In 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim. Originally built on 160 acres of orange groves, Disneyland has become one of America's most iconic and visited theme parks. In 1928, Walt Disney released the first animated film with sound, Steamboat Willy, which features Mickey Mouse. As Disney made longer, feature-length animated films for children, his popularity grew. Snow White, Dumbo, Fantasia, and Bambi were only some of the 170 films he produced.Disney's popularity grew with each film, which compelled him to begin construction of a theme park. On its opening day, thousands of uninvited people arrived and were admitted to Disneyland. The park was not ready for the public, though, and food and drink ran out, a woman nearly got stuck on Main Street's wet asphalt, and the Mark Twain steamboat almost flipped over.
Disney was determined, though, to make the park "the happiest place on Earth," even with these obstacles. The park recovered and attracted visitors each year, all of whom were intrigued by rides like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. A popular place for family vacations, Disneyland embodied the family culture of the 1950s and 1960s.
The development of Disneyland significantly changed how Americans viewed leisure and vacations. At its grand opening, Disney said that the park is "dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America." He believed any American could achieve their dreams with hard work, and maybe a little splash of magic. Although this is a highly idealistic and optimistic perspective, Disney certainly achieved his dreams. By 1957, ten million people visited Disneyland.
As President Eisenhower built highways connected the country and as cars became more affordable and common, millions of Americans would drive to Disneyland for a magical family trip. With these highways, getting to Disneyland was easy and convenient for nearly everyone on the west coast. As air travel expanded (although it was not very accessible), transportation was quicker and easier. This increased efficiency led to the decline of many cities on historic American roads, like Route 66. With amusement parks like Disneyland, more and more Americans focused less on the journey and more on the destination.
Disneyland has only gotten larger over time. Disney World opened in Florida a decade later, and today, Disney parks are worldwide. Even though Disneyland isn't the biggest or most extravagant amusement park, it's the original and it's extremely iconic. Since its opening, 710 million visitors have gone to Disneyland to make their dreams come true at the happiest place on Earth.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/disneyland-opens
https://disneynews.us/disney-parks-attendance/
https://www.adayinlatours.com/the-history-of-disneyland/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/2304983/walt-disney-films-death-body-cryogenically-frozen/
This blog post was very well written and interesting! While reading some other articles on Disneyland’s history, I bumped into a quite interesting one: “Khrushchev Barred from Visiting Disneyland.” On September 15, 1959, Khrushchev arrived in US for a summit meeting with President Eisenhower. He indicated a desire to see Hollywood, and a visit was planned. Everything was going well for Khrushchev’s Hollywood visit until he met Twentieth Century Fox President Spyros P. Skouras. Skouras, a hardcore anti-communist, provoked Khrushchev and started debating him. When the LAPD and government officials told Khrushchev that he would not be allowed to visit Disneyland, Khrushchev was fuming. He was still angry from his confrontation with Skouras, and said, “I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me?” So now when you’re angry after your parents deny your plea to allow you to go out with your friends, just remember that Khrushchev felt that same anger after he learned he couldn’t go to Disneyland.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/khrushchev-barred-from-visiting-disneyland
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reinventing-american-amusement-park/
Here’s some random facts I happen to know about the Disney amusement parks:
ReplyDeleteThere are a series of tunnels under the park that allow for the transportation of actors, props, and necessary materials throughout the park. In the early days of the park, Disney often saw characters walking through areas of the park they weren’t supposed to be in to get to their destination, which would both confuse visitors and disrupt their experience. For example, if Darth Vader and his stormtroopers needed to get from “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” to “Tomorrowland” (for whatever reason), I don’t know how magical the experience would be for someone if they just marched through Fantasyland. To solve that issue, Disney decided that tunnels would be built underground so the movement of actors/materials could be quickly transported while not being seen by the visitors.
In order to optimize his amusement park, Walt Disney spent a large amount of time observing and conducting experiments. He wanted to maintain the magical experience for everyone, and that required a clean park. To determine where trash cans should be placed throughout the park, Disney gave people sweets at the front gate, and followed them to see where they would drop their trash. On average, they would walk 30 steps before they dropped their wrappers on the ground. Disney concluded that a trash can would be placed every 30 feet so that they were close enough for people to not litter, yet not too close that they would be too obvious. Disney also revolutionized the trash can, but you can read about it here (https://mickeyblog.com/2019/01/10/beauty-trash-cans-disney-world/) because this comment is already far too long. Congrats if you made it this far :D
This is a super thorough article and highlights a lot of key changes that Disneyland had on America. Something to note is that Disneyland also played a big impact on consumerism. With television, the fantasy land was broadcast throughout America as people felt the need to go. Disney capitalized massively from Disneyland by selling merchandise at Disneyland and in retailers like what we see today. Now Disney makes approximately $4.5 billion annually in profit off of their theme parks.
ReplyDeleteSource
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/16/business/media/disney-invests-billions-in-theme-parks.html
This was such a fun and interesting blog to read! It's nice to learn about how an amusement park we all love today came to be and the struggles it faced. After doing some research on the themes of the park and the reasoning behind them, I found that Disney had the intention to incorporate optimistic and nostalgic American sentiments into the park. For example, Adventureland and Frontierland both were reminiscent of American MidWestern towns. Parts like Tomorrowland depicted Disney's dream of a bright and optimistic future. I find this particularly interesting because he does this during a time of fear and desperation (WWII, Korean War, Cold War, McCarthyism).
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Disneyland