60 Fun Facts About Hard Disneyland

Walt Disney's first documented Disneyland plan was a 1948 memo to which studio production designer?

Dick Kelsey, a studio production designer, received Walt's memo of August 31, 1948 outlining a 'Mickey Mouse Park', written after Walt's trip to the Chicago Railroad Fair and Greenfield Village.

How large was Walt's 1952 'Mickey Mouse Park' proposal to the city of Burbank?

Sixteen acres across Riverside Drive from the studio; the Burbank city council rejected the 1952 proposal, which pushed Walt to look for a far larger site elsewhere.

Which two Stanford Research Institute men picked the Anaheim site?

Price was named a Disney Legend in 2003 for the analysis.

Retired Navy rear admiral Joe Fowler was hired to be Disneyland's what?

Construction boss: Fowler, who had commanded the Navy's San Francisco shipyard, supervised the park's year-long build and had the Mark Twain riverboat's hull built at a San Pedro yard.

Besides Walt Disney Productions and Walt himself, which two partners co-owned Disneyland, Inc. in its first five years?

Western Publishing and ABC: the publisher (then Western Printing and Lithographing) and the network each held stakes alongside Walt and the studio; Disney bought out every partner by 1960, and the tie foreshadowed its 1995 purchase of the network.

How much did Disneyland cost to build?

$17 million: the park went up on a former orange grove in about a year, from July 1954 to July 1955, financed partly by a television-network investment deal.

About how many people attended the invitation-only press preview on July 17, 1955?

28,000 people showed up for the invitation-only preview; roughly half held counterfeit tickets or climbed the fence, and the crush left the park short of food, drink and working fountains.

Which of the three hosts was caught kissing a Frontierland dancer during the opening telecast?

Bob Cummings was caught on the live telecast kissing a can-can dancer in Frontierland; his co-hosts that day were Art Linkletter and Ronald Reagan.

Which early Disneyland figure has no tribute window on Main Street, U.S.A.?

C. V. Wood, the park's first general manager, was fired within a year of opening after clashing with Walt and never received a window or a Disney Legend award.

Which world leader was denied a visit to Disneyland in 1959 over security concerns?

Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier, was told in Los Angeles that police could not guarantee his safety at Disneyland; he fumed publicly, asking whether cholera had broken out there.

The park's single-day attendance record of 82,516 was set in 1969, just after which attraction opened?

The Haunted Mansion opened on August 9, 1969, and a week later, on August 16, 82,516 guests crowded in, setting the park's single-day attendance record.

Which part of the park did some 300 anti-war Yippies occupy during their 1970 protest?

Tom Sawyer Island: on August 6, 1970 some 300 Yippies took over the island, ran a Viet Cong flag up the fort, and Disneyland closed early for the day, one of its rare unscheduled closures.

Which attraction replaced Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress in 1974?

Its Audio-Animatronic animals were later reused in Splash Mountain.

Flight to the Moon was rethemed in 1975 as what?

Mission to Mars opened in March 1975, once real Apollo landings had made a pretend moon flight feel dated; it ran until 1992.

Which Tomorrowland attraction opened at Disneyland in May 1977, two years after Florida's version?

Space Mountain opened at Disneyland on May 27, 1977, nearly two and a half years after the Magic Kingdom original; the six surviving Mercury astronauts attended the dedication.

Which two executives' 1990s cost-cutting, retail-focused management drew criticism from fans?

Cynthia Harriss and Paul Pressler, both from Disney's retail arm, ran the park from the mid-1990s; McKinsey consultants were brought in and a decade of deferred maintenance followed, drawing lasting fan criticism.

What distinction did the six-level Mickey and Friends car park hold when it opened in 2000?

Largest parking structure in the United States: six levels and 10,250 spaces when it opened in 2000, linked to the parks by tram.

What did Disneyland do to one vehicle on each opening-day attraction for the 50th anniversary?

Painted it gold: for the 2005 'Happiest Homecoming on Earth', one vehicle on every attraction dating from 1955 got gold paint, and 50 golden Mickey Ears were hidden around the park.

What did Disneyland's 2010 'Give a Day, Get a Disney Day' programme reward?

Volunteering with a charity: a day of service through HandsOn Network earned a free one-day ticket; the million-volunteer goal was reached on March 9, 2010 and sign-ups closed.

What percentage of Disneyland character performers voted to join Actors' Equity in May 2024?

79%: about 950 of roughly 1,200 votes cast went for Actors' Equity in the May 2024 election, unionizing the parade and character performers for the first time.

What was Holidayland, which operated from 1957 to 1961?

A recreation area with a circus and a baseball diamond: Holidayland sat outside the berm with a picnic ground and the old Mickey Mouse Club Circus tent, and is the only land ever removed entirely.

The first storey of the Main Street buildings is built at what fraction of full size?

3/4: the ground floor is built at three-quarter scale, the second storey at 5/8 and the third at 1/2, each level shrinking by an eighth so the street looks taller than it is.

Which real railroad presented the Disneyland Railroad, and lent it its original name, until 1974?

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway sponsored the 'Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad' from 1955 to 1974, and its own rail passes were honored in place of a 'D' coupon.

Which private company of Walt's owned the Disneyland Railroad and monorail until 1982?

Retlaw Enterprises, Walt's first name spelled backwards, was the family company that held the Disneyland Railroad and monorail until the studio bought them in 1982.

Which animator's backyard Grizzly Flats Railroad depot was copied for Frontierland Station?

Ward Kimball: the Frontierland depot was modeled on the Grizzly Flats station in the animator's San Gabriel backyard, where he ran a full-size steam railroad of his own.

How long is the seamless canvas of the Grand Canyon Diorama seen from the railroad?

306 feet long and 34 feet high, the seamless canvas was painted by Delmer J. Yoakum and opened in 1958; Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite plays as trains pass.

Which German company helped Bob Gurr and Walt build the Disneyland monorail?

Alweg, the Cologne firm whose straddle-beam design Walt saw in Germany, engineered the system; the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail opened June 14, 1959 alongside the Matterhorn and Submarine Voyage.

Which vice-president attended the monorail's opening ceremony in 1959?

Richard Nixon, then vice-president, and his family rode the inaugural trip on June 14, 1959; the train pulled away before his Secret Service detail could board.

How many generations of monorail trains had Disneyland used by 2008?

Five: Marks I, II, III, V and VII, since the Mark IV and Mark VI were built for Florida; the Mark VII entered Disneyland service in 2008.

From the late 1950s to 1968, guests could arrive at Disneyland by what?

Scheduled helicopter from LAX: Los Angeles Airways flew Sikorsky helicopters to a heliport beside the park until two fatal crashes in 1968, killing 44 people in all, ended the service.

Walt's stay in Switzerland while filming which movie inspired the Matterhorn Bobsleds?

Third Man on the Mountain, shot in Switzerland in 1958, left Walt smitten with the real Matterhorn; the 1959 ride, built by Arrow Development, was the first tubular-steel coaster.

Besides being a ride, what was the Matterhorn structure designed to hide?

The Skyway's central pylon: the gondola line's support tower already stood on 'Holiday Hill', so the 1959 mountain was built around it, with the buckets gliding through the peak until 1994.

What went wrong with the first soundtrack idea for 'it's a small world'?

Every country's anthem played at once, in cacophony: the original plan layered national anthems, so Walt asked the Sherman Brothers for one simple song, which they first wrote as a slow ballad.

Which company sponsored the UNICEF pavilion that housed 'it's a small world' at the 1964 World's Fair?

Pepsi: Pepsi-Cola underwrote the UNICEF pavilion at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, with Rolly Crump's 120-foot Tower of the Four Winds spinning at its entrance.

Which artist was responsible for small world's whimsical design and colour styling?

Mary Blair, the color stylist behind Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, set the flat, bright look; later character additions copied her 1960s style, and a doll of her sits under the Eiffel Tower.

Besides the Bogart-Hepburn steamer film, which 1955 True-Life Adventure inspired the Jungle Cruise?

The African Lion, the 1955 True-Life Adventure, supplied the animal scenes Walt wanted; Harper Goff modelled the boats on the steamer in The African Queen.

Pirates of the Caribbean opened how long after Walt Disney's death?

Three months: Walt died on December 15, 1966 and Pirates of the Caribbean opened on March 18, 1967, the last attraction he personally oversaw; Florida's copy followed in 1973.

Which Imagineer designed the chess-playing skeletons gag for the Magic Kingdom's Pirates?

Marc Davis sketched the two skeletons locked in a stalemated chess game for the 1973 Magic Kingdom queue; X Atencio, by contrast, wrote 'Yo Ho' and voiced the talking skull.

About how tall is Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle?

77 feet tall: Sleeping Beauty Castle is dwarfed by Florida's 189-foot Cinderella Castle; shrinking bricks and smaller upper windows use forced perspective to make it look taller.

The Enchanted Tiki Room was originally planned as what?

A restaurant with singing birds: Walt planned a Polynesian dinner show, but the 1963 Audio-Animatronic production proved too elaborate to run around table service, so it opened as a stand-alone attraction.

Which airline sponsored the Enchanted Tiki Room for its first 12 years?

United Airlines sponsored the show from 1964 to 1976, when Dole Pineapple took over and put its juice bar, later home of the Dole Whip, at the entrance.

Which oil company was Autopia's original sponsor from 1955 to 1970?

Richfield Oil sponsored Autopia from 1955 to 1970; Chevron backed the rebuilt track from 2000, and Honda became the sponsor in 2016.

Which Imagineer led the design of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad?

Tony Baxter led the design of the 1979 ride; Disneyland's rockwork mimics the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, while the Florida version copies Monument Valley.

What is the name of the mining town in Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain?

Rainbow Ridge: the little town was kept from the earlier Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland, and its buildings line the queue; Florida's town is Tumbleweed and Paris's is Thunder Mesa.

In what year did Splash Mountain open at Disneyland?

1989: Splash Mountain opened on July 17, 1989, the park's 34th birthday, with a 52-foot final drop; it closed in 2023 to become Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

How much did Disney announce in 2007 it would spend redesigning California Adventure?

$1.1 billion, announced in October 2007, was nearly double the park's original $600 million budget; the makeover ended with Cars Land and Buena Vista Street in June 2012.

What was Club 33 modelled after?

Sponsor lounges at the 1964 New York World's Fair gave Walt the idea of a private VIP club; Club 33 opened in New Orleans Square in 1967 as the only place in the park then serving alcohol.

The Golden Horseshoe Revue is in the Guinness Book of Records for what?

Longest-running musical of all time: the Revue gave about 39,000 performances between 1955 and 1986, with Wally Boag as Pecos Bill, earning the Guinness entry.

What was the Storybook Land attraction called when it opened in 1955, before its miniatures were ready?

Canal Boats of the World ran past bare dirt banks in 1955 because the miniatures were unfinished; it reopened as Storybook Land Canal Boats in June 1956.

Indiana Jones Adventure officially premiered on which date in 1995?

March 3: Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye opened March 3, 1995 after February previews; a near-twin, Temple of the Crystal Skull, opened at Tokyo DisneySea in 2001.

How does the Indiana Jones ride create the illusion of reversing away from the boulder?

The vehicle stays still while the base tilts and the walls move: the Enhanced Motion Vehicle's hidden motion base pitches back as the tunnel walls slide past, so riders feel they are backing away from the boulder.

Which venue was the first in Disneyland Park to sell alcohol to the general public?

Oga's Cantina, opened with Galaxy's Edge in 2019, was the first spot to pour for the general public; Club 33 had served drinks since 1967, but only to members and their guests.

In what year did Rise of the Resistance open at Disneyland?

2020: Rise of the Resistance opened at Disneyland on January 17, 2020, six weeks after Florida's December 5, 2019 debut, and shut with the park that March for the pandemic.

On what date did construction of both Galaxy's Edge lands begin?

April 14, 2016: ground was broken at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios on the same day; Disneyland's land opened May 31, 2019, with Florida's following on August 29.

What did the pre-1982 'Keys to the Kingdom' booklet contain?

Ten unvalued coupons good for any ride: the Keys to the Kingdom book let guests skip the lettered A-to-E hierarchy; in 1982 the Passport replaced coupons with unlimited rides, 'except shooting galleries'.

Which parade marked the US Bicentennial at Disneyland in 1975 and 1976?

America on Parade, with its giant doll-like 'People of America' figures, ran daily from June 1975 to September 1976 at both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom for the Bicentennial.

On which off-season days did early Disneyland close, coordinating with Knott's Berry Farm?

Mondays and Tuesdays: in the off-season Disneyland shut those two days while Knott's Berry Farm closed Wednesdays and Thursdays, so one Orange County park was always open.

Which author unveiled a Halloween Tree in Frontierland in 2007?

Ray Bradbury, a friend of Walt's, dedicated the oak on Halloween 2007 in honour of his 1972 novel The Halloween Tree, with jack-o'-lanterns hung in its branches.

How long after opening did Disneyland admit its one-millionth guest?

About seven weeks: the one-millionth guest walked through the turnstiles on September 8, 1955, less than two months after the July 17, 1955 opening.

By what nickname is Disneyland's chaotic 1955 opening day remembered?

Black Sunday: rides broke down, a plumbers' strike left fountains dry, fresh asphalt trapped women's heels and a gas leak closed Fantasyland, so staff remembered July 17, 1955 by that name.