The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (9 page)

Perhaps most importantly, these team members understood that there was a singular vision at
Disney
—and it was
Walt
’s. 
Walt
dreamed up the stories; his artists and technicians brought them to life.  He had described himself, later in life, as a “bee” who traveled here, there, and everywhere in his company, spreading pollen.  Substitute “vision and inspiration” for “pollen” and you’ll be on the mark.

Walt
hand-picked the team he wanted to bring the stories of his park to life.  They understood their boss; they could make his visions real.  With this talented crew,
Walt
knew he could develop something of far greater quality than a mere amusement park; together they would craft a
theme park
, a place where the fun would be richer for being organized around coherent stories, themes, and values.

Walt
’s enchanted land would deliver the thrills of Coney Island’s Steeplechase Park, the eclectic, exotic architecture and electric incandescence of Luna Park, and the sweeping scope and historical and scientific aspects of Dreamland. 
Walt
’s park, however, would be sparkling clean, classy, and superlatively organized, without the tawdry, chaotic and freakish elements that plagued Coney Island even at its peak.  Where Coney Island brought out a visitor’s inner wild child,
Disneyland
would nurture the better angels of its well-behaved Guests.

Roy
was the businessman and money-man who balanced and advanced
Walt
’s creative genius.  In the early days of the theme park concept, while
Roy
reluctantly explored financing options (he was slow to warm to the idea),
Walt
and his elite creative and engineering teams began drafting plans for a relatively small but high-quality park on a property near their
Burbank
studio.  It would be a simple
Mickey Mouse Park
where kids and their parents could experience an old-time main street, a farm, a frontier area, a train ride, and a glimpse of the place where
Mickey
,
Minnie
,
Donald
, and
Disney
’s feature characters were given life.  A studio tour would be dull,
Walt
felt; a park would present
Walt
’s stories in a far more entertaining manner.

The plans quickly became more and more elaborate a
s
Walt
gave his imagination free rein.  As his vision expanded, it became clear that the park would require an increasingly larger swath of land to inhabit.  It was then that
Walt
hired the
Stanford Research Institute
(
SRI
) to identify the best location for a sizeable So Cal theme park.

Factors included
optimal accessibility, future growth potential, and cost.  The winning locale: 140 acres of orange and walnut groves in
Anaheim
, a small, sleepy community which, with the freeway interchanges under construction nearby, was about to become easily accessible to most Southern Californians.

Walt
was a self-avowed railroad and transportation nut, so his park drafts at all stages included a miniature railroad in which Guests could circle the park, and various other forms of transportation.  Staffers like
Ward Kimball
, knowing of
Walt
’s life-long fascination with trains, had inspired him to build his own backyard railroad.

Having been
born and raised in the Midwest just after the turn of the century,
Walt
also had a strong appreciation of the pioneer history of the United States and how that spirit continued to inform and inspire later generations; hence, early park plans included attractions that evoked frontier and turn-of-the-century architecture, values, activities, and ideals.

Once
Walt
decided on the
Anaheim
site and a larger version of his theme park became possible, he knew he could paint on a really big canvas; he would have the space to develop multiple “lands”. Diverse sections of the park would immerse Guests in places and stories that
Walt
saw as core American archetypes.  These were places born out of a blend of
Walt
’s actual memories and experiences, fantasies and ideals, many of which he had already explored in his cartoons, films, and television programs.

Ryman
’s famous drawing clearly shows these core lands.  Although
Adventureland
would move to the west side of the park, adjacent to
Frontierland
, and although some of the areas were never built or were quickly absorbed by other lands, the
Ryman
map presents a themed design that holds up to this day and has been duplicated to some degree in the other
Disney
Parks
later created around the globe.

According to the
Ryman
sketch, Guests would enter
Disneyland
and find themselves transported to the early 1900’s, strolling a civilized and welcoming American
Main Street
with its middle-class mercantile and community values on display.  Using Hollywood-inspired set design tactics, buildings would be reassuringly scaled down.  Forced perspective and playing with scale and color were clever techniques that came out of the
Disney
studio and were employed throughout the park to simultaneously awe but reassure Guests;
Disney Legend John Hench
would call it “the architecture of reassurance”.

Main Street
would boast civic buildings and shops, a town square where the United States flag would fly and bands would play early American popular tunes like “After the Ball is Over,” and a railroad station where one could board a
Disneyland Railroad
train that circled the entire park with several stops in diverse districts.  Guests would ride a variety of horse-drawn and combustion vehicles, experience a blend of electric and gas lights, and bask in a melding of the security and excitement of early 1900’s America, when progress was racing forward and it seemed that anything was possible, while comforting principles of family, community, law, and order still held fast.

Main Street
was always going to be very personal to
Walt
, an amalgamation of his happy childhood memories of
Marceline, Missouri
(look for a nod to
Marceline
on
East Center Street
) and halcyon memories of other staffers who grew up at the dawn of the 20
th
century.  Part of
Walt
’s genius was his ability to appreciate both the lessons of the past
and
the promise of the future.

Main Street
’s feeling of early 1900’s small-town America captures this exciting balance of the old world and the new in a microcosm, as the entire park does more fully.

In addition to a thriving
Main Street
, the original
Ryman
map also portrays “Frontier Country,” which would become
Frontierland
, “Fantasy Land” which would be realized as
Fantasyland
, the “World of Tomorrow” which we know as
Tomorrowland
, and “True-Life Adventureland” which would come to life as
Adventureland
.

These core
park districts were enriched in the following decades, but never substantively altered.

The frontier spirit would be parsed and expanded into the paradoxically more civilized but more nightmarish
New Orleans Square
(1966 onward), and the rustic backwoods of
Bear Country
(1972-1988) and then
Critter Country
(1988 onward).

Opened to the public in 1993,
Mickey’s Toontown
gave a home to
Walt
’s beloved cartoon characters,
Mickey
,
Minnie
,
Donald
,
Goofy
,
Pluto
,
Daisy
, and
Chip ‘n Dale
. 
Toontown
can be understood as an extension of the
Fantasyland
home that
Disney
’s feature-animation characters had inhabited since
Disneyland
opened in 1955.

In the more than half
century (almost sixty years now) since that
Opening Day
,
Walt
and his associates, known for “continuous improvement“ well before that was a corporate catch phrase, constantly introduced new high-quality attractions, and revamped or retired areas and attractions that weren’t delivering sufficient
Disney magic
.

Walt
called this constant tinkering and improvement
plussing
, a term that the
Disney Company
continues to use and a practice that continues to this day.  To paraphrase
Walt
, as long as there’s imagination on the planet, his parks will never be finished; they will forever be refreshed and revitalized.

Whatever changes
are made, however, the core vision of a
Main Street
,
Adventureland
,
Frontierland
,
Fantasyland
,
and
Tomorrowland
holds rock steady, persisting across the decades.

Walt
achieved his goal of creating the cleanest, friendliest, most detailed, most efficient, and most imaginative park in the world.  He also established patterns and methods of entertainment delivery, customer service (“Guest Services” in
Disney
parlance), and theme park management that were highly successful and remain widely studied and imitated by diverse corporations today.

F
rom day one (even with all the
Opening-Day
hiccups), Guests have raved about the unbelievable cleanliness of the park, the courtesy and warmth of the Cast Members, the imaginativeness of the attractions, and
Disneyland
’s organization and efficiency.

All of these elements are inarguably important and praiseworthy, and tell us why visitors like the park so much, why they return to the park repeatedly, and recommend the park to their friends and family.

What none of these elements explain is why Guests
love
the park; why, beyond being entertained, so many Guests are deeply moved by
Disneyland
, and experience visits almost as pilgrimages.

* * *

When
Walt
spoke on
Opening Day
, he told Guests that
Disneyland
was
their
park–that it belonged to them.  And he meant it.

To this day
Guests interact with the park as if, on the one hand, it’s a real small town—
their
small town.  That’s especially true for locals and
Annual Passholders
.

On the other hand, Guests
sometimes treat
Disneyland
as a nearly sacred space—particularly when they are experiencing milestones (whether positive or negative) in their lives.  Guests visit
Disneyland
to celebrate promotions, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, family reunions, and athletic achievements (“I’m going to
Disneyland
!” is the well-known catchphrase).  They also visit to seek solace in times of crisis or disappointment.  Terminally ill people of all ages wish for a visit to
Disneyland
before they die, and organizations like the Make-a-Wish Foundation (www.wish.org) make those hopes reality.

What inspires us to imbue
Disneyland
with this nearly mythic importance?

On some level,
with its carrousel and castle and cowboys, its mysterious jungle and its animated characters,
Disneyland
is a highly idealized elaboration of our childhoods.  It can be seen as a portal through which we revisit (maybe even heal) our youth.

Walt
himself had a challenging childhood.  His strict, entrepreneurial father suffered periodic business and financial setbacks, so
Walt
and his siblings had to join the workforce at a young age. 
Walt
took some hard knocks when
he
was a young entrepreneur, when he was cheated and betrayed by early business associates.