Disneyland's Grand Opening Store After years of planning, Walt Disney's very first theme park Disneyland opened its gates at 2:30PM on Sunday July 17, 1955 in Anaheim, California. Television crews, Art Linkletter, Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings, the Mouseketeers, Thurl Ravenscroft, California Governor Goodwin J. Knight and over 28,000 guests witnessed the opening of Walt's dream. Broadcast on ABC at 4:30PM, it was the biggest live telecast to date. Eighteen-year-old Bob Penfield operated the King Arthur Carousel that day - he was suppose to operate Peter Pan's Flight, but the attraction kept breaking down. "On Opening Day I remember standing on the Carrousel when they lowered the drawbridge for the first time and all of the kids came running across." Penfield went on to become the longest working Cast Member in Disneyland history! Charlie Ridgway, a reporter working for the Los Angeles Mirror-News was covering the opening of Disneyland on that hot July day. He later went on to work for Disney as a publicist before relocating to Orlando, Florida to run Disney's public-relations department for thirty years!

Actor Ronald Reagan (who would later become president of the United States) introduced 53-year-old Walt Disney - "And now, Walt Disney will step forward to read the dedication of Disneyland." Walt christened his 160-acre park with these now famous words (penned by Winston Hibler): The park offered 5 themed lands with a total of 18 attractions . Disneyland opened as invitation only on this day, given to studio workers, construction workers, the press and officials of company sponsors. (The park opened to the general public the following day - July 18 .) Because tickets to the grand opening were counterfeited, a surprising 28,000-plus attended. The day was marked by numerous disasters, including a traffic jam, a shortage of food, and a gas leak in Fantasyland. Even a chunk of window from the Mark Twain Steamboat crashed on the head of an invited state senator! Disneyland encouraged visitors to arrive before 4:15PM, as during the live ABC telecast the park's gates were closed from 4:20PM to 5:30PM. Cast Member Ron Dominguez was working as a ticket taker at Disneyland's main gate.

"I was a Ticker Taker. Opening Day was a hectic day. The plan was to invite people at different hours so that we could spread out all of the arrivals. But it didn't work out that way. Everyone wanted to come out early to see the stars." Dominguez would spend his entire career at the park eventually becoming a top executive (between 1971-1994). Ironically he grew up on one of the Anaheim orange groves later purchased by Disney for the theme park. The Dominguez family house was located just about where the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean is! Celebrities visiting Disneyland that day included Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Danny Thomas, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. July 17, 1955 was known by Disneyland old-timers as "Black Sunday" (because of the numerous mishaps) ... yet in those first 7 weeks more than a million people walked down Disneyland's Main Street USA! OPENING DAY OPENING OF DISNEYLAND Nine-year-old Bonnie Williams was an opening day guests because her church youth group was invited. She was among the first children to cross the drawbridge into Fantasyland and ride Disneyland's rides!

"I remember seeing Walt," she says. "He looked like a giant. I told him, 'I saw you on TV!' The whole day was magical. I felt like a real princess." "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 which have created America ... with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world." THIS SITE MADE IN THE USA A rusty-haired 12-year-old named Tom Nabbe also visited Disneyland. Tom and his mom stood outside the park's entrance seeking autographs from Hollywood stars who were visiting. They spotted entertainer Danny Thomas exiting and Tom's mom asked him for an autograph. As he signed he asked her, "Have you been in the park?" Upon learning she hadn't, Thomas gave her two extra free passes! Tom and his mom became invited guests of Danny Thomas! (Two days later, Tom landed a job as a "newsie," hawking The Disneyland News on Main Street.

In 1956 Nabbe became the park's first Tom Sawyer and in 1971, became Walt Disney World's monorail manager!) Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland jazz band made up of Disney Studio employees and led by animator Ward Kimball, appeared at the firehouse on Main Street for the opening ceremonies. The group, made up of Harper Goff, Danny Alguire, Clarke Mallery, Monte Mountjoy, Ed Penner, and Frank Thomas, later played at the dedication of Frontierland. "Walt told us to wander around the park and play wherever there was a crowd. We were the first mobile band at Disneyland!" -Ward Kimball Disney consultant Harrison "Buzz" Price, who a few years earlier had chosen the then-sleepy agricultural town of Anaheim as the location for Disneyland, attended opening day. "I was on the bridge that led to Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and it was full of people. We couldn't move. and the asphalt was sticky.

I looked down and saw Frank Sinatra, and he was cursing." Actor Fess Parker, famously known in 1955 as TV's Davy Crockett, led the opening-day parade dressed as the famous frontiersman and riding a horse! ''There were so many people I couldn't see the park!" he later explained. The Mouseketeers were first introduced to the public during the live broadcast of the Disneyland opening day festivities. All 24 members were featured in the inaugural Main Street parade and were showcased with their very own musical production number. (Mickey Mouse Club would make its national television premiere on October 3, 1955 .) Future Disneyland President Jack Lindquist was there on opening day ... but as a guest. He was working for an ad agency and one of his clients, Kelvinator (an appliance company) invited him. "It was so overcrowded, and it was I think 105. I don’t know, but very very hot. But traffic wasn’t a problem, they had a great system of directing traffic. It came right into the parking lot, and then everything came to a halt. You had tickets that said enter at 1PM.

Well, the people that had tickets that said 8am, 9am, 10am weren’t leaving. They were just adding more people going in, nobody was coming out." "It’s not apparent at a casual glance but this street is only a scale model. We had every brick and tile and gas lamp made 5/8ths true size. This cost more, but it made the street a toy, and the imagination can play more freely with a toy. Besides, people like to think that their world is somehow more grown-up than Papa’s was." -Walt Disney on Disneyland's Main Street Also among the first children to run through Sleeping Beauty Castle was young Robb Fischle. He was also one of the first to experience Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Starting in 1972 he worked at Disneyland and today is a park Security Officer! "Main Street, U.S.A. is America at the turn of the century - the crossroads of an era. The gas lamps and the electric lamps, the horse drawn car and the auto car. Main Street is everyone's home town ... the come true." -Walt Disney "Tomorrowland ...

a vista into a world of wondrous ideas, signifying man's achievements ... a step into the future with predictions of constructive things to come. Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure and ideals ... the challenge of outer space, and the hope of a peaceful and unified world." -Walt Disney "Opening Day? It was wonderful! I was loading jungle boats and Bob Cummings microphone wire kept getting wrapped around my neck! I was supposed to be working on the Mark Twain but they didn't have my uniform by opening day. Well, the Mark Twain had too many operators and the jungle didn't have enough, so I went to the jungle for a year. There were no microphones on the boats then and you shouted yourself hoarse with a megaphone. I didn't like to give the spiel so they sent me to the shooting galleries for ten years. I made Walt Disney pay on the shooting gallery. Yep. Sure did. That's the rules... no different for him than anyone else! Walt wanted things perfect.

He had an open mind and asked advice of the operators saying, 'How can you improve?' He loved kids." -Homer Holland (original Cast Member) Imagineer Harriett Burns, the first woman ever hired by Walt Disney in a creative rather than an office capacity, was there on July 17 as well. "Oh, the crunch. Oh my gosh. We were all assigned different places... each person at the studio. They didn’t want everyone in the same area. They thought we’d be spaced out and sort of be “hosting” in different areas. But, it was just so crunched. They had counterfeit tickets and there was just this mob of people and it felt like 110 degrees. The asphalt was melting, every woman wore heels and my heels would sink into the asphalt. It was a miserable hot day." "On the opening day of Disneyland, we (Mouseketters) were in Walt Disney's private apartment above the Main Street Fire Station when the gates of the park opened for the first time. I was standing next to him at the window, watching the guests come pouring through the gates.

When I looked up at him, he had his hands behind his back, a grin from ear to ear, I could see a lump in his throat and a tear streaming down his cheek. He had realized his dream. I was only twelve years old at the time, so it didn't mean as much to me then. But as the years go by, that image of him becomes more and more endearing." -Sharon Baird "Disneyland will always "I think what I want Disneyland to be most of all is a happy place—a place where adults and children some of the wonder of life, of adventure, and feel better because of it." -Walt Disney Young Martin Gushwa visited the park on that historic day as well. "I was one of the kids that ran across the bridge and then thru the castle the day the park opened," Marty happily recalled. After high school and during his college years he worked at the Disneyland Hotel restaurants. "After my wife and I started a family we began buying annual passes and used to take the girls to the park every Sunday after church. My oldest daughter went on to work with the Disney Kids Clubs and also for one contract on one of the Disney Cruise ships.

A couple of years ago we purchased the DVD set of the opening day at the park. I swear I can pick me out of the group of kids on the bridge." "Disney was a dreamer and a doer ... while the rest of us were talking about the future, he built it. The things he taught us at Disneyland about street planning, crowd movement, comfort humanity, etc, will influence builders, architects, urban planners for the next century." -writer Ray Bradbury Disneyland Opens in 1955 By Jennifer Rosenberg Updated October 16, 2015. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened for a few thousand specially invited visitors; the following day, Disneyland officially opened to the public. Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California on what used to be a 160-acre orange orchard, cost $17 million to build. The original park included Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. Walt Disney's Vision for Disneyland When they were little, Walt Disney would take his two young daughters, Diane and Sharon, to play at the carousel at Griffith Park in Los Angeles every Sunday.

While his daughters enjoyed their repeated rides, Disney sat on park benches with the other parents who had nothing to do but watch. It was on these Sunday excursions that Walt Disney began to dream of an activity park that had things for both children and parents to do. At first, Disney envisioned an eight-acre park which would be located near his Burbank studios and be called, " Mickey Mouse Park ." However, as Disney began to plan themed areas, he quickly realized that eight-acres would be way too small for his vision. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States Although World War II and other projects put Disney's theme park on the back burner for many years, Disney continued to dream about his future park. In 1953, Walt Disney was finally ready to start on what would become known as Disneyland. Finding a Location for Disneyland The first part of the project was to find a location. Disney hired the Stanford Research Institute to find an appropriate location that consisted of at least 100-acres, was located near Los Angeles, and could be reached by a freeway. The company found for Disney a 160-acre orange orchard in Anaheim, California. Financing a Place of Dreams Next came finding funding.

While Walt Disney put up much of his own money to make his dream a reality, he didn't have enough personal money to complete the project. Disney then contacted financiers to help. But however much Walt Disney was enthralled with the theme park idea, the financiers he approached were not. Many of the financiers could not envision the monetary rewards of a place of dreams. To gain financial support for his project, Disney turned to the new medium of television. Disney made a plan with ABC: ABC would help finance the park if Disney would produce a television show on their channel. The program Walt created was called "Disneyland" and showed previews of the different themed areas in the new, upcoming park. Building Disneyland On July 21, 1954, construction on the park began. It was a momentous undertaking to build Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland in only one year. The total cost of building Disneyland would be $17 million. Opening Day On July 17, 1955, 6,000 by-invitation-only guests were invited for a special preview of Disneyland before it opened to the public the following day.

Unfortunately, 22,000 extra people arrived with counterfeit tickets. Besides the huge numbers of extra people on this first day, many other things went wrong. Included in the problems were a heat wave that made the temperature unusually and unbearably hot, a plumber's strike meant only a few of the water fountains were functional, women's shoes sunk into still soft asphalt which had been laid the night before, and a gas leak caused several of the themed areas to be closed temporarily. Despite these initial setbacks, Disneyland opened to the public on July 18, 1955, with an entrance fee of $1. Over the decades, Disneyland has added attractions and opened the imaginations of millions of children. What was true when Walt Disney stated it during the opening ceremonies in 1955 still stands true today: "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... with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

Thank you." A Great Big World of Disney Parks Dedication: "To all who come to this place of Joy, Hope and Friendship - Welcome. EPCOT is inspired by Walt Disney's creative vision. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, wonders of enterprise and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all. May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere." - E. Cardon Walker, October 24, 1982 Park #2: Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Location: Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States Dedication: "Walt Disney World is tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney ... and to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney's dream come true. May Walt Disney World bring Joy and Inspiration and New Knowledge to all who come to this happy place ... a Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play and learn - together." - Roy O.

Disney, October 25, 1971 A GREAT BIG WORLD OF DISNEY PARKS Park #1: Disneyland Dedication: "To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Here you will discover enchanted lands of Fantasy and Adventure, Yesterday and Tomorrow. May Tokyo Disneyland be an eternal source of joy, laughter, inspiration, and imagination to the peoples of the world. And may this magical kingdom be an enduring symbol of the spirit of cooperation and friendship between the great nations of Japan and the United States of America." - E. Cardon Walker, April 15, 1983 Park #5: Disney-MGM Studios Today known as Disney's Hollywood Studios * at Walt Disney World Opened: May 1, 1989 (as Disney-MGM Studios) Dedication: "The World you have entered was created by The Walt Disney Company and is dedicated to Hollywood - not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine, a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic.

We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was - and always will be." - Michael Eisner, May 1, 1989 * On January 7, 2008 Disney-MGM was renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios. Park #6: Euro Disney / Disneyland Paris * Location: Marne-la-Vallée, in the suburbs of Paris, France Opened: April 12, 1992 Dedication: "To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Once upon a time ... a master storyteller, Walt Disney, inspired by Europe's best loved tales, used his own special gifts to share them with the world. He envisioned a Magic Kingdom where these stories would come to life, and called it Disneyland. Now his dream returns to the land that inspired it. Euro Disneyland is dedicated to the young and the young at heart ...

with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration for all the world." - Michael Eisner, April 12, 1992 * The resort officially opened as Euro Disney Resort on April 12 1992, but was later renamed Disneyland Paris on October 1, 1994 Park #7: Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Location: Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States Dedication: "Welcome to a kingdom of animals ... real, ancient and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drama, and learn." - Michael Eisner, April 22, 1998 Park #8: Disney's California Adventure Park at Disneyland Resort Location: Anaheim, California, United States Opened: February 8, 2001 Dedication: "To all who believe in the power of dreams... welcome. Here we pay tribute to the dreamers of the past ... The native people, explorers, immigrants, aviators, entrepreneurs and entertainers who built the Golden State.

And we salute a new generation of dreamers who are creating the wonders of tomorrow ... From the silver screen to the computer screen ... From the fertile farmlands to the far reaches of space. Disney California Adventure celebrates the richness and the diversity of California ... Its land, its people, its spirit and, above all, the dreams that it continues to inspire." - Michael Eisner, February 8, 2001 Park #10: Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris Location: Marne-la-Vallée, in the suburbs of Paris, France Dedication: "To all who enter the studio of dreams, welcome. The Walt Disney Studios is dedicated to our timeless fascination and affection for cinema and for television. Here we celebrate the art and the artistry of storytelling from Europe and around the world to create the magic in a special place through our own memories of the past and our dreams of the future." - Michael D.

Eisner, March 16, 2002 Park #9: Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disneyland Location: Urayasu, Chiba, Japan (near Tokyo) Opened: September 4, 2001 Dedication: "Welcome one and all to a world where Imagination and Adventure set sail. Tokyo DisneySea is dedicated to the spirit of exploration that lives in each of us. Here we charter a course for Adventure, Romance, Discovery and Fun and journey to exotic and fanciful Ports of Call. May Tokyo DisneySea inspire the hearts and mind of all of us who share the water planet, Earth." - Michael Eisner, September 4, 2001 Park #11: Hong Kong Disneyland Location: overlooking the water of Penny's Bay on Lantau Island, Hong Kong Opened: September 12, 2005 Dedication: "To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Many years ago, Walt Disney introduced the world to enchanted realms of fantasy and adventure, yesterday and tomorrow, in a magical placed called Disneyland. Today that spirit of imagination and discovery comes to life in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Disneyland is dedicated to the young and the young at heart - with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration, and an enduring symbol of the cooperation, friendship and understanding between the people of Hong Kong and the United States of America." - Michael Eisner & Donald Tsang, September 12, 2005 1 Disney Parks THIS SITE MADE IN THE USA The very first Disney park, Disneyland holds the distinction of being the only theme park to be designed, built, opened , and operated by Walt Disney himself. The park is divided into realms, which radiate like the four cardinal points of the compass from Central Plaza. When opened in 1955, the park consisted of 5 themed areas - Main Street USA, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. The park's iconic fairytale centerpiece is the Sleeping Beauty Castle (standing 77 feet tall). Today it is part of the Disneyland Resort. The first park built at Disney World , construction began on the Magic Kingdom a year after the death of Walt Disney (although he was very involved in the planning of the resort).

A larger version of the original Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom opened with similar themed lands with the addition of Liberty Square and Mickey's Toontown Fair. The Magic Kingdom's fairytale centerpiece is the Cinderella Castle (reaching a height of 189 feet). More than twice the size of Sleeping Beauty Castle, forced perspective makes Cinderella Castle appear even larger than it actually is. The second theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort, Epcot (originally called EPCOT Center until 1994) is dedicated to international culture and technological innovation. The name Epcot derives from the acronym EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), a utopian city of the future dreamed up by Walt Disney even before Disney World was built. The park consists of two sections - Future World and World Showcase - laid out in an hourglass shape. Both sections are patterned after exhibits usually found at World's Fair type of events. Future World consists of a variety of pavilions that explore innovative aspects and applications of technology. World Showcase features pavilions representing countries from around the world. Unlike other Disney parks, Epcot's iconic symbol is not a castle but an 18-story geodesic sphere called Spaceship Earth.

The first Disney park to be built outside of the United States, Tokyo Disneyland was constructed in the same style as Disneyland in California and the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Like its sister parks, Tokyo Disneyland also has themed areas, although instead of a Main Street USA, this park features World Bazaar. Tokyo Disneyland's iconic structure is also the Cinderella Castle (generally considered to be a carbon copy of the Magic Kingdom's castle). Interestingly, the park is not owned by Disney but by The Oriental Land Company - who license the theme from The Walt Disney Company. The Disney-MGM Studios (today called Disney's Hollywood Studios) draws inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. The third park built at Walt Disney World, it consists of six themed areas - but unlike the other Walt Disney World parks, Disney's Hollywood Studios does not have a defined layout. The park features a mass of streets and buildings that blend into each other, much like a real motion picture studio would. The park's original icon was the Earful Tower, but today the park is represented by The Sorcerer's Hat, a stylized version of the magical hat from Fantasia.

Disneyland Paris is the second Disney resort to open outside the United States (following Tokyo Disney Resort) and the first to be owned and operated by Disney (Euro Disney S.C.A.). Following the success of Disneyland in California and the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, plans to build a similar theme park in Europe first emerged back in 1972. Often a subject of controversy during the periods of negotiation and construction in the late 1980s and early '90s, the park originally opened as Euro Disney. Its design is based on a formula pioneered by Disneyland and further employed at the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland. The park's iconic structure is the Sleeping Beauty Castle (often referred to as the most beautfiul of all the Disney castles). The fourth park to be built at Walt Disney World, Disney's Animal Kingdom is the largest single Disney theme park in the world, covering more than 500 acres. It is also the first Disney theme park to be themed entirely around animal conservation (the park is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums - meaning they have met and exceeded the standards in Education, Conservation and Research).

The park is made up of themed areas and its iconic structure is not a castle but The Tree of Life. A massive 14-story tall artificial tree, The Tree of Life is located in the center of Disney's Animal Kingdom. Disney's California Adventure Park (today known as simply Disney California Adventure) adjacent to the original Disneyland, is part of what is today called the Disneyland Resort. In 1991, Disney announced a plan to build a second gate in Anaheim called WestCOT, a west coast version of Epcot. Plans were cancelled and instead DCA was constructed as part of a major expansion that transformed the Disneyland area and its hotels into the Disneyland Resort. Paying tribute to California, DCA is also split up into themed areas with names like - Sunshine Plaza (serving as the main entrance), Hollywood Pictures Backlot, The Golden State, A Bug's Land and Paradise Pier. Grizzly Peak, the park's icon, is a man-made mountain in the shape of a grizzly bear, which represents California's state animal. It houses Grizzly River Run, a large rapids ride located in the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area.

Tokyo DisneySea is the second theme park to open at the Tokyo Disney Resort and the most expensive theme park ever built. With an overall nautical exploration theme featuring unique "ports of call," Tokyo DisneySea has become one of the most popular Disney Parks in the world. Unlike other parks, DisneySea has two iconic symbols - a water fountain with a large model of the earth called DisneySea AquaSphere and gigantic volcano called Mount Prometheus (which is exactly the same height as Tokyo Disneyland's Cinderella Castle). Originally planned as Disney-MGM Studios Europe, Walt Disney Studios Park is the second theme park of Disneyland Resort Paris. Considered a sister park to Disney's Hollywood Studios (in Florida), it too features a show business theme with areas called Front Lot, Toon Studio, Production Courtyard, and Backlot. Walt Disney Studios Park's icon is The Earffel Tower, a water-tower structure similar to the one originally used at the Florida theme park. Hong Kong Disneyland is the first theme park inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (which is owned and managed by the Hong Kong International Theme Parks - an incorporated company jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and the Government of Hong Kong).

The fifth Disneyland style park, it consists of similar themed lands - Main Street USA, Fantasyland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland. The theme park's cast members speak English and Chinese, including Cantonese and Mandarin dialects. Hong Kong Disneyland's icon is of course a castle - modeled after the original 1955 Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. The 5 Disney Resorts (Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland) are made up of 11 theme parks in all: Disneyland opens - Jul 17, 1955 - HISTORY.com Disneyland opens Publisher A+E Networks Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 14 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion. Walt Disney, born in Chicago in 1901, worked as a commercial artist before setting up a small studio in Los Angeles to produce animated cartoons.

In 1928, his short film Steamboat Willy, starring the character “Mickey Mouse,” was a national sensation. It was the first animated film to use sound, and Disney provided the voice for Mickey. From there on, Disney cartoons were in heavy demand, but the company struggled financially because of Disney’s insistence on ever-improving artistic and technical quality. His first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), took three years to complete and was a great commercial success. Snow White was followed by other feature-length classics for children, such as Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). Fantasia (1940), which coordinated animated segments with famous classical music pieces, was an artistic and technical achievement. In Song of the South (1946), Disney combined live actors with animated figures, and beginning with Treasure Island in 1950 the company added live-action movies to its repertoire. Disney was also one of the first movie studios to produce film directly for television, and its Zorro and Davy Crockett series were very popular with children.

In the early 1950s, Walt Disney began designing a huge amusement park to be built near Los Angeles. He intended Disneyland to have educational as well as amusement value and to entertain adults and their children. Land was bought in the farming community of Anaheim, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and construction began in 1954. In the summer of 1955, special invitations were sent out for the opening of Disneyland on July 17. Unfortunately, the pass was counterfeited and thousands of uninvited people were admitted into Disneyland on opening day. The park was not ready for the public: food and drink ran out, a women’s high-heel shoe got stuck in the wet asphalt of Main Street USA, and the Mark Twain Steamboat nearly capsized from too many passengers. Disneyland soon recovered, however, and attractions such as the Castle, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White’s Adventures, Space Station X-1, Jungle Cruise, and Stage Coach drew countless children and their parents. Special events and the continual building of new state-of-the-art attractions encouraged them to visit again.

In 1965, work began on an even bigger Disney theme park and resort near Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney died in 1966, and Walt Disney World was opened in his honor on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom were later added to Walt Disney World, and it remains Florida’s premier tourist attraction. In 1983, Disneyland Tokyo opened in Japan, and in 1992 Disneyland Paris–or “EuroDisney”–opened to a mixed reaction in Marne-la-Vallee. The newest Disneyland, in Hong Kong, opened its doors in September 2005. Related Videos Geography and Facts on Disney Theme Parks Share By Amanda Briney Disney's first theme park was Disneyland, located in Anaheim California. Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955. In the 1970s, the Walt Disney Company developed its Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Division after the construction of the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Since its founding in 1971, the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Division has been responsible for expanding its original Disney parks and building new parks all over the world. For example, Disney's original park, Disneyland, was expanded to include Disney's California Adventure Park in 2001. The following is a list of the Disney parks located around the world and a short summary of what each park includes: • Disneyland Resort: This is the first Disney resort and is located in Anaheim, California. It opened in 1955 but has been expanded since and now includes Disney's California Adventure Park, Downtown Disney and luxury hotels such as the Disneyland Hotel, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa, and Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge • Walt Disney World Resort: This resort was Disney's second project in Orlando, Florida and is an expansion of the Magic Kingdom which opened in 1971. Today its theme parks include the original Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom. In addition, there are water parks, shopping centers, and a large variety of hotels and resorts at or near this Disney location.

• Tokyo Disney Resort: This was the first Disney resort to open outside of the United States. It opened in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan in 1983 as Tokyo Disneyland. It was expanded in 2001 to include Tokyo DisneySea which features a nautical, underwater theme. Like the U.S. locations, Tokyo Disney has a large shopping center and luxury resort hotels. In addition, the resort is said to have one of the largest parking structures in the world. • Disney Paris: Disney Paris opened under the name Euro Disney in 1992. It is located in the Paris suburb of Marne-la-Vallée and has two theme parks (Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park), a golf course and many different resort hotels. Disney Paris also has a large shopping center called Disney Village. • Hong Kong Disneyland Resort: This 320 acre park is located in Penny's Bay on Lantau Island, Hong Kong and opened in 2005. It consists of one theme park and two hotels (Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Hollywood Hotel). The park has plans to expand in the future. • Shanghai Disneyland Resort: The most recent Disney Park is in Shanghai.

It was approved by the government of China in 2009 and is expected to open in 2014. • Disney Cruise Line: The Disney Cruise Line was developed in 1995. It currently operates two ships- one of which is called Disney Magic and the other is Disney Wonder. They began operating in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Each of these ships travels to the Caribbean and have a port of call at Disney's Castaway Cay Island in the Bahamas. The Disney Cruise Line plans to add two more ships in 2011 and 2012. In addition to the above mentioned theme parks and resorts, Walt Disney's Parks and Resorts Division has plans to open additional parks in Europe and Asia. It also has plans to expand several existing parks such as the Hong Kong and Paris locations.

For more information, visit the About.com Theme Parks site for comprehensive information about Disney Theme Parks Reference Shanghai Disneyland Opening: Chinese Attraction Is World’s Sixth Disney Theme Park Shanghai Disneyland Opening: Chinese Attraction Is World’s Sixth Disney Theme Park 06/16/16 AT 10:54 AM Close Tourists in China, take out your Mickey Mouse ears: The gates to Shanghai Disneyland have been flung open . Walt Disney Co. opened the sprawling $5.5 billion theme park Thursday in a bid to attract growing numbers of middle class Chinese and to capitalize on newfound openings for Western dollars in communist China. Disney calls its Shanghai project the “biggest magic kingdom park ever made.” Spread across 963 acres, the resort includes an Enchanted Storybook Castle, a Disneytown with restaurants, toy shops and hotels, plus six so-called theme lands, including pirate-riddled Treasure Cove and eternally youthful Peter Pan’s Flight ride. Shanghai Disneyland is Disney’s sixth theme park worldwide and the first in mainland China built with foreign investment. Here’s a look at Disney’s five other parks: 1. Hong Kong Disneyland Fireworks explode over the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Hong Kong Disneyland, Sept.

11, 2005, in Hong Kong. Photo: MN Chan/Getty Images Disney’s first foray into China, built on reclaimed land in Lantau Island, cost about $3.5 billion to build by the time it opened in September 2005. The 123-acre complex is about a third the size of the new Shanghai attraction and drew around 6.8 million visitors last year. The Hong Kong theme park opened to a slow start, drawing negative media coverage and angering customers with a series of cultural miscues. In Disney’s first experience with Chinese New Year, in February 2006, the company failed to anticipate the rush of vacationers from mainland China, who turned out in droves brandishing discounted tickets. Disney said it has since attempted to avoid problems of cultural backlash by incorporating Chinese culture. A walkway near the resort entrance, for instance, now bends so the good “qi” energy doesn’t flow into the South China Sea. 2. Tokyo Disneyland Disney characters Mickey (right) and Minnie Mouse, dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos, wave to greet guests at Tokyo Disneyland, Jan. 1, 2015.

Photo: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images The first Disney park to be built outside the United States, Tokyo Disneyland opened in April 1983. The attraction cost about 180 billion yen to complete and is owned by the Oriental Land Co., which licenses the theme from Walt Disney Co. Tokyo Disneyland has since expanded into a resort with two theme parks, three Disney hotels, six non-Disney hotels and a shopping complex. Some 16.6 million people visited the park in 2015. 3. Disneyland Paris A shop at Disneyland Paris displays Mickey Mouse with Eiffel Tower replicas, Aug. 13, 2015. Photo: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images The giant $5 billion complex was deeply opposed by some factions in France when its first theme park opened in April 1992. Critics worried the park, originally named Euro Disney Resort, would encourage an American brand of aggressive consumerism in France. In the months after it opened, farmers blockaded the attraction to protest farm policies backed by the U.S. government.

But Disneyland Paris, which added a second theme park in 2002, has endured as a popular attraction in Western Europe. Along with the theme parks, the complex includes hotels, a golf course, a shopping complex and dozens of other Disney-themed sites. Attendance last year totaled 14.8 million people. 4. Walt Disney World General view of Epcot International Flower And Garden Festival at Epcot Center at Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, May 11, 2016. Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images The entertainment complex near Orlando, Florida, also serves as Disney’s corporate headquarters. The company’s second theme park opened in 1971 and has gradually expanded to encompass some 27,300 acres. Walt Disney World — which includes dozens of hotels, four theme parks, two water parks, a camping resort and much more — is considered the most-visited vacation resort in the world. Fifty-four million people came out last year to visit the park’s four main attractions: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Related Stories China Touts Openness With Shanghai Disneyland, US Wants More 5.

Disneyland Resort Mickey Mouse and his friends celebrate the 60th anniversary of Disneyland park at Sleeping Beauty Castle in Anaheim, California, July 17, 2015. Photo: Paul Hiffmeyer/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images The Anaheim, California, attraction houses Disney’s first theme park, which opened in July 1955 and was the brainchild of Walt Disney himself. The entertainment executive came up with the concept for a Disney-themed park after touring other amusement parks with his daughters in the 1930s and 1940s. The original Disneyland park cost around $17 million to complete, in 1950s dollars. The site has since expanded to include attractions such as Disney California Adventure Park, Mickey’s Toontown and New Orleans Square.

Question: In which city was the first Disney theme park opened in 1955?
Answer: Anaheim