Disneyland

Disneyland is the world's most famous themed amusement park and one of the most visited sites in the world. It was created by animation and entertainment pioneer Walt Disney, who wanted to create a permanent amusement park without the negative element which traveling carnivals often attracted. It would be a place where kids and parents could have fun together in a safe and clean environment. The original plans called for the park to be built on eight acres (three hectares) next to the Disney Studios in Burbank, California where his employees and families could go to relax.

After World War II, it became clear that more area would be needed. In the early 1950s, difficulties in obtaining funding caused Disney to investigate new ways of raising money. He decided to use television to get the idea of the Magic Kingdom into people's homes, and so he created a show named Disneyland which was broadcast on the fledgling American Broadcasting Company television network, today owned by the Walt Disney Company. On the suggestion of researchers at Stanford University who correctly envisioned the area's potential growth, Disney acquired 180 acres (or about three-quarters of a square kilometer) of orange groves and walnut trees in Anaheim, south of Los Angeles and just over the Los Angeles County line in Orange County. The impact on the area was immediate, even before ground was broken. US Highway 101 (later Interstate 5) was under construction just to the north of the site on modern-day Harbor Boulevard. It became obvious to planners that Disney's new world of fantasy would be so popular and create so much traffic that two more lanes were added to the freeway even before Disneyland was finished.

Table of contents

1 Inspiration 2 Park layout 3 Transportation 3.1 Disneyland Railroad 3.2 Monorail 3.3 Main Street vehicles 4 Construction and changes 5 Other parks 6 See also 7 External links

Inspiration

Disneyland was inspired by Fairyland built in 1950, and Tivoli Gardens, built in 1843.

Park layout

When the real planning began, Walt turned to his movie studio staff, who designed a park with five different and distinctly themed "lands."

Main Street, U.S.A. relives the stereotypical turn-of-the-20th-century city Main Street. Walt Disney said, "For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of grandfather's youth." It would, of course, be "great-great-grandfather" now.

The 1880s-styled shops that line Main Street appear to be full two-story buildings. In reality, however, they implement forced perspective to achieve the illusion that they are full height. The second levels of the buildings are a few feet short of being full size. If the Disneyland architects had made the buildings a full two stories high, they would have looked incongruously tall compared to the park's trademark structure, the magnificent Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Above the firehouse is Walt Disney's personal apartment, fully furnished but off-limits to the public. A lamp is kept burning in the window as a tribute to his memory.

Adventureland is an "exotic tropical place" in a "far-off region of the world." Walt Disney described Adventureland thus: "To create a land that would make this dream reality, we pictured ourselves far from civilization, in the remote jungles of Asia and Africa."

One of Disneyland's original attractions is Adventureland's "Jungle Cruise." After a few years of operation, the Jungle Cruise became so predictable to regular visitors that the ride's "skippers" started ad-libbing their script, and eventually the humor became a highlight of the attraction. The Jungle Cruise course and scenery remain unchanged, but the often hilarious comedy schtick differs from operator to operator.

In 1963, the park's first Audio-Animatronic attraction, the Enchanted Tiki Room, was added to Adventureland.

Frontierland recreates the myths of the pioneer days of the American frontier. According to Walt Disney, "All of us have cause to be proud of our country's history, shaped by the pioneering spirit of our forefathers. Our adventures are designed to give you the feeling of having lived, even for a short while, during our country's pioneer days."

Fantasyland was created with the goal to "make dreams come true." Walt Disney said, "What youngster has not dreamed of flying with Peter Pan over moonlit London, or tumbling into Alice's nonsensical Wonderland? In Fantasyland, these classic stories of everyone's youth have become realities for youngsters-of all ages-to participate in." And since Walt Disney felt that no park was complete without a carousel, a 1921-vintage carousel from Canada became "King Arthur's Carrousel" (sic), the centerpiece of the land. Fantasyland was originally styled in a medieval fashion, but its 1981 refurbushment turned it into a Tyrolean village. Straddling both Fantasyland and Tomorrowland (see below) is another Disneyland landmark, the Matterhorn Bobsleds. A scaled-down version of the famous mountain peak of the Swiss Alps, this 1959 attraction has the distinction of being the first roller coaster to use tubular steel track.

Tomorrowland is a look at the "marvels of the future." In Walt Disney's words, "Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the doors of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future." Disney was never totally satisfied with Tomorrowland. The area underwent a major transformation in 1967 into the "New Tomorrowland," and then again in 1998 when its focus was changed to present a "retro-future" theme reminiscent of the illustrations of Jules Verne.

Transportation

Walt Disney had a longtime interest in railroads and transportation in general, and therefore a number of different modes of transport were incorporated into the park. The vast majority of visitors spend most of their time walking, of course; the transportation systems are in some respects more entertainment rides than primary means of transporting people around the park.

Disneyland Railroad

Walt Disney was an avid railfan who had built a miniature steam railway in the grounds of his own home. It was therefore hardly surprising that Disneyland incorporated a steam-powered railroad. Laid to 3 foot gauge, the most common narrow gauge measurement used in North America, the railroad was laid in a continuous loop around the park, on a raised roadbed so that pedestrian walkways could pass underneath.

Originally, two trains could operate on the railroad, running in opposite directions. A passing track was incorporated at Main Street station where the trains had to wait and allow the other to pass. Later on, for safety reasons and to allow the use of more than two trains, the line was changed so that trains in normal service run in a clockwise direction only. The 1958 addition of the "Grand Canyon/Primeval World" diorama necessitated a change in the rolling stock as well; instead of facing forward, the benches of the new flatcars now faced right so that the diorama could be better enjoyed by the passengers. The passing track was disconnected and now is only used to display a handcar.

The Disney Company constructed the original two locomotives in its own workshops. Patterned after Walt Disney's own locomotives, these were models of classic 'Wild West' style American 4-4-0s built to three-fifths scale. No. 1 was given a big wood-burning 'balloon' stack and large, pointed pilot or cowcatcher while No. 2 was given the straight stack and less protruding pilot common to East Coast coal-burning locomotives.

Three more locomotives were acquired from outside sources, since this was cheaper than building new ones and since many narrow-gauge lines were closing down and selling their equipment. No. 4 is a "Forney" locomotive, a type of tank locomotive. And, as an 1898 product of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, No. 4 is the oldest locomotive in service at any Disney property. All three were given extensive renovations before entering service, including new boilers.

All the Disneyland steam locomotives burn diesel fuel, which is less polluting (though more expensive) than the coal, wood or heavy "Bunker C" oil normally used on steam locomotives.

Another detail dating from the park's opening can be seen from the railroad. As the train passes behind the "it's a small world" attraction in Fantasyland, it crosses a service road that is protected by two miniature wigwag crossing signals. Santa Fe offered the use of full-scale crossing signals, but Disney declined as they would be out of scale with the trains. These scaled-down replicas were designed and built by the San Bernardino shops of the Santa Fe Railroad as a gift to Disneyland. They operate with automotive windshield wiper motors.

Monorail

One of Disneyland's signature attractions is its Alweg monorail system, installed in 1959. The monorail shuttles visitors between two stations, one in Disneyland itself (in Tomorrowland) and one at the Downtown Disney shopping complex. It takes a 2.5-mile long route designed to show off the park from above. Three generations of monorail cars have been used in the park, since their necessarily lightweight construction means they wear out quickly.

The monorail caused a rift between Disneyland and the Santa Fe railroad that was to eventually cause the breakdown in their relationship and the removal of Santa Fe sponsorship of the Disneyland Railroad. Disneyland signed a contract with the Alweg company which required the Alweg name to be displayed on the attraction. This conflicted with the contract with the Santa Fe that only their name could be associated with railroad attractions at the park.

Main Street vehicles

A number of vehicles, including a double-decker bus, a horse-drawn streetcar, an old-fashioned fire engine and an old-fashioned automobile are available for rides along Main Street, USA.

Construction and changes

Construction began on July 21, 1954. After spending US$17,000,000, Disney opened the "Magic Kingdom" on July 17, 1955. Televised nationwide, coverage of the opening was anchored by three of Disney's Hollywood friends: Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings and Ronald Reagan. Since its opening, the park has been revised and updated several times. Three new "lands" have been added since the park's inception:

New Orleans Square was among the last changes to Disneyland overseen by Walt Disney himself. Opened in 1966, New Orleans Square captures all the flavor of Bourbon Street in an area brimming with architectural detail. Two attractions whose themes made it to the movies in 2003 can be found there. First is the "Pirates of the Caribbean" which opened in 1967. A "dark ride" nearly fifteen minutes long, "Pirates" was also the largest Audio-Animatronic attraction ever created and still ranks among the largest even today. The other is the "Haunted Mansion" from 1969. Featuring the extraordinary voice talents of the late Paul Frees as the attraction's disembodied "ghost host," this humorous romp through a haunted antebellum mansion and its graveyard boasts of "999 happy haunts...but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers?" In 2001, the Haunted Mansion started taking on an entirely new identity for the holidays. Starting before Halloween and running until just after the new year, the Haunted Mansion is transformed into the "Haunted Mansion Holiday," a theme inspired by the 1993 Tim Burton stop-motion animated film, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Critter Country opened in 1972 as "Bear Country." Themed in the deep South of Disney's 1946 classic live action/animated movie, Song of the South, the world's largest water flume ride, the Song of the South-themed "Splash Mountain" can be found here along with Disneyland's newest attraction, the "Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" dark ride of 2003. Taking the place of the Audio-Animatronic "Country Bear Jamboree" that gave the land its original name, a partially hidden nod to that attraction can be seen in "Pooh" if you look carefully. They are two silenced Audio-Animatronic moose head trophies flanking a buffalo head trophy all from "Jamboree" that hang above the opposide side of the archway as you leave Pooh's "heffalumps and woozles" dream sequence.

Mickey's Toontown answers the question of where all those Disney characters live. Opened in 1993 and patterned after "Toontown" in the Disney/Touchstone Pictures 1988 release, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Mickey's Toontown looks like a 1930s Max Fleischer cartoon short come to life. The hilarious and interactive "Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin" is the highlight of the land, a dark ride in which you "drive" a replica of Benny the Cab, an animated talking taxicab from the movie.

Some changes over the years have been made due to political correctness. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction was the final project in the park personally overseen by Walt Disney and carried his stamp of approval; the Audio-Animatronic pirates in one scene that had chased women from sheer lechery since 1967 now chase them from sheer hunger because they are carrying plates of food. Also, the formerly hostile Indians in Frontierland who once set a perpetually burning fire to a cabin along the "Rivers Of America" have been thoroughly pacified, and the settlers apparently no longer have need of firearms! After their pacification, tour guides tried to convey an environmental message by blaming the burning cabin on the recklessness of the drunken moonshiner living in the cabin, whose flames now threatened a nest of eagles in a nearby tree. Then they blamed river bandits. As of 2003, the cabin was no longer burning.

In the 1990s, major construction began to transform Disneyland from an amusement park into a vacation resort. This resulted in the addition of the new Disney's California Adventure, a separate park which opened in 2001 on the site of Disneyland's original parking lot and was inspired by California's natural and historical features. That same year saw the opening of "Downtown Disney," a shopping, dining and entertainment area similar to one previously constructed at Disney's Florida resort.

In an effort to offset the long waits in line for the most popular attractions, Disney in 1999 implemented a new service named FASTPASS. At attractions featuring FASTPASS, a guest can use his park admission ticket to obtain a FASTPASS ticket with a return time later that day (an hour-long window) printed on it; if the guest comes back to the attraction at his return time, he will get to wait in a shorter line and be on the attraction within ten minutes, or often much more quickly. Only a few attractions currently offer this service, but its popularity means it will be used more widely in the future.

Disneyland recently hosted its 500-millionth guest. The park will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in 2005.

Other parks

Disney has built several similar parks elsewhere in the world based on Disneyland's success: Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, Disneyland Resort Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France; and Tokyo Disney in Urayasu, Japan. A new park is under construction in Hong Kong (see Hong Kong Disneyland).

See also

• The Walt Disney Company
• Walt Disney anthology series
• List of current Disneyland attractions

• Official Disneyland site
• Disneyland's FASTPASS® page
• AllEars information on FASTPASS
• Attendance statistics for Disneyland
• Celebrities at Disneyland