Dysneyland

This article is about Disneyland, a theme park in Anaheim, California USA. For other Disney parks and attractions, see Walt Disney Parks and Resorts or Category:Disney parks and attractions. For the television series originally titled Disneyland, see Disney anthology television series.

Disney theme park

Sleeping Beauty Castle is decorated for the park's fiftieth birthday

Disneyland Park

Location: Anaheim, California, U.S.

Opening Day: July 17, 1955

Resort: Disneyland Resort

Theme: Magic Kingdom

Website: Disneyland Resort Homepage

Operator: The Walt Disney Company

Disneyland (since 1998 officially Disneyland Park, to distinguish it from the Disneyland Resort complex of which it is a part), is a theme park in Anaheim, California, USA (28 miles from Downtown Los Angeles). Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company, The Magic Kingdom of Disneyland has become one of the most famous places on Earth.

More than 515 million guests, among them presidents, royalty, and other heads of state, have traveled to the park from around the world since the attraction first opened to guests on July 17, 1955. A worldwide celebration in commemoration of Disneyland's 50th anniversary began on May 5, 2005 and concluded on September 30, 2006.

Concept and construction

Walt Disney and his older brother Roy already headed one of Hollywood's more successful studios founded in 1924, long before the idea of a park even began to form. Walt's original concept was of a permanent family fun park without the negative element that traveling carnivals often attracted. He developed the idea during his many outings with his daughters Diane and Sharon, when he realized that there were no parks with activities that adults and children could enjoy together.

While many people had written letters to Walt Disney about visiting the Disney Studio lot and meeting their favorite Disney character, Walt realized that a functional movie studio had little to offer to the visiting fan. He then began to foster ideas of building a site at or near his Burbank studios for tourists to visit and perhaps take pictures with Disney characters set in statue form. His ideas then evolved to a small play park with a boat ride and other themed areas. Walt's initial concept, his "Mickey Mouse Park," grew bigger and bigger into a concept for a larger enterprise which was to become Disneyland.

Disneyland Park was partially inspired by Tivoli Gardens (built in 1843 in Copenhagen, Denmark), Greenfield Village (built in 1929 in Dearborn, Michigan), and Children's Fairyland (built in 1950 in Oakland, California). Disney's original modest plans called for the park to be built on eight acres (32,000 m?) on Riverside Drive next to the Disney Studios in Burbank, California as a place where his employees and families could go to relax.

Early in development, during the early 1950s, it became clear that more area would be needed. Difficulties in obtaining funding caused Disney to investigate new ways of raising money. He decided to use television to get the ideas into people's homes, and so he created a show named Disneyland which was broadcast on the fledgling American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network. In return, the network agreed to help finance the new park.

On the suggestion of researchers at Stanford Research Institute who correctly envisioned the area's potential growth, Disney acquired 160 acres (730,000 m?) of orange groves and walnut trees in Anaheim, south of Los Angeles in neighboring Orange County. [1] [2] Construction began on July 18, 1954 and would cost USD$17 million to complete. U.S. Route 101 (later Interstate 5) was under construction at the same time just to the north of the site; in preparation for the traffic which Disneyland was expected to bring, two more lanes were