Every western town needs a saloon. It’s the gathering place for the community, and often the epicenter of local entertainment. So when Walt Disney started construction on his wild village within Disneyland, he knew the area needed its own special building. Meet the Golden Horseshoe.
Walt turned to Harper Goff, a set designer who had just created a western saloon for the 1953 film Calamity Jane. If you’ve ever been inside the Horseshoe, the influence from the movie set is clear.
 Source: The Blonde at the Film
At the time, Goff had also been assisting in the development of a number of Main Street USA buildings. You can see the common thread by looking at the building’s exterior. Rather than being a worn down, weathered saloon, this building is a beautiful theater, with ornate accents reminiscent of the Main Street Opera House.
While the Golden Horseshoe wasn’t modeled after a single western saloon, it contains elements frequently seen in western saloon architecture. The sweeping porch and upper deck create entertainment space – and you’ll often see musicians here. The angular shape also makes the building prominent; catching the eye of passersby to draw them in for a show or a meal.
Though the Golden Horseshoe is certainly a sanitized version of a wild west saloon, there are tiny nods to the originals. These include the bar top (a scaled down version of a “mile long bar”, and the poster below. This depicts a “saloon girl”. Saloons would hire girls as dancers to encourage male patrons to spend more money at the bar, earning commission on each drink they helped sell.
If you’ve never visited the Golden Horseshoe, I highly recommend it. The interior is surprisingly large (and I think tricky to photograph), but it’s stunning. The shows are goofy and may not be for everyone, but the space itself remains open all day, not just during showtimes. In fact, this is one of my favorite places in the park to visit when I need a quiet moment to get off my feet and regroup a little bit – especially in the upstairs balcony.
Having been to the real Deadwood, once home of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock, I have to say the Golden Horseshoe is definitely an upgrade on the real saloons (those that have survived, that is!)
Haha. I can imagine!