Official
Grand Opening Disneyland Hotel
August
25, 1956
On August 25, 1956 The Disneyland Hotel
celebrated its "official" grand opening with many Hollywood stars
and celebrities attending the festivities (although it has been opened since October
5, 1955). Celebrity guests include Art Linkletter, William Bendix, Alan
Ladd, Yvonne DeCarlo, Jeanne Crain, Anaheim Mayor Charles Pearson and of course
Walt Disney. When it originally opened, on
October 5, 1955 it was not the deluxe resort we think of today but rather a motor
inn owned and operated by Jack Wrather under an agreement with Walt
Disney. The hotel was the first to officially bear the Disney name. Under
Wrather's ownership, the hotel underwent several expansions and renovations
over the years before being acquired by Disney in 1988.
The original Disneyland Hotel was designed by the firm of Pereira & Luckman and
finally opened nearly 3 months after Disneyland. Various strikes caused
the opening to be postponed from the August date advertised in pre-opening
promotional materials, and the hotel only had limited capacity when it
initially opened. The hotel originally consisted of just over 100 rooms in 5
two-story guest room complexes (later known as the South Garden Rooms and even
later as the Oriental Gardens) that rented for $15 a night with shopping,
dining and recreational facilities added in early 1956. Additionally, it
had a doctor and dentist on site as well as a barber and beauty shop. The
Disneyland Hotel quickly expanded over the years to include three North Garden
guest room structures in 1956, one more North Garden structure in 1958 and
lastly, two more North garden structures in 1960 when at that time the hotel
boasted over 300 guest rooms and suites. It was one of the first hotels in the
region to offer accommodations for four persons per room.
When the Wrather-Alvarez partnership ended acrimoniously in
1958, Wrather bought Alvarez' share of Wrather-Alvarez Hotels, making him sole
owner of the Disneyland Hotel. Over the years, the hotel was expanded to
include three guest room towers: Sierra (1962; expanded 1966), Marina (1970),
and Bonita (1978).
Guests traveled between the hotel and the Disneyland
Park main entrance via a tram. The Disneyland
Monorail was extended from its original 1959 configuration and a station
opened at the hotel in 1961. Recreational areas, attractions, and a convention
center (1972) were also added over the years. June 15, 1970 an adjacent recreation
vehicle park called Vacationland opened and included its own pool and
clubhouse which can be seen as a precursor to Disney's
Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground which opened at Walt Disney World in 1971.
The hotel also featured a Richfield service station for several
years as part of Richfield's sponsorship of several Disneyland attractions,
including the Autopia.
When Michael Eisner became chairman and CEO of Walt Disney
Productions in 1984, he wanted to get out of Disney's agreement with the
Wrather Corporation and bring the Disneyland Hotel under the Walt Disney
Company's umbrella. Wrather refused to sell, just as he had refused Walt Disney
many years before. Wrather died two months after Eisner took over at Disney,
and four years later, in 1988, Disney bought the entire Wrather Company. Though
Disney kept the hotel, it has since sold the other assets that came with the
purchase.
In early 1997 Vacationland was closed and demolished. In 1999
a significant portion of the hotel was also demolished, all to make way for
Downtown Disney and parking areas for the newly expanding Disneyland Resort.
Most buildings east of the Sierra Tower and north of the Marina Tower were
demolished, including the original hotel buildings from 1955. The only
buildings remaining in these areas are the convention center and parking
garage. Recreational facilities were built in the quad between the three
towers, previously site of the Water Wonderland, to replace those that were
previously located east of the Sierra Tower.
Streets previously used to access the hotel by car were
regraded and/or outright eliminated, and a new street was built to access the
hotel. Tram service from the hotel was also discontinued, leaving the Monorail
as the only vehicular mode of transportation from park to hotel. The loss of
hotel rooms was offset with the opening of Disney's
Grand Californian Hotel in 2001, but many of the restaurants and amenities
that existed prior to 1999 were never replaced.
Today none of the original hotel buildings from 1955 remain
standing. Very little of the hotel other than parking areas and service
facilities sit outside of the perimeter created by the three remaining guest
room towers. Original signs and other artifacts from several of the stores and
restaurants demolished with the Plaza are on display in the hotel's employee
cafeteria. The Disneyland Hotel started
a major renovation in 2009, beginning with the Dreams tower. Renovation of the
hotel included new windows, wallpaper, carpeting, and decor. The Dreams Tower,
completed in 2010, became the Adventure Tower. The Wonder Tower became the
Frontier Tower after its completion in 2011, and the Magic Tower became the
Fantasy Tower in 2012.
The Never Land Pool area also received a redesign which was
completed in 2012. This transformation includes six new cabanas and two new
water slides featuring the iconic original park signage at the top along with
replicas of Mark I Monorails encasing both slides. A new four foot pool was
built between the former Never Land Pool and water play area. Today staying at the Disneyland
Hotel allows you to be a part of the past and the present. Steeped in history and tradition, and just
steps away from the Happiest Place on Earth, it’s the perfect way to extend the
magic when visiting the Disneyland
Resort. And that’s what happened
today in Disneyland history.
Bruce Healey, senior music
director/producer for Disneyland Entertainment Productions, remembered working
in the theater. “In the days of the Fantasyland Theater of old, which was a
little movie theatre in Fantasyland, we converted that to a live performance
venue for this music education show that ran for about six months called “Fun With Music” which was an
educational program that the company put together. This was about 1976 or ’77.
It was a live stage show with film and live performers and a six-piece band
that I was the leader of and I played the piano. There were these little opera
boxes on either side of the theater that we made into an orchestra pit. Three
of us were on one side of the theater and three of us were on the other side,
which was a very challenging thing to deal with in terms of staying together.” The
Fantasyland Theater took a final bow in 1981 and “Hey there, hi there, ho
there” made way for “Hi diddle dee dee” when Pinocchio’s
Daring Journey attraction debuted in its place in 1983. And that’s what
happened today in Disneyland history.
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