August 29 - Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship and Restaurant

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On this day, in 1955, the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship and Restaurant opened for business in Fantasyland of Disneyland. At the very beginning of Disneyland, most of the restaurants in the park were sponsored by (and in most cases actually run by) what’s known as third party companies (meaning they aren’t Disney and they aren’t a guest, they’re a third wheel to the business equation). Aunt Jemima, Swift Meats and Carnation, for examples, all had their fingers in the pies sold around Walt’s playground. Which is just one of the many reasons I roll my eyes whenever someone starts grousing about various sponsorship deals at the parks today and decrying the Michael Eisner era of corporatization. Eisner didn’t invent sponsors, folks. Roy Disney did to help pay for stuff, so get over yourselves.

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One of the restaurants that wasn’t quite ready for opening day was the one being sponsored by the Chicken of the Sea tuna company. It was going to be shaped like Captain Hook’s pirate ship, the one that Peter Pan flew back from Neverland. In the frenzy to actually get Disneyland built however, there was a miscalculation in the amount of available room in Fantasyland to keep simultaneous projects going. The Pirate Ship restaurant ended up being constructed behind Main Street USA instead. That of course led to the problem of how to get a giant ship from there into its lagoon nearly half a mile away. There was no longer a clear path to move it by land, so this version of the Jolly Roger got to fly into place as well. Tinkerbell was apparently unavailable to lend some pixie dust to the project so a giant construction crane was use instead.

When the Pirate Ship opened a little over a month after the rest of Disneyland, the restaurant instantly became an icon of the park. Guests could buy tuna burgers, hot tuna pies and tuna sandwiches at the counter service restaurant. Seating was outside around the pond. In 1960, the rather plain pond was turned into a pirate lagoon with the addition of Skull Rock, also based on the movie Peter Pan. The triple waterfall feature, the added vegetation, the sandy beaches strewn with treasure chests and the colored lights at night helped make the ship one of the most popular places to eat, or at least rest your tired feet, in all of Disneyland. All of which wasn’t apparently enough to convince Ralston Purina, who bought out Chicken of the Sea in the early Sixties, to renew their sponsorship.

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By 1969, the Chicken of the Sea mermaid was removed from the ship and the restaurant was renamed Captain Hook’s Galley. For the next thirteen years, the restaurant continued to operate and thrive in its cozy location. Then disaster struck. As Fantasyland was undergoing a major renovation in 1982, it was decided to move the Pirate Ship over to the Small World lagoon in order to improve traffic flow through the area. Unfortunately, the mostly wood structure wasn’t destined to survive that much activity. Parts of the foundation had been replaced by concrete over the years to help survive being partially immersed in water but construction crews discovered that subtle rotting damage to the rest of the structure had taken too much out of it. With nothing budgeted for restoration or for building an entirely new one, the brittle ship was bulldozed and simply disappeared. Some care was taken to pry some of the plasterwork off the ship’s stern but it was improperly secured in the truck that was to haul it away. The truck went over a speedbump too quickly, the plasterwork shifted violently and disintegrated into a thousand pieces.

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While you can no longer enjoy lunch at the beloved restaurant in Disneyland, you can currently pretend that you can in Disneyland Paris. A replica of the Pirate Ship and Skull Rock lagoon opened in that park’s Adventureland in 1992. A restaurant in its own right for nearly twenty years (also called Captain Hook’s Galley), the location no longer sells food but is still an area that can be explored and enjoyed. Now if there was only somewhere nearby to get a hot tuna pie and some root beer…

August 14 - Steve Martin

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On this day, in 1945, Stephen Glenn Martin was born in Waco, Texas. Steve’s father was a realtor and an aspiring actor, two professions that warranted a move to Southern California (even if the latter one never panned out). He did most of his growing up in Garden Grove with his sister, Melinda. Steve’s association with the Walt Disney Company started way back in 1955, when he was just ten years old. On weekends (and full time during the summer, labor laws were obviously much different then), he sold guide books at the entrance to Disneyland. There’s even some documented proof of his employment. In 1956, the Barstow family of Wethersfield, Connecticut won a trip to California that included a stop at Disneyland. The Barstow’s took extensive home movies of their vacation that were eventually edited into a short subject film called Disneyland Dream (which has since been included in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress). If you’re watching closely at just past the twenty minute mark, little Steve Martin makes his film debut in a top hat, dark vest and pink striped shirt as he strolls through the frame hawking his guide books.

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Steve spent three years as a guide book salesman, but that wasn’t the only thing he was doing in the park. He spent a lot of time in the magic shop, learning sleight of hand tricks and the importance of presentation to customers. He was also striking up a friendship with the Legendary Wally Boag, a performer at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon who would become a big influence on Steve’s stand-up comedy. By 1960, Steve had a full time job in the magic shop, where he honed not only his skills at magic but perfected his juggling act and balloon animal talents, often receiving tips for his ability to entertain guests. He stayed there throughout his teens, balancing his shifts with his school work and the cheerleading he did for Garden Grove High School.

After graduating, Steve moved on to Santa Ana College and began developing his stand up comedy routines. He was part of a troupe at Knott’s Berry Farm for a while and became romantically involved with a young woman who convinced him to transfer to the University of California, Long Beach to be a philosophy major. The relationship didn’t last (she went to UCLA and they drifted apart) but the philosophy classes would have a profound impact on the rest of Steve’s life. He began creating purely conceptual stand-up routines using concepts like if there wasn’t ever a punchline, what would happen with all the tension he was building?

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As he began trying his ideas out on actual audiences, the reviews for Steve’s act were initially mixed but he began to build a following. It helped that he was able to wrangle a job writing for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. Not only did the show give him his first television appearance in 1968, but he won an Emmy in 1969 as part of the shows writing team. Steve went on to write for The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, all while building his stand-up career to a level usually reserved for rock stars. In the mid-Seventies, Steve became a regular on NBC’s new late night show Saturday Night Live but, contrary to popular belief, never actually became part of the cast. He was happy to guest host 15 times (and make several other appearances) but didn’t really need to make it a full time gig. His stand-up sets were literally selling out stadiums. Back-to-back Grammy winning, platinum selling comedy albums in 1977 and 1978 didn’t hurt either. And then, in 1981, with no fanfare and no warning, he stopped doing stand-up altogether and moved on to what had been his goal all along: movies.

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Steve’s first big screen appearance was a small role in 1972 in a political satire produced by Bob Epstein, another writer for the Smothers Brothers, called Another Nice Mess. Five years later, he wrote and starred in a short film, The Absent Minded Waiter, which was nominated for an Academy Award. His breakout role came in 1979 when he played Navin R Johnson in The Jerk, a film he also gets a writing credit for. Since then he’s been seen in four dozen more films, twelve of which he wrote himself or helped write with one or two others. Highlights of his career so far include a cameo in The Muppet Movie  (1979), All of Me (1984), Three Amigos (1986), Roxanne (1987), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Parenthood (1989), L.A. Story (1991), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and The Pink Panther (2006).

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Steve has spent as much of career writing material as he has performing it. In 1993 he finished his first full length play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which had successful runs in several cities across the country. In 2002, his adaptation of a 1910 German play, The Underpants, had an off-Broadway run and continues to be staged by various regional and collegiate theaters today. Then, in 2015, Steve collaborated with Edie Brickell on the musical Bright Star, which had its Broadway debut the following year and was nominated for numerous awards, winning a Drama Desk Award and two Outer Circle Critics Awards. Steve followed Star up with a play, Meteor Shower, which nabbed Amy Schumer a Tony nomination in 2018.

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Throughout the years, Steve has maintained a working relationship with Disney that has evolved beyond balloon animals and souvenir brochures. In 1991, he starred in the hit remake of Father of the Bride for Touchstone Pictures and returned for the sequel in 1995. He wrote, produced and starred in Touchstone’s 1994 drama A Simple Twist of Fate, based on the classic tale Silas Marner. He was one of the hosts in Fantasia 2000, introducing the Pines of Rome segment. In 2003, Steve starred opposite Queen Latifah in the hit Touchstone comedy Bringing Down the House. Two years later, he again wrote, produced and starred in Shopgirl, an adaptation of a novella he’d written earlier. The same year, just to bring things full circle, Steve hosted the short documentary that replaced Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for a while, Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years. While Abe has been back in action since 2009, you can still catch Steve and his co-host, Donald Duck, in the lobby before each show.

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In recent years, Steve has virtually stopped acting in order to focus on his musical career. That’s right. The stand-up comedian who filled stadiums turned into an actor who filled movie theaters and has now morphed into a Grammy winning musician. But it isn’t because Steve Martin has decided to cut a few records. It’s because a guy named Steve Martin happens to be really good at playing the banjo. He first picked one up at the age of seventeen, incorporated it into his act (see his Muppet Show appearance for a good example) and has been working on his skills ever since. He is the real deal when it comes to playing bluegrass; this isn’t something he started doing a few years ago on a whim. His final comedy album in 1981 was routines on side A and live recordings of him playing with a bluegrass band on side B. In 2001, Steve played with Earl Scruggs on a recording of Foggy Mountain Breakdown. That song won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance. In 2009, he released his first all music album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo. That album won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. In 2013, he released an album with Edie Brickell, his collaborator on Bright Star, called Love Has Come for You. The title track from that album won a Grammy for Best American Roots Song. In addition to their album and Broadway musical, Steve and Edie have done extensive touring together, released a second collaborative album and appeared in the award winning documentary The American Epic Sessions together. In 2010, Steve established the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass to bring attention to the genre and highlight current artists within it. The annual prize involves $50,000, a bronze statue and maybe even the chance to perform with him.

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Among all the accolades that Steve has accumulated over the years, he was officially declared a Disney Legend in 2005 for his decades long relationship with the company. Currently, he’s actually made a return to stand-up, doing a bit of touring in a two-man show with fellow funny man Martin Short. And his next project is another one for Disney and again brings his life full circle. He wrote the story for the comedy Magic Camp, about a camp for budding magicians, which will be released on the company’s new streaming service, Disney+, later this year.

August 9 - The Haunted Mansion

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On this day, in 1969, a swinging wake began in New Orleans Square in Disneyland as the Haunted Mansion welcomed its first happy haunts… er, guests. Walt Disney had always envisioned that a spooky attraction would be part of his theme park. Even in the early days, when he was only thinking about filling a couple of acres right across the street from the studio, one of the buildings was going to be a walk-through haunted house. As the plans for the Mickey Mouse Park grew and morphed into Disneyland and specifically themed areas of the park came into being, the spook-house ended up getting shelved. Ghosts just didn’t fit in on Main Street USA or in the jungles of Adventureland. The idea wasn’t forgotten though. When Disneyland was slated to get its first new land, the theme of the area was antebellum New Orleans, a perfect venue for pirates and ghosts alike.

Both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion were originally conceived of as much smaller walkthrough attractions. As plans began to move forward on New Orleans Square, Walt assigned Legendary Imagineer Ken Anderson to develop the haunted house. One of the first designs Ken came up with was a dilapidated manor, overgrown with weeds and boarded up windows. Walt took one look at the drawing and said there was no way he was going to allow a run-down building in his theme park. After a visit to the famous (some would say infamous) Winchester House in San Jose, Walt’s haunted plan, of course, grew much bigger and the building evolved into a stately mansion.

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Ken then began writing all sorts of spooky little stories that could be played out in the individual rooms of the mansion. One involved a sea captain who ends up killing his bride then hanging himself. Another showcased a ghostly wedding party. There was even a tale about a cursed family who lived out their unfortunate lives (and deaths) in the house. Two more Legendary Imagineers, Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey, were put in charge of creating special effects based on each of the stories. And if parts of these grisly sagas seem familiar, it’s because elements from all of them made it into the final attraction. But there are several roadblocks to get around before we get to that point.

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In 1961, Disneyland began handing out flyers to entering guests announcing that the Haunted Mansion would be opening in 1963. Construction on the building, though, didn’t begin until 1962 and the only thing that was actually finished by the next year was the exterior of the building. This first delay can be directly blamed on the company’s involvement with the 1964 World’s Fair. Every available bit of Imagineering man (and woman) power was diverted into the four attractions Disney had been contracted to build for the New York extravaganza. Because of the success of the boat system of it’s a small world, the decision was made to use it on Pirates of the Caribbean. That resulted in a major overhaul of that attraction and the construction of another building to put it in. The Haunted Mansion was delayed again.

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Following the Fair, Ken Anderson had moved on to other projects but several more Legendary Imagineers came on board including Marc Davis, Xavier Atencio and Claude Coats. In the intervening years, Rolly Crump had developed several ideas centering on weird objects like coffin clocks and man-eating plants that were going to be placed in a Museum of the Weird themed restaurant. Meanwhile the two guys who were doing the main designing of the attraction as a whole, Marc and Claude, were at odds with each other over the Mansion’s tone. Marc wanted it to be silly and light while Claude wanted it to be actually scary. Then, in the midst of all this activity, Walt died and his death would cause another delay.

In the aftermath of Walt’s passing, the Disney company did everything it could to keep from descending into chaos. Projects that had already gotten the green light, continued on as best they could, even if there was now some confusion as to who had the final say on any design plans. The team working on the Haunted Mansion used this uncertainty to their advantage. Walt was really the only one who had been pushing for a walk-through attraction. Imagineers wanted a ride, even going so far as to say that they would need to build two identical walk-throughs to combat the loss in capacity that sort of attraction brought on. They were helped by the development of the Omnimover ride system that was first introduced in the summer of 1967 on Adventure Thru Inner Space.

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By modifying the ride vehicles from Inner Space (mostly making them black instead of blue but also implementing mechanical improvements they’d already learned from the systems practical debut), the Haunted Mansion would be a high capacity ride that also gave Imagineers precise control on how the effects would play to guests. Of course this meant that the attraction would need a complete design overhaul, but after Pirates, everyone was used to that. X Atencio solved the dispute on tone between Marc and Claude by melding the two views into the show that we know and love today and construction on the interior of the Mansion finally began.

By August 1969, well over a decade and a half after becoming a glitter in Walt’s eye, the Haunted Mansion was ready. From August 6-8, Disneyland cast members were invited to step into a Doom-buggy (as the ride vehicles are known) to experience the Mansion’s hot and cold running chills. Then, on the morning of August 9, the first guests got to see what they years of hype were all about. Things didn’t run perfectly at first, especially an effect known as the hatbox ghost. While the figure’s head had disappeared from its neck and reappeared in the box it was carrying perfectly in the warehouse where all these things were tested, Imagineers couldn’t get the lighting just right in the attraction to pull it off. After just a few days, the hatbox ghost was removed (he would reappear in the Disneyland version of the ride in 2015 when new technology made him much more possible; here in Florida we’re still waiting…). Other than that, though, the ride was a hit and really helped prove to the world that the Disney magic could continue even after the man was no longer among us. Disneyland attendance, which had seriously flagged since Walt’s death, surged once again.

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The Haunted Mansion was so popular at Disneyland, that it was included in the design of the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World which opened just two years later. You can also ride it in Tokyo Disneyland and there is a very similar attraction in Disneyland Paris called Phantom Manor (think of that one like a Western themed Mansion). Incidentally, those four versions of the Haunted Mansion, located in four different Disney theme parks, are also in four different lands within those parks. Mansion’s address is in New Orleans Square in Disneyland, Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom, Fantasyland in Tokyo and Frontierland in Paris. No other multi-park attraction can boast the same thing. There is a Mansion inspired attraction in Hong Kong Disneyland as well, Mystic Manor, but because the Chinese people have vastly different views of the afterlife from other cultures, there is no mention of spirits or the departed in it. Instead inanimate objects come spookily to life. Still creepy, just different.

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For those of you who noticed how often I used the word Legendary when talking about the people who worked on the Haunted Mansion, that wasn’t even a tiny bit of overkill. The number of people who worked on this attraction and went on to become official Disney Legends is almost mind blowing. And I didn’t even mention half of them. There is a place you can find references to most of them though. The next time you’re waiting in line for the ride and you’re reading all the silly tombstones and monuments scattered about the queue, every one of those names you see honors someone who made a contribution to the Mansion. And since all but one of them (Rolly Crump is still kicking at 89) have passed away since the doors first creaked open, I’m sure they can now be found among its 999 residents. Which really, in my opinion, only makes it more enticing to volunteer to be the thousandth…

July 31 - Casey Jr Circus Train

On this day, in 1955, the Casey Jr. Circus Train ride finally opened for business in Fantasyland of Disneyland. With Walt Disney's love of trains, it's almost amazing that there was only two train attractions when Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955. The major one was the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad, with narrow-gauge steam driven locomotives that circumnavigated the park and made stops in three (now four) different lands. The smaller ride was not only designed with smaller riders in mind (who might be afraid of the bigger train) but would capitalize on existing Disney characters as well.

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Even though it's an inanimate object, the Casey Jr. Circus Train is really just as much of a character in Dumbo as anyone else involved with the circus. He has his own theme song and everything. So he naturally translates into an attraction with character of its own. The Circus Train runs on a two foot wide track as opposed to the three foot wide track of the Disneyland Railroad. While being a third smaller might not seem like a lot, anyone of the adult persuasion will have no trouble feeling the loss of space. Which is okay, since Casey isn't really designed with adults in mind. Small pints love it and the ride is short enough that their parents don't mind. Too much. Especially if you get to ride in the cage car. That is pretty fun.

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There are two trains that can run at a time, one loading while the other is zipping around the track. Each train consists of an engine, a calliope car, two open cars with seats, two wild animal cage cars and a caboose. The engine however is not what powers the train. The calliope car is what runs the whole shebang. It houses a diesel engine that runs the calliope, creates the steam pressure for the whistle and brakes and moves the train around the track. At one point, Casey chugs his way up a hill and can be heard chanting "I think I can, I think I can" just like in the movie. For anyone who is a fan of Dumbo, or mini trains in general, it's a sweet ride.

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And Casey is one of those rides that's been around since Disneyland's opening day. Sort of. It was available to ride on July 17, but it was experiencing a lot of operational troubles (much like the park in general). Not many people actually got to ride it that first day. When the park opened for paying guests the next day, Casey was not one of the things they could do. The circus train was the first ride to be closed for future enjoyment. Safety checks were run that second day in the hopes that Casey could open but it would be almost two weeks before all the kinks were worked out and the first paying guests got to tour Storybookland from a train instead of a boat.

July 27 - Bill Sullivan

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On this day, in 1955, William Sullivan began his new job as ticket taker at the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland of Disneyland. Born in 1936, Sully, as most people called him, was studying architecture and working his first job in the aircraft industry when a television show changed his life. Like many people on July 17, 1955, Sully was glued to his television set watching the opening ceremonies of a new kind of entertainment in Anaheim, Disneyland. Unlike most people watching, he was inspired to completely change the course of his life by what he saw. The following Saturday he went down to the park to apply for a job. He was hired on the spot, quit his job at Northrop Aircraft on Monday and two days later was happily taking people’s tickets for the Jungle Cruise.

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A quick detour into the world of tickets at the beginning of Disneyland. For the first three months of operation, it cost guests $1 to get into the park, which included three attractions, and then between 10 and 35 cents more for each additional attraction. In October 1955, ticket books were introduced with A, B and C tickets in them. The best rides, like the Jungle Cruise, required a C ticket while something like the Carousel would be an A ticket ride. In 1957, as more attractions were added to Disneyland, a D ticket was introduced and the ticket tiers were expanded once more in 1959 to include E tickets. Some attractions, like the Matterhorn Bobsleds, debuted at E ticket status while older attractions, like the Jungle Cruise, were promoted to E ticket status, or whatever level was appropriate. The phrase “that’s an E ticket ride” has sort of become synonymous with exciting thrill rides but all it really meant was you were riding one of the best rides. Yes, the Bobsleds were E ticket, but so was the Disneyland Railroad. We now return to you to our regularly scheduled post.

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It didn’t take Sully long to get promoted from Jungle Cruise ticket taker to wisecracking Jungle Cruise skipper. After 2.5 years exclusively in that madcap bubble, Sully got to train on other attractions and move around the park more. He was then promoted to what he called a Yo-Yo Supervisor. Disneyland couldn’t afford to make him a full supervisor just yet, so at high attendance times he’d be wearing a suit and tie and managing things, then when attendance dropped again, he’d be back in costume running an attraction, sometimes going back and forth between the two roles on a day by day basis. In 1959, when the park enjoyed its first expansion with the addition of the Matterhorn Bobsleds and the Nature’s Wonderland section of Frontierland, Sully was made a full supervisor.

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Almost as soon as Sully became full time management, he also became a specials man. When Walt was chosen to be a part of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, Sully was on the company’s security team. He was part of the team that ran the premier of Mary Poppins at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Sully was then chosen to go to the 1964 World’s Fair as an assistant manager to help facilitate and troubleshoot the four attractions the company built for it. He moved his family to Queens, NY for a year and his daughter even started kindergarten there. When he returned to California in late 1965, he was promoted to manager of all of Fantasyland. And that’s when things got busy.

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While in New York, Sully had heard rumors of something Walt was cooking up called Project X that was going to take place on the East Coast, but no one knew what, when or exactly where. Shortly after becoming the head of Fantasyland, Sully was let in on the secret: another theme park was being planned for Central Florida. It then became Sully’s job, along with the Legendary Rolly Krump, to design the layout of Fantasyland for the new park. When they’d done all they could with that project, Sully was promoted to Senior Staff Assistant to the Vice President of the Florida Project, which basically meant he was now a high priced jack-of-all-trades.

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It might almost be easier to list the things Sully didn’t do in those years just before Walt Disney World opened. He helped design the entrance to the Magic Kingdom and Main Street USA (they made it twelve feet wider than Disneyland’s in order to accommodate bigger parades). He set up a post office to facilitate communication between Burbank and the construction companies. He helped get the Preview Center up and running. He was in charge of most of the promotional materials that were being made available to locals. He ran a legislator’s weekend so Jack Lindquist could convince the Florida state senators and representatives that creating a special economic zone for Disney was a great idea. He helped set up and staff the Preview Center. He was part of the Security and Fire Prevention team and was in charge of hiring the first 75 Security Cast Members for the Florida property. In short, Sully was the grease that kept the whole of Walt Disney World moving forward.

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Sully was also an integral part of the team that was planning and building EPCOT Center. Officially he was the director of PICO, the Project Installation and Coordination Office. Basically what that meant is that, while he didn’t have the authority to approve or disapprove of projects, all of them came through him and his office. With all of his operational experience, Sully could (and did) make improvement suggestions and rework the design of anything he felt needed tweaking. He spent four years perfecting the park and then was in charge of actually running the place for the first two years it was open. During the same period, Sully help train hundreds of cast members for the opening of Disney’s first international park, Tokyo Disneyland.

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In 1987, Sully was promoted to Vice President in charge of the Magic Kingdom, the world he had done so much to help create. He spent several years there until one of his old co-workers, Jim Cora, who was now in charge of all international Disney parks, sweet talked him into coming over to Europe to help get Disneyland Paris ready for its opening. So Sully spent the first few months of 1992 opening another Disney theme park. He returned to Florida where he resumed his duties as top man at the Magic Kingdom until his retirement in 1993.

Sully has the distinction of being one of the few people who have their names on not one but two windows on Main Street USA, both in the Magic Kingdom. The first one he received was as part of a group of guys who were instrumental in getting Walt Disney World off the ground. It reads “Windemere Fraternal Hall – Lodge Meetings Every Friday – Charter Members - Bob Allen - Pete Crimmings, Dick Evans, Bill Hoelscher, Bob Mathieson, Bill Sullivan” and can be found on Center Street above Crystal Arts. Sully received his second one for his retirement and it’s a solo act above the ice cream parlor. That one reads “Sully's Safaris & Guide Service - Chief Guide Bill Sullivan.” As impressive as having two windows is, Sully was absolutely floored the day he got his letter inviting him to a ceremony in 2005 where he was officially declared a Disney Legend.

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Sully still resides in Central Florida although he says he doesn’t go to the Disney parks much anymore. He admits that it’s mostly because he’d get too upset about all the changes that have been made since they were “his” parks. They aren’t his anymore but he’s okay with that. For 38 magical years he carried on the Disney tradition and now it is someone else’s turn. When asked about his favorite memory from his career, he gets a twinkle in his eye and mentions meeting the cute blonde who worked across from the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland and has been his wife for over 50 years. I know just how he feels (although my twinkle is brunette).

July 24 - New Orleans Square

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On this day, in 1966, the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland welcomed its first official guests. When Disneyland opened in 1955, it was the culmination of a dream, but it wasn't the end of the dream. Walt continued to think up new things that he wanted to put in his park. Within two years of opening, several of Disneyland's attractions had been removed and replaced with something new or expanded to include fanciful new elements. The first major expansion Walt wanted to do would have involved almost doubling the size of Main Street USA to include an attraction that was all about the US Presidents. The technology of the time couldn't keep up with Walt's vision, though, and that plan never made it off the blueprint. Soon thereafter, however, there were enough dreams around that a whole new area could be created.

The first time the public got an inkling that an expansion was afoot came on the souvenir maps that began being printed in 1958 showing a pirate themed land that would be coming soon. Construction didn't actually begin on the area until late 1961. Part of Frontierland was leveled to accommodate the New Orleans Square and a giant hole was dug. That hole would be the basement of a restaurant and would house the pirate wax museum attraction that would be the highlight of the place. You heard that right. A wax museum. Fortunately for people everywhere, the 1964 World's Fair began taking up everyone at Disney's time and energy and construction in Disneyland was halted for a while.

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It is almost impossible to underestimate how the leaps in technology that Disney's Imagineers were able to make while creating attractions for the World's Fair were instrumental in the development of theme park entertainment. The creation of Audio-Animatronics, the boat ride system of it's a small world and the omni-mover ride system all helped push New Orleans Square to levels that wouldn't have been possible without the sponsorship money the Fair brought in and the millions of people willing to put everything to the test during the Fair itself. When construction finally resumed, just about every plan that had been in place for the attractions in New Orleans Square were either greatly modified or tossed out altogether.

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The pirate wax museum disappeared in all but concept only. It was quickly decided that Audio-Animatronic pirates would become part of it and that it would be a boat ride (the capacity numbers of it's a small world had been very impressive). It just as quickly became clear that the hole in the ground was no where near big enough to house this new attraction. In fact the park itself wasn't big enough. While the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean was constructed inside the park, most of the ride would be housed in a new show building located just outside the official parameters of Disneyland. But don't think that hole in the ground would go to waste. A three story building was built there with a triple usage plan: the Blue Bayou restaurant on one floor; Club 33, a private club, above it; the top floor would be a cafeteria for Disneyland employees.

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When the time came for the grand dedication ceremony on July 24, 1965, Walt invited the mayor of the actual city of New Orleans, Victor H. Schiro, to be a part of it. Mayor Schiro declared Walt an honorary citizen of New Orleans. Walt quipped that New Orleans Square cost more than the Louisiana Purchase. Without adjusting for inflation, it did. In fact the $18 million cost for New Orleans Square meant that Disneyland's first new land had a higher price tag than construction for the whole park did just a decade earlier (again, that's without adjusting for inflation, but it makes its point; it's cheaper to build a room initially than to add it on later). Though no one knew it at the time, that dedication ceremony would be the last time Walt would make an official appearance in his beloved park.

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The irony of dedicating New Orleans Square when they did was that there wasn't much to do there yet. Besides a few shops, it was just a pleasant area to stroll through. The Blue Bayou Restaurant and Pirates of the Caribbean didn't start operating until March of 1967. Club 33 didn't open until April 1967 (which means, contrary to popular belief, that Walt never entertained anyone there; he'd already been dead for four months). The Haunted Mansion (which utilizes the omni-mover ride system I mentioned earlier) didn't open until 1969. What isn't ironic, is that Disneyland's first expansion left behind of legacy of guest favorites that has endured for over five decades.

July 18 - Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

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On this day, in 1965, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, an Audio-Animatronic show, began wowing guests on Main Street USA in Disneyland.  In the late Fifties, Walt wanted to expand the Main Street USA area of Disneyland, specifically by building an attraction that was a tribute to the Presidents of the United States, all 34 of them up to that point. The problem was that Walt's vision had outpaced the technology of the day. There just was no physical way to create the show he had planned in his head, even if he had unlimited amounts of money to do it. The idea had to be shelved and the expansion never happened.

Several years later, as Disney was signing contracts to provide rides and shows for the 1964 World's Fair, the Imagineers of WED Enterprises brought a prototype of a new technology to show their boss. Since they couldn't make a show with 34 moving Presidents, they'd been focusing on making a single mechanical man in the likeness of Walt's boyhood hero, Abraham Lincoln. The Imagineers had managed to create something that, although quite primitive by today's standards, was kind of magical. Walt was intrigued by it, convinced the state of Illinois they needed it for their Fair pavilion and got them to foot the bill for constructing it.

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The first attraction with Audio-Animatronic technology to open was the Enchanted Tiki Room in 1963. Compared to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, though, the Tiki Room is simplicity itself. A few beaks open and close, some wings flutter and eyes blink (granted this occurs on over a hundred different figures at once, but still). As impressed as guests were by singing birds and crooning flowers, they were floored by what what they saw in the Illinois pavilion. Great strides had been made in Audio-Animatronics in a short time. Not only did Lincoln speak and gesture and address different parts of the audience, but HE STOOD UP FROM HIS CHAIR! WHAT IS THIS SORCERY? Audiences marveled at the life-like qualities of the figure in the show and made Illinois one of the must-see attractions of the Fair.

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When the last guest had passed through the 1964 World's Fair, the Disney attractions were hands down some of the highlights of the whole affair. They were already pretty much paid for by the pavilions that had commissioned them and were already popular with guests, so it was natural that Walt would want to incorporate them into Disneyland. Three of the four attractions were installed whole while just the Audio-Animatronic dinosaurs from the Ford Pavilion made their way into part of the Disneyland Railroad. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln found its way to Main Street USA (although it was a duplicate attraction, the original was believed to have been lost when the Illinois pavilion was completely demolished; turns out, the original figure was actually carefully packed up, delivered to California, strangely forgotten and discovered years later in storage), it's a small world took over Fantasyland and the Carousel of Progress landed in Tomorrowland. All four of them can still be seen today.

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Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln ran at Disneyland until 1972 before undergoing its first rewrite. The new show that opened in the space, The Walt Disney Story, actually didn't include the figure of Lincoln for the first three years. He was reinstated as part of the show in 1975, after thousands of guests asked where he went. And that's has been his status since then. Eventually a new gets written that leaves old Abe out and eventually he has to be written back in because people love and miss him. You can see him as part of the current show, The Disneyland Story Presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. His technological aspects have been updated over the years making him still just as cool to watch as when he first stood up to illuminate guests over fifty years ago. Oh, and Walt did finally get that tribute to the Presidents he wanted, he just didn't live long enough to see it happen. You can see it at the Hall of Presidents in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World (now with forty-five moving figures!).

July 17 - Disneyland

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On this day, in 1955, Disneyland welcomed its first official guests in Anaheim, California. To be fair, the first people to walk through the front gates on that July morning were not the first guests to visit Disneyland. Some press had already been given a tour and Walt and Lilian had celebrated their wedding anniversary at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon a couple of days before. They weren't even the first paying guests as everyone who came that first day were supposed to be invited. I say supposed to be, because about half of the 28,000 people in the park for the opening ceremonies either had fake tickets or no tickets at all, they just hopped the fence. Needless to say, the park that had once been declared by potential investors to be just as much a folly as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was initially called caused quite a stir right from the get go.

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Everyone has probably heard the story of how Walt was standing around watching his daughters, Dianne and Sharon, riding the merry-go-round at an amusement park and got the idea of building a place where adults and kids could have fun together. It's a cute story but only part of the reason the idea of Disneyland wormed its way into Walt's brain. The other part was the letters. Every year, the Walt Disney Studio got hundreds, if not thousands, of letters from people who wanted to come visit the studio, see how movies are made and see their favorite characters. Walt knew that if the average person actually showed up at the studio, they'd be bored out of their minds within ten minutes. Not only was there nothing for people to do there but the reality of making animation (and even live action) is a long, slow, tedious process. And everyone's favorite characters were nothing more than drawings, not the walking, talking beings that people believed they saw in the theaters. Walt began to envision a place that tourists could come visit.

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The first actual mention of his idea in memo form came in 1948. He talked about turning an eight acre plot of land across the street from the studio into a Mickey Mouse Park. Except Walt's idea kept growing and quickly outgrew the spot he had in mind. He hired a consultant, the Legendary Harrison Price of the Stanford Research Institute, to help him figure out how much land he would need. Harrison did his best, trying to anticipate future expansions, and came up with 160 acres. Walt thought it sounded good, looked around and bought some orange groves in the city of Anaheim. That original eight acre plot didn't go to waste however. It's still part of the company and currently houses Walt Disney Animation and the ABC Studios.

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Now that he had a site, Walt just needed some money to build his dream. Naturally he turned to his financial guru of a brother, Roy, who immediately tried to talk him out of the whole thing. That pep talk, as usual, yielded no results so, Roy rolled up his sleeves and got to work. Asking current Disney employees to support the boss's craziness raised a few dollars but nowhere near the $17 million it was going to take to build Disneyland. One of the more genius ideas was a partnership between the fledgling ABC television network and Disney. ABC needed content to broadcast, Walt needed money and thus the Disneyland television series was born. ABC a top quality show to boost their ratings, Walt got ABC to invest in his park and Walt got something even better: advertising. Not only did he name the show after the new venture but he came into people's homes every week and told them all about the wonderful things they would experience when they came to visit. He was able to build anticipation to a frenzy.

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Construction on Disneyland actually began on July 16, 1954. Walt had all sorts of Legendary people in place to make his dream come true. Old timers like Marc Davis, who helped design the place, and new hires like retired Rear Admiral Joe Fowler, who oversaw the construction process. One year and one day later, Disneyland was ready to open. Sort of. Like most major projects with deadlines, things got a little crazy near the end. There are plenty of famous stories about people's shoes getting stuck in asphalt that wasn't quite set yet and all sorts of other mishaps that first day. But none of that matters. People were enchanted by what they saw and have kept coming back for more. There are now a dozen Disney parks scattered around the world, but Disneyland boasts the most visits of any of them (mainly because it was the only one for sixteen years, but still). History was made on July 17, 1955 and theme parks have never been the same since.