(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Disneyland celebrates
its 30th anniversary this year.
It's hard to imagine the world without a magic kingdom
but that's the way it was prior to 1955,
before Walt Disney got a great idea.
- Saturday was always daddy's day with the two daughters.
As I'd sit there while they rode the merry-go-round,
did all these things,
sit on a bench eating peanuts,
I felt that there should be something built,
some kind of an amusement enterprise built
where that the parents and the children
could have fun together.
- [Narrator] Disneyland's history
is a history of its people,
beginning with those
who understood Walt Disney's dream enough
to help him build it.
People like Herb Ryman
who drew the first designs for Disneyland.
- And he said, "Well, Herbie,"
he said, "My brother, Roy,
"has got to go to New York on Monday.
"He's got to fly to New York.
"We need $17 million to start this project.
"Roy's gotta take this stuff back
"and show them what this is gonna look like."
And so I got excited and I said, "Well, gee,"
I said, "I'd like to see it too."
And he said, "You're gonna do it."
- [Narrator] Disney built it
with help from animation artists like John Hench
who designed the dream like a movie come to life.
- I was still on pictures
and then in between pictures,
I'd work on Disneyland until one day Walt said,
"Well, I think you're going to stay on Disneyland."
And he says, "You're gonna like it,"
and I did.
It's very much like a motion picture.
I think it's very parallel to motion pictures
the fact that you have a long shot,
you see something,
and in a longer view,
you coming in from the medium shot
and you walk up and touch something,
you're into a close-up.
- [Narrator] He built it
with the capable hands of landscaper, Bill Evans.
- Here we are in the middle of a desert, right?
Man, it's changed all that
but it was a desert the way Mother Nature designed it.
We got an average rainfall of 12 to 14 inches,
and that's a desert.
Walt was apt to say, "Hey guys, I need a jungle."
Or, "I need a Missouri Riverboat
"from Hannibal, Missouri, for Tom Sawyer.
"Do it."
- [Narrator] Another who understood the dream was Wally Boag
who performed over 25,000 shows
at the Golden Horseshoe Revue.
- The way Walt looked at life, and me too,
the way I look at life is something like this.
And he kind of enjoyed the stuff we used to do.
I remember one time he used to bring in the Indians
and sit in the stage box left,
and the Chief had a tomahawk
and the closing of my act,
I do a little gag.
So I said, "Listen, just to keep things sanitary,
"I'm gonna give you this now,
"do you mind?"
And of course, Walt fell on the floor.
He loved that.
He's like, "That's fun." (laughs)
- [Narrator] Together, Disney's people built it
and opened it on July 17th, 1955,
to what was at the time,
history's largest live television broadcast.
90 million people tuned in to see the dream unfold.
- To all who come to this happy place, welcome.
Disneyland is your land.
Here, aged relives fond memories of the past,
and here, youth may savor the challenge
and promise of the future.
- [Narrator] Walt later referred to that day
as Black Sunday.
Rides broke down and food ran out
as 30,000 people swept into Disneyland like a tidal wave.
Disneyland President, Dick Nunis,
was there on opening day.
- We literally paved Main Street down to the entrance
and opened the gates.
And that's just about how close it was.
And we had a live television show
which created a lot of problems.
- A vista into a world of wondrous ideas,
signifying man's achievements.
I thought I got a signal.
- You're gonna come back here in a minute.
Right now, Bob Cummings is at the,
where is he?
He's at the Snow White ride, Bob?
- Well, folks, as you can see,
I'd like to stay here at the Mardi Gras forever
but there's a Disneyland train leaving
from the Western Station right away,
and we don't wanna miss that.
It's taking us to a more exciting land.
So take it away on the train, Ronnie Reagan.
- And this is Frontierland.
Inside this stockade,
Walt Disney has created a Frontier village
that could have been carved out of the wilderness
100 years ago by the pioneers themselves.
- [Narrator] There were better times ahead for Disneyland.
Walt often spent days at a time
in his apartment above the Disneyland firehouse,
hatching new ideas for the park.
The original 18 attractions became 55.
The park became a worldwide phenomenon.
So much so that when the State Department denied access
to Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, in 1959,
he threw a headline making tantrum.
- He had different shots
of places where we'd take pictures with Khrushchev,
and I had one,
it was my favorite,
where we'd lined up
in front of my eight submarines, you see.
And I thought, "Well, it'd be nice."
I've been pointing to Mr. Khrushchev and saying,
"Well now, Mr. Khrushchev,
"here's my Disneyland submarine fleet." (laughs)
- [Narrator] Today, Disneyland is the foundation
of a vast entertainment corporation
run by new Disney Chairman, Michael Eisner.
- I would say Disneyland is the backbone
for the entire company.
First of all, it's that which was the model
for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom,
the model for Tokyo Disneyland,
the model for Disneyland we're gonna build in Europe.
It is the reason that the characters,
Mickey and Goofy and the rest,
have remained very important.
If it wasn't for Disneyland,
they would've become historical characters
rather than contemporary characters.
And it's a single greatest day family experience
that this country's ever had.
- [Narrator] It got that way because of the people,
240 million of them to date,
who believe in Walt Disney's dream.
The history of Disneyland wouldn't be complete
without people like Ken Kelly,
who has visited the park nearly 300 times.
- I just have a good time out here.
It's real nice.
It's as fun to come out and just sit and watch the people
as it is to go on any of the rides or anything like that.
And the people change daily
so that the park is never the same twice.
And I find that very often people are in such a hurry
to go someplace
that they don't see where they just were,
where they've been.
And the park has too much detail,
and if you can take the time and really slow it down
and just look around,
it might give you a little more understanding
and a little more appreciation.
Although I'm sure people would appreciate it anyway.
It's too unique not to be appreciated.
- [Narrator] Like Ken Kelly,
people from all over the globe
seek out Disneyland's unique experience if only for a day.
- I think it's very fun riding,
and every time I come here,
I find something else.
- And I think everybody that comes here
sees something that they like from the old to the new,
this nostalgic, the old trains,
the old horses,
and the old fire engines, the firehouses,
and the rides for the kids and all.
You couldn't help but enjoy it,
to see the happiness that it brings to everybody.
- I mean, I've seen Arabs,
I've seen Israelis,
I've seen Japanese, I've seen everybody.
And it's just really great that they can come together
for just this one time
and forget about all the animosity that they have
and just have a good time.
- [Narrator] The 30-year history of Disneyland
and its people proves,
as Walt Disney tried to tell us all along,
that it is a small world after all.
♪ It's a small, small world ♪