It was 50 Years Ago Today

Published October 27, 2004

By C. W. Oberleitner

If you listen very closely at around seven o'clock this evening, you may hear something special. You'll have to be very quiet, turn down the TV, or pull out the ear buds from your iPod. Perhaps you should step out side if you live in a quiet neighborhood and turn an ear up to the heavens.

What are you listening for? An echo. It's the echo of one of the most monumental collisions in history. It's the continuing reverberation of the crossing of three of the twentieth century's most titanic forces.

The Happiest Collision on Earth

There is an old adage that says it's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart. Walt Disney was both. There is little doubt that regardless of what else may have transpired during the twentieth century, Walt Disney was determined to build a place for fans of his animated films and families to come together. He could not, however, have picked a better time or way to announce Disneyland.

By the fall of 1954, Walt Disney, with the assistance of his brother Roy, had secured the financing and the land to build his Disneyland. Roy had secured over five million dollars in cash and loan guarantees from the struggling ABC television network as part of the capital raised to fund the park. The deal also stipulated that the Disney Studio would produce a one-hour weekly television series for the network.

At 7 P.M. on the evening of October 27, 1954, audiences heard, for the first time, the words, "Walt Disney's Disneyland" over the strains of what was to become the company's unofficial anthem, When You Wish Upon a Star from the studios' second full-length feature animated film Pinocchio. At that moment Walt's vision collided with the ongoing arrival of the Baby Boom generation, an explosion of televisions in American homes, and the biggest upswing in the economy since the end of World War II.

The Disneyland TV show was little more than an infomercial, for what was then thought to be Disney's greatest folly. It could not have arrived in homes at a better time.

The first members of the Baby Boom generation were just turning eight. Their parents were continuing to move to the new suburbs by the tens of thousands. Suburbs in those days were much different from what were now used to. The first shopping malls and multiplexes were years away. Once you were home there was little to do but listen to radio or watch the few hours of TV broadcast by the three networks. And, in that limited field, Disney had the only nationally known name synonymous with family entertainment.

Tens of millions of children and their families grew up watching Uncle Walt first build then add on to his favorite toy, Disneyland. So powerful was the image of Disney's original park in the minds of Americans that for years after the opening of Walt Disney World, near Orlando, people planning a Disney family vacation would often say to their friends, "We're going to Disneyland. The one in Florida."

The impact of Disneyland on people's hearts and minds is a worldwide phenomenon. When the Oriental Land Company first approached the Walt Disney Company about building a Disney theme park in Tokyo, they insisted that it be called Disneyland. And, when Euro Disney ran into financial difficulty--from having overbuilt hotel space just thirty minutes outside of Paris--part of the restructuring included renaming it Disneyland Paris.

Ripples in a Pond

In the forty-nine years since Disneyland officially opened on July 17, 1955, the affects it has had on popular culture around the world are almost incalculable. At the time of its opening, the amusement park business in America was struggling. Fifteen years later, and some three years after his death, Walt Disney and his park were credited with creating the theme park industry, which in turn gave rise to themed resorts and the resurgence of the cruise ship industry.

Just five years after Disneyland's Main Street opened, featuring a series of commonly joined climate-controlled stores, the first shopping malls began appearing around the country. An Orange County architectural firm, located a few miles from Disneyland's main gates, designed the first of these indoor shopping centers. Today, themed shopping venues of every manner dot the landscape.

In 1959, Disneyland opened the world's first tubular steel track rollercoaster, featuring computer controlled breaking blocks. Fashioned to resemble a bobsled ride down the interior and sides of Switzerland's famous Matterhorn, it remains one of Disneyland's most popular attractions.

The original Disneyland TV show went on to become The Wonderful World of Color, The Wonderful World of Disney, and Disney's Wonderful World. All told, it continually aired on all three major networks for more than thirty five years. It returned to the air in 1997, as The Wonderful World of Disney following the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC by the current management of The Walt Disney Company .

Official Celebration

Neither The Walt Disney Company nor ABC has announced plans to commemorate this date. The Disney Company marks July 17, 1955, as Disneyland's official anniversary date. Next Spring, on May 5, 2005, the company will launch an eighteen month long, worldwide celebration of Disneyland's 50^th Anniversary at its parks and resorts.

When asked if the company had considered marking the occasion of the debut of the Disneyland television show, this is what one Disney executive had to say:

We considered rerunning the first show featuring Walt's introduction of the park again on October 27, 2004. The idea was dismissed by Burbank (Disney Company headquarters) because it was 'too old.'

When asked what he meant by "too old," he said:

They feared it would turn off kids and younger viewers. That it would only appeal to the Baby Boomers.

This seems odd when you consider the company chose Happiest Homecoming on Earth as the title for Disneyland's worldwide celebration. After a fifty year love affair, if the Baby Boomers aren't coming home to Disneyland, who is?

By the way, if you write the start date for Disneyland's 50^th Anniversary celebration in the American numerical style, May 05/05, then hold it up to a mirror, you'll see how that date was chosen to start the celebration.

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Fifty years ago today, Wednesday October 27, 1954, Disneyland the television series debuted on the ABC television network.

For millions of Baby Boomers and their families October 27, is the day Disneyland was born in their imaginations.