The original theme park, Disneyland, opened on this date in 1955. Located on 160 acres of what used to be orange groves in Anaheim, California, it cost $17 million dollars to build!
Parlaying the success of Mickey Mouse and the other Disney cartoon characters into an experience for families, the original Disneyland was less than an absolute success on Day One.
First of all, thousands of counterfeit passes were printed-and Disneyland admitted hordes of uninvited people. The food and drink ran out and the Mark Twain steamboat nearly capsized from too many passengers. A woman’s high heel shoe got stuck in the still-wet asphalt of Main Street USA—and a gas leak forced a partial evacuation.
Needless to say, the bugs were worked out-and Disneyland became enormously popular-and successful! So much so that Walt Disney began a project even more ambitious-the construction of Disney World in Orlando, Florida, which began in 1965. Disneyworld opened in 1971, five years after the death of its namesake. The addition of Epcot,Disney-MGM have helped make Disneyworld Florida’s number one tourist attraction. Disneyland Tokyo opened in 1983 and EuroDisney opened in 1992. The newest Disneyland-in Hong Kong-opened in 2005.
Below is a clip of the opening day in 1955 of the original! Notice one of the young MC’s to come on camera with Art Linkletter-a guy by the name of Ronald Reagan!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rHjoimz5XI
If you’d like my blog in your box, let me know! Tim.moore@citcomm.com
Have a great weekend!
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