Disneyland's Club 55
By Bob Penfield
As the last Club 55'er to retire from the park and the unofficial historian, I have been asked to write about the club, what it is, how it was formed, it's members, interesting facts, etc.
Well it begins naturally in 1955 and in some cases of a few members, even before that. Not officially organized then, but in order to belong, you had to have started working at the park anytime that year or earlier. Who else but Van France, Manager of the University of Disneyland, would create the idea to have a club honoring those original employees who were still working continuously till 1970 when the club was officially formed.
Starting with the 10th anniversary, in which Walt Disney was our host, Disneyland has held a service awards banquet every five years. Although many of our members believe that the club came about during the 15 year anniversary, held on July 17th, 1970 and was known as the Castle Awards Banquet, a bronze replica of Sleeping Beauty's Castle along with a castle pin which is different than any that followed as it has a small pendant hanging below which says "Charter" was given to each participant, it actually was conceived shortly afterwards, when approximately 200 of the members were notified.
Going back to the pin with the pendant below, it is believed that they are the rarest of all of the Disney pins as only 200 were ever made.
The party was held at the Disneyland Hotel in the Embassy Room. Thereafter the Club 55 held a special reunion each year at different locations of active and those who had retired. In 1985 only the active were invited. Some of the places that we held our parties at were the Balboa Bay Club, (twice), Catalina, The Hobbit, Turnip Rose Restaurants, Angel ballgame, the Queen Mary, etc., but the best was when 11 of the remaining active members went to Walt Disney World to celebrate their 20th anniversary in 1991.
A few years after the formation of the club, John Catone designed a club logo which was copied after the Club 33 restaurants. He just changed the numbers. In 1995 I changed the logo to one of the castle with Club 55 above it to give us our own little piece of the park. The last yearly dinner was held in 1996 when Ray VanDeWarker and I were the only ones still working at the park. The following year I retired and there was no dinner party.
At present there are only 29 surviving members, the oldest being near 90 years of age.
A few of the notable members are Jack Lindquist, Ron Dominguez, Dick Nunis, Bill Sullivan, Wally Boag, Tom Nabbe, Milt Albright, and Donna Rochelle.