnapped"?
It happened on the first ever passenger monorail in the US, and more importantly, it all happened
at Disneyland.
It was a European vacation in 1958 in which Walt Disney first experienced a monorail.
After seeing the vehicle produced by ALWEG, a German company, Walt decided that he wanted
one of his own in Disneyland.
Back in those days, Disney projects didn’t undergo layers and layers of approvals and
studies.
If Walt had an idea he wanted worked on, that’s all it took.
So Imagineering legend Bob Gurr headed over to Germany to study the ALWEG trains and start
working on a unique version for Disney.
It wasn’t as simple as just buying their technology.
Gurr found the ALWEG trains weren’t that good looking and needed a new aesthetic.
On top of that the plans for the Disneyland attraction would call for some tight turns
and unusually steep inclines.
Lastly, Disney wanted to make sure the monorails were built with parts that could be sourced
locally.
They didn’t necessarily want to wait for parts to be flown over from Germany whenever
something broke down.
As a result, while ALWEG was still technically attributed with the final Monorail that would
come to be, their actual involvement was pretty light.
Much of the design was done by Disney.
Still, ALWEG was involved enough that the attractions official name on opening day would
be the “Disneyland ALWEG Monorail System”.
It would become the first passenger monorail system to operate daily in the Western hemisphere.
At $1.3 million dollars, the monorail system wasn’t cheap.
On top of that, it wasn’t easy to build either.
The weeks leading up to the opening of the attraction were plagued with technical problems
and breakdowns.
It was so bad that even up until the night before the debut of the attraction Bob Gurr
and German engineer Konrad Deller were designing and building replacement parts for the system.
The following morning, on June 14th 1959, it was time for the Mark I Red Monorail to
make it’s grand televised debut.
Being the force behind the attraction, Gurr was given a last minute uniform and assigned
to be the captain for Monorails maiden voyage.
In preparation for the broadcast of the grand opening, he pulled the Monorail into the station
and left it on so that the cab could remain air conditioned.
It was at that moment that Walt Disney, Vice President at the time Richard Nixon, his family,
and his secret service detail showed up.
Nixon and his family were going to be involved in the ribbon cutting ceremony.
However before it all began, Walt started to show Nixon and his family the interior
of the monorail.
With it already powered up and running, it wasn’t long before Walt told Gurr to give
everyone a lap around the track, so he did… with the secret service left behind on the
monorail platform.
Nixon found it amusing that they were able to ditch the secret service, but Gurr was
a little stressed.
He has just inadvertently kidnapped the vice president on a monorail that was giving him
nothing but technical problems during the weeks building up to this.
His main goal was to get the VP back to the station in one piece.
Luckily the trip around the track was uneventful and without any breakdowns.
However any relief was short lived.
According to Gurr, as they approached the station one of Nixon’s daughters asked if
they could ride around one more time, to which Walt replied “Bobby, give ‘em another ride!"
So the monorail pulled into the station... and rolled right out again.
The secret service agents ran alongside the monorail in a hope they’d be able to jump
on board, but with closed doors there wasn’t any chance of that, so one more time the monorail
pulled out with the agents left behind to watch.
The second lap would be as uneventful as the first, and luckily nobody would get in any
trouble for the unexpected joyride.
In fact, the biggest hiccup of the whole debut would be some trouble cutting the ceremonial
ribbon, which was nothing a little ripping and a jump cut couldn’t solve.
Later an engineer from ALWEG would highlight the absurdity of the situation.
He pointed out that it took ALWEG seven years before they’d feel comfortable putting the
public on their trains.
Yet Disney, in just six months time, built a monorail and put their nation’s Vice President
on it for a few laps without the secret service.
Gurr said it was then that he realize what they did at WED.
Sure they were engineers creating amusements and rides for a theme park, but they developed
projects at a speed in such a way that was completely unique to Disney.
To many, it seemed like magic.
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch this video.
If you’d like to learn more about all of the cool stories behind the history of Disneyland,
I highly suggest checking out The Disneyland Story by Sam Gennawey.
You can find a link to it in the description below.
Have a great week, and I’ll see you next time!