Once upon a time, the world-famous (and well-named) animation mogul Walter "Walt" Disney had a dream: to build a tourist trap for children that would drain their parent's bank accounts. That dream came true on July 17, 1955.

It was not an easy road from dream to reality. Disney pushed to open his-land exactly one year and one day after construction began, but legend has it that the new park wasn't quite ready for the spotlight. Among Disney fans, the event has long been called "Black Sunday."

What was supposed to be an invitation-only affair was crashed by thousands of guests with counterfeit $1 tickets. Fresh asphalt melted in the blistering heat, rides broke down, the park ran out of food and water, and the riverboat started to sink. (It's probably a good thing that audio-animatronic figures weren't added to the park until 1963 or Disney may have been looking at a real Westworld scenario.)

Disney's authorized ABC broadcast from the day's events did its best to hide the flaws from the historical record, so to really separate truth from legend, you probably had to be there to see for yourself.

While that photo from the Los Angeles Examiner makes the new park look, um, mickey mouse, it definitely could have been worse. According to yesterland.com, that "boat" was the not-yet-open Chicken of the Sea® Pirate Ship Restaurant attraction. By August, it would be selling tuna salads, tuna sandwiches, and tunaburgers. One can only imagine the smell of tuna wafting over the spinning tea cups in the adjacent Mad Tea Party during a long, hot Fantasyland summer.

Definitely not everything was better in the good ol' days.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: disneyland mickey mouse secret history