From groundbreaking to opening, Disneyland was built in just 365 days.ĩ. Walt Disney even hired Fairyland's first director, Dorothy Manes, to work at his park.Ĩ. Children's Fairyland in Oakland was one of the major inspirations for Disneyland. Bligh's ship, which had similar dimensions.ħ. Disney's shipbuilders couldn't find plans for the original Columbia, so they relied heavily on those of Capt. ship to circumvent the globe, actually was built in large part from the plans for the HMS Bounty, of mutiny fame. The sailing ship Columbia, which is supposed to be a replica of the first U.S. He was also the voice of John Lennon in the old Beatles cartoons and Boris Badenov.Ħ. An actor named Paul Frees, who was to Disney what Mel Blanc was to Warner Brothers, supplied the voices for both, as well as many of the pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean and most of the characters in "Great Moments with Mr. The spooky voice that narrates the Haunted Mansion ride is that of the Pillsbury Doughboy. Ron Ziegler, Richard Nixon's press secretary during the Watergate scandal, once worked as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise ride.ĥ. There's evidence one face was modeled on Walt Disney's.Ĥ. Many of the faces of the pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean are modeled on those of the "Imagineers" (Disneyspeak for the park's artists and engineers) who created the ride. Los Angeles Lakers' center Vlade Divac has been up there to shoot hoops.ģ. High up inside the hollow Matterhorn, there's a basketball court.
#Amorous guide shooting range zip
The first to fly off the top of the Matterhorn on a zip line, she previously worked as a stunt aerialist, hanging from a flying airplane by her teeth.Ģ. Disneyland's original Tinker Bell was a 71-year-old Hungarian circus performer named Tiny Kline. Many were culled from "Mouse Tales," some were provided by Disney archivist Dave Smith and others came from "101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland" by former park employee Kevin Yee and lifelong fan Jason Schultz.ġ. So, in honor of the park's 50th anniversary, we present 50 cool, obscure and simply odd things you probably didn't know about the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth. Whether it's the sounds you can hear coming from closed-off storefronts on Main Street if you lean close to the windows, or the mechanical fish that leap from a little-noticed pond on the fringe of Frontierland, "you can come here a hundred times and always discover something you never noticed before."
"It's something that belongs to us, a part of our family traditions."ĭisneyland's extraordinary level of detail and craftsmanship sets it apart from other theme parks, Koenig said. "A lot of us who grew up in California feel like Disneyland isn't just a theme park - it's a really big part of our lives," said David Koenig, author of "Mouse Tales," an unauthorized, behind-the-scenes look at the park. They decipher the telegraph message being tapped out in the Frontierland train station and flock by the thousands to Disneyana conventions where ride designers are treated like rock stars. They maintain Web sites devoted to attractions that no longer exist, troll eBay in search of mint-condition E-tickets and speculate in chat rooms about new lighting schemes for Snow White's castle. More than any other amusement park - including those of Disney's Orlando empire - the original House of Mouse has its own culture, history, traditions and rituals, passed down like sacraments from generation to generation.įans devote themselves to tracking down the original recordings of songs played on Main Street.
Disneyland, which begins an 18-month celebration of its 50th birthday this week, is chockablock with such lore.