Disneyland: One Man's Dream- Dateline Disneyland

On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened. To celebrate this amazing event, the biggest and most complex live broadcast at the time was orchastrated by ABC. The event was entitled Dateline Disneyland and was hosted by Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald Reagan.

















The day lived in infamy as "Black Sunday". It was over 100°F that day, and the newly layed asphalt was still soft, steeling many high heels off of the female visitors. There was a plumber's strike during construction, so Walt choose to have runnig toliets instead of water fountains. There were gas leaks and blackouts all over the place that day. Venders ran out of food. Thousands of uninvited vistiors came into the park via counterfite tickets or hopping over the berm. Critics everywhere blasted Walt and his park, saying it would close shortly.

The next day, crowds started showing up at 2:00 AM, and the first visitors were awarded lifetime passes to Disneyland. And just 6 weeks later, Disneyland welcomed it's one-millionth guest.

Tha park was a hit. And it was still growing...


^The scale model of Disneyland on opening day that was on display in Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years.

Disneyland: One Man's Dream- Building the Happiest Place on Earth

This time lapse video has been spreading around the web like wildfire. I'd thought it would be great to include in the History of Disneyland.

This footage is truly remarkable to watch, and I think I'll let Tony Baxter, Ed Hobleman, and Walter Magnuson take it from here.











Absolutely fascinating. It's amazing at how quickly everything was done. And opening day was just around the corner...

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.

Dineyland: One Man's Dream- From Orange Grove to Fantasyland

Land is very valuable, and has been since the dawn of time. Walt Disney knew this and when his ideas for a Mickey Mouse Park near his studio became too big for that land, he needed to scout out new land. Concept art kept getting bigger and bigger.

In 1952, walt established WED Enterprises, where his architects, designers, engineers, and artists, newly dubbed "imagineers" began designing the park.

One year later, Walt's brother, Roy, was heading to New York to pitch the idea to the bankers. To do this, he needed something to show the bankers. Without anything, a big fat "NO" was eminant. So during one wwekend in September of that year, Walt and Herb Ryman spent the entire weekend designing what was know named "Disneyland". This concept art would become famous, as it can be instantly recognizable as Disneyland, though it still was far from what we know today.


Walt hired Harrison Price, a consultant from the Stanford Research Institute, to scout out land. With Price's help, Disney bought 160 acres of Orange Groves and Walnut trees in Anaheim, California. Anaheim was a small area in Orange County and was southeast of LA. It seemed to be in a great location, without much around it.

Near the Orange Groves, constuction on Interstate 5 (then US Route 101) was starting and would be complete before Disneyland was finished. In preperation for the increase of traffic of people wanting to visit Disneyland, 2 more lanes were added.

Trees from the Orange Grove would have to be removed. However, Walt wanted as many trees as possible to stay, so he labeled them with different colored bands to represent which trees "stayed". which ones were to be "moved", and which ones would be "removed". Regretably, many trees were removed because the bulldozer operator was colorblined. Throughout construction of Disneyland, it appeared fate was against Walt. Either that or it was testing him.

Disneyland construction finally began on July 18, 1954. Just 364 days later, the park would be opening it's gates for the first time. Sounds crazy, right? And how would Walt finance the $17 million needed to build the park?

Disneyland: One Man's Dream- The Mickey Mouse Park

It's no surprise that Walt Disney loved his studio in Burbank, California. That's one reason Walt Began pondering building an 8-acre amusement park across the street from his studio.
As you can see below, the park featured a few rides and a boat ride with a train circling the park. These few design features were a constant in the evolution of Disneyland. Especially the train.



Walt loved trains. He had an entire backyard railroad built as a way to relax. He frequently brought people over to his house and gave them rides around his yard on the train.


Unfortunately for Walt, his ideas started growing and growing. He wanted more types of enviornments, not just the western theme that is showcased in early concept art. He wanted to transport people back to a turn of the century American town. He wanted to show people places around the world. And of course, he wanted to take people into the beloved movies.
So, this 8-acre patch of land became to small. And as his ideas about an amusement park turned into ideas about a themed park, he needed a lot of land- cheap!

*Note: All pictures in this post are Copyright Disney. No copyright infringement intended.