Defunctland: The History of Disneyland’s Teen Nightclub, Videopolis

41 thoughts on “Defunctland: The History of Disneyland’s Teen Nightclub, Videopolis”

1. "Disneyland has been our turf since Pinocchio's Daring Journey opened in 83. If I ever see you at Videopolis it's over for you" – 16 year old late 80s gang member.

2. 7:33 if anyone has this item of clothing or knows where to find it, please hit me up.

3. 0:20 xD. 11:15 wwww. 15:40 Shit. End: Seemed like a good place.

4. 12:50 Is that where "Alladin is allowed to kill" meme originates from?

5. Never heard the terms fast dancing and touch dancing until this video

6. Breck? What a jackass name. 😆

7. 2 guys dancing … how far will mankind go 😉

8. If I got that golden dance ticket from Disney I would be dancing everywhere at the theme park lol 😁

9. Never in a million years did I expect to see a still image of Michael Eisner with a crushing heavy metal guitar riff over top of it, but here we are.

10. I was never a Disney fan growing up in the '50s and '60s. In '96 I was moved to Tampa and my friend, who's relative worked at Disney, would come down to visit once a year and we always spent a day in Orlando. My friend was a big coaster fan but I wasn't fond of coasters. However, I LOVED Mission to Mars. What I always found funny is my friends only rode it once, while I kept going back. They found the ride too intense.

11. Re: Disney saying that "homosexual fast dancing" was banned for guest safety: that actually is plausible, from a non-Disney-related personal experience. When I was in college in upstate NY, I went to a bar with a bunch of friends. One of my friends and I decided to dance together. It was normal "fast" dancing. After the song ended, I sat back down while my friend went to the bar – where she was harassed by some drunken rednecks who called her a homophobic slur. She brushed it off, but did tell us about it when she returned to where we were all sitting. One problem for the drunken rednecks – while my friend and I were bi women (so the slur used was inaccurate), they didn't know who was with us but not dancing. The drunks were surprised that a man approached them had issues with their harassment, to which he truthfully said, "That woman you insulted is my friend, and the woman she was dancing with is my wife." The only thing that kept a brawl from happening was another friend scared them off by matter of factly telling their ringleader that he had a bullet with their name on it if the drunks didn't either leave or apologize to us. This was in the early 1990s. Considering the wide variety of people that go to Disney parks, the public safety reason Disney gave for the dance ban legitimately could have been in part due to fearing what homophobic patrons might do, as attitudes like what I encountered were definitely widespread in the 1980s as well.

12. Who is the artist at 17:12?
    * Nvm. It’s Perri Reid aka “Pebbles” aka DIME

13. “You can’t dance on Space Mountain”, said local coward

14. stuff like this is why I miss Eisner. Did he make a LOT of really dumb choices? Absolutely, but he wasn't afraid to experiment and try to make Disney a place that was for all ages. 90's Disney was legit fun for all age groups. Disney now is just boring unless you're a kid and as much as people are cheering that Iger is back… a lot of the problems at Disney we have now started with the man. Chapek is partially a scapegoat, though yeah he has made a lot of dumb choices. Honestly I would love to see Eisner come back in at least an advisory roll. See if we cant get some legit love of disney magic back but with someone who can tell him "no, thats dumb and too costly"

15. Whoever that is in that coat on the left half of the screen at 14:31 has such a good outfit

16. I've found I love 80s music, but going somewhere with super-loud music, bright lights, PEOPLE talking and yelling and shoving everywhere, AND it's dark and claustrophobic and probably smelly from people sweating, sounds awful. Maybe it's because I have autism, but do neurotypical people really go to these places and NOT feel overwhelmed?

17. My best friend and me went there Friday nights at 9:00 pm in 1988. It cost $10 admission and you could even take a break from the club, go on a ride, then come back to the club for more dancing. You'd dance on different levels of steps with lights and tv monitors everywhere…evenThe Suedish Eagle from KROQ was host/mc.

18. what if eisner’s son was one of the fast dancing gays but he didn’t recognize him because, alas……he was dancing too fast 😔

19. This video just made me mad

20. I want a shirt that says “I homosexual fast danced at Disneyland”

21. I sure do love me some homosexual fastdancing.

22. the theme song for videopolis sounded like the most generic 80s song ever

23. Here at 1,187,482 views. (before that too)

24. I had no idea Safety Dance was based on a true story

25. 11:15 “i like the females here. There are lots of females.”

26. 11:30 Coward.

27. Somehow, the 61 year old woman showing up every week to hang out with the younger crowd is oddly sweet in a "young at heart" wort of way. I wonder what happened eventually happened to her. I mean, it's been over 30 years, so she's likely long passed, but it makes you wonder what she did after Videopolis shut down. Did she find a new place to go to hang out and dance, or did she quietly retire to dance her home?

28. Disney shoulda went hard after the court decision. “This is the gay sex area, there’s poppers at the concession stand”

29. I love that we've all just learned to accept that the 80s lasted until 1994 🤣

30. all those edgy snap discovery pages and click bait YouTube channels that talk ab death at the theme park never talk ab the gang wars. Lol those YouTube’s are so lazy

31. I'm really glad those gay people sued Disney because it's not cheap to sue someone and it's certainly not easy but it really creates change and precedent. It might be because of those brave souls that I can engage in any speed or style of dancing with the partner of my choice today.

32. i think my fellow queer people should be allowed to dance at whatever speed they want

33. H O M O S E X U A L F A S T D A N C I N G

34. The Walt Disney company of today is a totally different company to the one of 50 years ago.

35. Was.. Eisner good for Disney or not? I can’t tell

36. You know a video is about to good when it opens with a close up on Eisner's face while a late-night talk show rock band intermission plays.

37. “We need a song for our new club called ‘Videopolis’”
    Guy who just woke up in the meeting:
    🎵 Videopolis Videopolis 🎵
    Michael Eisner: Oh that’s brilliant!

38. ok but minnie serves in that outfit

39. What I love about the trends of the 80's are the ones that stood out the most to me. (I am a gen z human) Such examples are:
    Neon colors and the colors being used in fashion and art
    Unique hairstyles such as the big hair trends or the permed hair
    New Wave pop music

40. Fun fact: in 1985, at the height of his popularity, Bruce Springsteen was ejected from Disneyland for "promoting gang violence". How did he do so? He was wearing his signature bandana. What a time.

41. The saddest thing is that kids these days just do not dance. As an 80s kid, I still love to dance, so it's disheartening that something happened between the mid-90s and the present to pretty much make dance clubs passe and fizzle out into almost nothing.

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