The Pre-Opening Report from Disneyland (1955)

1. American Motors, builders of Nash Automobiles,

2. Kelvinator Home Appliances and Hudson Motor Cars...

3. and the Dairy Farmers of America, through the American Dairy Association...

4. present Walt Disney's Disneyland.

5. Each week as you enter this timeless land,

6. one of these many worlds will open to you.

7. Frontierland...

8. tall tales and true, from the legendary past.

9. Tomorrowland, promise of things to come.

10. Adventureland, the wonder world of nature's own realm.

11. Fantasyland, the happiest kingdom of them all.

12. Presenting this week, The Pre-Opening Report from Disneyland.

13. Now, your host, Walt Disney.

14. In our first television show last year,

15. we described to you our hopes and plans for a place called Disneyland.

16. A few months ago, in a progress report,

17. we showed you the actual start of construction.

18. In our mail recently, a lot of you have shown interest in our progress.

19. And so, this week,

20. just a matter of days away from the formal opening of Disneyland,

21. we want to bring you up to date on what's been happening,

22. and let you share with us the joys and anxieties of our race against time.

23. In this, our final report on the building of Disneyland,

24. I want to pay tribute to the many studio artists, craftsmen and engineers

25. whose untiring efforts helped bring this dream into a reality.

26. Without their skills and imagination, Disneyland would not have been possible.

27. And now, here's Winston Hibler,

28. to take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of Disneyland.

29. Right from the start, we had our dreams pretty well in hand.

30. And, of course, the best starting point is the old reliable drawing board,

31. that magical borderline where dreams cross over

32. from the misty land of imagination into the modern world of reality.

33. Once the ideas were laid out on the drawing board,

34. we started to break them down into working parts.

35. Creating a design is one thing,

36. making it work mechanically, surely, safely, is another.

37. Our engineers pored over the sketches, analyzed the problems and made the models.

38. Little models...

39. medium-sized models...

40. and life-size models.

41. On our test stage, several of the planned rides were reproduced in full-scale.

42. Here's a test model of Peter Pan's famous pirate ship,

43. as it will swoop through the London skies,

44. powered not by pixie dust, but by a sturdy monorail.

45. Across the studio street, on the tank stage we'd built for the submarine

46. in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, our monorail system went underwater.

47. To properly control the action

48. of the mechanical alligators and hippos that rise out of the water,

49. we had to time the course and the speed of the boat exactly.

50. Inside stage three, nearby, where only a little while back

51. Davy Crockett was battling the soldiers of General Santa Anna,

52. we started construction on a 105-foot American riverboat,

53. the stern-wheeler Mark Twain.

54. Since the deck slopes from one end to the other,

55. each piece of wood had to be individually cut and fitted.

56. To make sure it was completely authentic, we called in as supervisor

57. a Mississippi riverboat captain, who had spent a lifetime running just such a boat.

58. Constructing such a large boat inside a building 50 miles from water

59. caused a lot of raised eyebrows.

60. But unlike the fellow who built a boat in his basement and couldn't get it out,

61. we had a plan.

62. If anyone happened to look into the windows of our staff shop next door,

63. they might well wonder what kind of a business we were really in.

64. Here the mechanical creatures for our Adventureland jungle

65. were being given form.

66. The sculptors and technicians who had built our giant squid for 20,000 Leagues,

67. were creating our plastic zoo.

68. Now they'd turned their skill to smaller, but no less exacting subjects.

69. Many new plastic materials came to our aid in the creation of the jungle beast.

70. To people our jungle world with lifelike natives,

71. our craftsmen performed the most difficult of all molding processes,

72. the actual duplication of the human body.

73. A professional model of imposing physique

74. was chosen and covered with plaster of paris.

75. In order to obtain a satisfactory mold, and yet not endanger our subject,

76. the plaster craftsmen had to know the precise moment to pull it apart.

77. The hero of the hour was our model.

78. Although the plaster got warmer and warmer as it hardened,

79. he remained, under the circumstances, cool and collected.

80. On stage two, across the street, where a short while ago,

81. Captain Nemo held his captives in the submarine Nautilus,

82. the whir of power machinery replaced the call of, "Camera. Action."

83. For here, we were building five-eighths scale railroad cars

84. to run on Disneyland's own narrow-gage line, the Disneyland and Santa Fe.

85. When you board one of these coaches

86. and circle the park on the three-quarter mile trip,

87. you'll have an old-fashioned,

88. but easy riding view of all four realms of Disneyland.

89. But Disneyland just wouldn't be complete without another type of train, Casey Jr.,

90. designed primarily for our younger visitors.

91. Built to take steep hills like a roller coaster,

92. it's one of the few trains engineered

93. that will take a 40% grade in complete safety.

94. On the studio back lot, wagonmakers were reviving the nearly forgotten art

95. of building stagecoaches, surreys, buggies, buckboards and Conestoga wagons.

96. These will provide transportation around the park.

97. And will, we hope, ease the age-old problem of aching feet.

98. Close by, another craft was being revived. The art of the wheelwright.

99. It takes a lot of skill and plenty of practice

100. to heat a metal wheel rim to the exact temperature,

101. then fit and cool it without scorching the wood.

102. Of course, the traditional colleague of the wagonmaker and the wheelwright

103. is the harness maker.

104. But we discovered this skill had well-nigh disappeared with high button shoes.

105. So, like other studio craftsmen, he had to teach himself an all but forgotten art.

106. To pull our three-quarter scale stagecoaches, covered wagons

107. and horse-drawn street cars, we needed scaled-down animals.

108. Shetland ponies and Corsican donkeys were the answer.

109. When they arrived from distant corners of the world,

110. they took up quarters next to the harness shop.

111. There weren't enough of them, so we went into the breeding-farm business.

112. But horses for Disneyland are of several breeds.

113. For, like Pinocchio, some are made of wood.

114. Of course, we mean horses for the carousel.

115. The problem of carving merry-go-round horses really stumped us.

116. After many months of searching,

117. we finally rounded up enough of the antique hand-carved type

118. to fill our carousel and run four abreast.

119. All together, they add up to 72.

120. Then began a reconditioning process and a reshaping of the legs

121. to make them all jumpers in keeping with our King Arthur design.

122. Being forced to obtain them from several sources,

123. we happily discovered they all had different faces.

124. Each was a distinct individual.

125. At Disneyland, fact and fantasy often go hand in hand.

126. In a darkened corner of our test stage,

127. an exact replica of the moon was being modeled—

128. the moon that was to be the destination of our Tomorrowland rocket trip.

129. Our studio sculptor was aided by Roger Hayward,

130. a distinguished expert on astronomical matters.

131. Close by, one of our studio artists was painting a miniature model

132. of what was to be our cyclorama.

133. When completed in full scale it will be seen in Tomorrowland,

134. and will give the illusion of a panoramic view of America

135. as seen from a space station traveling in an orbit 500 miles above the Earth.

136. The studio was becoming a little crowded now

137. and so, to speed things up, we assigned some of the work to outside companies.

138. In Wilmington, California, construction was going forward

139. on two steam locomotives, vintage of 1900.

140. Probably the last of their type ever to be built in the United States.

141. At a shipyard in nearby San Pedro,

142. the wheels of progress rolled backwards to 1895.

143. In the midst of the latest in shipbuilding equipment,

144. and with the most modern methods,

145. we were building the hull of our old-fashioned stern-wheeler.

146. In nearby Newport, we were building and assembling miniature Autopia racing cars.

147. These will speed along the Tomorrowland freeway.

148. Specially designed

149. and built with a frame of steel tubing and a fiberglass body,

150. each of these cars will have its own one-cylinder,

151. six-and-a-half horsepower motor.

152. Our most difficult problem was to build them

153. to fit the varying sizes of growing youngsters.

154. We finally agreed on two gas pedals, a close one for the smaller children,

155. and one more distant for the older type youngster,

156. say the 16 to 60 variety.

157. And to give it that authentic real-life feeling,

158. our freeway will be patrolled by miniature police cars.

159. Near at hand in Costa Mesa, we were working on the explorer's launches,

160. destined to ply through many tropic waters on our exotic Adventureland voyage.

161. Here, as in many other problems we encountered in building Disneyland,

162. modern plastic materials came to the rescue,

163. for these boats are molded of fiberglass.

164. By using these latest boat building techniques,

165. we were able to make them sturdier and safer than with conventional materials.

166. Back at the studio, the working models of our rides had been perfected,

167. and we were well into construction on the real thing.

168. Peter Pan's pirate ship needed only finishing touches to carry us over London,

169. through the first star to the right,

170. and down the glide path of a moonbeam on your trip to Neverland.

171. Mr. Toad's 1903 car of Wind in the Willows fame

172. needed only wheels, its final paint job and its electric motor to carry passengers

173. on a careening ride through Toad Hall and the English countryside.

174. Here, the scenic backgrounds are being prepared by our studio artists.

175. Over in the drapery department,

176. feminine craftsmen joined in the finishing touches:

177. drapes for the stage of the old-time dance hall in Frontierland,

178. fireproof curtains made of spun glass for the restaurants,

179. old-fashioned striped awnings for Main Street,

180. a canopy for the King Arthur Carrousel

181. and 1,001 other things made of fabric needed to complete the job.

182. On stage three, the superstructure of the stern-wheeler

183. had now reached the assembly stage.

184. As section after section was pulled into place

185. and the proud Mark Twain lifted its head higher and higher into the air,

186. you could almost hear the faraway echo of the boat whistles.

187. Now, this question as to whether or not we could get the boat out of the stage.

188. Well, we fooled nearly everyone,

189. for it was designed to come apart in sections for shipping.

190. By now, all over the studio,

191. hammers and saws were quickly being replaced by paint and brushes,

192. for the deadline was drawing near.

193. The "Hurry up. Paint up. Finish up." campaign began in earnest

194. Ever wonder how you paint a straight line on a round wheel?

195. Well, here's how it's done.

196. Like our many other projects,

197. the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad was feeling the effects of the final push.

198. It needed only a few letters of recommendation

199. from a dozen sign painters...

200. and the installation of its trucks and a few other accessories

201. to be ready for its trial run.

202. At this point, we felt much like our friend the beaver

203. in the picture Lady and the Tramp.

204. It's not so much the work as the doggone hauling.

205. We now begin the job of moving Disneyland to Disneyland.

206. For the next few weeks, as far as we were concerned, all roads led to Disneyland.

207. At Barham Boulevard, our trucks completed the first leg on the trip

208. and turned onto the Hollywood Freeway.

209. From here, straight on to Disneyland, it was a breeze.

210. It's often said that the Los Angeles drivers are a hardy breed.

211. They're used to almost everything,

212. but when a man has missed his coffee and is late for work,

213. a boxcar rolling down the freeway can be quite a surprise.

214. To the thousands of Los Angeles motorists who travel the freeways daily,

215. this view of the Los Angeles City Hall is a familiar landmark.

216. Santa Ana Freeway

217. Civic Center

218. Once past Downtown Los Angeles, we swing onto the Santa Ana Freeway

219. towards the city of Anaheim.

220. This is probably the only time The Disneyland and Santa Fe

221. will roll beneath the tracks of its big brother, The Super Chief.

222. As we turn off the freeway onto Harbor Boulevard,

223. we finally reach our destination,

224. Disneyland.

225. Now, in just a minute, we'll go inside the park itself

226. for a close-up look at what's going on there.

227. Well, here we are inside Disneyland,

228. or rather Disneyland at just about the halfway point in construction.

229. Round the Town Square and down the old-fashioned Main Street,

230. right in the throes of building.

231. Uh, watch the bump.

232. The streets haven't been paved yet.

233. Yes, we're in the park, all right.

234. But we haven't left our problems behind at the studio.

235. We just concentrated a lot of them in one place here.

236. Some of the questions we had to answer

237. sounded like those a four-year-old might ask his father.

238. "How do you keep a river from running away?"

239. "How do you make a rock?"

240. And like the parent of the four-year-old,

241. there were a lot of answers we didn't know.

242. But in most cases, you find the answers to things by just doing them.

243. That's the way we found out.

244. Over in Frontierland, where we were building a stockade,

245. we had a little professional advice.

246. Davy Crockett and his friend, Georgie Russell, dropped by to give us a hand

247. For the authentic effect we were after, he gave us an old pioneer recipe:

248. a strong arm, a sharp ax and a large helping of elbow grease.

249. In our stern-wheeler dry dock, just around the corner from Frontierland,

250. we set up a heavy equipment assembly line.

251. Here we introduced the deck and cabin sections made at the studio

252. to the hull constructed and shipped up from San Pedro.

253. It's always an interesting moment when two major sections

254. built many miles from one another are joined together.

255. And a happy moment when they fit.

256. In this case, they did.

257. Over in the train shop, the final assembly jobs were being made

258. on the pride and joy of the Disneyland and Santa Fe Railroad,

259. our two brand-new locomotives, the E.P. Ripley and the L.K. Holliday.

260. Over in Adventureland, our workmen were learning

261. what every Tahitian lad knows at the age of five:

262. the art of thatching a grass roof.

263. And upriver from this boat terminal,

264. other workmen were just as busy solving the problem of how to build a rock.

265. Creating beautiful rock formations is nothing for Mother Nature,

266. but it wasn't so easy for us.

267. This particular rock had its own private architect.

268. It was blueprinted and built with structural steel and cement.

269. Soon it will be a part of the waterfall setting in our Adventureland boat trip.

270. Just around the corner, we were working busily at another problem

271. that comes naturally to Mother Nature, but not to us.

272. We were waterproofing a riverbed, so the river wouldn't run away from us.

273. Over on Main Street, our plasterers were developing a new technique:

274. how to lay bricks from the top-down instead of the bottom-up.

275. These are antique gaslight standards

276. that once actually stood on the streets of Philadelphia and Baltimore.

277. Down Main Street and across the Plaza,

278. we were doing what everyone does at one time or another,

279. building castles in the air.

280. Only we were building just one castle, and it was for real.

281. One of our viewers wrote and wanted to know

282. just where we found the plans for our medieval castle.

283. Actually, we found the plans for this one in France,

284. buried away in some dusty archives.

285. Of course, we didn't reproduce it in all its phases

286. but we did preserve a lot of detail to keep it authentic.

287. Our drawbridge actually works with the same type

288. of mechanical hoists and weights that were used in medieval times.

289. How do you make plaster look like a rock?

290. Well, our motion picture craftsmen, long skilled in the art of illusion,

291. knew the answer to that one.

292. This looks as though we may be burning our bridges behind us.

293. Actually, it's just a way of putting the appearance

294. of a few centuries wear on new wood.

295. All in all, it was a tough job.

296. And what with the long hours and intensive work,

297. it may be that some of the workmen started to imagine things.

298. But one morning, as they were going to work,

299. they could almost swear they heard,

300. up among the steel unfinished towers of the castle,

301. some familiar voices singing a familiar song.

302. I guess it's possible some of our cartoon characters

303. had gotten tired of waiting and had already moved in.

304. We were in the process of bringing the diamond mine of the Seven Dwarfs

305. down here to Disneyland, and this left them without any work to do.

306. They took over the job of sidewalk superintendents

307. and started giving us advice.

308. With a cheering section like that, what can you do?

309. I guess they were anxious to get in the new home

310. we'd promised them for such a long time.

311. As the time grew shorter, our characters sped us up in their own special way.

312. And now Cinderella's little mice gave their advice.

313. By now, all the pieces of our big jigsaw puzzle were fitting into place.

314. And we were quite sure we would make it.

315. As Uncle Remus so aptly put it...

316. We hope you all will be listening and watching next Sunday, July 17th,

317. when we present the formal opening of Disneyland

318. in an hour-and-a-half show over most of these stations.

319. Say, kids, isn't this a swell picture of Davy Crockett?

320. Here's all you have to do to get your copy, free,

321. autographed by Fess Parker,

322. star of the new Walt Disney Technicolor movie,

323. Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.

324. Just drop in at your nearest Hudson showroom with mother or dad, or both.

325. Remember, mother or dad must be with you.

326. You'll also get, free,

327. a 16-page comic book from the original Davy Crockett story.

328. This is a special Walt Disney edition, created exclusively for Hudson.

329. Cannot be bought anywhere and it's yours free,

330. along with the picture at your Hudson dealers.

331. Now, when you're at your Hudson dealers,

332. he will show your parents how they can win a trip for free

333. to Disneyland Park, California, plus a new Hudson car.

334. They can win the grand prize,

335. a trip for three to wonderful Disneyland Park,

336. plus a Hudson Hollywood custom V-8, the most beautiful performer of them all.

337. Or the second prize, the trip plus a Hudson Wasp custom four-door.

338. Or maybe the trip plus a Rambler Cross Country station wagon.

339. Also, there are 27 additional prizes of trips for three, all expenses paid,

340. in the Hudson Disneyland contest, which closes midnight, July 16.

341. So kids, take mother or dad or both to your Hudson dealers

342. to get your free Davy Crockett picture and Davy Crockett comic book.

343. Get yours tomorrow.

344. During the last few years,

345. we've ventured into a lot of different fields

346. and we've had the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of wonderful people.

347. I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing,

348. that it was all started by a mouse.

349. Now that's why I want this part of the show to belong to Mickey,

350. because the story of Mickey is truthfully the real beginning of Disneyland.

351. Now that's how Mickey looks today.

352. But I remember another time when he didn't look so prosperous.

353. First time I met Mickey, he was a hungry-looking young mouse

354. playing in his first movie.

355. He was so poor that he didn't even own a pair of shoes.

356. The picture was called Plane Crazy.

357. Now, that was the year that Lindbergh flew the Atlantic.

358. Who, me?

359. Maybe it was crude, but it was a start,

360. and it led to better and better parts.

361. Now, as Mickey began to eat regularly,

362. naturally his appearance began to change too.

363. Being only a mouse,

364. I guess it's honest to say he enjoyed all his newfound fame.

365. After all, he was the only mouse to ever win a personal Academy Award.

366. But Mickey, at heart, was an unselfish little guy.

367. He wanted to help others find a place in the limelight too.

368. His dog, Pluto, for instance.

369. Now watch. I'll show you how to do it.

370. Like this.

371. See?

372. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

373. Now you try it.

374. That's it. Swell.

375. But remember, whatever happens, don't move.

376. Shh.

377. Come on. Stay close.

378. Easy now, Pluto.

379. Quiet, Pluto.

380. But now, wait a minute, Mr. Bear.

381. We're only going through here.

382. Get away!

383. Other young, aspiring actors joined Mickey's growing stock company.

384. He had a couple of new protégés.

385. A fellow they called Goofy and a loudmouth juvenile called Duck.

386. Ah, we don't have no fun no more.

387. No. Nobody around here to scare.

388. We scared them all away. Guess we're too good.

389. Hey. Here's an idea. Get a load of this, fellas.

390. "Notice. We exterminate all kinds of ghosts.

391. Day and night service."

392. Huh, wise guy. Let's get him over here.

393. - Let's have some fun with him. - We'll scare the pants off him!

394. - The telephone. - The telephone.

395. The telephone?

396. - Hello? - Hello?

397. - Hello? Hello? - Hello?

398. - Hello? - Hello?

399. Do you chase ghosts?

400. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. I'll say we do.

401. Well, this house is full of ghosts. Listen.

402. Come quick.

403. The old McShiver mansion.

404. Okay. We'll be right over.

405. Oh, boy. A customer!

406. - A customer! - A customer?

407. Hey, fellas, here they come.

408. We're a cinch. Look at 'em.

409. Boo!

410. We're from the Ajax Ghost Exterminator Company...

411. - Why don't you look where you're going? - Shh!

412. Ouch.

413. Boo!

414. - Ghosts. - Ghosts.

415. G-Ghosts?

416. We'll separate and surround them.

417. What's the big idea?

418. Who did that? Who did that?

419. Uh-oh.

420. Come out here! Fight like a man!

421. So...

422. I got him! Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy!

423. Well, I'll be a son of a gun.

424. What kind of a place is this?

425. They can't do this to me.

426. That's a fine how do you do.

427. Oh, I'm brave.

428. But I'm careful.

429. I ain't scared of no ghosts.

430. Something wrong here.

431. I know you. You're a ghost.

432. It's got me!

433. They're pulling the life from me!

434. Help, Mickey! I got 'em! I got all three of them!

435. Whoa!

436. - Look! - Ghosts!

437. - Ghosts! - Ghosts!

438. Ghosts!

439. So, you can't take it, you big chickens!

440. Well, Mickey's faith in his two pals paid off.

441. Donald Duck and Goofy graduated from supporting roles to stardom.

442. Now the door had opened wide and the way was clear.

443. And into the studio that Mickey built almost single-handed, came the others.

444. Snow White.

445. Dopey.

446. Pinocchio.

447. Bambi.

448. Dumbo.

449. But if Mickey thought he was getting out of greasepaint, he was dead wrong.

450. The greatest thrill of his acting career was still to come.

451. It happened on the night of November 13th, 1940

452. at the Broadway Theater in New York City,

453. the same theater where he made his first appearance as a ragged, shoeless mouse

454. almost ten years before.

455. Now we're going to hear a piece of music that tells a very definite story.

456. It's a very old story, one that goes back almost 2,000 years.

457. A legend about a sorcerer who had an apprentice.

458. He was a bright, young lad, very anxious to learn the business.

459. As a matter of fact, he was a little bit too bright,

460. because he started practicing some of the boss's best magic tricks

461. before learning how to control them.

462. Now, before we go, we'd like to bring you a preview presentation

463. of some of the scenes from our next week's show.

464. From Fantasyland, we will bring you our television version

465. of Lewis Carroll's classic, Alice in Wonderland.

466. Step into a world of wonders as, next week,

467. Walt Disney brings you his musical cartoon version

468. of Lewis Carroll's beloved story—

469. Join Alice and meet the same delightfully wacky characters along the way as she did.

470. Here's the white rabbit who started the whole adventure.

471. Here's the rabbit hole through which Alice fell headlong into Wonderland.

472. Goodbye!

473. And here's some of the fantastic folk

474. Alice met in this happy, nonsensical world.

475. And, of course, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare,

476. who invite you to maddest tea party of all time.

477. Adventure piles upon adventure,

478. as Alice wanders further and further into the realm of Wonderland.

479. Here, she met her gracious majesty, the Queen of Hearts.

480. - Off with their heads!

481. Here, the famous croquet match between Alice and the Queen.

482. And the march of the playing cards.

483. It's Walt Disney's musical version of the world's favorite nonsense tale,

484. the story of Alice and her fabulous adventures in wonderful Wonderland.

485. Coming to you next week from Disneyland.

486. Cards, halt!

487. Next week, Disneyland will be brought to you by...

488. American Motors, builders of Nash Automobiles,

489. Kelvinator Home Appliances,

490. and the fabulous new Hudson Motor Cars.

491. And the dairy farmers of America, through the American Dairy Association

492. reminding you to drink one, two, three glasses of milk a day.

493. You never outgrow your need for milk.

494. This has been an ABC Television Network presentation.