Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad Articles
5 Millionth Visitor At Disneyland
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Four-year-old Debra Rutherford knew Disneyland was going to be wonderful. When she arrived Wednesday it exceeded her wildest dreams. It was her insistence -- and that of her 3-year-old sister Patricia-that convinced their parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Rutherford, to travel from their home in Quincy, Wash. They reached Los Angeles Wednesday morning and drove straight to Disneyland. When Debra ...
A Brief History Of Disneyland, An American Classic
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"The thing will get more beautiful year after year. And it will get better as I find out what the public likes; I can't do that with a picture it's finished and unchangeable before I find out whether the public likes it or not." Walt Disney on Disneyland. Walt Disney found different reasons to build his seventeen million dollar Magic Kingdom in Anaheim in 1955. The idea had originally stemmed ...
After 40 Years, Disneyland Begins Unisex Assignments For Ride Operators
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For 40 years, the theme park chose ride operators based on gender-with frilly-frocked females working Storybook Land and macho men in pith helmets wisecracking through the Jungle Cruise. But last month, the first woman took up oars to help guests paddle canoes around Tom Sawyer Island, and the first man in 38 years piloted a Storybook Land Canal Boat through the whale's mouth. Soon, female conductors ...
All Aboard Disney's Fort Wilderness Railroad
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It's no secret that Walt Disney had a special place in his heart for railroads. Years before Disneyland opened, he built a model railroad in his backyard which he dubbed the Carolwood Pacific Railroad and spent countless hours riding it, tinkering with it and giving his family and friends much-coveted rides. When Disneyland opened in 1955, the narrow-gauge Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad circled ...
All Aboard For Disneyland
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Byways, streets and rail lines of yesteryear, rivers of today, super freeways and sky-trails of the future, paths and celestial seas in the ageless realm of make-believe are ready for travel-and all can be traversed in a single day at Disneyland. Tours into four centuries in horse-drawn streetcars, stagecoaches. Mississippi stern-wheelers, old-time trains, cars-of-tomorrow. "flying" pirate galleons ...
Areas Of Disneyland Provide Visitors Wide Entertainment Choice
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Adventure, fantasy, the future, the past, the modern the old and the outdated-all are present in quality and quantity at the Disneyland world of entertainment, enchantment and variety. Starting with their entrance into the Park leading onto Main Street; U.S.A., visitors can project themselves into any one of four worlds which await them during their 1 1/4-mile walk through Disneyland's ...
At Your Own Pace Through Fantasyland
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Would you believe it? An amusement park has hung up the nation's record as "the best-planned city in America" in meeting the needs of people. It has demolished the "architectural barriers" we know to our cost in every city and town: streets that stretch non-stop with no spot to sit and rest... flights of stairs too steep for the handicapped or very aged ...bus steps too high for easy ...
Babes In Disneyland
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"If you take me to Disneyland I will be your best friend," said the little girl who lives in my house. And the Crown Prince, who is going on five and lives there, too, allowed that he might put away his hammer, with which he alters the furniture, refrain from loud shrieks except an occasional one of joy, and generally act like the tall people if only he could go, too. All it meant really was a ...
Being A Tour Guide In The 60s Led To Many Surprises
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In 1964, I was a freshman at USC and worked as a Disneyland tour guide on breaks. Park visitors could spend $5 then for a half-day guided tour rather than $3.95 for a book of ride tickets. Those attending a tour would cluster around a girl in a red plaid skirt and blue velvet cap who held her riding crop high so you never lost sight of her and who could walk backward making you privy to the inside story ...
California Dreaming
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[*This article has been edited non-Disneyland Info removed--MMP*] Disneyland It's not surprising that the 1955 breakthrough occurred in Los Angeles. It grew out of the resident movie industry's capabilities and the special kind of ingenuity that for years had gone into inventing convincing effects for the camera. The park's chief innovator, Walt Disney, was a movie man. His contribution was the ...
California vs. Paris: The Railroads
This month, I shall be comparing the Railroads which circle the two Disneylands closest to my heart (California and Paris). Both versions were opening day attractions, although in Anaheim it was called the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad until 1974; in Paris, the attraction was known as Eurodisneyland Railroad up to 1994. The name change for the former was due to the end of the ride's sponsorship by ...
Can You Name All 15 Eticket Rides Still At Disneyland It Is Not As Easy As You Think
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As Disneyland celebrates the 60th anniversary of the E-ticket, it seems like a good time to look back at the rides that earned that distinction at the Anaheim theme park. But what are the E-ticket rides of Disneyland? Naming them all is not as simple as you might think. There were 23 E-ticket attractions during the ticket book era that stretched from 1955 to 1982, according to ...
Celebrities Officials Join Walt Disney To Dedicate New Era In Entertainment
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More than 50,000 visitors were attracted to Disneyland on Monday, July 18, when the Park officially opened its gates to the general public. Reactions were mixed but highly enthusiastic, ranging from exclamations of "fantastic" to "unbelievable" and "too terrific for words to describe. Governor Goodwin J.. Knight of the State of California assisted Walt Disney and some 25,000 invited guests at the official ...
Dazzled In Disneyland
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In the third decade of this century America produced a young man of genius. He drew pictures with pen and ink and wash. Like other geniuses, such as Michelangelo, Leonardo and Bernini, he had a mechanical turn of mind; and, by means of all sorts of devices, he made his drawings into motion pictures which were works of art. He drew animals to perfection. With care and his knowledge of mechanics he made ...
Disney Coast To Coast
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When I was ten years old, my parents entrusted me to TWA for a rumbling eternity in a prop-driven plane that pulled me across the continent to California. I was going to visit my aunt and uncle, but they were merely the agents of my real goal: Disneyland. The park had opened two years before, in 1955, and its effect on me was every bit as magical as the publicists had promised. I was enchanted by all ...
Disney Dedicated His 308 Foot Wide Grand Canyon Diorama
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Disney, dedicated his 308 feet-wide Grand Canyon Diorama largest in the world, at Disneyland, on a very rainy for California day, to the damp delight of 80 odd rain soaked newsmen. Speech by the Santa Fe Railroad's Fred Curley for whom Walt named the engine of his new excursion train through Disneyland, was rained out (or down?) to a mere "Thank you very much, Walt." Following which, some Indian ...
Disneyland A New Wonder Of The Amusement World Nears Completion
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A wonderland of delights such as the World may never have seen before is rising out of the orange groves in this sunny suburb of Los Angeles. It is Disneyland, a 17 million dollar paradise for children. When the gates are opened on July 19, customers will see an amusement built on the scale of a World's Fair. The fantastic world of Disney films will be transformed into three dimensional reality. ...
Disneyland And Imagineering Part 1
There's no I in Team, but there are three in Imagineering. Introduction Well, it's not quite as long as the title from that 60's Mixed-Up Zombie movie, but it's close, and in my mind a lot more entertaining, and there's no corn or cheese here. Growing up a railroad kid, spending time with my father when he would go to work in the freight house or, even more exciting, the roundhouse, I can ...
Disneyland And Imagineering Part 13
Disneyland, the idea, came from the mind of Walt Disney, but Disneyland, the theme park, was a collaborative effort. It took a great many men and women to create it. Since all men are created equal, everyone who contributed should be credited. I've known about C.V. Wood for many years, and although he was not an Imagineer, he was a land developer who made significant contributions in terms of sales and ...
Disneyland And Imagineering Part 3
How to build an Amusement Park in 3 Easy Lessons When we last left our Imagineers, a final location had been chosen, funding had been arranged, and crews were assembled that would begin by retaining trees and vegetation that could be utilized in the design, and the vegetation that would have to be removed as a non-stop adventure was about to commence that would continue long after the park opened. (I ...
Disneyland And Las Vegas
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This is written in Mexico, my home in recent years. I've just returned from a visit to the United States, and am now once more enjoying the taste of unfrozen orange juice and fresh fish, conversations lasting four or five hours in which all sorts of cabbages and kings are discussed, meetings with friends where no one asks if I watched TV last night to see Mickey Rooney do Oedipus Rex on the Benign ...
Disneyland Gates Open Celebrity Throng At Premier
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Disneyland, a $17,000,000 fairyland dedicated to the pleasure of children, opened Sunday in a special preview of 35,000 invited guests whose enthusiasm indicated that Walt Disney's dream had lived up to expectations. The spectacular park will be opened officially to the public at 10 a. m. today and upward of 50,000 persons are expected for the event. Sunday the adults - members of the press from ...
Disneyland Guided Tour
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Disneyland Guided Tour - a personally conducted visit to all the realms within the Magic Kingdom - starts its second season, beginning September 14. When it was introduced last Fall, the Tour enthusiastically received by thousands of Disneyland visitors. Their comments ranged from "wonderful" to "thoroughly enjoyable" And almost unanimously, those interviewed in Disneyland Public Opinion polls said ...
Disneyland In 1955 Rides Now Long Gone Weird Glitches On Opening Day
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Disneyland was dedicated during a special preview opening day on July 17, 1955. The public opening was July 18. The dedication aired on ABC at 4:30 p.m. July 17. Some details of the opening: Park attendance: 6,000 guests were invited for the special preview opening, but an additional 22,000 showed up with counterfeit tickets, making for a total of 28,000 guests that day. Temperature: 101 ...
Disneyland Memorabilia Is A Fascinating Look Back
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Of the millions and millions of phone numbers that have been in use since Alexander Graham Bell (or Antonio Meucci, if you're so inclined) invented the telephone, a handful of numbers have managed to live on despite the passage of time ... and the introduction of more numbers and area codes. "PEnnsylvania 6-5000," a hit song by Glenn Miller and his orchestra in the 1940s, comes to mind, as does the ...
Disneyland Train Marks Anniversary
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Marking first anniversary of operation is one of the world most novel railroads, the 5/8-scale Santa Fe and Disneyland which is a feature of Walt Disney's magic kingdom near Anaheim. The tiny railroad began operations in mid-July, 1955, with two trains. Since then an estimated 1,500,000 adults and children have viewed Disneyland in striking perspective from the perimeter of the 60-acre park. The ...
Disneyland: A Parents' Survival Guide
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Disneyland, a monument to childhood, is also a test of how well you've grown up. Your first visit is guaranteed to be interesting, just as the first time you drive a car, have sex or spend a night by yourself is filled with wonder. But by the tenth or hundredth time you do it, amazement will elude you unless you apply an adult imagination to the experience. The adults who have the least trouble ...
Disneys' Five Ways To Make Dreams Come True
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Sixty years ago, in a state of shock, a struggling young animator boarded a westbound train in New York. Walt Disney had traveled east to negotiate a better distribution deal for his cartoons starring Oswald the Rabbit-only to be told that his distributor owned the rights to the rabbit and had signed up Disney's key artists. Defiantly, Walt told his wife, Lilly, that he'd think up a new character. As the ...
Every Town USA
The final stop on my lovely tour of Disneyland, at least until "Star Wars Land" is completed, is the entrance to the entire park. Said to be inspired by Walt's hometown of Marceline, Missouri, "Main Street, U.S.A" is designed to look like the idealized center of a town at around 1910. One of the designers, Harper Goff, showed Walt some pictures of his childhood home in Colorado and Walt liked the ...
Fairyland Of Yesterday And Tomorrow
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Forty passengers at a time will get a realistic impression of space travel in a huge moon rocket being built near Los Angeles as part of Walt Disney's $9,000,000 Disneyland recreation park. Strapped to their seats, the passengers will thrill at the vibration and roar of the simulated take-off, listen to the staccato commands of the rocket captain over the intercom, watch the earth recede below them ...
For Disneyland's New Indiana Jones Adventure, Waiting Is Half The Fun
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Imagine you run a theater and you're faced with 21,000 people in line every day expecting nothing but the best. There are 2,400 eager customers queued at any given time waiting to get in. Your venue seats 180 people for each performance. Those impossible numbers would make most producers with any sense throw in the towel. But not Disneyland. The Magic Kingdom has spent the past 40 years fine-tuning ...
