On this day, in 1923, Bonita Granville was born in New York, New York. The daughter of two stage actors, Bonita made her film debut at the age of nine in Westward Passage. In 1936, she became the youngest woman (to that point) to be nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mary Tilford in These Three, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour. Two years later she starred in the wildly successful comedy Merrily We Live with Billy Burke and started a four picture run as the intrepid teen sleuth Nancy Drew. In the Forties, Bonita appeared in two Andy Hardy films with Mickey Rooney and took a critically praised dramatic turn in the anti-Nazi propaganda film Hitler's Children.
As that decade and her film career were both nearing their respective ends, Bonita would marry Jack Wrather in 1947. Jack had earned his money in the oil business and moved on to produce movies, several of which featured his new bride. After their wedding, he spent some money acquiring the rights to the worlds of the Lone Ranger and Lassie. Bonita transitioned into the role of producer herself for the Lassie television series that started in 1954 and ran until the early Seventies. She did make two more cameo film appearances, one in the 1956 movie version of The Long Ranger and again in 1981's The Legend of the Lone Ranger. But it's not her acting career that concerns us. It's what she and her husband moved into that counts.
Jack and Bonita, besides their success with Lassie, had gotten into the broadcasting business after buying up several television stations around the country, including stations in San Diego, New York and Boston. In the mid Fifties, Jack was looking at diversifying into real estate. He bought hotels in Palm Springs and Las Vegas, then got an offer he couldn't refuse.
Anaheim, California at the time was pretty far away from the surrounding city centers. Walt knew that having a hotel right next to Disneyland would make it more attractive for guests to come visit. He also knew that he could barely scrape together the money for his park much less extra projects, so he turned to his friend Art Linkletter. Art declined (something he regretted every day for the rest of his life) and Walt then turned to the Wrathers. Jack and Bonita were happy to oblige and they financed and built the Disneyland Hotel.
The Disneyland Hotel enjoyed instant success right alongside its namesake park. Opening just three months after the park, on October 5, 1955, the property began as a humble motor lodge with 100 rooms in five two-story buildings. Guests could stay for the night for $15. The hotel's first expansion came in 1956 and by 1958 it boasted 300 rooms and was one of the first places in the region that could accommodate four people in one room. Around that time, Walt was financially flush again and made an offer to buy the Wrathers out. But Jack knew a good thing when he saw it and, much to Walt's consternation, refused.
The Disneyland Hotel continued to expand over the next couple of decades, eventually serving over a thousand rooms (it actually went through a downsizing in 1999 and currently accommodates only 990). The last of the three towers to be built was called the Bonita Tower. Bonita also had the honor to lend her maiden name to the Granville Steakhouse at the back of the resort.
When Michael Eisner began his tenure as CEO in 1984, he again approached Jack and Bonita with an offer to buy the hotel. Jack again refused. When Jack passed away a few months later, Bonita took over the reigns of the Wrather Corporation and continued to deny Michael. It wasn't until her death in 1988 that Disney was able to bring the Disneyland Hotel into the company fold. And the only way Michael was able to do it was to buy the Wrather Corporation in its entirety. Disney then kept the one thing they wanted and sold off everything else, including the Lone Ranger and Lassie rights, the other hotels and, of all things, the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' experimental plane.
There weren't any hard feelings though. After Bonita passed away from lung cancer on October 11, 1988, it's not like all traces of her and Jack were immediately stripped from the hotel. It is true that none of the original buildings exist any more (let's be honest, a two-story motor inn would just be ridiculous in that space now) and Granville's was renamed Steakhouse 55 (but not until 2006), but everything changes over time. And, in 2011, both Bonita and Jack were posthumously made official Disney Legends for their incredible legacy of the Disneyland Hotel.
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