 Source: Frontierland Station
July 1955 – June 1990
LOCATION
Main Street USA – Fine Tobacco once boasted a coveted storefront at the entrance of Main Street USA, right next to the Main Street Cinema. Today, this space is home to the 20th Century Music Company.
EXPERIENCE
Details:
- Merchandise – cigarettes, cigars, pipes, souvenir lighters and matchbooks
- Unique Features – Main Street Chief (who still stands proudly today)
The Fine Tobacco Shop on Main Street was a traditional small-town storefront, complete with old-fashioned lights, décor, and a curtained marquee. The store offered tobacco products to guests over 16, and each purchase came with a complimentary Disneyland matchbook. After purchasing tobacco, guests were free to enjoy their cigarettes and cigars within the park limits, so long as they did not take them on attractions…quite different than the rules today!
CLOSURE
This closure isn’t much of a surprise. By the early 90s, anti-smoking messages became prevalent in the US, with smoking-sections in restaurants and airplanes being gradually phased out in favor of outright bans. In 1990, Disneyland followed suit, and no longer sold tobacco products in the parks. However, both Disneyland and California Adventure have designated smoking areas today, though these areas shrink every few years.
TRIVIA
Fine Tobacco wasn’t the only shop on Main Street that would raise some eyebrows today; the original street also featured a lingerie shop!
In the early years of Disneyland, guests could smoke anywhere in the park…minus attractions and their queues.
The Westward Ho Trading Co. in Frontierland used to be a tobacco shop as well, and features its own chief outside the doorway.
Its amazing how ubiquitous smoking was in my early childhood. My father was a physician and even he smoked. A minor memory of my first visit to Disneyland was my accidentally walking into a lit cigarette held by one of my parents and getting a little burn on the side of my head! Bizzarre.
Definitely a different world! I’ve seen cast members chase down smokers that venture a little too far away from the designated areas. Not quite the same as having a tobacco shop on Main Street, haha.