Six years later both the park and the dreamers had grown up enough that Disneyland decided to host an event aimed at kids who might be outgrowing their mouse ears: an all-night prom.

The details of the evening are scant because the photos, taken by staff photographers Ralph Crane, J.R. Eyerman and Grey Villet, never ran in the magazine. But one thing is clear: the kids had a blast. With the spinning teacups, water rides, a big band, and romance in the air (and on display for some of the couples, especially on the carousel) all the elements were there for a magical night in the magic kingdom.

Take a look and see for yourself. And if you want to read more about the creation of Disneyland, please consider LIFE’s special tribute issue Inside Disney Parks: The Happiest Place on Earth.

Students walking inside Disneyland during their all-prom-night, United States, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People attending the all-night prom at Disneyland, Anaheim, California, June 1961

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People attending the all-night prom at Disneyland, Anaheim, California, June 1961.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, Anaheim, California, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Students getting their prom pictures during All Night Prom at Disneyland – Photographs of an all-night high school prom held at Disney Land

People riding the carousel during all night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night high school prom held at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all night high school prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, Anaheim, California, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night high school prom held at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People riding a gondola boat during an all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Students participating in a high school all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night high school prom held at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Band playing at an all-night prom at Disneyland, Anaheim, California, June 1961.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night high school prom held at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenage boys sit at cafe tables outside of Tomorrowland during an all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An all-night prom at Disneyland, 1961.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post An All-Night Prom at Disneyland, 1961 appeared first on LIFE.

And we can say this about the brilliant color photographs in this gallery, shot by long-time LIFE staffer J.R. Eyerman: they’re wonderful.

When he was a boy, Eyerman took thousands of pictures in Yellowstone, Glacier and other national parks while traveling and camping with his dad. Decades later, the professional photographer spent weeks in late 1960 traveling throughout Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and even as far south as San Francisco for the magazine’s tribute to “the stunning majesty of the Northwest.”

We hope you enjoy the view.

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Yosemite Valley, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Golden Gate Bridge, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At Yosemite National Park, four bucks gathered to drink at the edge of the Merced Rover under the rock formations of El Capitan (far left) and North Dome (center, right).

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

he Grand Coulee Dam in Washington intercepted the Columbia River and sent its waters rushing down the 1,650-foot-wide spillway.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Northwest’s Pacific coast, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Roadside picnic, fall 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Driving through the famed Wawona Tree (est. 2,300 years old), Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, 1960. The tree fell in 1969.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post The American Northwest: Vintage Color Photos From an Epic Road Trip appeared first on LIFE.

Back in 1961, when LIFE dispatched photographer Stan Wayman to Germany to document the drunken debauchery, the party atmosphere was unmistakably intact. Wayman’s photos, which never ran in the magazine, depict a carefree camaraderie: merrymakers dancing on tables, raising giant beer steins and shout-singing songs between sips. The only evidence of quiet is a photo of two men, one man’s hat covering his face, who are, perhaps,rethinking the number of steins they’ve just consumed.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Oktoberfest in Germany, 1961.

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post How Oktoberfest Was Celebrated in the 1960s appeared first on LIFE.

One role, however—the title character in Edgar Allen Poe’s 1843 short story The Black Cat—offered theatrically inclined kitties a chance to break through. In the story, the cat’s owner plasters him into a wall, along with his murdered wife. Eventually, the animal’s mewing from beyond the grave leads investigators to the woman’s body. The film adaptation, which would appear in the 1962 horror compilation Tales of Terror, adjusted the storyline by weaving in elements of another Poe tale.

Exactly 152 cats showed up for the audition, all of them “considerably less nervous than their owners.” Several were disqualified thanks to white paws or noses, but even for those left in the running, the day left dreams largely dashed. The lead role, it turned out, had already been filled by “a well-known professional cat.” Seven lucky extras, selected on account of having the meanest looking faces, were chosen as understudies.

Their owners, whose ambitions for their pets might just have exceeded those of the pets themselves, couldn’t help but let superstition get the best of them. Although they acted naturally around their own cats, “many took pains not to let any strange black cats cross their paths.”

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Black Cat Audition, 1961

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Scary Movie? 152 Black Cats at an Audition appeared first on LIFE.

The group portrait came about because Morse knew there was no way that he could follow 14 professional quarterbacks around the country individually the way LIFE’s sports editors wanted him to.

“Those editors were crazy,” Morse (now 96 years old) recently told LIFE.com. “One week I might fly to Dallas or St. Louis or Detroit to photograph one of the players, and maybe he’d be great. Or maybe he’d be awful. Either way, the assignment would take weeks months! and there was no guarantee we’d end up with what we wanted. The only way I could make a decent picture is if I made it in one place, at one time, with all of the players. I called the NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle, and told him what I wanted to do. He said I was crazy. He told me they’d have to do it on their day off, and they’d never agree.

“So I said, ‘Look. You’re the commissioner, aren’t you? They’ll do what you tell them, won’t they?’ I suggested we do it in Chicago, somewhere in the center of the country. All they had to do was bring clean uniforms, and show up. We set a date, and I flew out to Chicago a week early to rent a studio. I had a local high school football team come to the studio every day for that week, and we practiced all sorts of scenarios until we had one that worked the guys in front tossing the ball underhand, the guys in back throwing overhand. We also set up a sheet of plexiglass with a hole cut in it for the camera lens to poke through, so I wouldn’t get creamed by 14 footballs coming at me.

“All the quarterbacks arrived on the scheduled day, and we had the whole thing figured out ahead of time. These guys were famous. They were busy. They didn’t want to mess around. They wanted to get into their uniforms, take the picture, get out of their uniforms and go. And that’s what happened.”

One thing worth noting here is that the great Y.A. Tittle (front row, far right), who was playing for the New York Giants at that point in his career, was 35 years old when the photo was made. Old for an NFL quarterback, sure but he looks like he’s 65.

One hell of a player, though; he’s one of just 11 Giants to have his number retired. He’s also one of six future Hall of Famers in Morse’s photo; the others are Layne, Starr, Unitas, Tarkenton and Jurgenson.

Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com

Quarterbacks of the NFL in 1961: (back, L-R) Milt Plum, Bobby Layne, Sam Etcheverry, Bill Wade, Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Norm Snead, Zeke Bratkowski; (front, L-R) Jim Ninowski, Fran Tarkenton, Don Meredith, John Brodie, Sonny Jurgensen, Y.A. Tittle.

Ralph Morse/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post How to Take a Group Portrait of 14 NFL Quarterbacks on Their Day Off appeared first on LIFE.

“Everybody was working on typewriters back then, so it was very noisy,” remembers editor Richard Stolley, who was the L.A. bureau chief at the time. “I’m sitting in my office and suddenly it got quiet. All the typewriters stopped. I thought, ‘What the hell is going on?’ So I got up and I walked to the door. And what was happening? Ann-Margret was walking through the newsroom.”

Years later Stolley and Ann-Margret reminisced about that time. “That,” Stolley says of the picture at left, “is what you were wearing when you came in to the bureau.”

“It was a light blue, lambswool sweater,” Ann-Margret recalls, laughing. “That’s the only outfit I had at the time. The only one! Oh, dear.”

In the decades after that first encounter, Stolley served as the top editor of both LIFE and PEOPLE magazines, and that fresh-faced 19-year-old starlet did pretty well, too: Ann-Margret, born Ann-Margret Olsson in Stockholm, became one of Hollywood’s most vivacious stars, her energy and talent lighting up movies as varied as Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas and Tommy. Through the years, Stolley and Ann-Margret remained friends.

In 2012 the two discussed these photos made by Grey Villet (“Oh, I loved him,” Ann-Margret says of the late LIFE photographer) for the 1961 LIFE article that introduced Ann-Margret as a hot Hollywood prospect while she auditioned for a role in the film, State Fair. Many of the photos in this gallery were not originally published in LIFE.

A quick excerpt from Stolley and Ann-Margret’s chat in 2012:

STOLLEY: How important was the LIFE story to your career?

ANN-MARGRET: It was incredibly important. I had not done anything. Nobody knew me. I was amazed and shocked. What can I say? My parents were just beaming.

STOLLEY: The opening page on that story had a picture of you pointing, and the headline was “Who, Me? $10,000 a Week!” That was what we predicted would be your salary if you got the role in State Fair. How did you feel about $10,000 a week?

ANN-MARGRET: I had never heard of such money! That’s just sci-fi.

STOLLEY: How old were you when you came over to the States from Sweden?

ANN-MARGRET: Six years old. And it was my mother and I, because daddy had come to America [earlier] looking for work. That was during the war, and he thought it was much too dangerous for mother and I to cross the ocean. So five years later, my mother and I got on a huge ship and came to America. And neither one of us, of course, spoke English.

STOLLEY: There’s an unpublished picture here [the final image in this gallery] which is kind of fascinating. It’s you walking down the dusty back-lot street with a big, long shadow in front of you. The reason I like it is because it’s kind of a precursor, a forecast of the long shadow you were going to cast over Hollywood and the entertainment industry.

ANN-MARGRET: I had no idea at the time. Of anything.

STOLLEY: Nor did Grey, but he took a very prescient photograph. When I say something like that, what’s your reaction looking at this picture?

ANN-MARGRET: I’d never been to Los Angeles. Never. I wanted to be a …. [Trails off and chokes up] I can’t, I’m starting to cry!

STOLLEY: Don’t do that I’m sorry.

ANN-MARGRET: When you guys [at LIFE.com] sent me all these photographs, what a rush. It all came back to me. It’s just . . . I’m so blessed.

Ann-Margret, 1961

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret with costume designer Don Feld before a screen test, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret dining with actor Peter Brown at Har-Omar restaurant in Hollywood, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret t with actor Peter Brown at Har-Omar restaurant in Hollywood, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret looking over a script with the screen test’s director, Robert Parrish, and the actor who would read opposite her, David Hedison.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret face-to-face with actor David Hedison, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret and David Hedison rehearsing a scene on Fox’s back lot, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret with actor David Hedison, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret, Hollywood, 1961

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Studio hairdresser Helen Turpin taking care of Ann-Margret for her State Fair audition in 1961. The film’s director wanted Turpin to give her a “kind of wild, Alice in Wonderland look.”

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret, 1961

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Outfitted for a screen test, Ann-Margret with costume designer Don Feld, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret studying costume designer Don Feld’s quick sketch of what she’d wear during the second half of her screen test.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret doing the song-and-dance half of her screen test, during which she performed the old jazz standard “Bill Bailey” wearing that memorable combo of lambswool sweater and black leotard.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret during a screen test, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

At some point during the shoot for LIFE, Ann-Margret visited with her mentor, the legendary George Burns, in a prop room of a studio where he kept an office, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

With help from friend Scott Smith on piano, Ann-Margret auditioned for Dick Pierce (far left) and others at RCA Victor Records, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

To fully illustrate the Ann-Margret story for LIFE, Villet traveled to Fox Lake, Illinois, where he photographed the starlet with her loving family. She, her parents, and her aunts and uncles had all immigrated to the United States from Sweden. Her father stands above her at far left, above, and her mother is in the middle of the photo.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret with family and friends, Fox Lake, Illinois, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret dancing with her father, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret’s Uncle Roy gave her a playful spanking after she tried to tickle him, 1961. “It’s wonderful,” she said, “that Grey [Villet, the photographer] was there to capture that moment.”

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret with her uncle, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret, Fox Lake, Illinois, 1961

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

In Los Angeles, Ann-Margret practiced her golf stroke in the office of her manager, Pierre Cossette, as her friend Scott Smith (far left) and another acquaintance looked on, 1961.

Grey Villet/TIME & LIFE Pictures

With friends at her manager Pierre Cossette’s house, 1961. From the reporter’s notes: “Whenever these kids get together they perform for one another; that is, they did not stage this hoedown strictly for [photographer Grey] Villet’s benefit.”

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

According to the reporter’s notes, in this photo Ann-Margret was “exploring the back lot alone and doing a few exuberant leaps around the deserted western street.” But the image was so joyful that LIFE used it to illustrate Ann-Margret’s good news, which came after Grey Villet had finished shooting: She’d nailed the screen test and scored a movie contract with Fox.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Ann-Margret on a studio back lot, Hollywood, 1961.

Grey Villet; LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

The post I Was in LIFE: Ann-Margret Remembers appeared first on LIFE.