Inventing Amusements

Sixty-three years ago this day, Disneyland (the amusement park) opened for business. Walt Disney's playland rose up out of Anaheim orange groves and went on to change the way earthlings think of amusement parks. They aren't merely roller coasters and merry-go-rounds anymore, but themed environments that enfold visitors who walk through their gates with cinematic-style experiences.

The summer of 1955, the day "the park" opened, temperature were hot and attractions unfinished, but the public was enthralled anyway. Walt's employees -- particularly his animation staff -- played a large part in making Disneyland happen. One of them was the son of movie legend Francis X. Bushman:

... Bruce [Bushman] was a layout artist on Pinocchio (1940), co-art directed the Nutcracker Suite sequence in Fantasia (1940), and laid out many short cartoons. ... As the studio's attention turned to Disneyland in 1954, Bruce was one of the leading magicians. ...

Bruce sketched a pink elephant ride where the children would be in control—raising and lowering their elephant as they pleased. Look at me! ... Bushman studied successful rides from parks around the country and imagined Disneyfied versions. Susie the Little Blue Coupe, a 1952 short, could inspire a child's roundabout; Little Pedro, the airplane from Saludos Amigos (1942), might soar over Fantasyland. A commercially-available mirror maze could be re-themed as the scene in the queen's garden in Alice in Wonderland (1951). ...

What's little remembered today: Disney cartoon staffers spent multiple days and nights in Anaheim, working to get Disneyland ready for opening. Layout artists and designer Ken Anderson was there, background artists Claude Coats and Ralph Hulett (and numerous others) were in attendance. For a while it looked as though there was no way the July opening could be met, but somehow it was. And amusement park history was made.

NOTE: After that first frantic rush, after the park had turned into a monster success, a seaparate corporate subsidy was set up to create new Disneyland attractions. Initially called WEK (Walter Elias Disney), it's now known as "Disney Imagineering". The animation department stopped being called on to lend its talent, but animation employees like Claude Coats and Marc Davis, along with several others, left the animation department to work full time on Disneyland.