Disneyland News » Walt Disney

Disneyland Park: Fact Sheet

arianna — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:00:34 +0000

Dedication: 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.

Dedication read by Walt Disney – July 17, 1955

Location: Disneyland, “The Happiest Place on Earth,” is located approximately 27 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Its hometown is Anaheim, California.

Size: The magic lands and public areas of Disneyland occupy 85 acres. Guest parking for approximately 10,000 vehicles is available in the Mickey & Friends parking structure, which opened June 27, 2000. At that time, it was the largest parking structure in North America.

Lands: The magic of Disneyland comes to life in eight themed lands:

MAIN STREET, U.S.A.
Here contemporary life gives way to the quaint and reassuring charms of turn-of-the-century America. It is the essence of hometown life that greeted the dawn of the 20th century.

ADVENTURELAND
This realm of exploration is a collage of the world’s far-off places and uncharted regions. Would-be explorers can discover the tropical magic of Polynesia (Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room), the wilds of Africa (Tarzan’s Treehouse), the exotic rivers of the world (Jungle Cruise) and the steamy jungles of India (Indiana Jones Adventure).

FRONTIERLAND
A robust panorama of America’s pioneer past, from the bustling riverfronts of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers of the late 1700s (Columbia Sailing Ship, Mark Twain Riverboat, Tom Sawyer Island) to the dusty southwest deserts of the 1880s (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Golden Horseshoe Stage).

NEW ORLEANS SQUARE
The Paris of the American frontier, the Crescent City as it was over 150 years ago. Within its sheltered courtyards and winding streets, elegance and charm mingle comfortably with Dixieland jazz, restless spirits (Haunted Mansion) and marauding buccaneers (Pirates of the Caribbean).

CRITTER COUNTRY
Things are “mighty satisfactual” in this shady glen, nestled in a lazy corner of the backwoods. Guests visiting this bend of the river can find their very own “Laughing Place” (Splash Mountain) as they witness the “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” antics of Brer Fox and Brer Bear as they try to outwit wily Brer Rabbit. Also residing in this land are Pooh and his many friends in the Hundred Acre Wood (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh).

FANTASYLAND
Enchanted tales of childhood adapted from classic Disney animated films come to life in this timeless realm of imagination. Within this magical Old World setting, guests can fly to Never Land (Peter Pan’s Flight), see an elephant fly (Dumbo the Flying Elephant), navigate an out-of-control motorcar (Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride) or attend a mad tea party (Alice in Wonderland).

MICKEY’S TOONTOWN
Bursting with color and frenetic energy, this “town” is a 1930s Disney cartoon come to wacky life. From the bustle of downtown (Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin) to the charm of its residential neighborhood (Mickey’s House, Donald’s Boat, Chip ‘n Dale Treehouse), this civic hub is a slice of “reel” life.

TOMORROWLAND
This intriguing realm of imagination, discovery and wonder features a landscape of whirling spaceships (Astro Orbiter), zooming rocket vehicles (Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Space Mountain), racing roadsters (Autopia), visions of the future (Innoventions) and a tribute to an iconic Attraction (Captain EO starring Michael Jackson).

Hours: Disneyland is open 365 days a year and offers extended operating hours during holiday periods and summer months. To verify hours, please call (714) 781-4565. The most current information for hours and vacation offers is available at www.disneyland.com.

Attractions: Disneyland opened July 17, 1955, with 18 major attractions. Today, there are more than 60 adventures and attractions. More than 600 million guests have passed through the gates of Disneyland.

Area Food & Lodging: When Disneyland opened, Anaheim had five hotels and two motels with a total of 87 rooms. There were 34 restaurants in the city. Today, Anaheim boasts approximately 150 hotels and motels with more than 18,000 rooms, and well more than 450 restaurants.

Guests: More than 600 million guests have passed through the gates of Disneyland since Opening Day, July 17, 1955. Over the past 57 years, Disneyland has hosted some of the 20th and 21st century’s most prominent dignitaries, including heads of state (counting seven U.S. presidents), sports figures and celebrities.

Work force: The Disneyland Resort work force includes approximately 25,000 Cast Members.

Talents: More than five hundred types of arts, crafts, professions and skills are contributed by Disneyland Cast Members during operation.

Maintenance: More than 5,000 gallons of paint are used each year to give Disneyland a better-than-new look. There are almost 20 million gallons of water in the ten bodies of water found in Disneyland. There are more than 100,000 light bulbs used, including 11,000 “rim lights” outlining the buildings on Main Street, U.S.A. Disneyland streets are washed and steam-cleaned after closing each day.

Landscaping: More than 800 species of plants from more than 40 nations are represented at the Disneyland Resort, making it one of the most extensive and diverse botanical locales in the western U.S. The landscape panorama includes approximately 17,000 trees and 100,000 shrubs. Each year, about 1 million annuals are planted. The grounds are watered with more than 60,000 drip emitters and sprinkler heads. It takes a 100-person horticulture staff to maintain the many acres of greenery. Trees range in size from one-foot dwarf spruce in Storybook Land to 80-foot high eucalyptus trees. The Mickey Mouse flower “portrait” at the Disneyland Main Entrance is planted up to nine times a year.

Custodial: Disneyland uses 1,000 brooms, 500 dust pans and 3,000 mops a year to keep it clean. Approximately 30 tons of trash are collected during a busy park day. Custodial works collect 12 million pounds of trash each year.

Recycling: Disneyland Resort recycles many items each year, including the following estimated amounts: 4.1 million pounds of cardboard; 1.3 million pounds of green waste; 370,000 pounds of office paper; 361,260 pounds of glass bottles; 274,280 pounds of plastic bottles; and 17,240 pounds of aluminum cans.

Food: In one year guests buy at both parks: An estimated 3 million hamburgers, 2 million hot dogs, 6.5 million orders of french fries, 1.6 million servings of popcorn, 3.2 million servings of ice cream, 1.9 million gallons of soft drinks and 2.8 million churros.

Costuming: Total Disneyland Resort Operational costume inventory is roughly 800,000 pieces. From initial design to public view, a new costume takes from eight to 12 months to produce. The Operational Costume Division stocks 500,000 yards of material, covering 900 different fabrics. The Resort issues, maintains and cleans costumes for more than 15,000 Cast Members. More than 300 different costumes, comprised of more than 850 different styles of garment pieces, are issued from nine Costume Issue locations across the Resort and Hotels. More than 20,000 garments are exchanged weekly for cleaning during the summer. Approximately 150,000 individual pieces and 300,000 buttons are replaced each year. Costumes are also maintained for more than 650 Audio-Animatronics® figures.

Band: The Disneyland Band has logged more than 3,500 marching miles and more than 90,000 performances since opening day in 1955 and draws from a repertoire of more than 400 musical numbers.

Note: Many of the accumulated numbers on this sheet are estimates for the first 50 years of Disneyland, from 1955 through 2005. For more information, contact Disneyland Public Relations at 714-781-4500.

A Biography of Walt Disney, the Creator of Disneyland

disneyland — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:02:29 +0000

During a 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana. David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called Disney “the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo.” A pioneer and innovator, and the possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations the world has ever known, Walt Disney, along with members of his staff, received more than 950 honors and citations from throughout the world, including 48 Academy Awards® and 7 Emmys® in his lifetime. Walt Disney’s personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California, and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; France’s Legion of Honor and Officer d’Academie decorations; Thailand’s Order of the Crown; Brazil’s Order of the Southern Cross; Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

The creator of Mickey Mouse of Mickey Mouse and founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was an Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.

Raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Walt early became interested in drawing, selling his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old. At McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing both to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons.

After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation.

In August of 1923, Walt Disney left Kansas City for Hollywood with nothing but a few drawing materials, $40 in his pocket and a completed animated and live-action film. Walt’s brother Roy O. Disney was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Pooling their resources, they borrowed an additional $500 and constructed a camera stand in their uncle’s garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first “Alice Comedy” short, and the brothers began their production operation in the rear of a Hollywood real estate office two blocks away.

On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. They were blessed with two daughters — Diane, married to Ron Miller, former president and chief executive officer of Walt Disney Productions; and Sharon Disney Lund, formerly a member of Disney’s Board of Directors. The Millers have seven children and Mrs. Lund had three. Mrs. Lund passed away in 1993.

Mickey Mouse was created in 1928, and his talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled Plane Crazy. However, before the cartoon could be released, sound burst upon the motion picture screen. Thus Mickey made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world’s first fully synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York on November 18, 1928.

Walt’s drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor® was introduced to animation during the production of his “Silly Symphonies.” In 1932, the film entitled Flowers and Trees won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy Awards®. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique.

On December 21 of that same year, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Produced at the unheard of cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Great Depression, the film is still accounted as one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt completed such other full-length animated classics as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.

In 1940, construction was completed on Disney’s Burbank studio, and the staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story men and technicians. During World War II, 94 percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films which are still shown throughout the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder of his efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly essential to civilian and military morale.

Disney’s 1945 feature, the musical The Three Caballeros, combined live action with the cartoon medium, a process he used successfully in such other features as Song of the South and the highly acclaimed Mary Poppins. In all, 81 features were released by the studio during his lifetime.

Walt’s inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment resulted in the award-winning “True-Life Adventure” series. Through such films as The Living Desert, The Vanishing Prairie, The African Lion and White Wilderness, Disney brought fascinating insights into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our nation’s outdoor heritage.

Disneyland, launched in 1955 as a fabulous $17 million Magic Kingdom, soon increased its investment tenfold and entertained, by its fourth decade, more than 400 million people, including presidents, kings and queens and royalty from all over the globe.

A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961. The Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro were popular favorites in the 1950s.

But that was only the beginning. In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention toward the problem of improving the quality of urban life in America. He personally directed the design on an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, planned as a living showcase for the creativity of American industry.

Said Disney, “I don’t believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that is more important to people everywhere than finding the solution to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin? Well, we’re convinced we must start with the public need. And the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a community that will become a prototype for the future.”

Thus, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin land — twice the size of Manhattan Island — in the center of the state of Florida. Here, he master planned a whole new Disney world of entertainment to include a new amusement theme park, motel-hotel resort vacation center and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of actual construction, Walt Disney World opened to the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center opened on October 1, 1982.

Prior to his death on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney took a deep interest in the establishment of California Insitute of the Arts, a college level, professional school of all the creative and performing arts. Of Cal Arts, Walt once said, “It’s the principal thing I hope to leave when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something.”

California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 with the amalgamation of two schools, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Chouinard Art Institute. The campus is located in the city of Valencia, 32 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Walt Disney conceived the new school as a place where all the performing and creative arts would be taught under one roof in a “community of the arts” as a completely new approach to professional arts training.

Walt Disney is a legend, a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideas which his name represents: imagination, optimism and self-made success in the American tradition. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds and emotions of millions of Americans than any other man in the past century. Through his work, he brought joy, happiness and a universal means of communication to the people of every nation. Certainly, our world shall know but one Walt Disney.

(From the Walt Disney Archives)

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Disneyland: A Source of Joy and Inspiration

disneyland — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:59:42 +0000

“Disneyland will never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world” — Walt Disney

When Walt Disney formally dedicated Disneyland on opening day (July 17, 1955) he stated that he hoped that it would be ” . . . a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.” Now as the original Disney theme park nears its 50th anniversary, Disneyland continues to be as popular and vibrant today as it was on opening day.

Over the past nearly five decades the Disney theme park that started it all has welcomed over 500 million guests from all corners of the globe and continues to introduce new forms of entertainment and technology that fulfills Walt Disney’s goal that Disneyland “never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world.” The creation of Disneyland was, perhaps, the single greatest entertainment achievement of the 20th century – - introducing an entirely new concept in outdoor family entertainment and launching today’s global theme park industry. In creating Disneyland, Walt Disney sparked the world’s imagination and established an icon of fun and magic known the world over.

Today, more than six generations of families and friends from across the USA and around the globe have grown-up with the familiar and comforting experience of Disneyland, making it a treasured part of our collective consciousness. “The Happiest Place on Earth” can count among its guests seven US Presidents (From Harry S. Truman thru George H. Bush), numerous heads of state (Prime Minister Nehru of India, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, etc.), plus countless famed actors, actresses, singers, musicians, artists and athletes (a virtual “Who’s Who” of the 20th century and young millennium).

One head of state that never made it to Disneyland, but made worldwide headlines in the process, was Nikita S. Khrushchev (Premier of the Soviet Union). He complained bitterly to the media about being denied a visit to Disneyland (due to security concerns) during his historic 1959 US tour. Khrushchev’s outrage became an international incident and elicited numerous reactions. Author Herman Wouk (“The Caine Mutiny,” “The Winds of War,” etc.) wrote, “I don’t blame Khrushchev for jumping up and down in rage over missing Disneyland. There are few things more worth seeing in the United States, or indeed anywhere in the world.”

Khrushchev was not the only person to hold Disneyland in high regard. Through the years many commentators, including noted planners, futurists and even presidents have remarked on the contributions Disneyland has made to pop culture and the world. Famed writer and futurist Ray Bradbury commented in a 2003 interview: “Walt did more to change the world for the good than almost any politician in history and his motivation for creating Disneyland was the best motivation in the world: his family.”

In 1990 US President Ronald Reagan described Disneyland as “a place that has captured the imagination and earned the affection of four generations of Americans . . . And a place that has served as host and goodwill ambassador to millions of visitors from abroad.”

By creating fantasy and happiness Disneyland has even influenced such diverse areas as vacation trends (the park redefined the concept of the family vacation), transportation (first daily operating monorail in the western hemisphere; first daily operating PeopleMover system in the US), training and development (introduced and popularized nametags in the workplace, the “University” approach to training) and even urban design. In the realm of entertainment the park has introduced such revolutionary concepts as Audio-Animatronics, air launched fireworks, re-programmable attractions, and innovations in lighting systems, sound design and costuming.

A 1997 touring museum exhibition entitled “The Architecture of Reassurance” highlighted many Disneyland innovations. Karal Ann Marling, Professor of Art History & American Studies at the University of Minnesota, assisted in producing the exhibit and commented that (Disneyland)…is the “most complex, baffling and beloved work of art produced in postwar America.”

The legend and lore of Disneyland has been celebrated in numerous books, TV documentaries, magazine articles and even museum retrospectives. The park has been invoked in numerous movies and many popular songs and has become a staple of American pop culture that has been successfully exported to Florida, Japan, France and soon China.

But most importantly the dedication speech that Walt Disney read on opening day is still relevant and applicable today as it was almost five decades ago: “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.”

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