Building Disneyland
The celebration at Disneyland for its 65th anniversary on July 17, 2020, will have to wait. Currently, there is no set reopening date for the parks. While the park gates are closed, we thought we’d look back to another time the gates were shut — during construction.
Walt Disney dreamed of building a park decades before Disneyland opened. In 1932, Disney considered building a park on a vacant 16-acre lot directly across the street from his studios in Burbank. The idea was turned down by the city. In the late 1940s, the concept of what would later become Disneyland began to take shape. From the first day of construction to opening day, Disneyland and its 17 attractions took just shy of 12 months to build.
December 1952
Disney forms a creative team for WED Enterprises (from the initials Walter Elias Disney). It is the precursor design and development division of what is known today as Walt Disney Imagineering.
July 1953
Disney commissions the Stanford Research Institute to find the ideal location for Disneyland. SRI eliminates areas that are developed or producing oil. SRI takes into account climate, population trends, land prices, and easy access from Los Angeles via California’s growing network of freeways. A total of 71 sites are considered, according to Sam Gennawey, a Disney historian and author of “The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney’s Dream.”
Eventually, the selection is narrowed down to the following four locations:
- La Mirada, 2,300 acres that contain five separate parcels of interest
- “Leo Harvey property,” 160 acres near intersection of Valley View Avenue and the Santa Ana Freeway
- Willowick Country Club, Santa Ana
- “Ball Road Subdivision” just off the Santa Ana Freeway in Anaheim
Disney pays about $4,600 an acre for 160 acres in Anaheim.
Its proximity to a major freeway means the park is less than 30 minutes by car from downtown Los Angeles.
The funding for Disneyland would not come easy. Disney wants to tie Disneyland to his proposed television series, but he is turned down by both NBC and CBS. His brother Roy takes a map of the proposed park to executives at ABC, a smaller network in need of quality programming.
ABC agrees to lend Disney $500,000 and guarantee $4.5 million in loans in return for a one-third ownership in Disneyland and a promise of a weekly Disney television show for the network.
Disney designs the park with one entrance gate, so that people won’t become disoriented in the massive park.
Disney also designs the park to have a “Main Street” with the idea of it being the hub. It also has “weenies,” Disney‘s playful term for a visual element that can be used to draw people into and around a space. The lure of Main Street would be a castle.
1954
Previous movie profits are not enough to cover the cost of building Disneyland. Roy Disney makes numerous visits to Bank of America’s headquarters to get more funding. The bank enlists the help of another bank, Bankers Trust Company of New York.
April 2, 1954
Plans for Disneyland Park and TV show are announced. Disney says the TV series will begin in October 1954 and the park will open in July 1955. The TV show will feature stories around the different “lands” of Disneyland.
Ninety days before construction begins, Disney brings in retired Navy Adm. Joe Fowler. Fowler once ran the busy San Francisco Navy Yard and is picked to supervise construction that will continue around the clock. The construction begins on July 21, 1954.
October 27, 1954
The TV series opens with “The Disneyland Story,” describing coming attractions of the park and TV show. The shows are introduced by Disney himself.
June 16, 1955
Problems occur with Orange County building inspectors as they have no experience with theme park structures. The inspectors’ doubts are eased through Disney‘s concern for safety. Water is piped in to supply pressure for sprinklers and hydrants.
The Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad makes its first trip around the park. A boy stricken with leukemia sees his dream to ride on Walt Disney’s train come true.
July 17, 1955
After nearly a year of rigorous construction demands and a total investment of $17 million (about $162 million today), the gates of Disneyland open for the park’s first guests on a Sunday. The opening is by invitation only, given to studio workers, construction workers, the press and officials of company sponsors. Tickets to the grand opening are counterfeited, and 30,000 people wind up in the park. Rides break down and park stands run out of food and drink.
Disney reads about all the problems the next day and refers to the opening as “Black Sunday.”
September 8, 1955
Disneyland welcomes its 1 millionth visitor months ahead of predictions.
