Peter Pan Articles
Disneyland Updates Classic Rides Like Haunted Mansion With New Magic For 60th Anniversary
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Guests visiting Disneyland these days will notice intriguing upgrades and changes to several classic, beloved attractions. As part of the park's 60th anniversary celebration, the Haunted Mansion, the Matterhorn and Peter Pan's Flight have all received tweaks, referred to as "New Magic" by Disneyland. The additions to Haunted Mansion and Matterhorn have been open for a few weeks, while Peter Pan re-opens ...
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.
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Disneyland Digs In At Anaheim
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With opening date set for July 15, construction is going full speed ahead on Disneyland, multi-million dollar wonder of the entertainment world at Anaheim in Orange County. The total investment is expected to approximate $17 million.Grading and bulldozing are completed. Excavation of the various waterways in Disneyland is finished. Construction has started on several buildings, with the exterior of one ...
500 Anaheim Children To Help Introduce Disneyland On TV
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Five hundred children from Anaheim Sunday Schools will play a big role in the ABC television -Show which will introduce Disneyland Park to a national TV audience Sunday.
The lucky youngsters will enjoy a preview of Sleeping Beauty's Castle and the rides of Walt Disney's new magic kingdom.
They will arrive at the park in 14 buses each of which will be under direction of a clown leader and two ...
Disneyland Has Its First Fire
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A passerby's cigarette ignited a small gas leak near the Peter Pan booth in Disneyland Monday afternoon. The little fire was put out quickly by crewmen with hand extinguishers.
However, the Fantasyland section of the park was closed to the public as a safety precaution until the line can be repaired.
Disneyland authorities believed the leak could be fixed by opening time of 10 a.m. today.
...
Truman Visits Disneyland
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Harry and Bess Truman were just another couple of out-of-season tourist here Saturday.
The former president winked cupped his hands and shouted to his wife over the brassy din of a band playing. "I'm Just Wild About Harry":
"Boy, is this plate a rubberneck's paradise."
Then he set off on a 2 1/2 -hour tour of the park at a pace so brisk that his official party and newsmen had to jog to keep ...
Disneyland Opened To Public
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Walt Disney's $17,000,000 Disneyland was formally opened to the public yesterday at 10 a.m.
The 60-acre wonderland at 1313 Harbor Blvd., Anaheim was previewed for the press civic officials and entertainment industry Sunday.
Disneyland was formally dedicated by Disney "to the people of the world young and old with a dream in their hearts." Gov. Goodwin J Knight added:
"All America can take ...
This Is How Disneyland Looked In 1955
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When Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, there were sections of it that were not done. A reporter noticed all the construction still ongoing and asked Walt Disney if Disneyland would ever be finished. Disney replied in what has become an oft quoted quote: "Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world."
Disney was true to his word - Disneyland has never been ...
This Is How Disneyland Changed In The 1980s
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Changes at Disneyland in the 1980s started slow, then ended in a splash down a mountain.
During the first couple years of the decade, Disney Imagineers were busy with the design and building of Epcot Center (as it was called then) at Walt Disney World. But they were also planning a project for Disneyland - rebuilding Fantasyland.
1980-83
In early 1982, most of Fantasyland was behind a ...
Disneyland And Imagineering Part 11
The Storm before the Storm
It was becoming increasingly clear that the year-long struggle to get the park opened was wearing on everyone involved. No one was more affected than Disney himself. Many around him had noticed a change in his behavior. He seemed uneasy and unsure of himself. His wife Lillian was worried that with previous warnings from his doctor about stress, the pressure would lead to a ...
River Boat Ride Tops At Disneyland
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The jungle boat trip through the "Rivers of the World" in adventureland has been the most popular attraction this year at Disneyland, originator Walt Disney disclosed today.
As attendance at the $23,600,000 playground passed the 13,000,000 mark in its third year of operation, visitors gave their second largest patronage to the frontierland ships "Mark Twain" and "Columbia" Disney said.
Next in ...
Magic Kingdom One Year After
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Above is pictured Disneyland as it looks today, some 14 months after the Grand Opening, of July 18, 1955. In that brief span of time the Anaheim Magic Kingdom has come to rank as the number one visitor attraction in the United States. It is expected that the Park will great its five millionth-visitor sometime during the current month.
The now familiar "heart" shape of Disneyland makes it easy for the ...
Disneyland And Imagineering Part 14
There's Got to be a Morning After
When we last left off, Walt Disney had made it through Opening Day. It wasn't all that he had hoped it would be, but he made it. "Black Sunday" was supposed to be a relatively tame press preview. Instead it resembled more of an all out free-for-all -- the park being besieged by triple attendance that was more than expected. From a certain point of view, this was ...
12 Fun Things You May Not Know About Disneyland
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Test your Disney trivia mojo here. How many of these items do you already know?
1. King Arthur Carousel. The lead horse on the iconic Fantasyland carousel is named Jingles. Walt Disney wanted all horses on the carousel, and he wanted them all to be leaping, so when a classic carousel was purchased, it was supplemented with other horses and those that had straight legs were redesigned.
2. Main ...
Here Are All the Things That Went Wrong On Disneyland Disastrous Opening Day In 1955
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Disneyland may be regarded as a place of magic, whimsy, and family-friendly fun today, but such was not the case on the park's opening day in 1955. Read on to find out why Disneyland workers used to refer to the opening ceremony as "Black Sunday."
1. Much of America tuned into the live broadcast
ABC covered the opening ceremony of Disneyland with a live 90 minute special called "Dateline ...
Autumn And Disneyland
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It's a wonderful, leisurely time of year to visit Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom!
Anytime is a "good time" to visit Walt Disney unique Magic Kingdom - just ask the 12 million adults and 4 million children who've already been here!
But with the Fall season, there is particular appeal and a still different enchantment about Disneyland, where guests find themselves "worlds away from today" - leaving ...
50 Things You Didn't Know About Disneyland
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In honor of Disneyland's 50th anniversary, we present 50 cool, obscure and simply odd things you probably didn't know about the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth. Many were culled from Mouse Tales by David Koenig (Bonaventure, $19.95). Some were provided by Disney archivist Dave Smith, and others came from 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland by former park employee Kevin Yee and lifelong fan ...
Oceans And Seas
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Hi, this is Marcia Schlegelmilch reporting from Disneyland in sunny southern California. Disneyland -- where Mickey, Minnie and friends reside in the cartooniest of homes. Where pirates landed as they escaped the Caribbean. Where storybook characters like Alice, Pinnochio and Peter Pan come to life on a parcel of land dubbed the "Happiest" on Earth.
I had been to this place before in my life, back in the ...
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 ...
Memorable Meeting With Man Behind The Mouse
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For a kid growing up in the '50s, "The Mickey Mouse Club" was required TV viewing. Even as an adult, whenever anyone sings "M-I-C-K-E-Y" it's hard for me to resist finishing the chorus. Come on, you know you want to.
I grew up in a small town near Sonora in the Mother Lode country, and every Christmas vacation we traveled to Los Angeles to stay with relatives.
It was on one of those trips that we ...
Disneyland Still Tops
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Nobody does fun better than Walt and his successors.
She lost her stuffed puppy somewhere between the Enchanted Tiki Room and Tomorrowland.
Too much ground to cover and thousands of people meant the search was futile -- we retraced our steps, but no puppy.
To us, her parents, it was just another toy, but to our three-year-old daughter, the lost black-and-white stuffy was cause for ...
Disneyland's Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Resturant
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Walt Disney's first Fantasyland was designed to give the impression that Sleeping Beauty Castle (with its rockwork turrets and extended walls of stone) was the single permanent structure in the area. Fantasyland's rides and concessions were arranged in the castle courtyard as if part of a traveling fair or medieval tournament. Peter Pan and the other dark rides (housed within the castle walls) had entrance ...
Magical Memories
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Disneyland was built on a dream. And it was Walt Disney's dream that has made millions of wishes come true during the past 50 years.
Hundreds of millions of wishes, really. And also special moments - first dates and honeymoons, birthdays and anniversaries, and fun days spent with kids and later with grandkids.
Several weeks ago, we asked readers to recall their favorite Disneyland memories.
...
Discovering Disneyland
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You have to look quickly, and you have to know exactly where to look. But if you do, you'll catch a pretty cool inside joke at Disneyland.
On the Star Tours ride, just before your runaway Starspeeder exits the space station, keep your eye on the lower right side of the screen: You flash past what looks like a giant electron microscope. Old-timers will recognize it as the Mighty Microscope from ...
Trash Or Treasure
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Dear Dr. J: My family recently took a trip to Disneyland and noticed the park is about to commemorate "50 years of Magic." We really went down memory lane when we set sail on the Jungle Cruise and dropped in on the birds in the Tiki Room. When we got home we found some old postcards and tickets. I imagine they are collector's items now. What do you think? -- Arlene Smith, Ontario
Dear Arlene: July 17, ...
Dear Walt, Thanks For The Memories
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From smooching in the tunnels to wide-eyed kids and sobbing adults, our readers have been through it all in Disneyland's 50 years.
We've chosen excerpts from our favorite stories and photos among scores of tales told by readers who've paid countless visits to "The Happiest Place on Earth."
Disney's celebration begins this week and runs for 18 months - some birthday party! Ours starts today.
...
Confessions Of A Disneyland Junkie
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Disneyland junkie. That's me.
I just can't get enough of the place.
There truly is something magical that happens when you pass through the tunnel and enter Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom.
It feels like that passion has been with me forever, because for as long as I can remember, I have been in complete awe of Walt Disney's boundless imagination, and everything at Disneyland exemplifies that.
...
King Arthur Carrousel
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On July 17, 1955, an excited crowd of Disneyland visitors ... the first ever ... waited at the Park's central hub for the signal to rush across the drawbridge and enter Walt Disney's magical Fantasyland realm. As the television cameras rolled, a heroic mounted "knight in armor" advanced towards the crowd from along the castle wall, signalled with his lance, then turned his steed to move off camera. This ...
Disneyland Marks A Half Century
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Disneyland is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a bang. A lot of them, actually. A pyrotechnic extravaganza is being unleashed nightly as the latest manifestation of the park's fireworks show, and it's an impressive one.
As Disneyland pays homage to some of its most popular attractions down through the years, fireworks are not aimed straight into the sky but at angles, so as to resemble shooting ...
The Big Ooh
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Craftsmen must use their hands, heads and hearts to create the rides and inventions that make the park distinctly Disney.
Walt Disney dreamed the idea for Disneyland, but it took an army of innovators to build a place where people could step inside a story.
Disney tapped the best artists and risk-takers in his film studio to transform their two-dimensional fantasy worlds into a real place. When ...
Planning A Trip To The Happiest Place On Earth- Here's Some Tips From Experts And Fans
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"Mommy, we need to go to Disneyland."
My son delivered this suggestion over a bowl of Cheerios, just after he and his little sister waged their daily war over which identical blue spoon they'd prefer.
Neither of my preschoolers remembered that their father and I had forked over hundreds of dollars to take them to the Happiest Place on Earth less than two years earlier. We'd taken turns pushing ...
