DISNEYLAND
| Walt Disney was not a man who
could sit at ease. After the success of motion pictures and television programs, he
branched out with many new ideas. Among these was his idea of building the amusement
park-Disneyland. It was by sheer chance that he came up with this idea. One relaxed
Sunday, Walt took his little girls to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. The park was in very
bad shape : dirty, smelly and unsafe. As the children took their umpteenth ride on the
merry–go–round, Walt sat on a bench nearby watching them have loads of fun. He
also noticed that while children had fun, the parents waited, bored and anxious to get
back home. They had nothing to do. This is where Walt conjured a new type of amusement
park, which would be clean and have attractions for parents and children alike. Years
before Disneyland was constructed, Walt was continuously thinking, creating and generating
new ideas in his mind. He visited |
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| almost all of America and also visited
buildings of the most prolific inventors and creators of America. He visited Thomas
Edison’s workshop, the Wright Brothers’ bicycle shop and the home of Noah
Webster, the dictionary magnate. Throughout these visits he was formulating ideas for his
Mickey Mouse Park. This idea culminated into today’s DISNEYLAND. |
He originally planned to build this park on an 8-acre land next to the Burbank Studio so
that his family and employees could go and relax there. The Second World War put these
plans on hold. His visits to America confirmed that 8 acres would not be enough to build
his dream.
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In 1953, the Stanford Research Institute conducted a survey for a 100-acre site outside Los Angeles. Walt needed space to build rivers, waterfalls and mountains. He also wanted it to have flying elephants and giant teacups, a fairy-tale castle, moon rockets and a scenic railway, all in his project DISNEYLAND. |
Location was the top priority. Accessibility by freeway, location within Los Angeles
metropolitan area and affordability were the necessary perquisites.
The search finally ended at the rural area of Anaheim, California. A 160-acre orange grove
near the junction of the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) and Harbor Boulevard was selected.
Numerous attempts made to get bank finance were in vain. As Walt once said, "I could
never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too
little collateral."
After a passionate determination, financing finally came through. Disneyland now became a
reality.
Construction of Disneyland began on July 21, 1954, just 12 months before it was scheduled
to open. Walt planned out meticulously. Walt made Main Street, U.S.A. the entrance to a "weenie", as he called it. He said, "What you need is a weenie, which says
to people ‘come this way’. People won’t go down a long corridor unless
there’s something promising at the end. You have to have something that beckons them
to ‘walk this way’."
He also planned Adventureland, ‘an exotic tropical place in a far off
region of the world’. To create this place, he imagined himself to be far away from
civilization, in the remote jungles of Asia and Africa.
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