Katharina Buczek
And from that moment on, Walt was dedicated to making his vision of Disneyland a reality. In 1952, he liquidated some of his longest-held assets, including his vacation home, and took out one hundred thousand dollars against his life insurance policy.
Walt even sold off the rights to his own name in hopes of acquiring extra funds.
And with proceeds, he was able to begin a new venture known as WED Enterprises– aptly titled after his full name, Walter Elias Disney.
Walt originally conceptualized Disneyland as being called Mickey Mouse Village. But, while planning out the park, he realized that WED Enterprises’ designers, artists, and engineers were constructing an entire world aside from just the Mickey Mouse characters.
So, for the first time, Walt began to envision a theme park with segmented regions, such as Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Frontierland.
This opened up a world of new possibilities that, unfortunately, also came with a massive price tag. Thus, WED Enterprises was forced to cut a deal with ABC.
In return for Walt creating a one-hour weekly television series for the TV network, ABC provided Walt with five million dollars to finish his park construction.
And amazingly, even though park construction began on July 22, 1954, it was completed in under one year.
The day that Disneyland debuted in Anaheim, California– July 17, 1955– was a scorching one. But, the weather did not deter the public from showing up to experience the world’s first amusement park.
And over that first year, a whopping 3.6 million people ended up visiting the park– with patronage exponentially growing ever since.
Now, Disneyland welcomes 18 million visitors every single calendar year– making it the second most visited theme park in the world.
