DISNEYLAND OPENS:

July 17, 1955

Disneyland, Walt Disney's metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens
on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former
orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits.
Today, Disneyland hosts more than 14 million visitors a year, who spend close to
$3 billion.Walt Disney, born in Chicago in 1901, worked as a commercial artist
before setting up a small studio in Los Angeles to produce animated cartoons. In
1928, his short film Steamboat Willy, starring the character "Mickey Mouse," was
a national sensation. It was the first animated film to use sound, and Disney
provided the voice for Mickey. From there on, Disney cartoons were in heavy
demand, but the company struggled financially because of Disney's insistence on
ever-improving artistic and technical quality. His first feature-length cartoon,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), took three years to complete and was a
great commercial success.Snow White was followed by other feature-length
classics for children, such as Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942).
Fantasia (1940), which coordinated animated segments with famous classical music
pieces, was an artistic and technical achievement. In Song of the South (1946),
Disney combined live actors with animated figures, and beginning with Treasure
Island in 1950 the company added live-action movies to its repertoire. Disney
was also one of the first movie studios to produce film directly for television,
and its Zorro and Davy Crockett series were very popular with children.In the
early 1950s, Walt Disney began designing a huge amusement park to be built near
Los Angeles. He intended Disneyland to have educational as well as amusement
value and to entertain adults and their children. Land was bought in the farming
community of Anaheim, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and construction
began in 1954. In the summer of 1955, special invitations were sent out for the
opening of Disneyland on July 17. Unfortunately, the pass was counterfeited and
thousands of uninvited people were admitted into Disneyland on opening day. The
park was not ready for the public: food and drink ran out, a women's high-heel
shoe got stuck in the wet asphalt of Main Street USA, and the Mark Twain
Steamboat nearly capsized from too many passengers.Disneyland soon recovered,
however, and attractions such as the Castle, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's
Adventures, Space Station X-1, Jungle Cruise, and Stage Coach drew countless
children and their parents. Special events and the continual building of new
state-of-the-art attractions encouraged them to visit again. In 1965, work began
on an even bigger Disney theme park and resort near Orlando, Florida. Walt
Disney died in 1966, and Walt Disney World was opened in his honor on October 1,
1971. Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom were later added to
Walt Disney World, and it remains Florida's premier tourist attraction. In 1983,
Disneyland Tokyo opened in Japan, and in 1992 Disneyland Paris--or
"EuroDisney"--opened to a mixed reaction in Marne-la-Vallee. The newest
Disneyland, in Hong Kong, opened its doors in September 2005.