By Veneta Wilson, Former Executive Housekeeper
Disneyland Hotel
Anaheim, Calif.
("When you wish upon a star" begins the famous Walt Disney melody. As former Executive Housekeeper Veneta Wilson takes a nostalgic look at the formative years of the Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim, Calif. She describes the construction stage and follows with several articles on record keeping, morale and incentives, handbook and written work procedures, and training program. Watch for this "star-studded" series in future editions of the Executive Housekeeper. - Ed.)
VISION, imagination, blueprints, a projection of expenses involved; coordination, construction, unending work additional plans for future expansion end result: Disneyland Hotel, the realization of a 16-year old dream.
When the late Walt Disney began converting 300 acres of orange groves to construct an amusement park in Anaheim, Calif., many American hotel chains were approached to build a hotel adjacent to Disneyland bearing the name, "the official hotel of the Magic Kingdom Disneyland." All turned the idea down as "too risky".
However, there was a farsighted threesome, Jack Wrather and his wife, Bonita Granville, an actress, of Texas, and Helen Alvarez of California. They had enough courage and vision to risk $12-million in 1954 to start construction of a family-style hotel.
On October 5, 1955, the Disneyland Hotel opened with only five completed guest rooms. By 1956, when - joined the growing list of employees, a building program of sizable proportion was in progress. Soon the hotel comprised 11 two-story buildings with 306 guest rooms, a Presidential Suite, gourmet restaurant, coffee shop, and administrative offices.
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