The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (162 page)

Until February 2012, you could
clap your hands and stomp your feet in time with the down-home musical stylings of the
Miner 49ers
.  They appeared throughout the day across from
Grizzly River Run
and
Rushin’ River Outfitters
.  They were replaced by a musician and folk singer, the
Happy Camper
, who performs campfire songs along
Grizzly Trail
.

Hollywood
Land

Hollywood
Land At-a-Glance

Attractions:
 
Disney Animation (Animation Academy
,
Character Close-Up
,
Sorcerer’s Workshop
, and
Turtle Talk with Crush)
,
Disney Junior
,
Disney’s Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular
,
The Hollywood Backlot Stage
,
Mad T Party
,
Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue
,
Muppet*Vision 3D, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
(FP)

Gear:
 
Gone Hollywood
,
Off the Page
,
Studio Store
,
Tower Hotel Gifts

Grub:
 
Award Wieners
(L, D, S),
Fairfax Market
(S),
Mad T Party Truck (Studio Catering Co.)
(S),
Schmoozies
(S)

Hollywood
Land Introduction

Of all of
DCA
’s original lands,
Hollywood Land
(formerly
Hollywood Pictures Backlot
) has the most obvious connection to
Walt
.  The man who, as a little boy, drew cartoons, played pranks, performed magic tricks, and staged shows eventually founded and led one of the greatest entertainment enterprises in the world, and Hollywood was the place where he made his dreams come true. 
Hollywood Land
(which changed its name from
Hollywood Pictures Backlot
as part of the billion-dollar
DCA
overhaul) is a tribute to the classic Hollywood where young
Walt
built his astounding empire.

Walt
launched his first animation studio,
Laugh-O-Gram
Films
, in
Kansas City
,
Missouri
in 1922.  Even though
Walt
and his talented team (including
Ub Iwerks
) turned out innovative animated shorts, the novice businessman was too naïve and too trusting to make a go of it; the studio was bankrupt within a year.  This was the young storyteller’s first major setback, and he handled it as he would handle challenges throughout his career.  Instead of giving up, he moved forward optimistically.

Although in the early 1920’s
the film industry was still largely based in New York City, it was already beginning to transition to Southern California, where the varied terrain and mild climate were excellent for year-round shooting.  In one of the first examples of
Walt
’s perspicacity, after
Laugh-O-Gram
folded,
Walt
went to Los Angeles, not New York, to pursue his entertainment dreams.

Walt
had a support structure in Los Angeles.
 
His older brother
Roy
was recovering from tuberculosis in a Los Angeles hospital, and the boys had a successful uncle,
Robert Disney
, who lived on
Kingswell
in the
Los Feliz
area.

Walt
arrived in the summer of 1923.  He was just 22 years old.  He stayed with his uncle on
Kingswell
and set up a jerry-rigged animation studio in the garage.  Between visits to his hospitalized brother,
Walt
pounded the Hollywood pavement, pitching himself to the studios as a director, and even talking his way into Universal with his genial confidence, roaming the property for hours.  Despite his best efforts, however, the studios didn’t hire the young man.

Roy
left the hospital when
Walt
enlisted him as a business partner.  This set the pattern for the rest of their lives. 
Walt
had the endless vision and the optimism. 
Roy
believed in his younger brother (even if he sometimes challenged him) and had a tireless genius for raising money.

Roy
raised enough money for the brothers to rent a small studio space on
Kingswell
, near
Uncle Robert
’s house; part of the money came from
Uncle Robert
himself, although he was initially dubious about the enterprise.  The brothers hired a few animators and inkers. 
Walt
and
Roy
moved into a boardinghouse, sharing a room and sharing meals to save money.  Such were the humble beginnings of the
Disney
entertainment empire!

Hollywood w
as the making of the
Disneys
, and they in turn helped to build Hollywood.  In the early 1920’s Hollywood was just beginning to bloom.  Its sophisticated studio system and world-wide renown were still in the future.  Like Charlie Chaplin, one of
Walt
’s heroes, the
Disney
brothers were part of the early waves of talent that eventually made Hollywood the entertainment capital of the world.

At the
ir small
Kingswell
studio in the early 1920’s,
Walt
,
Roy
and their staff pitched into their work with a fever.  In retrospect, the
Disney Studio
successes in the years that followed seem logical, almost pre-ordained, but at the time there were plenty of challenges and moments when it seemed like the studio would fold.  The
Disneys
’ tenacity,
Walt
’s vision, and
Roy
’s financial savvy kept them going against all odds.

During the flush times,
Walt
insisted on investing almost every penny they earned back into their studio–better materials, larger and more advanced studio premises, more staff.  It was always about creating the best entertainment possible, not about getting rich.  It wasn’t until the incredible success of
Disneyland Park
, when
Walt
was in his 50’s, that there was enough profit, beyond what went back into the company, to let him live
really
well.

There were so many points along the journey where
Walt
and
Roy
could’ve failed or given up.  What if, in the early Hollywood days,
Walt
hadn’t found a distributor that allowed his team to continue to develop and sell the combination animated and live-action
Alice
films?  What if he never developed
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
?  What if, after major setbacks like losing the rights to
Oswald
, or the brilliant
Ub Iwerks
’ sudden and unexpected departure,
Walt
had quit?

By 1926, the brothers had enough money to move their operation to a small studio on
Hyperion
in
Silver Lake
. 
Walt
had met and married the love of his life,
Lillian
, an inker at the studio, and everything looked rosy.  But in 1928, with the rights to
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
lost, the
Disney
brothers’ studio needed a miracle to keep going.

Confronted with
the possibility of losing it all,
Walt
created
Mickey
(originally
Mortimer
)
Mouse
.  He is credited with creating the personality and the voice, the essence and spirit of the mouse;
Iwerks
developed the visual design. 
Mickey
was “born” in 1928.  He didn’t make a splash with his first short
Plane Crazy
; he was destined to make a grander impact.

Walt
was one of the first in Hollywood to grasp that a synchronized soundtrack wasn’t a stunt or novelty, but rather the future of movies, including animated pictures.  He and his team crafted an animated
Mickey
short with sound and music, and
Walt
spent nerve-wracking weeks in New York City having the soundtrack synchronized with and melded to the film’s visual images, insisting on perfection–nothing less would do for his product or his audiences.

Steamboat Willie
premiered in New York City on November 18, 1928.  It was a hit and the beginning of
Mickey
’s global, still-thriving popularity.  Audiences loved the little mouse, and how the music and sound effects perfectly matched the film’s action.  Thereafter, it would become standard for animated shorts to have a synchronized soundtrack, making this the first example of
Disney
’s powerful influence on Hollywood and film in general.

But it was
Steamboat Willie
’s star, even more than the film, who captured the audiences’ imaginations.  The little mouse’s “everyman” qualities, his pluck, good humor, and tenacity, endeared him to the public, especially after the stock market crash in 1929 plunged the United States and the world into the Great Depression.

Mickey
was a beloved star, so
Mickey
productions continued, and
Mickey
’s image was licensed for a variety of products, launching the
Disney
merchandizing juggernaut.  But
Walt
never wanted to repeat himself.  He was shrewd enough, and his imagination restless enough, not to let the studio fixate on all
Mickey
, all the time.

Mickey
was given pals, like
Donald
and
Goofy
, who became animated stars in their own right, with their own animated vehicles.  And beyond Disney’s cute little characters and their gags,
Walt
wanted the world to see how beautiful, graceful, and versatile animation could be, so he had his animators tackle increasingly challenging and entertaining subjects via the
Silly Symphonies
series.

Just as
Walt
had sensed that Hollywood was the future of film, and that films would universally incorporate sound, he was also ahead of the curve in grasping that color, not black-and-white movies, would become the norm.  The
Silly Symphony
short
Flowers and Trees
, originally developed as a black-and-white production, was re-shot in color and released in 1932 as the first color animated short.  It was popular, critically acclaimed, and won an Academy Award.

The studio’s successes always pushed
Walt
to try ever bigger and better experiments.  Having mastered the art of animated shorts, hand-picked members of
Walt
’s staff began toiling quietly on an ambitious special project.

In 1937,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
was released, dazzling audiences and critics alike. 
Walt
won a special Academy Award for
Snow White
, the film that proved how gorgeous and engaging a full-length animated feature could be.

Snow White
’s success meant that
Walt
and
Roy
could afford to move their enterprise from
Hyperion
to much larger digs on
Buena Vista Street
in
Burbank
. 
Walt
was heavily involved in the design of the multi-building studio complex, incorporating a multitude of operational innovations and efficiencies that he would later develop, on a much larger scale, for
Disneyland
and then for
Walt Disney World
and the never-realized
EPCOT
concept.  The
Buena Vista Studios
included many comfortable amenities for the employees, many of whom had labored loyally for years in the far less comfortable
Hyperion
studio.