Disneyland: One Man's Dream- The Disneyland Story

Television was a brand new medium. Unlike movies, by using television, Walt Disney could make contact with people in the comfort of thier own home. The TV show, known as Disneyland debuted on ABC on October 27th 1954. The show would help finance the construction of Disneyland, and could also be a new medium to showcase new Disney movies and cartoons. The very first show, the Disneyland Story, showcased designs for the new theme park that Walt was building, as well as the shorts "The Pointer" and "lonesome Ghosts". Here it is, just as the viewers saw it in 1954.












Disneyland was a weekly show, and each week, a new show would be produced. This led up to the July 17 Episode "Dateline Disneyland" in which people all across the country witnessed the unvieling of Walt Disney's Disneyland.

Disneyland: One Man's Dream- The Emmaculate Conception

It's no surprise that Walt Disney wanted to take a huge risk by building a theme park. The man frequently did this in movies and cartoons. But still, an amusement park was quite out of the ordinary.

Most of the amuzement parks in Southern California were dirty places filled with shifty people working them. Most rides were for the kids, with little for the adults to do.

Walt took his 2 daughters out once a week to different places, and most times he took them to amuzement parks. One day, Walt was sitting on a bench eating peanuts while his daughters rode the merry-go-round. Then it hit him that there should be some sort of entertainment enterprise "in which the parents and the kids can have fun together. And that's how it all got started."

There was another aspect that helped spark the idea of Disneyland. Walt Disney's father, Elias Disney, worked on building the grounds for the World's Columbian Excahnge in Chicago. Each area in that park showcased a different "country" and this idea might have led Disney to develop each of the famous themed lands.

But there was also something else: many people were so captivated by the various Disney movies that they kept writing to Disney to visit his studio. Walt was intigued by the idea, but saw that there was no way for a studio to function properly with it full of people. So the idea sat with him for years, growing inside him as time went on. But the idea was far from dorment.

During this time, Walt toured amusement parks all over the world. He found them enjoyable, but wanted to top them and let the kids and parents have fun together.

And so began the creation of the "Mickey Mouse Park" which would lead to the most famous theme park in history...