Barker 1
Bryan Barker
Mr. Gibson
HSS 105
February 15, 2016
Disneyland
When you think of Walt Disney you often think of a dream vacation or classic
children’s movies that have withstood the test of time. But, how did Disneyland and the
animations we have known and come to love come to fruition, has Disney always been
such a success? It will be explored through out this paper as well as the milestones and
downturns for The Walt Disney Company.
On July 17,1955 Disneyland opened its gates to the press and invitation only
guests, and the grand opening to the general public was July 18, 1955. It was Walt
Disney’s twenty yearlong dream in the making, and after $17 million dollars he got to
share his work with the public (Thomas). But before this happened, Walt opened his
“small cracker box studio”, The Walt Disney Company, in 1923 after having failed along
with his brother at other drawing companies (Walt Disney Biography). The headquarters,
located in Burbank, California, brought entertainment through television shows, games,
movies and more. This company has grown and expanded over the last ninety years to
have other resorts located around the world (“Company Overview| The Walt Disney
Company).
After Roy and Walt’s success with Steamboat Willie in 1928, they went on to
make the first movie to be released in Technicolor and English, Snow White, in 1938
(Disney Releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). From Snow White came Fantasia
Barker 2
(1940), Sleeping Beauty (1958), to Beauty and the Beast (1991) all of which were major
successes and Oscar nominees (Osmond). After the movies were a great success Walt
decided he wanted to open a park about the time the Second World War started. But
because of the war his plans were put on hold, which was only for the better because his
ideas expanded and only got bigger and better as time passed (Walt Disney Biography).
The park was sitting on 106 acre ranch just off the Santa Ana Freeway (Thomas). When
the park first opened, you paid one dollar for adults to get in and fifty cents for kids,
every ride cost ten to fifty cents extra making the cost be about eight dollars and seventy
cents plus the one dollar entrance fee (Thomas). Single day park admission for an adult is
now ninety six dollars and for children is ninety dollars He wanted to make sure that the
