IT has often been said that children live in a marvelous dream world of their own, but it is not often that that dream world, that wonderful land of fantasy, takes on an actual form and comes to life under the skilled hands of bricklayers and plasterers and electricians.
However, as your JOURNAL was going to press, on July 18, 1955, a man-made dream world for children of all ages was thrown open to the public in Southern California, and the fabulous Walt Disney chalked up one more tremendous success. We refer to the new giant amusement park known as Disneyland.
Disneyland is located in the city of Anaheim, California, just 22 miles southeast of metropolitan Los Angeles.
[img]Above: A foreman directs a crane lowering the top of an Indo-China temple in "Adventureland" into position. "Explorers" will see it as they float down a river in the famed $17 million Disneyland.[/img]
[img]Right: This is an artist's rendering of the entrance to "Adven-tureland." entered through a Tahitian setting. Visitors will tour a five-acre waterway voyage and will receive Neptune's certificate as they "cross the equator" on their explorers' trip.[/img]
Less than a year ago, this greatest of playgrounds was 160 acres of productive orange groves. Now 12 months, $17,000,000 and some 2.000 skilled workers later, Disneyland, a 20-year-old dream of a man who has made many a child's dream come true, exists. Walt Disney, speaking of his latest creation, describes it as "a fabulous playground something of a fair, a city from the Arabian Nights, metropolis of the future, a showplace of magic and living facts, but above all a place for people to find happiness and knowledge."
The visitor to Disneyland enters through a railroad station from which two five-eighths scale old fashioned steam locomotives pull six coach loads of passengers around the entire park.
[img]This is the City Hall of "Main Street, U.S.A." an 80 per cent of full size restoration of a typical small town at the turn of the century. The entire job was built with 100 per cent union labor. The park’s electrical installations were especially complicated.[/img]
[img]The electrical job on Main Street is discussed by W. A. Ferguson, Bill Cox and Ken Emry. Local 441 members handled job.[/img]
[img]The entrance to "Fantasyland" is through this 70-foot "Sleeping Beauty Castle," shown here in a scale model. Inside the castle are discovered many of the story-hook characters Wall Disney has "made alive."[/img]
Leaving the railroad station, the visitor finds himself on Main Street, U.S.A., a replica of a small American town at the turn of the century. There is a quaint town hall, postoffice, Disneyland emporium, opera house and fire station, with its horse-drawn engine.
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