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Disneyland
is a theme park that is located at 1313 South Harbor Boulevard
in Anaheim, California, USA. It opened on July 17, 1955. The
park is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Currently
the park has been visited by more than 515 million guests
since it opened to the public, including presidents, royalty,
and other heads of state. In
1998 Disneyland was renamed Disneyland Park in order to distinguish
it from the larger Disneyland Resort complex.
History
Concept and construction
 Sleeping
Beauty Castle
The concept for Disneyland began one Sunday, when Walt Disney
was visiting Griffith Park with his daughters Diane and Sharon.
His idea was simple: a place that both adults and children
could enjoy. His dream would lie dormant for many years. Walt
Disney's father helped build the grounds of the 1893 World's
Fair in Chicago. This perhaps gave Disney the creative spark
from whence Disneyland originated. The fairgrounds for the
World's Fair were a cheaply constructed set of individual
"Country" areas from around the world and areas
representing various time periods of man, it also included
many "rides" including the first Ferris wheel, sky
ride, a passenger train that circled the perimeter, Wild West
Show, etc. Although the 1893 World's Fair was meant only to
last a summer in Chicago,in Southern California the weather
was accommodating to a "Fair Grounds" of stucco
buildings that would otherwise disintigrate in the rain, snow
and ice of other climates. One can see the remblance of a
"Land" filled with "rides" and a fair
grounds with differntly themed areas to the Disneyland created
60 years later in the 1950s as the population of America for
the first time shifted West into desert climes.While
many people had written letters to Walt Disney about visiting
the Disney Studio lot and meeting their favorite Disney character,
Walt realized that a functional movie studio had little to
offer to the visiting fans. He then began to foster ideas
of building a site near his Burbank studios for tourists to
visit. His ideas then evolved to a small play park with a
boat ride and other themed areas. Walt's initial concept,
his "Mickey Mouse Park", started with an eight-acre
plot across Riverside Drive.Walt
started to visit other parks for inspiration and ideas, documenting
what he liked and did not like. Some of these included: Tivoli
Gardens, Greenfield Village, Playland, Children's Fairyland,
and Republica de los niños. He started his designers
working on concepts, but these would grow into a project much
larger than could be contained in eight acres.Walt
hired a consultant, Harrison Price from Stanford Research
Institute to gauge the area's potential growth. With the report
from Price, Disney acquired 160 acres (730,000 m²) of
orange groves and walnut trees in Anaheim, south of Los Angeles
in neighboring Orange County.Difficulties
in obtaining funding prompted Disney to investigate new methods
of fund raising. He decided to use television to get the ideas
into people's homes, and so he created a show named Disneyland
which was broadcast on the then fledgling ABC television network.
In return, the network agreed to help finance the new park.
For the first five years of its operation, Disneyland was
owned by Disneyland, Inc., which was jointly owned by Walt
Disney Productions and ABC. In 1960 Walt Disney Productions
purchased ABC's share. In addition, many of the shops on Main
Street, U.S.A. were owned and operated by other companies
who rented space from Disney.Construction
began on July 18, 1954 and would cost USD$17 million to complete
and was opened exactly one year later. U.S. Route 101 (later
Interstate 5) was under construction at the same time just
to the north of the site; in preparation for the traffic which
Disneyland was expected to bring, two more lanes were added
to the freeway even before the park was finished.
1955: Opening day
An aerial view of Disneyland in 1956. The entire route of
the Disneyland Railroad is clearly visible as it encircles
the park.Disneyland Park was opened to the public on Monday,
July 18, 1955. However, a special "International Press
Preview" event was held on Sunday, July 17, 1955 which
was only open to invited guests and the media. The Special
Sunday events, including the dedication were televised nationwide
and anchored by three of Walt Disney's friends from Hollywood:
Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald Reagan.The
event did not go smoothly. The park was overcrowded as the
by-invitation-only affair was plagued with counterfeit tickets.
All major roads nearby were empty. The temperature was an
unusually high 101°F (38°C), and a plumbers' strike
left many of the park's drinking fountains dry. The asphalt
that had been poured just the night before was so soft that
ladies' high-heeled shoes sank in. Vendors ran out of food.
A gas leak in Fantasyland caused Adventureland, Frontierland,
and Fantasyland to close for the afternoon. Parents were throwing
their children over the shoulders of crowds to get them onto
rides such as the King Arthur Carrousel.The
park got such bad press for the event day that Walt Disney
invited members of the press back for a private "second
day" to experience the true Disneyland, after which Walt
held a party in the Disneyland Hotel for them. Walt and his
1955 executives forever referred to the first day as "Black
Sunday", although July 17 is currently acknowledged by
Disney as the official opening day. On July 17 every year,
cast members wear pin badges stating how many years it has
been since July 17, 1955. For example, in 2004 they wore the
slogan "The magic began 49 years ago today." But
for the first ten years or so, Disney did officially state
that opening day was on July 18, including in the park's own
publications.On
Monday, July 18 crowds started to gather in line as early
as 2 a.m., and the first person to buy a ticket and enter
the park was David MacPherson with admission ticket number
2, as Roy O. Disney arranged to pre-purchase ticket number
1. Walt Disney had an official photo taken with two children
instead, Christine Vess and Michael Schwartner, and the photo
of the two carries a caption along the lines of "Walt
Disney with the first two guests of Disneyland." Vess
and Schwartner both received lifetime passes to Disneyland
that day, and MacPherson was awarded one shortly thereafter,
which was later expanded to every single Disney-owned park
in the world. |
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