Cartoon alchemist Walt Disney first introduced the world to theme parks when he opened the doors to Disneyland on a former orange grove that spanned 160 acres in Anaheim, California.
The date was July 17, 1955, and a ticket to enter cost just a dollar (50 cents for children), the equivalent of around $12 (£8.92) today – although the park operated a pay as you ride system, with prices costing 23 cents for adults and 10 cents for kids.
Disney fans today can take their pick from six resorts – two in the US, one in Europe and three in Asia, with a brand new park set to open in Abu Dhabi in the ‘early 2030s’ – but what did the very first incarnation of Walt Disney’s vision look like?
The opening day wasn’t a success by all accounts, and became known as ‘Black Sunday’ by Disney employees because of the number of disasters that unfolded. It was so hot under the Californian sun that the asphalt melted under visitors’ feet, the drinking fountains didn’t work and several rides malfunctioned.
Disneyland estimated around 20,000 people would attend on its first day and tickets were sent out on an invitation-only basis. However, bootleg tickets meant around 35,000 attended and many more crowded the park’s entrance too.
Eventually though, Walt and his first team of magic makers – now known as the Disney Imagineers – honed their theme park formula for fun.
Two decades later, the brand’s flagship attraction, Walt Disney World, now the world’s most visited theme park, opened its doors in Orlando in 1971…and the rest, as they say, is history.
Here’s what visitors arriving at the park on that very first day in the mid Fifties enjoyed…
