In celebration of Disneyland's anniversary this coming Tuesday, we're posting stories all about The Happiest Place on Earth for a week leading up to it. This Friday the 13th, we asked Disney historian and author Jim Fanning to pen this piece about the Golden Horseshoe Revue, and Walt and Lillian's wedding anniversary celebration that happened at the Revue a few days before the park actually opened to the public.
Of the more than ten million enthusiastic audience members who enjoyed the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland Park over its astonishing 47,250 performances, Walt Disney was undoubtedly its biggest fan. “The thing I'll always remember is Walt,” said Betty Taylor who joined the rootin’ tootin’ revue in 1956, its second year, as Slue Foot Sue and continued in that role until the show ended in 1986. “Always a perfectionist, but such a genuinely down-to-earth and nice man. He loved the show and would stop in when he could. When he was in the park, we all knew; we'd get his box ready for him. He thought the show was special.” “Walt really adored this show,” agreed Wally Boag, who portrayed the Travelling Salesman and Pecos Bill in the show from its 1955 debut through his retirement in 1982. “Walt had produced animation and films but he had never done a stage show before. So he loved the Golden Horseshoe Revue and he’d show up all the time and he always brought a party.”
Grandiosely billed as “the grandest, most spectacular show on the entire frontier,” the Golden Horseshoe Revue originated with Walt, as did most everything in his Magic Kingdom. “Walt’s idea was to have this 1871 Wild West vaudeville show,” explained Wally, “with the Traveling Salesman comic and Pecos Bill, an Irish tenor and the dancing girls.” To create the show, Walt first turned to show-biz veteran, singer Donald Novis. According to Fulton Burley, who would join the Golden Horseshoe cast in 1962, “Walt told his friend, Don Novis, that when Disneyland was finished, he’d have a place for Don to sing—in an old-time saloon. To get some comedy in the show, Don suggested some kid he’d worked with who was pretty funny and could do stuff with balloons.” This was Wally Boag, a former MGM contract player touring the world with his vaudeville comedy act. “I met Walt on this on this big, empty stage,” Wally later recalled of his audition. “I did about a half hour of my nightclub routine. I did tap dancing and played the bagpipes and other things. When I finished, Walt said that I if I cleaned the show up a bit, I had the job.” Wally was signed to a contract on July 4, 1955, just days before the Park’s July 17th opening. He and Don Novis put the show together, based on proven vaudeville material, incorporating Wally’s skill at making balloon animals as he spouted one-liners. One of Boag’s funniest bits was a showstopper: after being accidently punched in the jaw, Pecos Bill spit out some 84 teeth per performance (they were actually dried pinto beans Wally hid in his cheeks) with perfect comic timing.
The record-breaking vaudeville-style show was staged in Frontierland’s lavish Golden Horseshoe Saloon. Slue Foot Sue performed several numbers worthy of the frontier’s classiest chanteuse, including “A Lady Needs to Mind Her Ps and Qs” and Walt’s favorite, “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home.” The dancing girls kicked up their heels to Offenbach’s classic “Can-Can,” followed by songs like “Beautiful Dreamer” from the silver-toned tenor. The zany Travelling Salesman produced wacky props from his carpetbag. The Revue’s rousing finale was built around the ballad “Pecos Bill,” from Walt’s animated version of the tall tale in Melody Time (1948), with Wally playing a wild-eyed version of Bill, Sue’s cowboy beau.
As one of Disneyland’s Opening Day attractions, the show was to be part of the Dateline: Disneyland television program, the live broadcast seen by ninety million viewers—but in one of the many glitches that plagued the televised proceedings, Wally Boag wrote in his 2009 memoir, “our Horseshoe show didn't get on. They were supposed to switch to the Horseshoe just as the dancers were beginning the can-can number, and they were going to shoot the reflection in the mirror that hung behind the bar. But they were late in switching to the Horseshoe, so they only got a few seconds of the show's closing and us taking bows. But that was all right, because the next day, we opened up to the public and began what would eventually become the longest-running live stage show in the history of show business.”
However, the real premiere performance of the Golden Horseshow Revue was in reality not on that unforgettable Sunday afternoon. In a special pre-opening presentation that Wally considered the Revue’s first official performance, the show was staged in honor of Walt and Lillian Disney’s thirtieth wedding anniversary on Wednesday, July 13, 1955. An invitation went out to 300 people, including such family friends as Mr. and Mrs., Edgar Bergen, for this “Tempus Fugit Celebration.” “It began,” recalled Diane Disney Miller, “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 that 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.” When Lilly reluctantly joined her husband on the Golden Horseshoe stage, Walt started dancing with his bride of 30 years (“She didn't know it," revealed Wally, "but he had taken some dancing lessons, because he knew how happy it would make her.”) and soon everyone was dancing.
It was entirely appropriate that Walt first staged the show for such a special occasion, and he never lost his enthusiasm for this wild Western extravaganza. “I can't remember how many times I've seen the show,” Walt wrote Wally in a November 6, 1959 letter, “but I always find it stimulating to be there and watch the responses of the audience—and although I practically know the routine by heart it's always new and exciting.” So entranced with this Frontierland favorite was the great showman that on September 23, 1962, he presented a special version of the show on his Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color TV series to celebrate the Revue’s 10,000th performance. Directed by Ron Miller, husband of Diane Disney Miller, this augmented edition brought the Disneyland stage show to Walt’s vast televison audience, its hilariously hokey humor intact. “Walt understood very well that the Golden Horseshoe show was corny,” observed Wally of the show the comic first performed at an extraordinary anniversary party. “But it worked. That’s what that show was all about.”
Jim Fanning is a writer, historian, editor and researcher specializing in Disney. In a career dedicated to celebrating and exploring the work and life of Walt Disney, Jim has authored books, magazine articles, TV documentaries, comics and a variety of other works, including a biography of Walt Disney. A contributor to Disney twenty-three Magazine and the D23 website, Jim has written officially commissioned projects for many departments of The Walt Disney Company, and has interviewed many Disney Legends, including Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, Carl Barks, Mary Costa and the Sherman Brothers. He also wrote many episodes of the groundbreaking documentary TV series, Disney Family Album, and has contributed writing and research to the Walt Disney Family Museum.