The Grand Circle Tour of

Inspiration

     The sparks of inspiration that would kindle Disneyland came to Walt Disney in the 1930's when he took his young daughters to the park. While watching them play, he realized that "there should be something built, some kind of a family park where parents and children could have fun together." The first manifestation of this dream came in the plan for a small amusement park adjacent to the Burbank Studios. It would have pony rides, a train, and statues of Disney characters available for pictures. Walt soon realized, though, that this small eight acre plot of land was too small to accommodate all the ideas that he envisioned for it. So in 1953, he contracted the Stanford Research Institute to find him a hundred acre site that was reasonably near Los Angeles but also affordable. They found a one hundred and sixty acre plot of orange groves in the small mostly rural town of Anaheim, a county away, but easily accessible by the growing Interstate 5 freeway.

     At the same time, he began to select artists from around the studio to imagine what the park would become. Disney's park would not be a run-of-the-mill carnival with barkers, sideshows, and cheesy rides but would be a themed park with "attractions" and "cast members." It would separate its "guests" from an increasingly anxious modern society and immerse them in escapist, fantasy "lands." These "lands" would be idealized views of the past, the future, and the fantastic. None would concern itself with the present.

     The "Imagineers" Walt hand-picked from Burbank were formed into WED (Walter E. Disney), now Walt Disney Imagineering, and had the difficult task of bringing this revolutionary dream to physical reality. Imagineers were sent out to amusement parks and other public spaces around the country to see how they could improve upon the existing standards for public entertainment. Fittingly, these sudden theme park designers culled from the ranks of show business, treated the park as one big movie. Techniques perfected by the Imagineers' many years on animated features were put toward designing the park. Therefore, Main Street was not thought of as the entrance to the park but as "Scene One." Imagineers also extensively used such techniques as "storyboarding" and other old studio tricks to give the two dimensional "movie" that was quickly developing on the lot in Burbank a third dimension.

The Pitch

     Walt Disney not only possessed a brilliant imagination but also often showed a knack for business savvy. This was evident in 1954 when he struck a deal with the ABC Television Network to develop a television series. The series, entitled Disneyland, would provide original programming from the Disney Studios along with periodic updates of the park's progress. In return, ABC would help finance the park's construction. More importantly, though, Walt tapped into a fledgling medium, as new and revolutionary as Walt's dreams, that could reach many American families and their collective imaginations. They were able to see the park materialize from Walt's mind and became as excited as he was at its progress.

The Beginning

     Construction began at the Anaheim site in July of 1954, a year before its scheduled debut. From the beginning, there were problems that threatened the fragile economic dynamics of the park, which Walt had bolstered by cashing in his life insurance policy and selling his Palm Springs vacation home. Flooding on the Anaheim site in early 1955, an Orange County asphalt strike, and confused construction personnel (who were accustomed to working on office buildings and shopping malls) contributed to the project's budget spiraling from four-and-a-half million to seventeen million dollars by the time the park opened.

     Despite these difficulties, the park opened on July 17, 1955 as promised (though it was hardly finished). The Opening Day ceremony still went on: a live hour-and-a-half ABC telecast with hosts Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and future president Ronald Reagan. Twenty-five thousand guests witnessed what Walt later called "Black Sunday." There were ride breakdowns, wet asphalt, long lines, and unfinished landscaping. Even the telecast had problems, including miscues and botched lines. A mere eighteen rides opened that day to the public.

The First Decade

     The day after Disneyland premiered, it opened to the general public. The difficulties of Opening Day did not disappear, however, as an underground gas leak produced flaming asphalt in Fantasyland. The fledgling park had other problems such as an unbearable Anaheim heat wave that kept crowds away and a lingering cash shortage that threatened to bounce cast members' paychecks. Nevertheless, the American public began arriving in great numbers and within a year the park had welcomed 1,000,000 guests. Rapid expansion within the park fixed many of the problems that plagued Disneyland's infancy. Storybook Land and Tom Sawyer's Island, both mostly covered with weeds on Opening Day, were newly themed and landscaped for their 1956 opening.

     As the park established itself as a major tourist destination in Southern California and began turning a profit, Walt could let his imagination truly run wild as the soaring Matterhorn, the mysterious Submarine Voyage, and the visionary House of the Future all opened before 1960. With President Kennedy in office, the park continued to expand with the opening of Frontierland's Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland and The Swiss Family Treehouse in Adventureland. More important, though, was the introduction of Audio-Animatronics in 1963's Enchanted Tiki Room, a technology that revolutionized the way Disney's attractions could interact with guests. The park was beginning to take shape.

Dreaming Without Walt

     The beginning of Disneyland's second decade saw big plans in place for the park. The attractions that Imagineers developed for the 1964 New York World's Fair were about to find a permanent home in the park and a new land was in the works for the banks of the Rivers of America. New Orleans Square, at the "bend" in the river, was a pet project of Walt's and he worked passionately on developing the land's premiere attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean. Sadly, this would be the last ride at Disneyland that would bear the marks of his imagination as Walt passed away in 1966. The park and its Imagineers were forced to find a way to dream without him. They forged ahead, however, and by the next year, the Pirates' barges were afloat and all of the World's Fair creations, It's a Small World, Carousel of Progress, Primeval World, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln were welcoming guests. The Imagineers made improvements throughout the park, including a major 1967 overhaul of Tomorrowland that added the People Mover and Rocket Jets. In 1969, the popular Haunted Mansion debuted, which was imaginatively conceived but showed signs of the fractious visions of the Imagineers. One could tell they missed the unifying force of Walt Disney.

     The 1970's saw Disneyland gain a sister park in Florida. The Imagineers' work on the new park benefitted its elder, as the Magic Kingdom's Country Bear Jamboree was replicated in California. Bear Country, a new land, was added to the western frontier of the park to accommodate the new attraction. Also, to honor the U.S. Bicentennial, the Imagineers created the fully-animatronic America Sings as a celebration of American music. It debuted in 1974 at the Carousel Theater in, oddly enough, Tomorrowland.

The Mountains of Disneyland

     Mountains loomed on the Disneyland horizon as the park entered its third decade. In early 1975, the wildly successful Space Mountain had emerged from the swamps of Florida. A few months later, the ground for the Disneyland version was broken. It would cost twenty million dollars and take two years to build but the venerable old Matterhorn finally had a sister mountain in 1977. About this time, the old Mine Train ride was taking its last guest through the wilderness so the sandstone spires of Big Thunder Mountain could fill in the Frontierland skyline. This runaway train ride increased the amount of roller coasters in the park to three and attracted a new group of thrillseekers to the park.

     The early 80's saw lean years for the Disney Company but the park still managed to thrive. Fantasyland underwent a major overhaul to make it consistent with Walt Disney's original vision. A small Bavarian village was built in the shadow of the castle's walls to give new life to the old dark rides. Mr. Toad's Mansion and the London home of the Darlings were brought to physical reality, giving guests the feeling that they were entering a fairy tale world. A new dark ride was also added to 1983's New Fantasyland as Pinocchio's Daring Journey took over the site of the old Fantasyland Theater.

Under New Management

     The mind of George Lucas would greatly help revitalize the park as it entered its fourth decade under new management. With Disneyland's new collaboration with this entertainment giant (and lifelong Disneyland fan) the park was able to bring two genre-defining properties into the park: Michael Jackson, the most successful popular artist of his time, in 1986's Captain EO and the science-fiction blockbuster, Star Wars, which begat the Star Tours attraction in 1987. The Disney Company, now under the watchful eye of Michael Eisner, at first endeavored to bring a young crowd into the park, thus the youth-friendly disco, Videopolis, was created at the back of the park in 1985. However, after such cheap stunts as 1987's "State Fair" and 1988's "Blast to the Past," Disneyland returned to improving the park's attractions.

     Bear Country was renamed in 1988 to Critter Country in anticipation of the debut of 1989's Splash Mountain. This successful new flume ride followed the adventures of Br'er Rabbit and added another mountain to the Disneyland range. Improvements were made elswhere around the park in the ensuing years, including the carving out of the Disneyland backlot into Mickey's Toontown. This new kid-friendly land debuted in 1993 and let children meet Mickey and Minnie in their own homes. Guests could now feel what it was like to be a cartoon character.

A California Adventure

     Disneyland celebrated it's Fortieth Birthday with an ambitious new attraction that would redefine the level of technology, creativity, and capital that could be invested in a single ride. Indiana Jones Adventures was the first major addition to Adventureland in more than thirty years and brought with it a major redesign of the Jungle Cruise, including a brand new boathouse. Tomorrowland, too, had gone many years since a remodel and it was sadly apparent. Unfortunately, its 1998 renovation was plagued by budget cuts which contributed to the land's signature ride, the Rocket Rods, closing within two years from poor design. Other attractions were recycled from Disney World (Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and Innoventions) and some areas remained noticeably unchanged. The land looked stunning on the outside but, unfortunately, too many of the differences were merely cosmetic.

     In 1997, plans were announced for the largest improvement ever for the Disneyland property. They called for the construction of Disney's California Adventure, The Grand Californian Hotel, Downtown Disney, and the world's largest parking structure over the next four years on Disneyland's old parking lot and newly purchased land around the property. Almost a billion and a half dollars later the park opened to much fanfare a month into the new millennium, February 8, 2001. This new park, which featured a select few attractions, captured the "flavor" of California with a whitewater rafting ride, a beachside pier complete with rollercoaster, and a section devoted to Hollywood. DCA, though, suffered from small crowds and had trouble attracting the locals. However, the park promised to attract more tourists to what was now deemed the Disneyland Resort. The park would never be the same but the future looked bright as Disney aimed to improve DCA to make it fully compliment its elder, sister park. Walt Disney's bold, risky creation had grown up quite a bit since its humble beginnings in a dusty Anaheim orange grove. And, almost fifty years later, it still maintains that magical appeal that delighted children in 1955 and continues to capture the wonder of their grandchildren.