Walt Disney spent more than a decade dreaming up Disneyland during his travels to European amusement parks and sent his Imagineers on a series of road trips to visit popular attractions across the United States that influenced the development of the Anaheim theme park.
A new history of Disneyland details the classic amusement parks that inspired Walt Disney’s creation of Disneyland in 1955.
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The new Disneyland history was created as part of the 17,000-page Environmental Impact Report released in mid-September by the city of Anaheim for Disney’s expansion initiative known as DisneylandForward.
The 309-page Historic Resources Technical Report written by the Historic Resources Group traces Walt Disney’s interest in creating a theme park back to the late 1930s as part of the construction of a new Disney movie studio in Burbank. World War II put plans on hold for a Disney amusement park.
“His original idea was to have something to show people that visited the Disney Studios,” according to the DisneylandForward EIR. “In the late 1940s, Disney resumed his planning efforts.”
In late 1952, Walt Disney founded the WED Enterprises development organization to help him create Disneyland. WED — which stood for Walter Elias Disney — eventually evolved into Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive creative team that designs Disney theme parks, lands and attractions.
Let’s take a closer look at the 10 classic amusement parks and attractions that influenced Walt Disney’s creation of Disneyland.
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Beverly Park
Walt Disney was a frequent visitor of Beverly Park with his daughters in the 1940s.
Disney showed Beverly Park owner David Bradley his plans for Disneyland in 1950 and soon after hired him as a consultant for the fledgling park, according to KCET.
Bradley’s wife, Bernice, a story researcher at Disney studios,…
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