It
boggles the mind today how fast Disneyland was created. From its initial
announcement on The Disneyland Story,
it took a mere eleven months for Walt to turn pictures into a full theme park.
Today, we’re so used to projects taking years and years and years and years (hey everyone, Guardians of the Galaxy will be
coming “at some point!” Isn’t that exciting), the fact that Disneyland went
from “it’s coming!” to “open” in less than a year is not even fathomable. The
DCA expansion took six years. Avatar took six years. Even tiny little DCA
itself took four. The Fantasyland expansion (which is two rides and some
buildings) took four. But the entirety of Disneyland? Less than one year.
There
are much better authors than I who have regaled tales of Disneyland’s
construction to the masses, so I won’t do to repeat them hear. I would
recommend you read them, though. Walt’s irascibility is in full form, as he is
100% involved in the process and obsessed over every detail. He sketched the
final layout of Tom Sawyer Island, consistently pushed landscape guru Bill
Evans to relocate taller and taller trees, insisted that the wagons for the
pack mule ride be upholstered with the finest leather, and refused to build an
administration building. You can pick up any copy of a Disneyland history book
or Walt Disney biography to read all about them (my personal favorites being Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob
Thomas and How to Be Like Walt by Pat
Williams).
Today’s
YouTube Tuesday video is a time-lapse (and in color!) film compilation of the
construction of Disneyland from various cameras stationed in each of Disneyland’s
major lands. It is featured as an Easter Egg in the Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic DVD collection (as part of
Wave Seven of the Walt Disney Treasures tin set). The footage is narrated by
Tony Baxter (representing WDI), Ed Hobbleman and Walter Magnuson (representing
the Disney Studio Inventory Group).
This
was quite a find by Disney, as Tony explains in the narration. The footage,
believe it or not, was found in a can inside a Pennsylvania salt mine. Yeah. It
was a film canister with the word “Disneyland” scribbled on the front, and
someone found it and returned it to Disney. While I usually don’t believe in
UFOs or ghosts or time travelers, this is some serious X-Files material. How
does something like that even happen? Did they also find Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa
down there?
The
material is presented in three parts: first, an opening section where we get to
see Walt walking the property. Second is the time-lapse footage, one segment
for each land. And finally, there is some video of Walt, Harper Goff and
company overseeing the construction of the Jungle Cruise. Walt was famous for
preserving his and his team’s thought processes (he hired stenographers to take
detailed notes in every story meeting during the creation of the animated
movies, and saved as many original sketches in the archives as he could), and
here he realized that the construction of Disneyland would one day be something
to study and reference back to. So, he set up numerous cameras and observation
towers around the property to film the construction footage in time-lapse as it
was happening. What we see here is an American historical landmark in all
stages of construction. It’s like going back in time and seeing the building of
the cathedral of Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower.
The
video does a good job of speaking for itself, however I’ve included a few
ancillary thoughts of the footage:
00:05
Amazing (when you watch it in slo-mo) that the roads around Disneyland still
exist in the familiar east-west box pattern. Though we can’t tell which streets
are featured here, the North/South Walnut, Harbor, and West and the East/West
Katella and Ball are surely included in this whirlwind footage.
00:25
It’s so incredible and fortunate today that we have most of this video in color
footage. We can see what Walt wore to work in glorious color! Gotta love that
red-checkered shirt and white hat. And his cigar isn’t edited out. The
narrators discuss the infamous “Walt reel” found in the recovered footage.
01:20
Some rare footage of Roy in color as well.
02:00
Don’t know if this makeshift observation tower was mentioned in any historical
books or records. But it just goes to show how efficient the Disneyland
planners were. They built an observation deck not only for themselves, but for
Walt so he could point out the layout of certain areas and whether he thought
they were headed in the right direction. Remember, as Tony describes the actual
construction of Disneyland was done in only 7 months! As this is with notorious
perfectionist Walt Disney at the helm! Amazing. And it’s followed by incredible
360-degree view of the Disneyland site!
03:10
starts the time-lapse footage, starting with Main Street. A few notes here:
1.
Note how the Jungle Cruise foliage had already
been planted by the time vertical construction on Main Street started, in order
to get the best of a Spring “growth” season
2.
Because of the less strict building and
construction regulations compared to today, vertical construction on Main
Street was completed in only four months! Tony Baxter relates how it took a
full five years to build Euro Disney.
3.
Tony mentions the split-second appearance of
the infamous Town Square Gazebo, which Walt wanted to place in Town Square near
the flagpole. However, once it was placed the team realized it blocked Guests’
view of the castle. So, the gazebo was moved to the Magnolia Park section of
Frontierland, which is where New Orleans Square is now. As Tony reminds us,
this again speaks to the practicality of Walt Disney’s creative design sense.
If it didn’t work, it was out, no questions asked, no matter how much
operational headache it causes.
4.
The Phantom Boats again prove to be the most
unreliable mechanics imaginable. Even right before opening, the boats had still
not made it to the lagoon!
5.
Tony explains that fiberglass was not used too
much upon opening, though Disney became obsessed with it afterwards. This was
because, in 1955, fiberglass was still a “miracle material” and thus expensive
to acquire. So only a few elements of the park were featured in all their
fiberglass glory.
6.
It’s just funny that Storybookland started out
as a literal mud ditch with views of weeds and grass called Canal Boats of the
World. The plants, you see, were from around the world. That’ll be a “B”
Ticket, please.
7.
32:45 This is how guests are going to be
greeted at my house one day.
8.
34:50 An absolutely amazing overlook view of
the Jungle Cruise before the foliage fully grew in. As Tony mentions, this is
probably the only time you’ll ever see such a clear overlook of the full ride
layout.
The
footage itself is, of course, incredible. The video presented here is a full 37
minutes of the literally hundreds of hours of material (Tony says he sat
through 400 hours. And you thought a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings marathon was
bad!). This is Disneyland construction footage in full color. Time-lapse for
each land. With color footage of Walt, Roy, Davy Crockett and Joe Fowler
walking around. It is truly a fine treasure for the Disney history hunter.
Thanks for YouTubing with us, and we hope you Tube in next Tuesday!
--Jeff (@ParkScopeJeff)
Previous YouTube Tuesday Features:
