Khrushchev and Disneyland

Exactly how it happened is a matter of some debate. Was it Bob Hope’s idea? He said it was. He said he put the idea into the Soviet premier’s wife’s head at a luncheon held at the 20^th Century Fox studios. Another version is that initially the premier was supposed to tour low-income housing developments while his wife and kids went to the park, and he thought that was some nonsense as indeed who would not? Maybe it was his idea. Maybe it was his wife’s—wanting to spend time with her husband at the Happiest Place on Earth? What we have left to us is the legend.

By 1959, Nikita Khrushchev was firmly established in control of the Soviet Union. He was well placed to become the first Soviet premier to visit the United States. He took a thirteen-day tour of the country, touring political and agricultural locations, but also Hollywood. He toured the set of the movie Can-Can, and Shirley MacLaine tried to get him to dance. He had lunch with Frank Sinatra. Spyros Skouras, then-president of the company, said angry words about capitalism versus communism. When Khrushchev rose to speak, he had feelings.

We have come to this town where lives the cream of American art. And just imagine, I a Premier, a Soviet representative, when I came here to this city, I was given a plan — a program of what I was to be shown and whom I was to meet here. But just now I was told that I could not go to Disneyland. I asked: ‘Why not?’ What is it, do you have rocket-launching pads there? I do not know. And just listen — just listen to what I was told — to what reason I was told. We, which means the American authorities, cannot guarantee your security if you go there.

What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken over the place that can destroy me? Then what must I do? Commit suicide? This is the situation I am in — your guest. For me the situation is inconceivable. I cannot find words to explain this to my people.

In the end, no Khrushchevs would go to Disneyland. Maybe Sergei, his second son, who eventually ended up with dual citizenship and died in the US in 2020. But not Nikita. Not Nina. Not on that day in 1959. Some people will tell you that he did, and even his Wikipedia page says that he was supposed to, but he didn’t go. He wasn’t supposed to. Because they couldn’t guarantee his safety.

And I’ll be honest with you, no, they couldn’t. Not without fully clearing the park. I’m not sure if that would include allowing ride operators to be there, even. 1959 was a fraught time. Stalin had only died a few years earlier, and it wouldn’t surprise me to know that there were pro- and anti-Stalin factions in American Communists of the day. That’s on top of the rabid anti-communists who wouldn’t have cared one way or another what his specific policies were unless it was dismantling the party and turning everything over to the GOP. The ones who probably thought even Ike was a Red.

I don’t think it’s just about Khrushchev, either. I think it’s one of the practical effects of being a world leader. Ike couldn’t have spontaneously dropped by Disneyland, either. This is the issue—it’s not that he wanted to go. It’s that he wasn’t scheduled to. It would have been worse for Khrushchev because of the crowds, goodness knows, and because of the whole Cold War thing. It is also arguably true that Disneyland would have been safer than, say, downtown Dallas. They didn’t search your bags in those days, but there are also very few vantages where you can get an angle with any kind of gun. Though I’ll admit I don’t have a mental map of the park in those days.

Still, you know, martyrs exist. Especially if you believed killing him would free the masses in the Soviet Union and make the world safe for democracy or some damn thing. Can’t imagine he didn’t know that. Can’t imagine he wouldn’t have known there were places in the USSR where he couldn’t have guaranteed Eisenhower’s safety on a moment’s notice. It made for nice theatre, but he wasn’t a stupid man—stupid men didn’t last in the Soviet government. Frankly, I think he was just annoyed that he couldn’t go to Disneyland, indeed who can blame him?

Sadly, we never got the most interesting result of the whole thing. Khrushchev returned home with a dream of a Soviet version of Disneyland, at least according to one of the only sites I found that wasn’t just copying one another. He ordered land cleared and put it on the same level as building a power plant. And then, you know, Brezhnev ousted him and he became something of an un-person and they never built it. But it would’ve been a hell of a park—with lands based on all the Soviet republics. Oh, in practice it would’ve been grim Soviet brutalist horror. But doesn’t that sound like a great park?