Disneyland celebrates 70 years of magic - from napkin sketch to global icon
American animator and film studio founder Walt Disney sits on a grassy lawn with his grandson, in front of the Magic Kingdom's castle at Disneyland, Anaheim, California
It began with a dream and a sketch on a napkin.
Seventy years ago today, Walt Disney unveiled his audacious vision to the world - a theme park unlike any other, a place where fantasy met reality, and children and adults alike could escape into storybook worlds. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates in Anaheim, California, becoming known as “the happiest place on earth”. Walt Disney, already an icon thanks to Mickey Mouse and Snow White, stood proudly alongside the park’s creators in Los Angeles in 1954, poring over blueprints and pointing to pencil-drawn dreams. In one photo, he is seen waving a baton over sketches of Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Tomorrowland. By the following summer, the dream was ready to become reality.
Walt Disney
On Opening Day, Disneyland welcomed a capacity crowd of 28,000 guests, though the day was famously chaotic. The weather was scorching, the drinks ran dry, and a plumber’s strike meant either drinking fountains or toilets - Disney chose toilets.
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But none of that mattered to the crowd or to Disney. Beaming Walt rode down Main Street in a horse-drawn carriage flanked by two children, waving to visitors and passing the Frontier Trading Post.
Just around the corner, actress Adelle August played the role of Esmeralda, the fortune teller, adding to the carnival-like celebration. Among the star-studded guests that day was actor and future US President Ronald Reagan, who joined fellow Hollywood figures in christening the park.
A photo from the time captures him smiling in the sunshine, just hours before Cinderella’s horse-drawn coach glided past visitors during the Opening Day Parade. The rides that day included the gleaming white Mark Twain Riverboat churning through the manmade waters of Frontierland.
An aerial view of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, USA, circa 1955
From the air, Disneyland looked compact at just 160 acres but set alight with ambition. An aerial photo taken in 1955 reveals the park nestled among orange groves and flat farmland, far from the sprawl of present-day Anaheim.
Inside the gates, guests sipped on sarsaparilla and cherry phosphate at The Parlour on Main Street, while treating themselves to parfaits and “Lover’s Delight” ice cream sundaes. Over the decades, Disneyland would grow and evolve, with Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion joining the roster of attractions.
But its heart never changed from Disney’s dream of a place where “age relives fond memories of the past… and youth may savour the challenge and promise of the future.”
A poignant image from the 1960s captures him on the lawn before the Magic Kingdom’s castle, sitting with his grandson, not as a tycoon but like any other grandfather at the park.
Mickey Mouse performer poses in front of the gate at Magic Kingdom in Disneyland, California
Behind them, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle is seen, which today remains the enduring symbol of a park that became a cultural cornerstone.
Today, Disneyland’s influence stretches far beyond Anaheim, with Disney parks on three continents. But it’s that original vision that continues to define the magic. As Walt Disney once said: “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
Seventy years on, it seems there’s still plenty of it.
