Greeting family, friends and Disney buddies! Today's rambling is about mostly forgotten 1950's Disneyland street entertainers Sam Leeza and Josephine........Bill 

  Disneyana 

MONKEY BUSINESS 

DISNEYLAND is Walt Disney’s dream of twenty years brought to life. It is Walt Disney’s magic kingdom’ which has been opened to the public on July 18 th , 1955 at an estimated cost of $17,000,000. 

MAIN STREET U.S.A. itself is a replica of a typical street of a small town in the United States circa 1900. Coming to the Railroad Station, from which all DISNEYLAND traffic stems, the Town Square gets it’s first attention. To the right is the Opera House and across the Town Square is the City Hall. The Fire Station houses a horse-drawn horse-and-chemical wagon. Looking at MAIN STREET, U.S.A., we see the Emporium is busy with shoppers, as customers transact business at a photo shop, meat market, drugstore and the many other stores located on MAIN STREET, U.S.A. 

At the end of MAIN STREET U.S.A. is the plaza, the DISNEYLAND hub from which any of the lands may be entered. Excerpt from 1955 Disneyland Souvenir Book 

In order to ramp up the realism of his new park in Anaheim, and taking the lead of Knott’s Berry Farms wandering street characters, 

Walt Disney hired street entertainers too add to the atmosphere on Main Street U.S.A. including musicians, singers, balloon and ice cream cart vendors. Even the attire of security officers and street sweepers were themed reminiscent of Walt’s memories of growing up Marceline, Missouri. One of the more unique early day street entertainers that is often overlooked in Disneyland history 

was Italian immigrant and professional organ grinder Sam Leeza. Like Knott’s organ grinder, Sam and his trained capuchin monkey Josephine performed in the plaza and on Main Street U.S.A. While Sam cranked out tunes on his street organ, closely tethered Josephine worked the crowd collecting coins and occasional paper money from eager guests. With a brisk tug from Sam, Josephine would tip her hat as a thank you gesture. A flimsy souvenir paper hat with strings to pull the monkey’s arms up an down failed to 

bring in enough additional revenue and after a few seasons of collecting coins, one at a time, marked the end of Disneyland’s short lived monkey business. 

-Bill 12/23