Walt Disney-
the man who gave us magic
In 1955 a new dream of Walt Disney became reality, when he opened the gates to Disneyland. This dream started before the WW II when Walt watched his daugthers play in dirty playgrounds. He thought of a new kind of playgrounds, parks, where children and their parents could play and have a good time in a safe and healthy place.
He first thought about a amusement park across the street of the studios, that would feature pony rides, a train and statues of his popular characters. But his dream grew and grew. Walt started to visit other amusement parks around the world. He didn't found any of them to be an example for his dream.
Allthough he was taken by the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. When he started realizing his dream, he had to find the cash to provide it. So Walt borrowed on his life insurance and sold his vacation home in Palm Springs. He even borrowed money from employees. At that time the shareholders weren't happy with this new plan of Walt and didn't want to put money in his dream. So Walt founded a new company, WED Enterprices (W-alter E-lias D-isney), and began building the park on the ground they bought in Anaheim. Roy even struck a deal with ABC to suply more money. ABC would provide $500,000 in cash, guarantee $4.5 million in loans and receive one-third ownership of the park. This was later sold back by Walt. Walt would get his own televionprogram on ABC, which he named "Disneyland". After "Disneyland" programs like "The Mickey Mouse Club" and "Zorro" would feature on ABC. Allthough Walt first used television as a medium to warm the audience up for his ark, he later saw it as an new important medium for his empire.
With the help of his best artist, Disneyland was constructed and many famous attractions were build.
Walt also continued to work on feature-length cartoons in his studio. "Alice in Wonderland" and "Peter Pan" were released during the time that Disneyland was build. He also focused his attention on the live movies that the studio was making. "20.000 Leagues Under the Sea" was his most ambitious film project. He also started making a new form of movies, named the True-Life Adventures. This movies were documentaries provided woth a story. These movies also provided a lot of study material for the animated movies.
In 1955 Walt's latest dream became reality. Disneyland opened its gates. Like this happy day, Walt and Lillian spend their 35th aniversary just days before in Disneyland. The opening day was televised that day and became the most-watched TV event up to that time. Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings and Ronald Reagan provided commentary. The park had its struckelings in the beginning: rides broke down, lines were far too long, there were too few trash cans, there were not enough water fountains operational. The park became overloaded and the roads to Disneyland were jammed. But the problems were soon over. "Disneyland will never be completed," Walt said. "He practically lives there," Lillian recalled.