Disneyland The first Disney park, representing an investment of $17 million, opened in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955, to an invited audience, and to the public the next day. Walt Disney had enjoyed taking his two daughters to carnivals, zoos, and small amusement parks when they were young, but he found he was sitting on the bench eating popcorn while they rode the merry-go-round and they had all the fun. He wondered why a place could not be built where parents and kids could go together and all of them could have fun.Eventually he put some designers on his own personal payroll and began coming up with some concepts. He first thought of building his park on a strip of land across Riverside Drive from the Disney Studio in Burbank, but when that space proved too small to hold all of his ideas, he hired the Stanford Research Institute to survey the possibilities for a site. SRI came up with the site in Anaheim, which was covered with orange groves and made up of parcels owned by 17 different people. By borrowing on his life insurance, selling his vacation home, and getting money from several companies, Walt was able to purchase an initial 160 acres and build Disneyland.
It opened with an elaborate live television special, but people were already primed to see it. Walt had used episodes of the weekly evening television show to present tantalizing glimpses of what the park would be like. After its opening, guests flocked to see what Walt Disney had built. The first guests through the turnstiles were Kristine Vess and her cousin Michael Schwartner, ages 5 and 7. The fame of Disneyland spread, and soon it was on the must-see lists for not only Americans but foreign tourists as well.
To keep people coming, Walt realized he had to keep improving Disneyland. At the opening, he said, "Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world."
Over four decades now, Disneyland has continued to grow. New attractions have been added, sometimes carving out new space and sometimes replacing, attractions that had become dated or inefficient. Parades, celebrity guests, celebrations, and other events provide incentives for the local populace to make return visits.
As soon as Disneyland became a success, people throughout the world wanted Walt Disney to build a Disneyland in their town, but he bided his time until he had the park running smoothly. Only then did he start to listen to some of the entreaties, and his planning eventually led to his announcement of the Walt Disney World project in Florida shortly before he died. Disneyland was the first of its kind. Other parks have copied Disneyland since, but there will never be another like it. It is unique and continues to set the standard that all others have to follow.
