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00:00:28You
00:00:31Park means a lot to me in that something will never be finished, something that I can keep
00:00:41developing, a thing I can keep building as long as I can get some money to build it with.
00:00:50And I've felt that all along, all through my career, instead of talking to somebody
00:00:55about something, if I could, I'd go ahead and make something and then show it to them.
00:01:11Now the people of this country are about to see and hear a new adventure in entertainment.
00:01:16It will come upon the American scene shortly under the title of Disneyland.
00:01:22Walt Disney, this is the greatest creative genius in the entertainment business.
00:01:27He's brought new concepts to the theaters and entertained millions and millions of people.
00:01:32That was quite a build-up there and...
00:01:34You deserved it.
00:01:35Well, that's what worries me, you know.
00:01:47Walt had decided in his own mind that if he was going to make this thing work, he'd have
00:01:52to have financing that he was willing to do some TV shows in order to help get the financing.
00:01:59He's now going to try his luck on home television.
00:02:02And I'm sure the same impact will be made on the home audience as Walt has made in the theater
00:02:08audience.
00:02:09Well, I just want to assure you that we're not taking it lightly, that it's not going to be
00:02:15just a little stepchild of the Disney organization.
00:02:17It's going to be one of our major enterprises.
00:02:29Now on a site of 240 acres near the city of Anaheim, we've begun to build Disneyland the place.
00:02:36When Walt described this great park, I knew that this was not a good idea because who
00:02:42was going to drive 30 or 40 miles?
00:02:44The opening date for the park has been set for mid-summer of 1955.
00:02:49We can never meet this deadline without the complete cooperation of everyone who works here.
00:02:55Most people in Hollywood thought Disneyland would be a Hollywood spectacular, a spectacular failure.
00:03:01Though Roy Disney said, what do you mean most people in Hollywood?
00:03:05He says, that's what I thought.
00:03:08We want you to see and share with us the experience of building this dream into a reality.
00:03:51We want you to see and share with us.
00:03:54The time of the park is really congealing because Walt had in his own mind set a deadline that was
00:03:58impossible
00:03:59to make, an opening of July of 1955.
00:04:05I still don't see how it was ever done.
00:04:16One day he called me up and said, remember I was talking about having some kind of a Disney affair
00:04:22here in Southern California?
00:04:24and so I got in the car with him
00:04:27and we rode and we rode and we rode
00:04:30and we rode and I thought where that fell
00:04:32is he taking us to
00:04:34and we got down through those orange groves
00:04:37he said this is all top secret stuff
00:04:39and I said yeah that's right
00:04:42and I didn't bother to tell him
00:04:43I thought he was out of his mind
00:05:02this is our progress report from Disneyland
00:05:06on our first television program
00:05:08we showed you a blueprint for a dream
00:05:10well this is the blueprint
00:05:12and the dream is Disneyland
00:05:14the park that we're constructing
00:05:16near Anaheim, California
00:05:17we promised to keep you informed
00:05:20as our dream became a reality
00:05:21so for a first-hand progress report
00:05:25let's visit Disneyland now
00:05:37one of our naturalist photographers
00:05:39is Stuart Jewell
00:05:40an expert in time-lapse photography
00:05:44we don't have these cameras up here
00:05:46just for fun
00:05:47they keep a daily record
00:05:49of the growth and development of Disneyland
00:05:53now an ordinary camera
00:05:54takes 24 pictures a second
00:05:56but these take one picture
00:05:58every 15 seconds
00:05:59and of course
00:06:00that makes things look
00:06:01a lot faster on your screen
00:06:11Disneyland is divided
00:06:12into four cardinal realms
00:06:14the four different worlds
00:06:16from which our television shows
00:06:17will originate
00:06:19Adventureland
00:06:21Adventureland
00:06:22Tomorrowland
00:06:27Fantasyland
00:06:30and Frontierland
00:06:49and Walt even at that time
00:06:51had in the back of his mind
00:06:52how he wanted to move people
00:06:56he was anxious to
00:06:57just get all the ideas
00:06:59as possible together
00:07:00helping him to gel his concept
00:07:04which I think at the time
00:07:06was loose and fluid
00:07:07and all over the place
00:07:08you know, Rawley always hated
00:07:12to be in debt
00:07:13and Walt seemed to revel in the idea
00:07:16because we were continually in debt
00:07:20and it did take that
00:07:22extraordinary blind faith
00:07:24you know, to follow Walt
00:07:26because he had a rough time
00:07:27with banks
00:07:29and they couldn't see it either
00:07:33and he was always off
00:07:34in left field somewhere
00:07:35there was nothing he could
00:07:36say about something
00:07:37except that he had a hunch
00:07:38it was going to work
00:07:50believe it or not
00:07:51it wasn't too easy
00:07:52to sell people
00:07:53on the success
00:07:54of Disneyland
00:07:54because
00:07:55there were a lot
00:07:56of doubting Thomases
00:08:06and finally the ball
00:08:07began to roll
00:08:08and it began to get bigger
00:08:09and bigger and bigger
00:08:10and you think
00:08:11well now
00:08:11what if this fails?
00:08:13what if the people
00:08:14don't like it?
00:08:15what if it's too far away?
00:08:17what if they go once
00:08:18and never come back?
00:08:21but that's Walt's problem
00:08:23if he fails
00:08:24then it's his failure
00:08:54it's his failure
00:08:55We could go by car, of course. It's a pleasant 50-minute trip across town, but let's be different. Let's
00:09:04take to the air. Let's go by helicopter.
00:09:31In order for Walt to take his guest by the hand and take him on a hike through a Missouri
00:09:38wilderness or anything, what he doesn't need is a high-rise building or a transmission tower or freeway interchanges in
00:09:47the background.
00:09:50So, number one, you build a berm because it takes a berm to shut out sound.
00:10:08Now you're in Walt's world. That's an important function from a landscape standpoint.
00:10:32He didn't want just small trees, he wanted big trees. He said trees have no scale. So he wanted a
00:10:39real show on there and he used to ride the herd on Bill Evans and get bigger and better trees.
00:10:49Walt didn't want to have to wait five years to get the landscape to harmonize with the
00:10:54architecture.
00:10:55Well, we could do that up to a point, but we ran out of dollars.
00:11:04We're striving for instant maturity within the constrictions of a budget, and our budget
00:11:09was very, very meager.
00:11:25I did a quick sketch of where we were going to put berms and where we were going to put
00:11:31boulders and where we were going to put trees, but no dimensions or anything.
00:11:36Then they planted it all by the seed of my past.
00:11:41Crazy, man.
00:11:42Crazy.
00:11:44Crazy, man.
00:11:45Crazy.
00:11:46Well done, let's go, but I go out.
00:11:51Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on.
00:12:04Crazy man, crazy.
00:12:07Crazy man, crazy.
00:12:10Man, that music's gone.
00:12:12Go, go, go, go, everybody.
00:12:16Go, go, go, go, everybody.
00:12:19Go, go, go, everybody.
00:12:22Go, go, go, go, go, go.
00:12:59Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
00:13:10Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
00:13:15go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
00:13:18go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
00:13:26Crazy, man, crazy
00:13:28Crazy, man, crazy
00:13:32Man like music
00:13:33Go, go, go, everybody
00:13:38Go, go, go, everybody
00:13:40Go, go, go, everybody
00:13:44Go, go, go, go, go, go, go
00:13:57With so much activity and so much heavy equipment, there's bound to be an upset now and then
00:14:03But the operators take these things in stride
00:14:06And fortunately, we've had no serious accidents
00:14:13Here's the beginning of Main Street
00:14:14A composite of all the small towns in America at the turn of the century
00:14:18Here you can take a ride in a horse car past the old town hall
00:14:22The opera house, the firehouse
00:14:24And if you stay on to the end of the line
00:14:27You will reach the hub of Disneyland
00:14:29Where this camera tower now stands
00:15:08The budget in starting was $4.5 million
00:15:12In August, it was $7 million
00:15:14In December, it was $11 million
00:15:17In springtime, it was anybody's guess
00:15:23And we ran out of money
00:15:25And almost had to stop construction
00:15:28At $17 million
00:15:31That's what happens when you
00:15:33Try to make a thing as special as Disneyland
00:15:37In a short time
00:15:44I haven't invested money in ranches
00:15:46I haven't got anything here
00:15:48I have a home, that's all
00:15:51But this thing, I put my own money in
00:15:56And I borrowed on the insurance that I've been paying on for 30 years
00:16:10Walt, I'd be walking around the enormous foundation for the railroad station
00:16:14And the underpass coming into Disneyland
00:16:16And he turned to Dick Irvine
00:16:18And he said, well, by the time Joe gets through burying all our money underground
00:16:22We want everything left for his show
00:16:25He was really sincerely worried about the situation
00:16:29And he didn't get throughוחed
00:17:23in Wilmington California construction was going forward on two steam locomotives
00:17:28vintage of 1900, probably the last of their type ever to be built in the United States.
00:17:58Walt just loved miniatures of almost everything, I think, and the trains were probably a kind of a personification of
00:18:07childhood to him.
00:18:08You know, it's what you grew up around.
00:18:24Walt was eight years younger than Dad, so he kind of was the little kid around the trains, and they
00:18:31were around the railroads a lot.
00:18:41When they had an uncle who was an engineer, both of them used to talk quite a lot about the
00:18:48thrill of going down and standing there by that great big locomotive and, you know, seeing their uncle.
00:19:00I learned about trains by building one for Walt. It's the one that we built that ran around his house.
00:19:07We had the drawings for what is known as the Lily Bell.
00:19:13But having all the drawings for the little train, we got started and manufactured the locomotives, the cars.
00:19:21So all we had to do was expand the gauge from one-eighth scale to the 36-inch gauge track.
00:19:42Back at the studio, the working models of our rides had been perfected, and we were well into construction on
00:19:48the real thing.
00:19:54The Peter Pan ride, for instance, they had one whole warehouse building over there filled up with the overhead rails
00:20:04and the cars, and we did the dips and the swirls.
00:20:10This was something that's completely new, too. I don't think there's ever been an overhead suspended ride in any amusement
00:20:17park to my nods.
00:20:23In nearby Newport, we were building and assembling miniature Autopia racing cars.
00:20:28These will speed along the Tomorrowland Freeway.
00:20:34A most difficult problem was to build them to fit the varying sizes of growing youngsters.
00:20:40And to give it that authentic, real-life feeling, our freeway will be patrolled by miniature police cars.
00:20:48Every job that you work on with Walt is different, and you figure out what you're going to do and
00:20:54how you're going to do it just as you get started on it.
00:21:02We had no project managers. Therefore, we didn't need any coordinators.
00:21:08The Xerox machine hadn't been invented yet, so we didn't publish anything. All we did was just do the work.
00:21:15Walt never gave a thought that he was overloading people.
00:21:19It was like, well, okay, we're just doing it. So you do all this stuff sort of at once.
00:21:27You didn't dilly-dally on decisions.
00:21:34And it's up to Walt to run around and catch you that it's not going the way he wants it.
00:21:38That's his problem.
00:21:48And there was a lot of people that said, he's done.
00:21:53If it had gone down, the studio would have gone down with it because everything was tied up in the
00:22:00park.
00:22:10They had a lot of problems getting the place open by that opening day.
00:22:15They dug out the rivers of America, and they filled it up with water one night, came back the next
00:22:21morning, and it was totally dry.
00:22:22There was a sandy soil, and the water just plain disappeared.
00:22:31We started an experiment with the waterway for the big river, rivers of America.
00:22:40First of all, we used it that night or whatever it was, it was a gooey thing that was supposed
00:22:46to make it waterproof bottom.
00:22:49And that didn't work too well.
00:22:55Everything wasn't sweetness and light and beautiful during the construction.
00:23:03Walt always came down on Sunday morning, and he looked all around, all over everything.
00:23:13And he took a couple of big sighs, and he turned to me and he says, do you know something?
00:23:22And he says, I just got some figures today.
00:23:26And he said, we've spent a little over half the money that we have spent on this park.
00:23:33And he says, there isn't one thing there or there or there or there but holes in the ground and
00:23:40piles of dirt.
00:23:42There isn't one thing that any human being would spend 15 cents to come and see.
00:23:47And he said, I'm scared.
00:23:51And he was.
00:24:01And it was, you couldn't believe that you spent half this, it seemed like an enormous amount of money.
00:24:07And there was nothing there that anybody would give a darn about.
00:24:13He just sat there, he didn't, didn't say anything for long.
00:24:17And it really impressed upon me on what responsibility was and what worry was.
00:24:22Because I was worried about little things about whether this was going to get done or whether this and that
00:24:27and all.
00:24:27But this is something that hadn't occurred to me because I didn't know anything about it.
00:24:31But this is, this is what worry is.
00:24:34He is.
00:24:35And I was brought home to me that day.
00:24:38I don't have to go for it, I don't think.
00:24:42No matter who I am, I don't know.
00:24:49I don't have to go for it, I don't know.
00:24:49No matter who I am, I don't know.
00:24:51This is what just happened to me.
00:25:08I have to go.
00:25:19Inside stage three, nearby, we started construction on a 105-foot American riverboat, the stern
00:25:26wheeler Mark Twain.
00:25:28Since the deck slopes from one end to the other, each piece of wood had to be individually
00:25:32cut and fitted.
00:25:35Constructing such a large boat inside a building 50 miles from water caused a lot of raised
00:25:40eyebrows.
00:25:41But unlike the fellow who built a boat in his basement and couldn't get it out, we had
00:25:46a plan.
00:25:51Well, we fooled nearly everyone, for it was designed to come apart in sections for shipping.
00:26:00Let's go.
00:26:29Walt, right from the beginning, made up his mind that he would have something different.
00:26:34He would have the concept of the family amusement park.
00:26:39And we were highly criticized at the beginning by some of the old-time operators of the amusement park
00:26:46as spending too much money, going into too much detail.
00:27:03Before the park opened, we went to various key amusement parks in the country and manufacturers
00:27:11to see if they would be interested in manufacturing things that we had designed.
00:27:15Almost invariably, the manufacturers would say,
00:27:18well, that would be pretty hard to do. Why don't you buy one of our things?
00:27:23So there's a typical amusement park ride, you know, they were for sale.
00:27:28But with Walt, we can't do this.
00:27:30And so these beautiful things were all made, and they were not practical,
00:27:34people, and he knew they were for it.
00:28:16The area were given by the people of the world.
00:28:16The people of the world were made up for years and years,
00:28:22they never sent them home.
00:28:22And they went into a hotel room and got to walk back to them.
00:28:23And so, I'll be right back, you know?
00:28:23You're on the other side.
00:28:24And you were trying to work out.
00:28:24I was telling you...
00:28:25It was extra.
00:28:25And it was extra.
00:28:25You're on the side with this.
00:28:25You're on the side.
00:28:29And it was really quick.
00:28:30You're on the side with this.
00:28:46The idea for a Disneyland lay dormant all those years.
00:28:50It came along when I was taking my kids around to these kiddie parks, and I'd take them around
00:28:54and we used to go out, I mean, every Saturday and Sunday, their mother wouldn't go with
00:28:59us, we'd be gone.
00:29:00I took them to zoos, I took them everywhere, and they used to love to go with me those days
00:29:07and that was some of the happiest days of my life.
00:29:18All my life I heard him talk about doing this kind of a park, and as the years went on,
00:29:23from
00:29:24the time I was five, and until he finally did it when I was 21, the dream just grew from
00:29:31this very humble little thing that maybe would be contained on the studio lot, to something
00:29:37quite grand.
00:29:42And I think everyone thought he was crazy like they did when he said he wanted to do
00:29:47a feature length cartoon.
00:29:55He had to look at this in some respects as a kind of a, it was a huge experiment.
00:30:05This was the genesis of that kind of park.
00:30:11What Walt started out to do, for heaven's sakes, was to do something as radically different
00:30:16from Coney Island as he could dream of.
00:30:18All right.
00:30:58It won't do everything that went into that part.
00:31:02He knew where every pipe was.
00:31:04The only thing that he didn't realize and that was hard for him to learn, the necessity
00:31:09of building concrete.
00:31:11He thought we could build it like a motion picture set on a temporary basis.
00:31:22So he never got over and was awful mad at the Adventureland waterfall because of all
00:31:27the concrete that went into it.
00:31:37That river, other workmen were just as busy solving the problem of how to build a rock.
00:31:43Creating beautiful rock formations is nothing for Mother Nature, but it wasn't so easy for
00:31:55us.
00:32:15I was supposed to look at the cost sheets when they came in every day, but I had never,
00:32:19I failed in arithmetic in high school.
00:32:23And I didn't know whether we were in the black or in the red, but if nobody had come over
00:32:27and said, you're running over, I didn't say anything.
00:32:30And Walt would come in and he'd say, how much money have you spent so far on this thing?
00:32:34And I said, well, now let me see.
00:32:35And he said, I'll tell you.
00:32:36And he'd tell me exactly.
00:32:52When Disney night was under construction, there were so many people at the studio all working
00:32:57on this crazy idea for an amusement park.
00:33:01In one way, it seemed crazy.
00:33:02In another way, it seemed completely natural.
00:33:11We really didn't have, what you would say, administrative offices.
00:33:15We just had people everywhere.
00:33:18Tweet me, tweet me, tweet me, tweet me, tweet me, tweet me.
00:33:23Tweet me, tweet me, tweet me, I'm as happy as can be.
00:33:33You kind of hated to go home at the end of the day because, oh gosh, you'd have to go
00:33:37home
00:33:37and go to bed and then get up the next morning and drive all the way back and keep going
00:33:41again.
00:33:41So it was kind of an inconvenience to stop and have to go home.
00:33:46Tweet me, tweet me, tweet me, dot.
00:33:49Tweet me, tweet me, dot.
00:33:51How you gonna keep that honey you got?
00:33:55Tweet me, dot. Tweet me, dot.
00:33:57Monkeys, monkeys, pieces, white.
00:33:59I'm gonna see my honey tonight.
00:34:03Tweet me, tweet me, tweet me, dot.
00:34:08Tweet me, dot.
00:34:10Tweet me, dot. Tweet me, dot.
00:34:13Give it up, give it up, give your love to me.
00:34:16Tweet me, dot.
00:34:19Tweet me, dot.
00:34:23Tweet me, dot.
00:34:23Well, here we are, inside Disneyland.
00:34:26Yes, we're in the park, all right.
00:34:28But we haven't left our problems behind at the studio.
00:34:30We're just concentrated a lot of them in one place here.
00:34:33Oh, fuck.
00:34:55When we started out,
00:34:56we all didn't know how to read a plan.
00:34:59And he would never say so.
00:35:02But we used to try and fool him about it.
00:35:06So it wasn't soon until he not only could read a plan,
00:35:08he could read it better than all of us,
00:35:09and he had a better feeling of proportion
00:35:13than any of us did,
00:35:14because he knew exactly what he wanted
00:35:16in a way of scaled-down version of Main Street.
00:35:30We built Disneyland with probably not 10%
00:35:32of the plans to start with.
00:35:34The plans were developed as we went along.
00:35:55I think Walt was convinced that
00:35:58if his guests were exposed to good taste,
00:36:03good quality, good design,
00:36:06they would sort of subconsciously perceive this.
00:36:10Not as a consequence of being educated
00:36:13in landscape design or in architecture
00:36:15or anything else,
00:36:16but they would subconsciously know
00:36:18all the dimensions of being good and bad.
00:36:31They were bringing in various landscape architects
00:36:35to do different projects.
00:36:37And Walt Disney became worried
00:36:41that because so many people were in it,
00:36:44it wouldn't hang together.
00:36:47And so that's the way I started.
00:36:53So I made a plan of Main Street and the Hub,
00:36:58and they called a meeting of all the art directors,
00:37:01and Walt was there,
00:37:03and they approved it.
00:37:09Roy Disney said,
00:37:11don't ever bother him with a problem.
00:37:13If they have a problem, come to us.
00:37:16Let him dream.
00:37:21So every Saturday,
00:37:23he would come down,
00:37:25and we'd go around
00:37:27with all the art directors,
00:37:29and he would have new ideas.
00:37:33something to be done.
00:37:36And he wanted to start it Monday morning.
00:37:39He didn't want plans Monday morning.
00:37:42So many weekends,
00:37:43I'd work till midnight,
00:37:46getting out sketches or something.
00:37:50And that's the way it went.
00:37:55The thing that I remember about it
00:37:58is that while Walt had a temper,
00:37:59and he could demand things to be done
00:38:01because he expected everybody to do what he did.
00:39:08In Disneyland, we had very acute problems there.
00:39:17I was advised by two or three of my major assistants, under no circumstances should we try to continue
00:39:24to open in July, we should postpone until September.
00:39:27But we said no.
00:39:37It was so important in the minds of the public who were going to open in July,
00:39:43and as a matter of fact, if we had waited until September with all of our problems financially
00:39:47and so forth, we might never have gotten off the ground.
00:40:24It was a learning process all the way through.
00:40:28And the thing I liked the most about those days was, it was a great thing to have somebody
00:40:32say, well, let's do it.
00:41:46By now, all over the studio, hammers and saws were quickly being replaced by paint and brushes, for the deadline
00:41:53was drawing near. The hurry up, paint up, finish up campaign began in earnest.
00:42:34And we did do it.
00:43:03This was our big bugaboo. What were you going to do with the Tomorrowland? We had to have it. You
00:43:11couldn't say we didn't want it. And we struggled so hard.
00:43:51You said, well, the worst thing could happen to us, don't you? And I said, well, what? What do you
00:43:56mean? The worst thing could happen? And he said, well, the worst thing could happen would be that I'd go
00:44:03broke.
00:44:21I said, well, the worst thing could happen. I said, well, the worst thing would happen.
00:44:30Outro music plays
00:44:48If your team is sympathetic and you all have the same goals,
00:44:51you arrive at something that's greater than the sum of the parts, of course.
00:44:57And I think it's well known that this kind of thing works that way.
00:45:03You build a kind of enthusiasm and you share something.
00:45:06Sometimes it becomes a little ridiculous and you just end up with fun.
00:45:10But most of the time, you turn over things by a mutual stimulation that you've never
00:45:17arrived at by yourself.
00:45:24Walt was a real master at provoking that type of atmosphere.
00:45:39Let's go.
00:45:39Let's go.
00:45:59Here on the shores, we come upon the realm of the creatures of the Serengeti plain, towering
00:46:05above them all, the giraffe.
00:46:07To reproduce these animals requires the combined efforts of the finest designers, sculptors,
00:46:13and master mechanics.
00:46:15Let's go.
00:46:16Let's go.
00:46:32Let's go.
00:46:33Let's go.
00:46:52Let's go.
00:47:00I was determined that I was going to have the first ride
00:47:04when the first boat got in the ride with water in it.
00:47:08I was going to ride first and find out if the person got wet.
00:47:15Because I had conceived the idea of going behind the waterfall.
00:47:43So I went slow and around and looked at everything and looked back to see the clearance and everything.
00:47:50And as I started under the waterfall, I got right in it and then I looked at it and then
00:47:53I looked at it.
00:47:53I looked back to see where the stern was and there was Walt sitting there.
00:47:58My heart stopped beating. I was clear through the waterfall before I came to.
00:48:04He stepped on board very carefully just as I left and I didn't know it.
00:48:17Presenting this week, the pre-opening report from Disneyland.
00:48:25In our first television show last year, we described to you our hopes and plans for a place called Disneyland.
00:48:33A few months ago, in a progress report, we showed you the actual start of construction.
00:48:40In our mail recently, a lot of you have shown interest in our progress.
00:48:44And so this week, just a matter of days away from the formal opening of Disneyland,
00:48:48we want to bring you up to date on what's been happening
00:48:51and let you share with us the joys and anxieties of our race against time.
00:48:57In this, our final report on building the Disneyland, I want to pay tribute to the many studio artists, craftsmen
00:49:05and engineers
00:49:06whose untiring efforts help bring this dream into a reality.
00:49:11Without their skills and imagination, Disneyland would not have been possible.
00:49:24Those last few days were frantic.
00:49:28I saw gardeners spraying bushes and flowers and things with paint because they had died.
00:49:35So instead of with water, they were painting the grass, bushes, trees.
00:49:58Prior to the opening, there was a plumbing strike.
00:50:01So the decision was, should we have drinking fountains or restrooms?
00:50:06Because there literally was enough time to get both done.
00:50:08And Walt said, well, you know, we've got to have restrooms.
00:50:14And people can drink Coke and Pepsi, but they can't pee in the street.
00:50:31We had a gas leak under the castle, and you could see little blue flames coming all around the perimeter
00:50:39and the foundation of the castle.
00:50:44I was unaware of this, of course, at the time, but so I was smoking my pipe as usual and
00:50:50walking up from the hub.
00:50:52All of a sudden, the fire chief at the time came running out and grabbed me.
00:50:56We waltzed all the way back down to the hub.
00:50:58He said, well, don't you know, there's a fire out there.
00:51:01I was afraid I'd blow up the castle.
00:51:02I was afraid I was afraid I'd watch that.
00:55:08I don't think there's a thing that I owe that I'll ever get the benefit of except through
00:55:14doing things with.
00:56:4110th of July, we had a party at Disneyland, and the first time we were allowed to run
00:56:47the train or on the park was that day, and also the riverboat ran that day.
00:57:01.
00:57:04.
00:57:04.
00:57:04.
00:57:04.
00:59:36Walt was living down there and he was out there early, early morning seeing how everything
00:59:41was going.
00:59:46Just before, I mean, we, Tomorrowland wasn't finished and we had to get in and do a quick
00:59:50and dirty dressing job.
01:00:07Before Disneyland opened, everything was in utter turmoil.
01:00:14And in Tomorrowland, we had these big buildings on both sides, but nothing in them.
01:00:42We hope you all will be listening and watching next Sunday, July 17th, when we present the
01:00:47formal opening of Disneyland in an hour and a half show over most of these stations.
01:01:08These are just some of the sights that ABC undertook to show a waiting nation on the world's largest
01:01:14live telecast.
01:01:22It all started when Mr. Kentner said to Mr. Disney, how about ABC televising the opening
01:01:28of Disneyland?
01:01:30Mr. Disney thought it was a fine idea.
01:01:34After all the preliminary planning, the camera crew started rehearsing their moves.
01:01:40Calls were sent out all over the nation, rounding up equipment.
01:01:44Getting 85,000 feet of cable, including 16,000 feet of coaxial, was no easy task in itself.
01:01:54Thirteen hydraulic forklifts were brought in and were set about building special camera platforms
01:01:59and mounting them onto these lifts.
01:02:01The forklift operators had to be rehearsed.
01:02:04There was always the danger they wouldn't stop the lifts in time and pull the cables out
01:02:08of the camera.
01:02:41My work at the time was getting Casey Jr. running, and I was testing it before opening,
01:02:50and the train started up to the first lift and started going over.
01:02:56We shut the ride down, of course, to find out why this happened.
01:03:00We discovered, well, there was no safety rail around the track, so we couldn't open the ride.
01:03:06But I was to run the locomotive once around the track to the TV show.
01:03:41There's no safety railing.
01:03:44There's no safety railing.
01:04:09All the time we were trying to rehearse,
01:04:11the workmen were still building Disneyland.
01:04:16Another one of our small problems,
01:04:18that's asphalt, not sand.
01:04:21We did manage to get some work done
01:04:23in spite of all the frantic last-minute construction,
01:04:26and men and material and trucks kept passing through
01:04:29in a frantic effort to finish on time.
01:04:34This kept rehearsal virtually at a standstill.
01:05:15Just before showtime, the last preparations were being made.
01:05:19And then, ready!
01:05:22Fantasyland!
01:05:23Frontierland!
01:05:25Adventureland!
01:05:26Main Street!
01:05:27Tomorrowland!
01:05:29Stand by!
01:05:30Five seconds!
01:05:32And here's the show!
01:05:35When you wish upon a star
01:05:41Makes no difference who you are
01:05:47Howdy to everyone, this is Hank Weaver.
01:05:50For the past year, this signature has announced
01:05:52the opening of Disneyland, the show.
01:05:55Now, it announces the opening of Disneyland, the place.
01:05:58The people and eyes around the world are focused on these 160 acres
01:06:04here in Anaheim, California.
01:06:06This afternoon, Disneyland, the world's most fabulous kingdom,
01:06:09will be unveiled before an invitational world premiere.
01:06:13And you are guests.
01:06:42And to start the proceedings,
01:06:44we take you to the entrance of Disneyland, and your host, Art Linkletter.
01:06:50I'm standing here on the railroad tracks, and I'm in front of the big Disneyland and Santa Fe
01:06:54Railroad Station. And down these tracks, in just a couple of seconds, will come Walt Disney himself
01:07:00barreling in on a railroad train built to 5 eighths minute at your side.
01:07:22How did the run go? Oh, fine, fine. The governor headed around to Frontierland, and then Fred
01:07:28Gurley there, he took her around, and I picked her up and brought her in. Hi, I'm all in here.
01:07:31Hello, Governor. Glad to see you, Art. Governor Knight of California, ladies and gentlemen,
01:07:36and Walt Disney, of course, and Mr. Gurley, the president of the Santa Fe. And of the Santa
01:07:40Fe and Disneyland, if you please. That's right.
01:07:53Thousands are coming in. They're going through the magic tunnel on foot, because no car can
01:07:59enter here. And like Alice in Wonderland, as you go on through that tunnel, past the
01:08:05Disneyland Santa Fe, you find yourself in a bygone time. Another world. The clock has
01:08:12turned back a half a century, and you're in the main square of a small American town, the
01:08:17year 1900.
01:08:27I was just one of the sweaty people trying to find their way through the, oh, it's a rat maze
01:08:33down there. Everybody had been out celebrating a little the night before, so there were more
01:08:41than a few hangovers. It was not the best of all days.
01:08:50Most people remember the opening day as a total disaster, because they had almost twice as many
01:08:55people as they had planned for. They ran out of food. Almost every imaginable thing that could
01:09:01go wrong. Women had to wear high heels all the time, and hoes. Hot weather, like the beginning
01:09:09of the opening of Disneyland. It was a ferocious day. But you had to give all credit for a most
01:09:17impressive idea all the way. You couldn't knock a man that thought like that.
01:09:26All activity on Main Street has ceased. Walt Disney will step forward to read the dedication of Disneyland.
01:09:43To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the
01:09:52past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to
01:09:59the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a
01:10:05source of joy and inspiration to all the world. Thank you.
01:10:31Standing here has been one of the most exciting moments of my life. I think, ladies and gentlemen,
01:10:36that anyone who's been here today will say, as the people did many years ago, when they were at the
01:10:41opening of the Eiffel Tower, I was there. I'm very proud to say I was at the opening of Disneyland.
01:10:46It's a fabulous thing to happen, ladies and gentlemen.
01:10:59We didn't lack faith in the idea that it was going to be something good. It was other people that
01:11:06were
01:11:06sure that it was not going to be a success. I don't think it was true with the people in
01:11:11the creative departments.
01:11:22He says, all I want is that when people walk through or ride through or have access to anything that
01:11:32you design,
01:11:33I want them, when they leave, to have a smile on their face. And he says, you just remember that,
01:11:40and that's all I ask of you as a designer. Make it pretty, but make it so that the people
01:11:49really come out, smile.
01:11:57The press was not very complimentary to our opening, but that's part of the cost of this business,
01:12:03of being in show business in Hollywood, and that is they're looking for any kind of little cracks
01:12:07or any kind of things they can magnify.
01:12:17Right now, it's my pleasure to introduce the lovely lady and famous star whom Mr. Disney has asked to christen
01:12:24the Mark Twain. Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Irene Dunn.
01:12:29Hello, how are you? It's glisting. It's glisting a little because it'll be shoving off in a moment.
01:12:35And there, the boat is christened, and it starts on its daily trips up and down the rivers of the
01:12:41world of America, that is.
01:12:44Thank you, Ms. Dunn.
01:12:46And now, ladies and gentlemen, I've got other places to go, and the Commodore, Admiral Joe Fowler,
01:12:52up there in the wheelhouse, looks like they're getting ready to shove off, so I better, goodbye, Irene.
01:12:56Goodbye, everybody. Have a good ride. There goes the whistle. Take her away, Admiral. Goodbye.
01:13:31Before our preview of Tomorrowland,
01:13:33I'd like to read these few words of dedication.
01:13:37A vista into a world of wondrous ideas, signifying man's achievement, a step into the future with predictions of constructing
01:13:45things to come.
01:13:47Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure, and ideals, the atomic age, the challenge of outer space, and the hope
01:13:56for a peaceful and unified world.
01:14:05Those doves are, ladies and gentlemen, I hope, the harbingers of peace for the world of tomorrow.
01:14:16But I think it comes back to the way people feel. They feel better about themselves.
01:14:22I think if we give people confidence, we make them feel that they can handle anything.
01:14:28It seems to me it's not only reduces the fear, but it makes them better people. And there is hope.
01:14:56Walt, you've made a bum out of Barnum today, but we've got to go.
01:15:00I know, but I just want to say a word of thanks to all the artists and workers and everybody
01:15:05that helped make this dream come true.
01:15:08Let's go into Fantasyland and have some fun. Goodbye, folks.
01:15:40Let's go into Fantasyland and have some fun.
01:15:40Let's go into Fantasyland and have some fun.
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