Introduction
Preface: A special thank you to Neamathla for the suggestion on the POD.
After the Second World War, the Walt Disney Studios was in dire straits, sinking in almost $4 million USD in debt. But things would not be bleak on Dopey Drive for too long. When 1949 gave way to 1950, the studio’s fortunes began to turn the corner with the box office success of Cinderella and his first fully live action film, Treasure Island.
But now, it was time for Disney to roll the dice on the then-innovative medium of television. Walt hit the jackpot on his first television production, One Hour in Wonderland, aired on NBC on Christmas day, which partially served as a teaser for his version of Alice in Wonderland, which would be released in the second quarter of the next year.
Besides television, Walt was brainstorming on an even bigger dream. As early as 1948, he toyed with the idea of a Mickey Mouse Park on a vacant lot across Riverside Drive from his Burbank studios. After visiting several amusement parks across Europe, like Efteling in the Netherlands, and the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Walt set his conceptual artists to work on ideas that prompted a search for a larger parcel of land to hold such grand ideas. To make this possible, Walt brought in the Stanford Research Institute, who pointed him to 165 acres of orange and walnut orchards in Anaheim.
Around the same time, he formed Disneyland, Inc. to research a location and eventually finance the building and operation of his theme park concept. After CBS politely expressed interest in a television series while passing on the park concept, Walt found favor with Pat Weaver and his partners in crime at NBC. [A] Walt agreed to give NBC a 34 percent stake in Disneyland, Inc. in exchange for Walt producing a weekly television series for the network.
During construction, the park’s working title was Disneylandia, but was simplified to Disneyland around a year and a half before the park opened.
As 1954 gave way to 1955, viewers across the country tuned into NBC to catch the weekly program, also titled Disneyland, to keep abreast of the progress of the park’s construction as well as catching exclusive looks on upcoming films.
When the dawn broke for July 17, 1955, television cameras rolled on what was supposed to just be a soft open, but many visitors barged their way through the park with counterfeit tickets and jumping through fences. The toilets worked, but the water fountains were turned off, and the asphalt had yet to harden. Even though Walt would be haunted by the hiccups of that preview day, these setbacks did virtually nothing to deter families from all across America, and eventually from all over the world, from flocking to the biggest thing to hit the United States in a long time.
[A] This is the POD. NBC and CBS passed on the Disneyland project and Walt found favor with ABC in OTL.
In OTL, it was ABC who suggested Disneylandia be changed to Disneyland. I figured, even with a different network partnering with Walt, it would still be changed before the park opened.
After the Second World War, the Walt Disney Studios was in dire straits, sinking in almost $4 million USD in debt. But things would not be bleak on Dopey Drive for too long. When 1949 gave way to 1950, the studio’s fortunes began to turn the corner with the box office success of Cinderella and his first fully live action film, Treasure Island.
But now, it was time for Disney to roll the dice on the then-innovative medium of television. Walt hit the jackpot on his first television production, One Hour in Wonderland, aired on NBC on Christmas day, which partially served as a teaser for his version of Alice in Wonderland, which would be released in the second quarter of the next year.
Besides television, Walt was brainstorming on an even bigger dream. As early as 1948, he toyed with the idea of a Mickey Mouse Park on a vacant lot across Riverside Drive from his Burbank studios. After visiting several amusement parks across Europe, like Efteling in the Netherlands, and the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Walt set his conceptual artists to work on ideas that prompted a search for a larger parcel of land to hold such grand ideas. To make this possible, Walt brought in the Stanford Research Institute, who pointed him to 165 acres of orange and walnut orchards in Anaheim.
Around the same time, he formed Disneyland, Inc. to research a location and eventually finance the building and operation of his theme park concept. After CBS politely expressed interest in a television series while passing on the park concept, Walt found favor with Pat Weaver and his partners in crime at NBC. [A] Walt agreed to give NBC a 34 percent stake in Disneyland, Inc. in exchange for Walt producing a weekly television series for the network.
During construction, the park’s working title was Disneylandia, but was simplified to Disneyland around a year and a half before the park opened.
As 1954 gave way to 1955, viewers across the country tuned into NBC to catch the weekly program, also titled Disneyland, to keep abreast of the progress of the park’s construction as well as catching exclusive looks on upcoming films.
When the dawn broke for July 17, 1955, television cameras rolled on what was supposed to just be a soft open, but many visitors barged their way through the park with counterfeit tickets and jumping through fences. The toilets worked, but the water fountains were turned off, and the asphalt had yet to harden. Even though Walt would be haunted by the hiccups of that preview day, these setbacks did virtually nothing to deter families from all across America, and eventually from all over the world, from flocking to the biggest thing to hit the United States in a long time.
[A] This is the POD. NBC and CBS passed on the Disneyland project and Walt found favor with ABC in OTL.
In OTL, it was ABC who suggested Disneylandia be changed to Disneyland. I figured, even with a different network partnering with Walt, it would still be changed before the park opened.
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