How Walt Disney Staked Everything to Bring His Vision of Disneyland to Life in 1955

Fred Mills of The B1M looked at how Walt Disney, deeply in debt after World War II, staked everything in order to bring his vision of Disneyland to life in 1955 in Anaheim, California.

Walt Disney had a problem. He was a few weeks off opening his  most audacious venture yet and he  had a decision to make: should he install  flushing toilets or drinking fountains? His plumbers had gone on strike and  there was not enough time to do both. … he was heavily in debt and had decided   to stake not just his reputation but  his personal fortune on building… an amusement park.

Wells looked at the entire history behind “The Happiest Place on Earth”. This included initial sketches for the park, its unique engineering and design, the new technology developed for the park, and the short-lived thrill of opening day.

On July 17, 1955, after a year of  frantic construction the moment of  truth had arrived: the opening day of Disneyland. “To all who come to this happy place: welcome” Everything had been building up to this moment. Thousands of guests were invited, a live tv broadcast was scheduled, would  this be Disney’s moment of triumph?! Well, no. The whole thing was a total disaster.

Disney was not completely happy with Disneyland, so he sought to build a better version in Florida. Unfortunately, he never got to see the completion of what would be Disney World.

For his part, Disney was never completely satisfied with Disneyland and with the lessons he had learned, quickly turned his attention to building a bigger, better version of his park in Florida. Walt Disney died before he could ever see the completion of his next creation, but Disney World would prove to be one of the biggest  and most sophisticated theme parks ever built.

Despite all this, Disney’s vision lives on today and beyond.

70 years on, the rough edges of opening  day are long forgotten. What endures is the blueprint Walt created: a place  built with the tools of Hollywood, the discipline of engineering and an imagination all of his own. Disneyland didn’t just revive his studio, it rewrote the playbook for how we design  experiences, cities and entire worlds.