🏰 Disneyland: The Fantasy that Almost Flopped | 45

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So, Jack, what's your happiest place on earth?

Nick, for me, it's got to be a mountaintop after an epic hike.

I'm picturing you up at 5,000 feet right now, Jack.

My backpack is full of an Italian sandwich and an ice-cold drink.

Meatlover's special.

I always prepare myself with something to eat at the top of the mountain.

You just burned a bunch of calories.

You had a bunch of fun talking to whoever you were hiking with, and you just bask in the glory of the magnificent view and the accomplishment you just had.

The top of a mountain is my happiest place.

Jack, that is a beautiful physical image.

I was going to go mental on this one.

Psychologically, I was going to say 6 p.m.

on a summer Friday.

That's a happy place.

I think Aristotle said that originally.

I guess if I had to choose a physical place, I'd say any restaurant with a table-side dessert preparation.

Oh, good cop.

Is there any happier place than to be sitting at the best seat in the house while your waiter whips up a banana's foster in front of the whole restaurant?

Actually, there is.

It's a place that has a trademark on the phrase, happiest place on earth.

Literally.

Because today, we're telling you the story of Disneyland.

Walt Disney's Disneyland.

Disneyland, the dream destination for kids everywhere, and a magical touch point between Disney and its audience.

Disneyland was the first Disney theme park, which today is the critical linchpin in Disney's $200 billion business.

Since opening Disneyland in Anaheim, just outside Los Angeles in 1955, the company has opened resorts in Florida, Japan, France, China, and coming soon, Abu Dhabi.

But for many Disney fans, the original in California isn't just the first, it's still the best.

As East Coasters, we're partial to Orlando, but Anaheim, yeah, that's the OC.

Dreamt up by Walt Disney himself, Disneyland welcomes around 17 million visitors a year, all lining up for a Mickey Mouse selfie, a Dumbo flight, and to drop $9 for mouse-shaped pancakes.

Disneyland is so big, it even has its own zip code.

And Disney's entire theme park division generated $34 billion in revenue last year.

Chad, could you sprinkle on some context for us, please?

That's nearly the same revenue as Starbucks's entire business.

And it's enough to keep Harvard University running for six straight years, baby.

This colossal success story actually started as a modest idea in Walt Disney's head.

A small eight-acre park built more for picnics than parades.

And almost no one thought that it would work.

But after the idea ballooned to 160 acres, it was still built in a shockingly short timeframe, under 12 months.

Plus, Disneyland's opening day was a disaster watched by 90 million Americans on live TV.

From sinking riverboats to melting streets, this is the story of how a down-on-his-luck animator built the most beloved and lucrative theme park empire in the world.

Hey, Dinker Bell, grab me a pot of that pixie dust.

Here's why Disneyland is the best idea yet.

From Wondering and T-Boy, I'm Nick Martel.

And I'm Jack Kravici Kramer.

And this is the best idea yet.

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Walt Disney is sitting on a bench at Griffith Park, just north of downtown Los Angeles.

He flashes a tired smile to his two daughters, 14-year-old Diane and 11-year-old Sharon, who are spinning happily on the merry-go-round.

It's a Saturday.

The sun is out.

Kids squeal with delight.

Parents lean on the fence rails with paper cups of coffee.

And Walt, even though he's surrounded by joy, doesn't feel any of it.

Because at this point in his life, Walt Disney is in a dark place.

This isn't scrappy up and coming, Walt.

This is 1947.

And Walt's already beaten the odds.

He's escaped a hard childhood in rural Missouri, dropped out of high school, started an animation studio, and filed for bankruptcy, all before moving to California.

And it's in California where he creates Mickey Mouse and revolutionizes animation with a minifilm called Steamboat Willie.

Then, in the biggest gamble of his career, he bet his entire movie studio on a full-length one and a half million dollar animated feature, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

That movie changes everything, Nick.

It's a critical Smash hit, a box office juggernaut, and an Academy Award winner.

Now we should point out there were some strong follow-up films like Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi.

I mean, we look at them as classics now, now, Jack.

But they weren't enough to keep Disney out of the money troubles that came thanks to World War II.

Back in 1940, facing crippling debt, Walt had made an aggressive financial bet.

He jumped from La La Land to Wall Street by selling stock in the company, which means Walt gave over control of Disney to shareholders.

Then, to juice up the company's profits, the board cut animators' wages, which leads to an ugly five-week-long strike.

And now, in 1947, his studio is over $4 million in debt.

He doesn't have control of the company, and he's still in shock that his flying elephant Dumbo was not a box off his head.

For the second time in his life, it looks like Walt's studio is bankrupt.

It's been years since Walt picked up a pen to animate himself.

He mostly drifts around the studios in his bathrobe, chain smoking and stewing in silence.

He actually looks 10 years older than he really is, which is 46.

Walt rarely socializes, although he keeps these regular weekend outings outings with his kids for the joy of it.

But on this particular day in Griffith Park, something shifts.

Walt is sitting on that bench, watching his daughters laughing on the carousel, and that's when it hits him.

What if there was a park where families could have fun together?

A place with rides and music, and maybe Disney characters, but on an entirely unprecedented scale.

Designed like a movie set.

Yeah, like Jack, where the adults didn't have to sit on a bench.

They could be in the story too.

This isn't totally a new idea to Walt.

He actually gets tons of fan mail from kids asking to visit his actual working studio in Burbank, California.

But between the surprise success of Snow White and the lean war years, nothing happened with that idea.

Until now.

As the carousel slows and the ride ends, Walt holds his daughter's hands and walks them back to his big light blue Cadillac convertible.

As he drives away, his mind races.

He's already sketching ideas out in his head.

A sculpted, idealized slice of the small-town America of Walt's youth.

It's time to build Mickey Mouse Park.

15 acres of lantern-lit pathways, puppet theaters, dappled cafes, and a pirate ship bobbing in the lagoon.

A snow-capped roller coaster winds through the trees.

Every path leads to a new surprise, and the salted codfish fritters taste pretty good too.

This is Tivoli Gardens, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Copenhagen, Denmark.

It's clean, it's charming, it's heavily curated, every element part of a grand design.

And this isn't lost on one of today's visitors, Walt Disney.

Walt is here with his wife Lillian on their 1951 summer tour of Europe.

It's meant to be a celebration break because things are starting to look up for Walt in his studio.

A celebrate the wins kind of trip.

Now remember, Eddie, is that $4 million debt you were just telling you about?

Well, Disney's accountants want to slash production to save money.

But instead, Walt insists on doubling down on a new big production, Cinderella.

And when it comes out in 1950, it's such a success that Cinderella basically saves Disney no pumpkin carriage needed.

So with the immediate future of Disney secure, Walt and Lillian are in Copenhagen.

But instead of relaxing, Walt turns the trip into a working holiday.

At Tivoli, he's scribbling in his notebook, analyzing everything.

How people move, where they pause, what catches their eye.

He counts the number of steps between attractions.

He notes the number of benches, restrooms, even how close trash cans are to each other.

Nothing escapes Walt on this trip.

When Walt gets back to California, some things lit a super califragilistic fire under Walt.

He's doodling constantly, scribbling on napkins, marking up maps.

He barely even goes out to parties.

Oh, and when he does, all he talks about is the park.

And the park he's envisioning, it's modest in his mind, maybe eight acres or six football fields, but the scope is bigger, full of charm and detail.

A train is circling the property, costumed characters, a pristine little town square and winding paths.

The cleanliness, the sense of discovery.

That's what Walt is picturing.

Walt wants families to feel like they're inside a living storybook, a place where kids and parents can explore together.

He's taking inspiration from some homegrown attractions like Fairyland in Oakland, Knott's Berry Farm in Orange County, Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, and the Smithsonian in DC.

But there is one person who Walt needs to win over before he can start making this happen.

The man who signs the checks at Disney.

It's a guy named Roy.

Roy Disney.

That's right.

Walt needs permission from his older brother.

It's a cool overcast morning on the Disney lot in Burbank as the studio's president Roy Disney pulls his Buick into his reserved parking spot and shuts off the engine.

He steps out in his usual uniform, moderately priced suit, tie, felt hat.

Definitely not a bathrobe.

Roy takes the stairs up to his second floor office, greeting everyone he meets on the way with a smile.

When he gets to his office, his secretary hands him a stack of pink message slips, each watermarked with a grinning Mickey Mouse and the phrase, put a smile in your voice.

Roy co-founded the Walt Disney Company with his younger brother, Walt, and he's been managing the books ever since.

It's a role that just suits him.

While Walt dreams big, Roy keeps things grounded.

He's the pragmatist, the realist, the logical yin to Walt's wildly imaginative yank.

In fact, Roy is so risk-averse, he preemptively had his appendix removed just in case.

Roy's job is basically to rein in Walt's outlandish ideas.

But even Roy has to admit, Walt's not always wrong.

Take Cinderella, for example.

That huge gamble ultimately saved the company, and it was all Walt's idea.

But even so, Jack, Walt's latest idea, this Mickey Mouse park, is just too much for Roy.

Sure, the princess picture paid off, but that was the company doing what it does best, making movies.

At best, this park will be a distraction from that.

At worst, it could turn into a financial black hole of delays, cost overruns, overruns, and disappointing attendance that could put them back in jeopardy.

It's June 1953 and Roy is nearly 60.

He's starting to think about retirement.

But right now, long lazy days spent fishing and sipping old fashions, they're a distant dream.

Because aside from Walt's theme park idea, Roy has more pressing issues on his mind.

You see, Roy just finished renegotiating Walt's contract because Walt Disney, the guy with his name on the building, doesn't technically run Walt Disney Productions.

Remember when the company had to go public to raise money?

Well, that meant that the Disney brothers sold most of the stock in the company to investors.

The Disneys went from owning 100% of the company to just 20%.

These two need to ask the board permission for everything, including the size of their own paychecks.

Walt is basically under contract to his own company.

He licenses his name.

He draws a salary, he gets a cut of the profits, and in return, he gets to keep dreaming.

But for Roy, this causes nothing but friction because Roy is stuck in between his brother, the dreamer, and the board.

And that's not Roy's only headache right now.

Disney's next animated feature, Lady and the Tramp, is delayed.

It was supposed to hit theaters in time for Christmas 1954, but now it's slipping into next summer, meaning a two-year gap since the last Disney feature, Peter Pan.

So Roy knows he needs to do something to make a splash soon.

He's just not sure what.

But right then, Roy's train of thought is cut short.

The phone on his desk buzzes.

It's his secretary.

She's got Walt on the line.

Roy braces himself for another stream of new and expensive ideas for the Mickey Mouse Park.

What was the last idea?

An actual castle modeled after a real castle in the German Alps.

But fortunately, Walt's not calling to sell his big brother on Bavarian battlements.

In fact, he's actually calling about two new friends of his that Roy just has to meet.

These two guys are named Woody and Buzz, and they have a a proposal that'll take Walt's Mickey Mouse park idea to infinity and beyond.

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roy disney is once again looking at one of his brother's hand-drawn maps.

But this time, instead of being frustrated, he's mesmerized.

Partly because the map is physically enormous, six feet by four feet, but mostly because the idea has grown with it.

The modest eight-acre Mickey Mouse Park that Walt once pitched, gone.

In its place, a sprawling 160-acre world of its own.

It's Disneyland.

And yet, Jack, even at this scale, it still feels intimate, rooted in Walt's original vision of a nostalgic hometown America.

In this 1954 map, it actually looks a lot like the Disneyland we know today.

You enter under a train station, pass through one of two tunnels, and suddenly you're on Main Street, USA.

All quaint storefronts, turn-of-the-century charm, and the scent of buttered popcorn in the air.

There are laid-back lagoons, lush trees, and paths that curve just enough to make you wonder what's around the bend.

But here's where it goes from nostalgia to pure fantasy.

There's that towering Bavarian castle at the center, and surrounding it are four separate lands.

There's wild west-themed Frontierland, the jungle explorations of Adventureland, a sleek sci-fi vision in Tomorrowland, and the storybook magic of Fantasyland.

There's a Mark Twain riverboat, a life-sized rocket ship, and a huge hot air balloon, all dreamed up by Walt as a way to keep the experience fresh at every turn.

The detail in this map is is exquisite down to the cobblestone but why has waltz supersized his park by 2000 onto a map the size of a truck well the answer lies in two new characters in our story woody and buzz yes this is woody and buzz but no they're not the inspiration for the toy story characters that's western actor woody strode and second man on the moon buzz altron and these guys they're not quite as exciting as pairing a real-life cowboy with a real-life space ranger but Commodore vendor-built Woody Wood and Harrison Buzz Price are the reason why Roy Disney is now 100% behind the idea for Disneyland.

Walt hires these two to do a feasibility study.

Not just can we build this, but where should we build it?

And how big does it need to be to make money?

And Jack, what is Woody and Buzz's answer to that question?

This park needs to be way bigger than Walt had imagined.

Yeah.

When you break down the numbers here, it needs to be big enough to handle 5 million visitors visitors a year because anything smaller just isn't worth the investment.

They will not make their money back.

And their data, clean, compelling, and full of cost curves, is in a language that risk-averse Roy understands.

It wins him over.

Just think, Nick, Disneyland might have ended up a charming little cul-de-sac in Burbank.

But now, Woody and Buzz also find the ideal spot for this new park.

It's a sleepy stretch of orange groves in Anaheim, California.

This is still when Orange County was actually covered in orange trees.

When the real real housewives there were feuding over casserole recipes, not cosmetic surgery.

Location, location, location doesn't just apply to restaurants.

It applies to every industry.

The land is about 40 minutes south of Los Angeles, so it'll capture tourists landing in LAX pretty easily.

Also, this is real estate that is cheap, so it's financially doable.

And it's in a location that is sunny, which maximizes the number of days that visitors can spend money at the park.

And finally, most crucially of all, this theme park would be right next to a new freeway, the under construction Interstate 5.

To handle 5 million people a year, they've got to get in and out quickly.

Walt wants to move fast on acquiring this perfect spot of land.

So he makes this personal.

He borrows money against his life insurance, sells some of his vacation homes, and makes the purchase himself.

Now he's got the acreage, he's got the detailed plan, he's got Woody and Buzz's projections, and most importantly, he's got Roy on board.

Roy is now the Timon to Walt's Pumba.

But, Jack, it's not time to start singing Hakuna Matata Koi yet, because unfortunately for the Disney brothers, they're still short the cash needed to actually build the park.

Roy's getting nervous again, yeah.

But Walt actually has a plan to get funding for the park, build a publicity buzz, and get Disney a foothold in the fast-growing world of television.

Lights, camera, action.

Here is a little TV tee for you: between Between 1948 and 1953, ownership of TVs in America explodes from 1% of homes to over 50%.

TV is one of the quickest technology adoptions in history.

That's faster than the iPhone.

Oh, and movie attendance, it's dropping every year.

TV has become an existential threat to the entire film industry.

But Walt is unique in Hollywood because he is bullish for the small screen.

He sees sees it as an untapped opportunity.

He thinks TV is the perfect way to sell the idea of Disneyland because it's a direct message to the public.

So he asks, what if they make their own weekly TV show?

Something to build anticipation for the park in a deeper way than any form of advertising ever could.

And this show would be called Walt Disney's Disneyland.

It would show behind the scenes of the design, the development, and the creativity behind all of the construction.

Episode one one would be the idea for Disneyland.

Episode two, the map and the layout.

Episode three, the creative process to develop the ideas.

This Disneyland show will air in real time as the construction is happening, not after the fact.

Walt doesn't just want to sell the show to a TV network, he wants to sell an investment in the park to that network as well.

The network gets some Disney content on their screens, exclusive access to the making of Disneyland, and an unmissable opportunity to be a Series A investor in the park.

In return, the Disney brothers get the cash needed to actually build the thing.

This is potentially the best match since Beauty Met the Beast.

This one is fairy godmother approved, Jack.

And the more that Roy thinks about it, the more it makes sense to him.

So they take the pitch to America's biggest network, NBC.

But NBC says no.

They love Disney's content, but they think the theme park is just too risky.

All right, Jack, let's give this another shot.

Next up, CBS.

But same story.

Great studio, great brand, but a theme park, they think it's too out there.

But all these setbacks, they actually get Roy fired up.

And now he's about to give a big plus one to Walt's enthusiasm for TV with one of the most important decisions in the history of Disney.

The brothers go and pitch the show to Little ABC, the Underdog Network.

And you know what?

They say yes.

You see, at the time, NBC is broadcasting on 63 stations.

CBS, they got 60 stations, but ABC, they just have 14.

They don't have an audience, but they're hungry to grow on.

So maybe they'll see a Disneyland show as a way to do exactly that.

They'll put Disneyland on a pedestal, maybe even the primetime slot.

And it turns out Roy is right.

ABC jumps at the chance.

Because if this Disneyland show causes a buzz, then kids and parents across the country are going to be clamoring for their local stations to become ABC affiliates, which means more advertising dollars and eventually when cable comes, more affiliate fees.

So ABC agrees to produce the show.

They invest $500,000 and guarantee $4.5 million in loans in exchange for a one-third slice of Disneyland.

Disney gets airtime and investment dollars.

ABC gets a show and equity in Disneyland.

Like we said, Hakuna Matata.

When news breaks of the deal, it shocks the movie and TV industries.

Not because of the plan to build a park, but because of the plan for a Hollywood movie studio to produce a weekly TV show.

You see, at this point, New York is the home of TV.

Hollywood is the home of movies.

So this deal is as disruptive to 1950s media as Uber was to 21st century taxis.

And Jack, the first episode airs just weeks later on October 27th on your grab the remote and turn it on.

Now, next year, our television show will be coming from this Disneyland.

That voice we just heard, that's Walt.

But turns out he's a natural in front of the camera, like a kind uncle who's genuinely excited to show you his model train set.

But this is much more exciting.

In each one-hour episode, Walt gives viewers a front-row seat to his dream in progress.

It's like Mr.

Rogers meets Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

And the show is an instant hit.

It is the first time ABC breaks into the top 10 most watched shows on television.

Actually, it's the first time any ABC show had ever even cracked the top 25.

It is this show that really gets Disney started in TV and paves the way for Mickey Mouse Club, the Disney Channel, and eventually even the modern day Disney Plus.

The TV show feels relaxed and charming, but behind the scenes, it's all hands on deck because Walt makes a call bolder than one of Captain Jack Sparrow's plans.

To keep the hype from fading, he sets Disneyland's opening date for July 17, 1955.

Well, Jack, I'm looking at the calendar and that gives us just 10 months to transform 160 acres of sleepy orange groves into the happiest place on earth.

That's less time than it takes to make a single animated movie.

And if Walt and his team fail, it'll extinguish the magic for millions of mousketeers.

The sun is just beginning to rise over Anaheim, but construction noise is already echoing through the rubble-strewn, half-built streets of Disneyland.

It's the spring of 1955, and Woody, the engineer, not the toy cowboy, is walking the site, clipboard in hand.

Walt was so impressed by Woody's intelligence and problem-solving capabilities that he hires him full-time.

Now, Woody is overseeing the entire construction of Disneyland.

In fact, Woody is officially Disneyland's employee number one.

You could say Woody is Walt's eyes and ears on the ground, but that's not exactly right, because Walt is everywhere.

In fact, right now, Woody sees the big man coming right around the corner in his bathrobe.

Walt actually has his own apartment on Main Street, Disneyland, right above the fire building, just so he can stay close to the project.

At any hour, day or night, he might show up next to a crew laying concrete or painting trim.

Walt will sometimes even pitch in and help toss his back along the castle.

And quite often, he doesn't even take the time to swap his bathrobe for some proper workwear.

So Woody is standing here on Main Street overseeing a work crew or fixing plastic railings to the upper floors of one of the buildings.

And when Woody sees Walt making a B-line for him, he does a little inside groan.

Because Walt is a perfectionist.

And Woody, he can guess what's coming.

Walt asks Woody why the railing that's going up is plastic.

It should be metal.

Woody explains that the railing is going to be on the second floor.

No one's going to notice what it's made of.

Walt pauses and then he says, The thing that's going to make Disneyland unique and different is the detail.

If we lose the detail, we lose it all.

It's actually a concept his team later calls plussing because Walt goes around asking employees, how can we plus it?

Could this grass be greener?

This castle stonier?

The answer is actually yes, once that plusing attention is paid to it.

Walt takes notes on everything, and he's not shy about sharing them.

For example, he thinks the carousel horses don't look like they're leaping enough.

So he has the legs rebuilt on all of the horses.

Well, then, Jack, there's the gravel under the railroad tracks.

Apparently, that was too big.

So he orders each rock ground down to the perfect scale.

Walt even takes a personal interest in the placement of every trash can.

Walt loves eating hot dogs from the food stalls.

And after he gets his hand on one hot dog, he paces off the exact number of steps it takes him to finish off that frank.

And he discovers it's about 30 steps.

And then he orders a trash can installed at that very spot.

That's why Disneyland today has over a thousand trash cans.

It's because of Walt's trash math.

And the payoff is really clean parks.

Well, Jack, Walt's not just sweating the small stuff.

He's also constantly thinking about the big picture.

It's important to him that Disneyland isn't just a collection of rides.

He wants it to be an immersive engineered world with a strategic layout.

Remember that trip to Tivoli Gardens in Denmark?

Walt is putting everything he learned there there to use.

He wants the park to feel like a story that draws you through its narrative and delights you at each turn.

He is applying these storytelling models from his movies to the physical industry of parks.

This isn't a random collection of scenes.

The park needs to follow a narrative arc from entrance to the climactic rides through to the exit.

And then to keep people moving through the park, he comes up with a term for the tall visual magnets that pull guests through the space.

He calls them weenies.

Why weenies?

Well, that's how Walt would get his poodle, Duchess, to move when she wasn't being cooperative.

He would lay a trail of hot dog pieces to coax her along.

The next time you're wandering your way through Disney World, remember, it's because you're being led like a puppy.

And in Disneyland, the biggest visual magnet, or weenie, is Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

It's strategically placed in the center of the park so visitors are enticed further inward.

And like a lot of the other buildings, it is designed using forced perspective so that it actually seems taller than it really is.

But for all the clever designs in Walt's head, it's chaos on the ground for the teams of workers and engineers, or imagineers as Walt likes to call them.

They're working around the clock.

The original budget of $5 million has now ballooned to $17 million.

Oh, Roy's not going to be happy.

No, he's not, Nick.

All that overtime means labor costs are through the roof.

Well, here we are on Saturday, July 16th, 1955, the day before the opening, and the park, it's still not finished.

It's swarming with cement mixers, electricians, landscapers, and TV crews all trying not to trip over each other.

And then, as if things aren't intense enough already, Walt gets some bad news.

There's a plumber strike, which means the park will have limited water on opening day.

Walt has to make a choice.

Does he want running toilets or running water fountains?

So Walt thinks it over and he goes, okay, right now, Southern California is in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures hitting 100 degrees.

Another dose of bad luck.

But even so, Walt chooses the toilets.

He figures, worst case scenario, people can buy a soda to quench their thirst, but they can't hold it in all day long.

It's a gamble he hopes doesn't come back to haunt him because everything, the TV deal, his reputation, and the future of the Walt Disney Company is riding on what happens next.

Because ready or not, the gates of Disneyland are about to open

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But Jella's story is just one piece of this investigation.

In Scam Factory, we reveal how a billion-dollar criminal empire turns job seekers into prisoners and how the only way out is to scam your way out.

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Listen to Scam Factory on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's supposed to be the happiest place on earth.

Instead, for thousands of people, it's one of the most miserable.

Temperatures soar above 100 degrees.

Cars clog the Santa Ana freeway.

Kids are crying.

Parents are fuming.

And people are relieving themselves on the roadside.

Welcome to Disneyland's grand opening, July 17, 1955.

Inside the gates, things are even worse, man.

Only 11,000 guests were invited, including Hollywood stars, politicians, and other VIPs.

But counterfeit tickets and gate crashers, they flood the park with more than 28,000 people.

One guy even slings a ladder over the fence and charges people $5 entry to use his ladder.

The asphalt on Main Street is still wet, and it gets so gooey in the heat, people's shoes keep getting stuck in it.

Even Walt gets caught in the chaos.

He gets locked inside his apartment above the firehouse until workmen can come and break him out.

Oh, and Jack, the rides?

The crowd is so thick that you are lucky if you even get near one, let alone on one.

And as the day continues and the heat rises, many of the riots just keep breaking down.

The hydraulics that made Dumbo fly, they start leaking foam.

And the speed limiters on the Autopia cars, they fail.

People are jumping curbs and one kid even even loses some teeth.

The crowds are so big that people can't even get to the toilets that Walt diverted the water to.

And with the water fountains out of action, some guests accuse Walt of turning them off on purpose in order to sell more soda.

Meanwhile, trash piles up.

It's spilling out of the bins and baking in the sun.

This is sounding less like a magical kingdom, more dystopian hellscape.

It's like Ursula took over as COO running the operations.

And not even future presidents are safe because movie star Ronald Reagan, one of the TV hosts for the live broadcast, is forced to scramble over a wall just to make it to his next on-camera hit.

At one point, a gas leak shuts down a portion of the park and the Mark Twain Riverboat nearly capsizes from overcrowding.

Why stop there, Jack?

I got more for you.

Because it's all starting to feel like a flimsy facade, literally in some cases.

Like Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Because behind the battlements and spires, it's just an empty shell that's been overtaken by a colony of feral felines.

That's right, cats are living up in the castle like the original Aristocats.

It's a day so dire that Disney historians will call it Black Sunday.

It's got to be the worst product launch we have ever covered on this show.

But here's the wild part: even though the park is crawling with TV crews broadcasting a live opening day special on ABC, none of the mishaps make it to air.

For the record-breaking 90 million people who tune in to watch, day one of Disneyland looks perfect.

If you are watching this on TV, then you'd see parades, confetti, gleaming rides, happy kids, and Walt himself smiling and giving his opening day speech like a man who just pulled off the impossible.

On screen, Disneyland looks like a dream come true.

In reality, it's a miracle it didn't collapse on day one.

If social media had existed at the time, this would have gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

And we probably wouldn't have had a Disneyland day two or Disney World for that matter.

But instead, the crew at ABC, co-investors in the venture, shine the park in the best possible light.

So they survive day one.

But Walt and his crew have no time to rest because at 2 a.m., just hours after Disneyland closes the lid on its baptism of fire, families are already lining up outside for day two.

That's right, despite this real-life disaster, Walt's dream is still alive.

After the chaos of opening day, Disneyland finds its rhythm.

The bugs are ironed out, the water supply comes back, and the park starts to work the way Walt has always imagined.

That's five themed lands with 20 original attractions.

And if you go today, you can still ride a few of the OGs, like the Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan's Flight, Autopia, and Mr.

Toad's Wild Ride.

Now, Jack, let's talk numbers here.

By the end of 1955, Disneyland attracts 1 million visitors, paying a dollar entry for adults, 50 cents for kids, which today feels like it's a million times more expensive.

Inflation, it's pretty magical.

Well, the year after the park's first full year of operation, they bring in 4 million guests.

Over the years, Walt keeps on working on the park.

He adds new rides and phases out old ones.

Which brings us to Walt's final project.

An eerie, fully immersive journey into a swashbuckling fantasy, Pirates of the Caribbean, which could be a case study on Disney's true innovation, the flywheel effect.

This ride inspired the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise 48 years later.

And after the film came out, they added Captain Jack Sparrow onto the ride.

This is all part of a way bigger strategy that Walt himself devises.

In 1957, he sketches out what might be the most profitable diagram of all time.

The drawing maps out how all of Disney's different different assets are actually connected.

At the center, you have Disney movies, and then radiating out like spokes on a wheel, TV shows, theme parks, merch, comic books, music, publishing, each one of them feeding off the movies, and then each other in a flywheel effect that just keeps growing and growing and growing.

He drew the diagram in 1957, and it's amazingly accurate to Disney's business model still today.

Take the Lion King, for example.

The movie came out in 1994.

Since then, there's been a Broadway show, a live-action remake, endless merch, video games, and in 2024, 30 years after the film first came out, Disney announced it's working on a brand new ride for its Paris Disneyland.

And even today, Disney's Empire still runs on that same flywheel.

We linked in the show notes of this episode to a picture of that 1957 sketch.

You're going to want to see it.

It was spot on.

Now, sadly, Walt Disney didn't get to see just how successful that plan would be.

He passes away in December 1965, and Walt's brother, Roy, postpones his retirement again to finish another project that Walt had been working on, Disney World in Orlando, Florida, which Roy renames Walt Disney World as a tribute to his baby brother.

Today, there are six Disney resort destinations worldwide with 12 theme parks, 55 hotels, and a cruise line, but it's the parks that are now Disney's profit puppy.

Get this, the theme parks drive over a third of Disney's $91 billion in annual revenue.

And it all started with an idea from a depressed animator on a bench in Griffith Park and the stories that he wanted to tell.

So Nick, now that you've heard the story of Disneyland, what's your takeaway?

Here's my takeaway, Jack.

Walt Disney's magic cloak against the word no.

Because how many times did Walt's idea for Disneyland get rejected?

Think about it, his brother, investors, the TV executives.

They all thought it was more far-fetched than a talking mouse.

And we all know the many ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

You and I have experienced them, Jack.

The self-doubt that can creep in.

But after a thousand no's, you still only need one yes for your business ambition to become a reality.

The story of Disneyland is a reminder that you'll always get more no's than yeses, and you can still end up becoming the most successful person in media history despite all those no's.

Yeah.

Walt Disney, he's got 32 Oscars.

So don't ever forget Walt Disney's magic cloak against the word no.

Jack, what about you?

What's your takeaway?

Travel is the ultimate innovation hack.

Walt Disney didn't come up with Disneyland at a boardroom whiteboard.

Inspiration struck when he got out of the office and went on a day trip with his kids to Griffith Park.

And to keep the ideas flowing, Walt visited tourist attractions across the U.S.

and Europe and made detailed notes of everything from what made people happy to the distance between trash cans.

He then took those observations, threw in some Disney magic, put it together, and what did we get?

Bibbity Bobbity Boo, the world's greatest theme park.

Sometimes the best ideas don't come from looking inward.

They come from getting out there, getting out of your bubble and seeing how the rest of the world plays, and then putting your own unique spin on it.

Okay, Jack, before we go, it is time for our absolute favorite part of the show, the best facts yet.

These are the hero stats, facts, and surprises we discovered in our research, but couldn't fit in the story yet.

All right, Jack, kick us off.

What do we got, man?

Disneyland does not sell chewing gum.

This was a Walt Romanic, and it spoke to his obsession for the details.

Nobody will ever step on chewing gum at Disneyland unless it got smuggled in there as contraband.

Good call, Walt.

You can't have Pluto walking around with a stick of melted wriggles on his paw.

Here's another one for you that Walt himself probably never imagined.

Disney created a professional sports team based on a movie.

You might not have realized this, but Disney owned and created the Mighty Ducks, the NHL team that existed from 1993 to 2005.

Quack, quack, quack, Mr.

Ducksworth.

We're talking purple, jade, and silver.

Their logo was a duck-shaped goalie mask because of the movie.

And that is why Disneyland is the best idea yet.

Coming up on the next episode of The Best Idea Yet, squeeze into your best leathers and don't forget to wear a helmet.

We're talking about Harley Davidson.

And Vesties, don't forget to rate and review our show.

Five stars helps grow the show and we love reading every single review that you leave.

The Best Idea Yet is a production of Wondery, hosted by me, Nick Martel, and me, Jack Kravici-Kramer.

Our senior producers are Matt Beagle and Chris Gautier.

Peter Arcuni is our additional senior producer.

Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan, and Taylor Sniffin is our managing producer.

Our producer is H.

Conley.

Research by Brent Corson.

This episode was written and produced by Adam Skeuse.

We use many sources in our research including the books Inventing Disneyland by Alastair Dallas and Disney's Land by Richard Snow.

Sound design and mixing by Kelly Kromeric.

Fact-checking by Erica Janick.

Music supervision by Scott Velazquez and Jolena Garcia for Freeson Sync.

Our theme song is Got That Feeling Again by Blackalack.

Executive producers for Nick and Jack Studios are me, Nick Martel, and me, Jack Ravici-Kramer.

Executive producers for Wondery are Jenny Lauer-Beckman, Aaron O'Flaherty, and Marshall Louie.

Follow the best idea yet on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to every episode of The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com/slash survey.

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our town.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100% 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.