Massoth (Robert and Bertha) Collection of Disneyland publications and ephemera, approximately 1960-2008

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Summary

Title:

Robert and Bertha Massoth collection of Disneyland publications and ephemera

Dates:

approximately 1960-2008

Creators:

Massoth, Robert J. and Massoth, Bertha E.

Abstract:

This collection includes Disneyland-related newsletters, magazines, and other publications collected by Robert J. Massoth and by his wife, Bertha E. Massoth. Bertha worked as the executive secretary to the head of publicity and marketing at Disneyland, a theme park in Anaheim, Orange County, California, owned by Walt Disney Co.

Extent:

4.7 Linear Feet (4 letter-size document boxes, 1 half-width letter-size document box, 2 records cartons, 1 flat box, and 5 oversize folders)

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

Robert and Bertha Massoth collection of Disneyland publications. MS-R147. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection includes newsletters and other publications for Disneyland park employees and former employees, including Backstage Disneyland, Inside Disneyland; and The Disneylander. Also included is Walt Disney Co. literature such as annual reports, the employee newsletter Disney Newsreel, and gift catalogs of Disney trademarked merchandise. There are also tourist guides, posters, and other publications for visitors to Disneyland and Walt Disney World resort. A minimally processed accrual was added to the collection in 2023.

Biographical / historical:

Robert J. Massoth (1918-2008) and his wife, Bertha E. Massoth (1918-1987), lived in Fullerton, Orange County, California. Bertha worked at the Disneyland theme park from approximately 1958 to 1984, serving as the executive secretary to the head of publicity and marketing.

Disneyland, located 27 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles in Anaheim, Orange County, California, opened in 1955. Walt Disney, the creator of animated motion pictures featuring the characters Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pluto, had first conceived of the park twenty years earlier. But it wasn't until the post-war boom in consumer culture, automobile travel, tourism, and the growth of the television industry that he was able to realize the project.

Disney used his new weekly television program on the ABC television network to generate revenue and to report on the park's development, introducing the new concept of a theme park as distinct from the amusement parks that had been in existence in the U.S. since the late nineteenth century. Designed, like a Disney motion picture, to invite the visitor into an imaginary world, Disneyland was organized into five thematically linked areas: Main Street, U.S.A.; Adventureland; Frontierland; Fantasyland; and Tomorrowland.

In the years since Disneyland's inception, its "imagineers" (engineers, architects, artists, storytellers, and designers) have added more "lands," entertainment, rides and attractions to the park. Disneyland's public service employees are called "cast members" in company literature because they are considered an integral part of creating the park's special atmosphere.

Attendance at Disneyland in 2008 was 14,721,000. Disneyland is now just one part of a large tourist and entertainment complex in Anaheim, where Walt Disney Co. owns 461 acres of land and has the rights under long-term lease for use of an additional 49 acres. In addition to its vast holdings in studio entertainment and media networks, the company also owns Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida, and licenses or owns interests in a number of other parks and resorts in the U.S. as well as in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Paris. Taken together, Walt Disney Attractions has the highest attendance of any theme park chain in the world, with 118,000,000 visitors in 2008.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Thomas and Michele Massoth, 2009, 2013, and 2022.

Processing information:

Processed by Michelle Light and Dawn Schmitz, 2009.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in alphabetical order by title or type of publication.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Bibliography:

Themed Entertainment Association/Economics Research Associates. Attraction Attendance Report 2008. Burbank, Calif.: Themed Entertainment Association, 2009.

Telotte, J.P. The Mouse Machine : Disney and Technology. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Walt Disney Productions. Disneyland : The First Quarter Century. Burbank, Calif.: Walt Disney Productions, 1979.

"Walt Disney Co." In Mint Global [database online]. Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing. [Cited 7 July 2009.]

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Amusement parks -- California -- Anaheim -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Names:: Walt Disney Productions
Walt Disney Company
Disneyland (Calif.) -- Archives
Disneyland (Calif.)

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Finding aid prepared by Dawn Schmitz; updated by Sara Seltzer, 2013; updated by Charla DelaCuadra, 2023.
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-01-29 20:54:50 UTC .

Access and use

Restrictions:: The collection is open for research.
Terms of access:: Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.