DisneyWorld is more hyped and a world larger than Disneyland is, even to this day. However, Disneyland was the original Magic Kingdom and to many tourists today, it remains the more sentimental and the more meaningful vacation experience. The words of the late Walter E. Disney welcome visitors to the park: "To all who come to this happy place - welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America."
You may be wondering how Disneyland came to be, as both an idea and a business. The idea for Disneyland came one day when Walt Disney visited Griffith Park (a public park in Santa Monica) with his two daughters and determined to create a park that both adults and children could enjoy. Disney eventually combined this idea with the wishes expressed by Disney fans who inquired about meeting their favorite Disney characters and visiting this Magic studio. Disney understood that a working movie studio would hold very limited interest to fans, especially children. Therefore, he began to come up with ideas on how to make a movie franchise a theme park attraction. The "Mickey Mouse Park" project was on, and began with only 8 acres of land on Riverside Drive. Disneyland was not the first amusement park but was the first major success. By the time Disney gathered all of his ideas; it was a much larger project than just eight acres. Disney continued to buy land south of Los Angeles in Orange County.
Disneyland was an expensive project and so Walt Disney had to look to new methods of fundraising. Walt took his idea to television and created the Disneyland Show on a new network called ABC, which actually preceded the completed theme park by many years. This arrangement helped to increase funding for Disneyland and construction began on July 18, 1954. Seventeen million dollars and exactly one year later, Disneyland was opened to the public. The media caught on quickly to the Disney publicity and featured the park's events on national television. However, things did not go smoothly due to various technical and logistical problems. However, Walt invited members of the press back for a second day to experience the true Disneyland experience. This explains why some confusion exists over the official opening (actually on the 17th of July) and the "Black Sunday" reference.
Disneyland continues to thrive as a worldwide tourist attraction. When it first opened in featured five sections: Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and in later years New Orleans Square, Critter Country, and Mickey's Toontown. In recent years, Disneyland Park has been set apart from the Disneyland Resort, as the actual park is smaller than the entire resort complex. Disneyland is a legend and a must-see attraction if you are visiting the Los Angeles area—the theme park capital of the world and the home of the Magic Kingdom!
