The Enchanted Tiki Room's 45th anniversary

Monday (June 23) will be the 45th anniversary of the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland. This attraction is an important piece of theme park history: It proved that believable audio-animatronic characters were not only possible, but could keep audiences entertained again and again. (Click here for a short video about the Tiki Room.)

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Today's photos show Walt Disney's photo-op from the Enchanted Tiki Room's opening day. More photos from this series can be found on Daveland.

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Disneyland will mark the anniversary a day early with a special merchandise event tomorrow (Sunday), 8am-11am,on Main Street, U.S.A. As you might expect, artists Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily have created some uber-cool items for this event.