During the week of July 17, 1955, Walt Disney’s new theme park, named “Disneyland,” opened to the public in Anaheim, California. The 17th, a Sunday, was intended to be an “international press preview,” limited to selected invitees who could ride the attractions, witness the parades, and take part in the televised dedication of the park. However, many counterfeit invitations were distributed, and more than 20,000 eager guests showed up, overwhelming many areas of the 160-acre park. The official public opening came the next day, July 18, and within several weeks, Disney reported that more than 1 million people had visited the site. Here, a look back at the opening days of Disneyland in 1955.
Disneyland, the only theme park designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, opened on Sunday, July 17, 1955. Construction lasted for exactly one year, and cost only $17 million to complete. See what it looked like back in the day in the video above.
The opening was only intended for about 11,000 invited guests and press, though a total of 28,000 attended due to a rush of counterfeit tickets. The event was telecast by ABC, anchored by actors Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings and Ronald Reagan, who were all friends of Walt Disney. On the first day, Disneyland offered five themed “lands” with a total of 20 attractions. Walt Disney made his opening dedication speech.
To all who come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”
Unbeknownst to Walt Disney or the television audience, the press event was rife with problems, in large part due to the unexpectedly large crowd and scorching outside temperatures of over 100 degrees. Drinking fountains were dry, restaurants ran out of food, rides were breaking down and a gas leak in Fantasyland caused half the park to temporarily close. Company insiders would later refer to opening day as “Black Sunday.” Walt Disney worked hard to restore faith in the park, inviting the press to return again once the problems had been sorted out.
Walt Disney created a revolutionary vacation destination when he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1955. The park featured four themed sections: Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland, all accessed from a plaza at the foot of Main Street, U.S.A. Today, Disneyland still features these lands, but it also houses 83 attractions -– more than five times the number it opened with -– and sees an average of 44,000 visitors per day.
Walt Disney nurtured the idea of Disneyland for years. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s he visited other amusement parks and carnivals with an eye towards creating his own. He began to envision a cleaner theme-based park where families could become a part of the magical world that his films depicted on the big screen. In 1952, he assembled a small group of artists and designers from his Walt Disney Studio staff and created a new company called WED (his own initials) to help make his amusement park dream a reality. SOURCE: The Atlantic, ABC,Anaheim, P.B.S.
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