The Story Behind the Mickey Mouse Club Theater and Fantasyland Theater

For children during the 1950s, joining the Mickey Mouse Club would have been a dream. The Mickey Mouse Club was a place where children could sing, dance, play, and educate. Airing for the first time in October of 1955, the original series ran until 1959 on ABC. The Mickey Mouse Club was hosted by Jimmie Dodd, and featured 24 Mouseketeers, or cast members. Before the company saw the success of this television show, they foreshadowed it to the public through an opening day attraction at Disneyland on July 17th, 1955: The Mickey Mouse Club Theater.

Mad Tea Party and the Mickey Mouse Club Theatre in behind. Image from: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2016/07/opening-day-to-today-original-disneyland-attractions-then-and-now/

The opening of the mickey mouse club theater

Disneyland’s Fantasyland opened with 9 different attractions: Canal Boats of the World, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Dumbo Flying Elephants, King Arthur Carousel, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Adventures, and the Mickey Mouse Club Theater. The theater sat to the right of Snow White’s Adventures, across from Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. It was an air conditioned building that would serve as a way for guests to re-watch their favourite classic black and white Disney cartoons.

A special airing occurred in June 1956 called 3D Jamboree. 3D Jamboree was a special film that starred Jimmie Dodd and Roy Williams of the Mickey Mouse Club series, and starred many of the original Mouseketeers as well. It included 2 animated segments of slightly older Disney cartoons that were shown in 3D, called Working For Peanuts (1953) and Adventures in Music: Melody (1953). It was the only recorded time that the original cast was filmed and shown in color. This unique film was shown for 8 years until it closed in 1964, and it hasn’t been aired since then.

3D Jamboree promotional poster. Image from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1009983/

the mickey mouse club television series (1955-1959)

The Mickey Mouse Club was 1 of 2 television series that helped fund Disneyland at the time, alongside the anthology series Disneyland. It was developed by Walt, Bill Walsh, and Hal Adelquist. The show would be a mix of song, dance, comedy, cartoons, and moral segments to bring educational value to the program. For majority of the episodes, the teenage Mousketeers would face a common problem at the beginning of the episode, and by the end, they would solve it with the help of their friends. Jimmie Dodd acted as the Head Mouseketeer, while Roy Williams made occasional appearance as the “Big Mousketeer”. Jimmie and Roy contributed to the creative process in multiple ways as well, with Jimmie writing the theme song and Roy conjuring up the idea of having the Mouseketeers wear special mouse ears. The original series would run every weekday for 5 years before being cancelled by the network due to a lack in interest in children’s educational programming.

The original Mickey Mouse Club cast. Image from: https://www.grunge.com/295730/tragic-details-about-the-original-mickey-mouse-club-cast/

fantasyland theater (1964-1981)

Despite the original Mickey Mouse Club being cancelled in 1959, the theater kept its name for another 5 years thereafter, until it was decided it was in need of an upgrade in 1964. It was renamed to be the Fantasyland Theater, to better fit in with its environment. It continued to show old Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh shorts, but was sometimes used as an auditorium for conferences and staff events. For a brief time in 1976, the theater was converted into a live performance venue for the all-new educational show Fun With Music. Bruce Healey, a musical composer for Disney best known for composing the music for Fantasmic! (1992), was the piano player in the show.

Fantasyland Theatre. Image from: https://www.micechat.com/297443-yesterland-fantasyland-theater-mickey-mouse-club-theater/

the closure of fantasyland theater

Fantasyland Theater’s demise came when the land was undergoing a major makeover. The Renaissance theme of Fantasyland was becoming outdated, the congestion of the lines were bad, and the whole land needed a face lift. Although Walt adored the idea of Fantasyland, he was never quite happy with how it turned out. By 1983, imagineers felt it was time to finally give it the update it deserved. For New Fantasyland, many of the attractions remained the same, just moved around to new spots to allow for more space. One of the only casualties was Fantasyland Theater, which would become the space for the all-new dark ride Pinocchio’s Daring Journey.

The memory of the theater would remain on until this day, when the outdoor amphitheatre Videopolis in Tomorrowland was renamed to Fantasyland Theatre in 1995. It’s purpose was much different though in comparison to the original venue, as it is now a performance space for stage productions. There is still a place for guests to enjoy classic Mickey Mouse cartoons on Main Street USA, called the Main Street Cinema. If you were ever interested in visiting the Mickey Mouse Club Theater, the Main Street Cinema is the closest you will come.