Regarding most any project pursued, Walt Disney once said: “We have always tried to be guided by the basic idea that, in the discovery of knowledge, there is great entertainment as, conversely, in all good entertainment there is always some grain of wisdom, humanity, or enlightenment to be gained.” While fewer current Disneyland attractions embody the spirit of those words, the story was far different in the beginning. Back then, “Disneyland is a place to have fun… and with the fun it is a place where you can learn,” according to “Disneyland, U.S.A.” (published 1958, for potential Participants).

According to The Disneyland Story (September 3, 1954) : “You find yourself in a Civic Center or Town Square at the turn of the century, any time from 1890 to 1910. Here you will see…the Drug Store.” As we make our way by the barbershop quartet, and ice cream parlor, we arrive at another turn-of-the-century small town “staple” - Upjohn Pharmacy! This was Main Street U.S.A.’s original corner drug store, and an opening day Disneyland attraction at that. As guests entered the 1,480 square foot exhibit, they could experience real licensed pharmacists (in period specific clothing), performing turn-of-the-century tasks amidst medical and surgical Antiques of a Victorian-era apothecary shop.

All of this, was sponsored by the Upjohn Company - one of the United States’ turn-of-the-century business pioneers, “old reliable firms, which have been in business fifty years or more. Here they can show how they started and reproduce their first place of business.” [Disneyland Prospectus, 1954]

By July 1, 1954, George Whitney of Disneyland, Inc. directed Amusements, with Ron Miller overseeing analysis, philosophy, capacities, planning, operator training, and amusement procurement. By July 1, 1954, Russel Tippett of Disneyland Inc. Advertising oversaw Exhibitor’s Space Sales and Lease Agreements. 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.

It was intended that Disneyland feature “the turn-of-the-century shops and stores - the photographer's shop, ice-cream parlor, penny arcade, bakery, drug store, music shop, butcher, grocer, many of which are sponsored by outstanding American companies whose names are familiar ‘household words.’” As Walt described to Bob Thomas (of Associated Press), “some industries will have exhibits, but all of them must be in keeping with the era.”

“Disneyland is unique in that some of the world's foremost creative artists and architects control all design at Disneyland.“ While the facade was designed by architect Earle G. Kaltenbach and Hollywood art director Gabe Scognamillio, the interior of the shop was first designed by artists of WED Enterprises, Inc., but re-designed (by architect Will Burton) to resemble a typical apothecary shop circa 1886. Upjohn had two main publicly accessible rooms - the Victorian era drugstore apothecary shop (filled with more than 1,000 medical antiques), and a contemporary-style Modern Room (which showcased Upjohn Company’s drug manufacturing processes). Here, Disneyland guests could look back to the roots of the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company, as well as the future of the Upjohn Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan!

“Architectural Designs by Lessees”

Disneyland, Inc. printed materials for Lessees detailing specifications for architectural designs of exhibit spaces. These were revised by March 16, 1955 and issued to Lessees.

All of the interior architectural drawings were done by competent registered architects or an approved display house of the lessee's choice. All of the designs submitted by the lessee's architect, whether for buildings or construction of interiors in DISNEYLAND, were approved as to the theme and general plan of DISNEYLAND as established by WED Enterprises, Inc.

Three sets of preliminary drawings were furnished DISNEYLAND, Inc. as soon as possible after signing of the lease. Two sets were retained by DISNEYLAND and one set was returned to the lessee’s architect with any revisions noted thereon and stamped “APPROVAL TO PROCEED TO FINAL DESIGN.” This stamp when properly signed and dated constituted the lessee’s authority to proceed with the final drawings.

The Lessees revised their final drawings to incorporate any revisions noted on the approved preliminary drawings, and submitted three sets of the revised drawings to DISNEYLAND. One set was returned to the lessee’s architect and any revisions noted thereon are to be incorporated on the original drawings. When the lessee had incorporated the final revisions on the drawings, two sets of transparent ozalids were forwarded to DISNEYLAND for approval. DISNEYLAND would stamp both sets “FINAL DESIGN APPROVED” and “LESSEE’S CONTRACT DRAWINGS”, and return one set to the lessee who could then release drawings for bid and/or construction.

“Construction”

“When the giant earth-moving undertaking was completed, the building crews took over. Soon, the rat-tat-tat of riveters was shattering the air, and sparks were flying from welders’ torches as the steel frameworks, capable of withstanding the ravages of time and the elements rose above the newly formed ground. While carpenters hammered and masons laid row upon row of brick and stone and mortar, the permanent buildings began to take shape and form,” according to “The Disneyland Story” published 1955. One of the first buildings to be constructed was the Main Street Opera House, which was used as the Mill. Here, the woodwork of Disneyland was generated - from the functional to the aesthetic! Approximately three and one-half million board feet of lumber went into the Park’s construction. Much of the wood was processed here by McNeil Construction (which formerly constructed Walt Disney Studio sound stages in 1947 and 1953), and under the direction of George Mills Sr. (the Prime General Contractor and Mill Foreman). Then, under the direction of Joe Fowler (Construction Supervisor), as well as Charles Alexander and Ray Conway (Construction Field Supervisors), the lumber was soon fashioned into the framing belonging to the very first buildings constructed at Disneyland - primarily the Main Street Complexes (on each side of the street).

All fixtures were placed in their correct motif and many light fixtures of Disneyland were authentic antiques.

F.M. Franz, manager of operations for MeNeil Construction expressed: "We feel sure there has never been anything built like this in Southern California, or elsewhere in the United States. Many of the items were constructed from artist’s sketches.” Work began on the 11,860 square-foot Main Street Building #300 and its 1,480 square-foot Upjohn Drug Company Building. In constructing the building, a concrete foundation and slab floors were prepared, followed by wood frame construction (while store units would have a combination wood and rigid steel frame). ”The first fabricated steel for the Main Street buildings arrived November 8 and was erected,” according to the narrator of “Disneyland - The Park,” a Disneyland anthology television series excerpt, first aired 1957 and Disneyland LINE (November 22, 1979).

According to inserts published in area newspapers during July of 1955, Disney buildings were roofed by Pioneer Roof & Shingle Company (then located at 608 Mateo Street, Los Angeles, California; 7522 Westminster Avenue, Westminster, California). The roof covering was a variable, dependent on the architectural design.

Newbery Electric Corporation gave electricity to Disneyland. “The electrical installations were supervised by Roy J. Gruendler, manager of Newbery's Orange County district office located at 1335 Santiago Ave, Santa Ana.”

As of June 2, 1955, C.V. Wood Jr. sent an Inter-Office Memorandum to Walt Disney regarding the best estimates that could be obtained at the time regarding the status of individual sections of the Park and Opening Day. C.V. wrote: “Building #307 - Upjohn: The construction of the walls and fixtures will be complete. A lot of the props are here now. We do not know if this is all there is to come and if not, if it will all be here for opening… Electric Signs: All are in work - with the exception of the shoe store and the Bank of America, all will be completed.”

The building (as each on Main Street U.S.A.) possessed complete fire sprinkling systems. By June 30, 1955, related Disneyland Site Work Fire Protection Utilities Plot Plans were prepared for Disneyland Inc., by J.E. Thomasson of WED Enterprises Inc.

According to The Disneyland Story (September 3, 1954) : “You find yourself in a Civic Center or Town Square at the turn of the century, any time from 1890 to 1910. Here you will see…the Drug Store.” As we make our way by the barbershop quartet, and ice cream parlor, we arrive at another turn-of-the-century small town “staple” - Upjohn Pharmacy! This was Main Street U.S.A.’s original corner drug store, and an opening day Disneyland attraction at that. As guests entered, they could experience real licensed pharmacists (in period specific clothing), performing turn-of-the-century tasks in a Victorian-era apothecary shop. Pictured above, you’ll note an early “Vintage View” of Upjohn Pharmacy taken within a month of Disneyland’s opening day. The construction was unfinished, and the iconic mortar and pestle lamp was still not attached above the corner entrance.

By September of 1955, the mortar and pestle lamp was fixed in place over the corner store’s entrance!

This image was used to produce Disneyland Upjohn Company souvenir postcards that were sold inside the corner store. The caption on the back read, “On the corer of Main Street and Center Streets in Disneyland, the Upjohn Pharmacy comprises one of the most complete museums of pharmaceutical wares, equipment and furnishings.”

Here, we can see one of the actual postcards sold inside the Upjohn Company during Disneyland’s first fabulous decade.

The corporate synergy was good for a time. Institutional lessee The Up john Company yielded some revenue for Disneyland Inc. - $29,087 for the fiscal year ending September 29, 1957 and $29,600 for the fiscal year ending September 28, 1958.

This rare Vintage View gives us a look at just how far the Upjohn Pharmacy’s storefront window displays stretched - clear down to the north side of the Crystal Arcade’s entrance! Notice those stained glass panels above the Crystal Arcade’s entrance, bearing the familiar mortar and pestle logo which hung over the Center Street entrance. The mortar and pestle was ironic, since the Upjohn pills had the reputation of being friable (meaning that they could be crushed “under the thumb”.

Looking over the Illuminated mortar and pestle lamp, we are reminded of Walt’s own words (in 1962), “I like to be around when the lights come on. It seems like a new kind of magic takes over in Disneyland after dark.”

Window displays have always played an important role -communicating to guests the essence of a shop and were designed to invite guests into the store. These may be animated or still and would also include props used for display purposes.

Upjohn Pharmacy housed several show globes. Much like the barber’s pole, show globes were once associated with Apothecaries. There remains a mystery as to the meaning of the globe’s color or the etymology of the name. Some believe that the color may have advertised the health of the local community to travelers passing through town, but there are no sources to confirm or deny that this was the case.

In the center of the counter, you can see the jar holding genuine leeches on display such as were used in medical practice before modern-times.

Guests like Disneylander Ron Dominguez (who thought about leaving after his first summer in 1955 and originally wanted to be a pharmacist) may have been inspired by the exhibit.

The $15,000 addition of the Modern Room was added in 1958.

"As you have seen, the fixtures and equipment in the typical drugstore of the late 1800's bear little resemblance to the ultra-modern pharmacy that serves your community today. The basic philosophy of the pharmaceutical profession has, however, remained constant : integrity of service '; quality and purity of product.”

The new Upjohn facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan was a “23-acre facility under one roof”.

The Modern Room also featured additional displays over the years, like a display illustrating 20,000 years of medicine history added July of 1966. Another memorable display was this dynamic model of a human cell designed (by Upjohn Company resident graphic designer, and “Scope” Magazine Art Director - Will Burton) as an educational tool for physicians, cytologists, and students. Will had previously manufactured many displays and exhibits for Upjohn - models of proteins, models of vitamin pills, X-ray refraction patterns - usually on exhibition at the Kalamazoo Art Center. Now, Upjohn commissioned a total of three models of the human cell. By September 28, 1958, Disneyland Inc. job number 4012-515 for the Upjohn Company “Micro-world exhibit” was in progress at a cost of $13,056.

The original (and much larger) Upjohn-sponsored model (which was a precursor to the one appearing at Disneyland), first required a year for “its research, its collation of fact and surmise, and for its construction. Representative of no particular part of the human body, it is an abstraction of the cell - but a controlled abstraction, as technically accurate as the knowledge and conjecture…could make it.

Magnified more than 1,000,000 times the size of a human red blood cell, the model is [more than 20] feet in diameter and 11 1/2 feet high [though Disneyland’s was much smaller in dimension]. It sits on a metal mirror, so that as a viewer walks through and around, he has an impression of being inside the organism, at the center of it. The model is constructed of acrylic plastic tubing for the cytoplasm, or the outer material. There are some 2200 pieces in the cytoplasmic structure, measuring 3700 linear feet, their 7500 joints connected by hand. This…structure is built on a five-piece irregular module regularly repeated with the pieces…[fitted] together at an angle of 78 degrees. Along the…’wall’ are displayed scale models of all the elements of the cell. Because nothing of its kind has ever been attempted before, new problems of conception required novel solutions in construction, for example the chromosomes {the long curly forms in the nucleus} are made of vacuum cleaner [hoses]”, according to Industrial Design magazine (published August, 1958).

Still, the smaller version that exhibited at Disneyland, featured many of the same parts of the “organic whole” display - from the transparent and rigid mitochondria (where food is transformed into energy), to the flat sack-like endoplasmic reticula (believed to once be responsible for the formation of the cel’s proteins)! This display was so popular that it was moved around and displayed in several places (after its Disneyland exhibition), and it was even featured on a Disneyland postcard during 1960!

The back of the Upjohn Postcard featuring the human cell carries an interesting fact about the size of the model. The model is a staggering 250,000 times larger than the average human blood cell!

You may recollect receiving this “souvenir of Disneyland”, that was a complimentary item given to guests of Main Street U.S.A.’s little corner drug store.

Through the years, the boxes (which contained the sample bottle of 9 to 12 “Unicap” capsule pills) generally had an expiration date stamped on them. These were sample portions of actual medicine pills (minimum daily requirements of A, D, and C, Nicotinamide, twice the daily requirement of B-1, B-2, and possibly the daily minimum requirement of B-6, B-12, and Calcium Pantothenate). “Unicap… [was] just one of the hundreds of fine pharmaceutical products produced by the Upjohn Company” and was once available at your local pharmacy. These samples were not to be confused with the bottles of “Pixie Dust” from Doctor Tinker Bell, recommended in doses measuring “a pinch”, to “relieve the blues, blahs, and frowns of an occasionally bad day.”

During 1962, Disneyland Guides reminded guests, “If you are just a bit worn out at the end of the tour, remember to stop by the Upjohn Pharmacy for your free vitamin pills.” Perhaps you still have your souvenir bottle somewhere?

According to an accompanying label :

“Each UNICAP multivitamin capsule contains ten essential vitamins and provides these vitamins in greater amounts than the minimum daily requirement (where established) to insure adequate vitamin intake. UNICAP multivitamins are just one of the many contributions of the Upjohn Company since 1886.” These samples (according to literature contained inside the box) were proof that “the basic philosophy of the pharmaceutical profession has, however, remained constant : integrity of service, quality and purity of product.”

Ultimately, Disneyland Participant Affairs and Disneyland Participant Upjohn Co. could not negotiate a new cooperative agreement to maintain their ongoing relationship, so the two “reliable old firms parted ways.” Here we are in the month of August (pictured above), and the end of an era for the Disneyland of Walt’s era. The folks who took this photo may not have known that this was one of the last times the Upjohn name (one of the original sponsors) would be seen on Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A.!

Considering all of these displays, it is easy to see why by the year 1958, the Upjohn Pharmacy was considered one of 15 free educational shows and exhibits at Disneyland. Ultimately Upjohn corporate sponsorship ended, and the Upjohn Pharmacy closed. However, much of Upjohn’s collection of antiques is currently being preserved at the University of Arizona.

PLEASE, STEP THIS WAY, as Disney History 101 prescribes the following tour of Upjohn Pharmacy with your Filed Guide Beth! Along our tour today, we will explore how residents of Walt’s favorite vacation destination (Smoke Tree Ranch) played a crucial part in this opening day attraction. We will also visit Disneyland’s “working” pharmacy through a rarely-seen, collection of preserved Upjohn artifacts at Arizona State University!

Please step this way, as YOUR Disney History 101 - Upjohn Pharmacy Tour departs HERE!

Under the current agreement, four eleven-minute films will be produced within a period of two and a half years, their cost to be underwritten by the Upjohn Company, one of the world's best-known pharmaceutical manufacturers. Distribution will be made by our company through its 16mm Division.

Soon, the Elgin Company (a then, reliable 100-year-old firm and a Disneyland Participant since 1971) moved (from the other side of Main Street) next door to Carnation.

“Here, guests will find (or can order) calendar watches, automatic watches, chronographs, electric watches, electronic watches, casual and dress watches, pocket and pendant watches, and special watches such as Walt Disney character watches, divers’ watches, engineers’ watches, nurses’ watches, and sportsmen’s timers.

In the clock line, the shops features hand-wound, battery-powered, and electric clocks, wall clocks, kitchen clocks, alarm clocks, digital clocks, clock-radios, table clocks, and Elgin’s decorator clocks, including “Traditional Heirloom Strike and Chime Timepieces,” “Handcrafted Hall Clocks,” “Baroque Decorator Timepieces,” “Mediterranean and Early American Classics,” and “Galaxy” and “Contemporary” timepieces.”

The New Century Clock Shop would feature an exhibition of early antique Elgin timepieces, as well as 50 styles of Mickey Mouse watches including limited editions (just in time for Mickey’s 50th Birthday in 1978)! The shop was very popular and the shop’s team of employees were successful. High sales records were achieved during the following two years - on August 7, 1979 ($10,662), and on August 15, 1980 ($12,062).

New Century Clock and Watch Shop hosted by Elgin-Timepieces by Elgin, featured a complete selection of Mickey Mouse and Disney Character watches and clocks. Unique themed watches (like the Swiss-made “The Black Hole” Wrist Watch by Bradley, released 1980) were made available at Disneyland and fine stores everywhere. An unnumbered limited edition Haunted Mansion exclusive watch featuring the Bride was released on the 26th and 27th of an unknown year.

Imagineer Eddie Soto’s proposed “watch program” ran from 1994-2013, and when it ended, “a large batch of original artwork for the watches was… acquired by the Walt Disney Archives,” according to Dave Smith (Chief Archivist Emeritus of the Walt Disney Archives). [Disney Facts Revealed by Dave Smith, 2016] In 2008, WDI master plans entertained the concept of a merchandise update for the Clock Shop.

“Upstairs,” one second story window above the New Century Jewelry Shop features the name of “Dr. Benjamin Silverstein M.D. - General Practitioner - Have a Fever? Have the Flu? Come on in and we’ll cure you!” As “fortuosity” would have it, Dr. Benjamin Silverstein M.D. “inhabits” the address above the former site of the Upjohn Apothecary Shop. While Benjamin does not seem to be based on a true-life individual, it is one of the few locations at Disneyland where both a mezuzah (and, “shema” on the doorpost) as well as a menorah can be found on Main Street U.S.A. (the latter placed in the window during the winter season).