*Some sources state August, 1957.

Back in 1951, Walt Disney and Art Linkletter visited the famous entertainment complex Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. He was researching and talking notes to build a family entertainment center and Tivoli was much like what he envisioned. It was clean, directed to the entire family, fun, entertaining and educational. Walt noted how important it was to have a lot of places for guests to sit down and a wide variety of eating spots that served excellent meals.

Let’s explore the one-time cafeteria with the New Orleans motif; home of the best barbecued sandwiches, ribs and chicken ever served at Disneyland - Don Defore's Silver Banjo!

“The Recipe for Success”

Don DeFore had a distinguished film career! Don appeared in feature films A Guy Named Joe, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and It Happened On 5th Avenue. But perhaps his most notable roles were on television series Ozzie and Harriet, and Hazel. Don eventually had the good pleasure of serving as the President of Academy of Television Arts and Sciences from 1954 to 1955. Owing to this 2 terms as president (and success of being the first president to at sell the National Broadcast of the Emmy Awards to NBC), Don would win an Emmy Award. Incidentally this attention would establish a historic meeting with someone we are well acquainted with - Walt Disney! It just so happens that Walt served on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Board of Directors. Upon receiving his Academy Award, Don received a special phone call, over which Walt invited him for a personal tour of Walt Disney Studios (and its heavily guarded sound stages full of models and conceptual artwork of Disneyland).

Soon, Don and his family were invited to participate in the opening of Disneyland, riding in Autopia cars down Main Street USA!

“Let’s Dine at Disneyland”

Disneyland Participant Corporate Sponsors were carefully selected. High quality, long term corporate sponsors would provide incremental income that enabled Disneyland to enhance its show and attractions, offset some operating expenses, and capitalize on marketing opportunities.

The friendship started, and Don opened Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue, a table service restaurant operated in the old Casa de Fritos location. The restaurant location was an efficient maximum utilization of space, opening next to Aunt Jemima Pancake House in Frontierland (near the Rivers of America) for five years! The business partnership between Disneyland, Inc. and the Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue was synergistic, both partners creating happiness and acquiring profit. By September of 1958, Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue was contributing a routine portion of accounts receivable to Disneyland, Inc. For example, in 1958, Bank of America appraisers figured of the total income received from leases, 16.02% was derived from the selling of advertising rights and 40.12% from the leasing of space to concerns whose main reason for occupancy is for advertising purposes. The remaining 43.86% of the lease income was derived from stores that sell various products and food.

By October of 1959, the company was (1) of over sixty-eight other firms playing a vital part in the team effort to bring happiness to Disneyland’s Guests. Some were small, specialized individual operators; some were huge companies such as Swift & Co. - the Bank of America - United Paramount Theaters (which you hear as UPT) - Carnation - Richfield - General Dynamics - Crane - and many others. These companies used the park to publicize their wares, leased space in the Park to sell their wares, and Disneyland collected advertising fees from them.

“Because of the trees, there just wasn’t a way to get a good shot of Silver Banjo. We wound up sharing photos with Dave Smith and Becky Kline because there aren’t many photos of the restaurant in existence.” Below you will be able to view a few of these (courtesy of Ron DeFore).

“This is a great shot of my dad [on the right] …probably the best shot of the restaurant because you can see the name in the background. He [Dave Smith] said, ‘Your dad must have been really close to Walt to allow your dad to have his name on the restaurant.’”

“This [the gentleman on the left] is a guy I’ve loved all my life - Uncle Vern, who managed the Silver Banjo. It was Bud Coulson who called by dad about a year after we were all in that parade. He said, By the way, you need to know that Walt hired me [to handle all the lessees in the park]. They had Carnation, Kodak, and all these companies…on five-year leases.

Frito Lay was in this spot, and they felt it wasn’t big enough. The owner [of Frito Lay] wanted to move closer to the entrance [of Frontierland]. So, Bud called and said, ‘We got some space. How would you like to open up a barbecue restaurant?’ The one condition was that Uncle Vern take a Business Management class, which he did at UCLA!”

He was so good at what he did, that he would go on to manage other establishments inside Disneyland after their five-year lease was finished.

Don De Fore’s Silver Banjo Barbeque provided “Complete Family Dinners” and “Child’s Plates” to Western Square Dance Association Members belonging to a variety of 49 clubs, as well as their family members during the “Fifth Annual California Square Dance Convention” hosted by Disneyland (on April 11, 12, 13, 1958). Meal options included Ribs, Pork, Beef, Ham, or Chicken, as well as Sandwiches, French Fries, Baked Beans, and Fish N’ Chips.

In 1958, Don De Fore’s Silver Banjo Barbeque also hosted the 23rd Annual PCAM Convention delegates in Frontierland at Disneyland. Menus heralded the Complete Family Dinner, Child’s Plate (of ribs, beef, pork, ham, or chicken), sandwiches, French fries, baked beans, fish n’ chips with the following message: “Featuring our famous wizard of the kitchen waving his magic ladle… you will see cutting barbecue ribs in half, pulling chickens from a glass rack, a ham that will not perform, beef that will not moo, pork that will not squeal (divulging our mystic powers), all presented for your enjoyment with a final flourish of entrancing barbecue sauce. You will enjoy this show of culinary magic to the end as the curtain comes down with a roll.”

The synergistic relationship between the commercial lessee and Disneyland, Inc. was good. Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue yielded some revenue for Disneyland Inc. - $5,871 (of a total $211,550 income from Frontierland) for the fiscal year ending September 29, 1957 and $12,201 (of a total $229,026 income from Frontierland) for the fiscal year ending September 28, 1958.

As a sidelight, by October 1959, Jim Baker (of Merchandising) was overseeing the Disneyland Food Administration and Souvenir Sales.The “Disneyland Dictionary” (published October 1958) describes Don Defore's Silver Banjo operated by Don and Verne Defore as a cafeteria with a scope of sales including “barbecued sandwiches, ribs and chicken.”

At Disneyland, signs were themed to support the stories with respectful graphics, colors, fonts, terminology, the overall design of sign, materials (wood, metal, banners, etc.), and verbiage used on the signage.

All fixtures were placed in their correct motif and many light fixtures of Disneyland were authentic antiques. The restaurant had two separate types of lighting: Character lighting, and Functional Lighting. Character lighting such as a chandelier, kerosene lamp, or banjo, was themed to enhance the overall appearance and complement the interior. These added to the show, but didn’t necessarily create enough illumination for operation. Functional lighting on the other hand, offered substantial light without being obvious, or distracting from the show. The image above gives us an idea of the size of the illuminated sign, which was the size of a true-life banjo!

“Fortunately I have been able to preserve a few of the signs that once hung in Silver Banjo. My father renovated that [sign that hung above the restaurant], and then I inherited that.”

-Ron DeFore

“Struttin’ With Some Barbecue” - “55er” Homer Holland fondly recalled “Don Defore's SILVER BANJO. wonderful for barbecued sandwiches.” This menu sign gives us an idea of some of the menu choices available at Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue - sandwiches, chicken, ribs, and sides! Not mentioned - the Fish and Chips. Check out these prices - a chicken dinner for $1.75…coffee for ten cents. Carnation Farms would also serve this and 14 other wholesale customers who operated restaurants and snack bars in Disneyland.

(Photo : Don’s son Ron points out a preserved Love’s Wood Pit Barbecue neon sign at Valley Relics Museum, before sharing the secret behind his dad’s amazing barbecue sauce.)

The secret in the success of Don DeFore’s barbecue was in the sauce! Since 1948, the family had their heart set on one recipe - the secret recipe of Love’s Wood Pit Barbecue in Encino, California! Don’s brother Verne DeFore (who managed Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue) would make regular 2-way, near-50-mile drives from Love’s to Disneyland. This was a lengthy drive during the 1950s and 1960s, as roads and highways were so different than what they look like today. But, it was worth it to deliver the five gallon bottles of sauce to the Silver Banjo Barbecue!

Don DeFore attempted to cut a deal with Love’s Wood Pit Barbecue to acquire the secret of their sauce, but this was not possible. Don’s brother Verne had previously taken night business classes at UCLA, and had the idea to take a sample to the college campus and have it examined. This endeavor was fruitless because there were so many components that went into the sauce.

Don’s son Ron recollects the flavor of Silver Banjo Barbecue :

“I have been trying to recreate [two outstanding menu items] for years. One - the Combination Barbecue Sandwich. One day, my brother (who worked in the Barbecue Kitchen) put up a sign (jokingly), and Uncle Vern got mad and made him take it down. It said : ‘When in doubt, put it in the combination.’

I know it wasn’t true, but it was some of the left over meat off of the ribs (a sort of combination of pork and beef). The thing that I loved about all the sandwiches served there was the great sauce that my mom came up with. It was mixed in with the meat, and it was almost like a ‘Sloppy Joe’. To this day I’ll try ordering a pulled pork, and if it comes dry, that’s not ‘my type’ of ‘pulled pork’ sandwich.

During a [previous] … Disneyana event, they had the hotel chefs recreate the entire Silver Banjo Menu. It was not only for presentation, but we all got to eat the buffet, and it was pretty dang close to the original ribs and barbecue sandwiches.

I never got tired of the Silver Banjo food.”

“Don DeFore - Sixth Annual Holiday Festival, Frontierland Celebrity Master of Ceremonies”

“In those days, a celebrity would be a Master of Ceremonies, and my dad was at the top of the Golden Horseshoe, emceeing and announcing the floats that came by.

One year, my dad was up on top of the Golden Horseshoe, and someone told him, ‘Walt’s on the phone for you. Don, did you bring your kids? You have to send them down to the front gate because my grand children haven’t shown up and I can’t ride in this parade in the horseless carriage without kids.”

Don (and son Ron) rode in a few holiday parades aboard a surrey, with Walt Disney himself! This wasn’t the first time the DeFores were involved in Disneyland parades. Don DeFore and his family first rode an Autopia Mark I down Main Street on July 17th, 1955!

“Gee, Do We Have To Go To Disneyland Again?”

“We were down there almost every weekend. Dad eventually bought a second place house down in Anaheim so we would have a place to stay, and have storage for the restaurant. Vern (who lived in Van Nuys), bought a house down there too.

In the summer, we would be down there weeks at a time. I know its hard to imagine, but me (and my brother and sisters) got completely bored to death with the attractions, after we’d been on them a zillion times.

I will tell you a fun thing was bringing a friend because then I could show off. We would take my dad’s pass (for example) and most of the ride operators knew who the DeFore kids were. We would take his pass and we would get in front of the line and ride the rides as many times as we wanted. We didn’t even need to get off [at times].”

Eventually (in 1962), Disneyland Participant Affairs and Disneyland Lessee Don DeFore could not negotiate a new cooperative agreement to maintain their ongoing relationship, so Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue would close its doors. But that wasn’t the end of the story, as Don’s son Ron recorded much in his book.

Ok, so “Growing Up In Disneyland” is mostly a metaphor for Ron DeFore’s life, but at least 3 of 48 chapters discuss the business relationship of his father (actor Don DeFore) and Walt Disney - from their meeting, to the establishment of “Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue” in Frontierland, and the DeFore’s involvement in numerous Disneyland Holiday parades! Oh, and Ron discusses his childhood antics in “the happiest place on Earth,” as he spent more time in Disneyland than most young children ever did! Those three chapters alone are worth the economical “price tag of admission.” You’ll want to add a copy of Ron’s book to your Disney-related library section today!

Just visit Ron’s official page through the following link - HERE!

If you would like to read even more about Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue, it’s my pleasure to recommend adding Marcy Smothers’ “Eat Like Walt - The Wonderful World of Disney Food” to your personal Disney Home Library! Therein, Marcy has extensively researched and finely crafted a small section of a chapter dedicated to “Walt Disney’s Disneyland - Frontierland.” If you would like to bring the magic of Disneyland restaurants and concessions to your dining room table, “please step this way” toward www.eatlikewalt.com where Marcy has shared a few recipes for memorable Disneyland menu options, so you too can “Eat Like Walt.”