The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (163 page)

In the 1940’s t
he
Disney
enterprise faced challenge after challenge.  There was a labor dispute that deeply hurt
Walt
.  World War II put the studio’s profitable foreign distribution into a deep sleep for the duration of the war.  The U.S. military took over the studio premises during the war, and
Disney
made military and government films practically for peanuts.  Brilliant
Disney
animated features that
were
released were misunderstood or unappreciated by audiences and critics of the day.  Still,
Walt
never stopped pushing the envelope.  Through every disappointment,
Walt
and
Roy
persevered.

It was in the 1950’s that
Walt
and
Roy
finally secured stable and lasting success.  Well-received
Disney
animated and live-action films, the Academy Award-winning
True-Life Adventure
documentaries, the
Disney
television programs that were launched to fund
Disneyland Park
, and
Disneyland Park
itself, were
all
such incredible triumphs that
Walt
and
Roy
were finally able to enjoy sustained material success.  They still funneled millions into their creative empire, and insisted on top quality and innovation, but now there were substantial profits left over.

They were moguls, but n
either
Walt
nor
Roy
ever became stereotypical Hollywood royalty.  Their hard-working, modest Midwestern roots ran too deep for that.  The brothers who as children had risen well before dawn to deliver hundreds of newspapers, turning over almost all of the profits to their father, were eventually able to build increasingly comfortable but never ostentatious homes; even in elegant
Holmby Hills
,
Walt
’s property was restrained by the standards of that exclusive community. 
Walt
’s only real indulgence in later years was to build the
Carolwood Pacific
, a miniature railroad line in the backyard; it would prove to be the template for the
Disneyland Railroad
.

It was
creative, not financial success that thrilled
Walt
. As a boy he’d delighted his family and friends with drawings, gags, stories, and performances.  As a man he became an admired member of Hollywood’s creative community, entertaining the whole world.

As the 1950’s
flowed into the 1960’s,
Walt
became increasingly focused on
Disneyland Park
and his ideas for a newer, even bigger theme park and experimental community in Florida.  In these
magical kingdoms
,
Walt
and his team had found a way to immerse Guests in three-dimensional film environments, the ultimate entertainment experience, conceptually pre-figuring today’s “virtual” environments.

Walt
was consumed with continually
plussing
Disneyland
and building his new
Orlando
park and his utopian dream, the highly liveable, highly efficient
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
(
EPCOT
).  When
Walt
finally succumbed to lung cancer on December 15, 1966, at the age of 65, his last conversation with
Roy
was about plans for
EPCOT
. 
Walt
was lying in his hospital bed, picturing the layout of
EPCOT
on the ceiling of the room.  He never stopped creating and planning, literally until his last breath.

No one ever replaced
Walt
at the
Disney Company
.  His vision, optimism, and story-telling virtuosity were unique.  To some degree, in the initial decades after his passing, the company struggled to find its footing.  But dedicated family members and staffers, most especially
Roy
, did an outstanding job of moving forward by following the clear standards and philosophies that
Walt
had established early on and had refined during the course of his career.  Quality had to be high.  Guests were at the center of everything.  Existing products always had to be
plussed
.  New products had to be developed.  One never rested on one’s laurels.  One took intelligent risks, and pushed the envelope, moving forward tirelessly.

The company found its footing again.
  One has only to view gems like
Beauty and the Beast
,
Toy Story
,
The Princess and the Frog
, or
Brave
, one has only to watch the
Disney Channel
or visit one of the many
Disney Theme Parks
around the globe to appreciate that
Walt
’s commitment to superlative entertainment lives on.

* * *

Hollywood Land
is
DCA
’s nod to
Walt
and
Disney
’s Hollywood origins, a stretch of simulated boulevard and backlot in the northeast quadrant of
DCA
. This district hosts Hollywood-themed shops, restaurants, and attractions in buildings that replicate famous Hollywood structures and their recognizable and eclectic Art Deco, Modern, Egyptian, and Spanish Revival architecture.

Hollywood
–the
real
Hollywood, if that’s not an oxymoron–has always been a land of dreams, and its theatrical architecture is one of its most important hallmarks.  The jarringly diverse styles of Hollywood buildings are a testament to the diverse origins and aspirations of its dreamers.

DCA
does a fine job of capturing this eccentric glamour in its structures. 
Hollywood Land
feels like a dream-within-a-dream, a fanciful evocation of an already fanciful place.  The very gates of
Hollywood Land
used to be flanked by columns topped with 11-foot tall elephant statues, a tribute to pioneering director D.W. Griffith and his 1916
magnum opus
“Intolerance”.  The abandoned Babylon set from “Intolerance” was located near
Robert Disney
’s
Kingswell
house; its extravagant, sprawling, decaying beauty might have inspired young
Walt
as he explored Hollywood.

It’s not inconceivable that
glimpses of the disintegrating “Intolerance” set–along with father
Elias
Disney
’s tales of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and
Walt
’s memories of the alabaster beauty of
Kansas City
’s
Fairmount
amusement park, outside of which
Walt
and his sister
Ruth
gazed yearningly–served as some of
Walt
’s conscious or subconscious templates for the gleaming, utopian, extravagant beauty of
Disneyland
.

Disneyland
’s
Main Street
is a hyperreal version of
Walt
’s childhood town of
Marceline
,
Missouri
, with some of
Harper Goff
’s
Fort Collins
,
Colorado
thrown in for good measure. 
DCA
’s
Hollywood Land
is a hyperreal evocation of
Hollywood Boulevard
in its glamorous heyday, the Hollywood that
Walt
would’ve known.

In this vein,
unlike other portions of
DCA
,
Hollywood Land
has
always
been a success with Guests.  It reads quickly.  It’s meant to be a bustling street and backlot in Hollywood.  It’s exciting and engaging, particularly the
trompe l’oeil
painting at the end of the street that leads the eye further down the boulevard than it actually goes, all part and parcel of evoking the illusion and magic of Hollywood.  The
trompe l’oeil
image is very well done, but still obviously a trick, and meant to be detectable.  It’s a favorite place for Guests to pose for photos.

Along the boulevard, signs for fictitious businesses play on real actors and films of the past.  On the ground level there are businesses that one would expect to see in old Hollywood,
a florist, a jewelry store, a modeling agency, a bank.

But as Guests
realize when they stroll down paths leading
behind
the buildings on the north side of the street, most of the structures are clearly façades, with nothing more behind them than scaffolds and beams.

Guests visiting
Hollywood Land
are treated to more than visual images of old Hollywood.  There’s an aural landscape as well.  The soundtrack for this area includes vintage tunes from and about golden-age Hollywood.

The attractions all relate to entertainment and to
Disney
or
Disney-Pixar
characters, and the shops and restaurants are themed to old Hollywood and the film industry.  In the heart of the boulevard is the
Disney Animation
building, a lavish and impressive tribute to
Disney
animation, the art upon which
Disney
was founded, and the discipline for which
Disney
is best known.

At the end of the boulevard, just south of the
trompe l’oeil
boulevard painting, is the marquee for the fictional
Hyperion Theater
, a tribute to the days during the late 1920’s and most of the 1930’s when the
Disney
studios were located at
2719 Hyperion Avenue
in
Silver Lake
. 
DCA
’s
Hyperion
hosts high-quality entertainment like its long-running
Aladdin
play.

South of the
Hyperion
is
Hollywood Land
’s
E-ticket
thriller, the
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
.  Although adapted from an attraction of the same name at
Hollywood Studios
in
Walt Disney World
, the
Tower of Terror
looks quite at home in
DCA
.  Its crumbling elegance glowers over much of the park, looking like a steroidal, 183-foot tall
Haunted Mansion
spawn, a testament about greed and mortality set in Hollywood rather than the Louisiana bayous.

From its chipper
Disney Playhouse
and
Muppet
attractions to the daunting, eerie charm of the looming
Tower of Terror
,
DCA
’s
Hollywood Land
captures both sides of the coins of fame and make-believe, the dark and bright faces of Hollywood.

Although some of
DCA
’s early
Hollywood
district attractions were missteps, they were quickly replaced; this remains one of the most interesting, and fun, and
Disney
-relevant districts of
DCA
. You no longer hear some of the early criticisms, that most of the attractions here were copied from
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
in
Walt Disney World
. Most of the attractions were indeed adapted from
WDW
, but their relevance to
Walt
,
Disney
,
and
Hollywood
make them better fits for
DCA
than
WDW
; it almost seems a strange accident that they didn’t originate in California.

Another
early criticism of
Hollywood Land
was that the beautiful architecture of its fictionalized
Hollywood Boulevard
was disfigured by kitschy
Disney
cartoon images and neon signs sprouting from the buildings, not unlike barnacles on a ship’s hull.  This is an example of how sometimes the
Imagineers
just can’t win:  One Guest faction wanted the
Disney
signage erased, so that glory of the architecture would be more evident, while another faction complained that the district, like the park, didn’t have enough
Disney
flavor.