The Disney Docent: The inspiration and perspiration of Disneyland

It all started with a mouse….

Yes, it did. But the idea-concept- of Disneyland was brought on by something else. The story is pretty infamous, in fact, here’s Walt in his own words.

Did you catch that? “Amusement Enterprise”… he was always dreaming big, although Disneyland was a big accomplishment , there was more to come, and he knew it. I like to think this story as the catalyst to the creation of Disneyland; however, he had already been looking into creating a type of amusement park in connection to the mouse closer to the Burbank studios. Fans had been requesting it for years.

According to video, “The Disneyland Story” hosted by Harry Anderson in 1990, a young fan wrote to Walt.

Dear Mr. Disney,

I love Mickey Mouse and Snow White and when we go on vacation I would like to come visit them and you too.

Walt received letters like this one at his Burbank studios all the time, and he felt it was time to do something about it.

August of 1953, Walt sent out scouts to find a lot large enough to hold all his ideas. The 8 to 16 acres (depending on who you read) that were close to the Burbank studios not longer sufficed his dream- so they head east. What was found was 160 acres of Orange groves in the city known as Anaheim, close to freeways and other demographics.

Now it was concept time- Walt Disney asked one of his artist, Herb Ryman to create a concept drawing, Walt explained, "I just want it to look like nothing else in the world. And it should be surrounded by a train." Upon his return on Monday Sept. 28, 1953, Herb gave Walt his very first concept drawing of Disneyland.

Wanna See? Here it is…

UPDATE 2/11/2012: Picture taken at the Disneyland Hotel around the corner from the registration/ check in lobby, near the elevators. Obviously a replica, but it was bigger than the one I found online. Click on picture than right click , hit view image, much bigger to look over :D

There IS an earlier picture of a concept design, very small and quaint, but I can not find too much information on the artist or an actual picture. However, it can be seen in the mini documentary “ Disneyland: the first 50 Magical Years”.

It’s a 2:40 mark.

In every concept, there was a train that looped around. Walt loved trains, he actually had one in his home, Carolwood Pacific Railroad. More on that in another post.

After being turned down by CBS and NBC, ABC agreed to loan Walt 4.5 million dollars in return for 1/3 hold in the theme park and weekly television show which WED (Walter Elias Disney) Enterprises bought back in 1960. Disney is now parent company of ABC.

Wanna see one:

This one originally aired on Wednesday Dec. 1^st. 1954.

While he filmed these weekly shows, he still kept vigilant over Disneyland. Construction began July 16, 1954 and continued to the very opening day. According to the LA times, it cost $17 million dollars to complete… and that wasn’t guaranteeing people through the gates. None the less, Walt proceeded.

U.S. Route 101 ( or I-5 as we now know it) can thank two extra lanes to Walt. The city anticipated the cars this magical place was going to bring and prepared for it… although you can’t tell when trying to get through it at 5pm on a Friday afternoon…. I digress.

Here’s some pictures of the construction.