Disney California Adventure Name Change

Earlier this month Disney announced that they have changed the name of "Disney's California Adventure" to "Disney California Adventure."  They have also changed the logos to match the theme changes made inside the park.  Some blogs are saying the name change is due to the fact that Disney is trying to make the park more character driven and not California driven.

So long California Adventure from the past!  We will miss you but are excited for new things to come!

Did You Know?

If you head down Main Street in Disneyland toward Sleeping Beauty Castle, turn right on Center Street. At the very end of the street near the entrance to the Locker Area you will find what looks like a poorly made brick wall. The wall's right side looks uneven and misaligned. A closer look reveals that it contains bricks laid out in several different masonry patterns.
According to legend, this wall was made to test various masonry designs and brick types for use throughout the park. Since money and time were pretty tight in the weeks leading up to Disneyland's opening, it's possible that the Test Wall may have been overlooked, forgotten or simply left as is, allowing its slipshod appearance to survive the last 55 years.

Did You Know?

Disneyland's opening day was a complete disaster.  Here is a video from the opening day of Disneyland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJ_RHDxNJY

Disneyland was opened to the public on Monday, July 18, 1955. However, a special "International Press Preview" event was held on Sunday, July 17, 1955, which was only open to invited guests and the media. The Special Sunday events, including the dedication, were televised nationwide and anchored by three of Walt Disney's friends from Hollywood: Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald Reagan. ABC broadcast the event live on its network; at the time, it was one of the largest and most complex live broadcasts ever.

The event did not go smoothly. The park was overcrowded as the by-invitation-only affair was plagued with counterfeit tickets. All major roads nearby were empty.

The temperature was an unusually high 101 °F, and a plumbers' strike left many of the park's drinking fountains dry. Disney was given a choice of having working fountains or running toilets and he chose the latter. This, however, generated negative publicity since Pepsi sponsored the park's opening; disappointed guests believed the inoperable fountains were a cynical way to sell soda. The asphalt that had been poured just that morning was so soft that ladies' high-heeled shoes sank into it. Vendors ran out of food. A gas leak in Fantasyland caused Adventureland, Frontierland, and Fantasyland to close for the afternoon. Some parents were seen throwing their children over the shoulders of crowds to get them onto rides such as the King Arthur Carrousel.

The park got such bad press for the "International Press Preview" that Walt Disney invited attendees back for a private "second day" to experience Disneyland properly. In later years Walt and his 1955 executives referred to July 17, 1955 as "Black Sunday". Today, cast members wear pin badges on July 17 stating how many years it has been since the 1955 opening. But for the first decade or so, Disney officially stated that opening day was on July 18, 1955. For example, a 1967 Disneyland press release referred to July 17, 1955, as "Dedication Day" and not "Opening Day."

On Monday July 18, crowds started to gather in line as early as 2 a.m., and the first person to buy a ticket and enter the park was David MacPherson with admission ticket number 2, as Roy O. Disney arranged to pre-purchase ticket number 1. Walt Disney had an official photo taken with two children, Christine Vess Watkins (age 5 in 1955) and Michael Schwartner (age 7 in 1955); the photo of the three carries an inaccurate caption identifying the children as the first two guests of Disneyland. Watkins and Schwartner both received lifetime passes to Disneyland that day, and MacPherson was awarded one shortly thereafter, which was later expanded to every single Disney-owned park in the world.

Other Facts:
- It took only 364 days to build Disneyland.

- Main Street USA is a replica of Walt’s home town of Marceline, Missouri in 1910. (See Marceline above)
 
- Tomorrowland was originally set in 1986.

- The Autopia ride is the only ride left from Disneyland's original Tomorrowland.  By the end of the first day, all but 2 of the 48 Autopia cars were crashed and about half the rides were broken.
 
- In the early years of the park, the Rivers of America were stocked with catfish and visitors were allowed to fish off the docks of Tom Sawyer Island.

The Walt Disney Family Museum

The fascinating and inspiring story of Walt Disney came to life in October 2009, when The Walt Disney Family Museum opened in San Francisco.

The 77,000 square-foot Walt Disney Family Museum is located in three buildings on the site of a former barrack in San Francisco's Presidio, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The first building houses the permanent collection, a 114-seat screening facility, learning center, museum store and cafe. The second building houses the Family Museum and Foundation offices, and, in 2012, will begin housing temporary exhibitions. The museum's third building, a former storage facility, is used for equipment storage. The permanent collection is arranged into 10 distinct galleries that chronicle Walt Disney's life and career.

Owned and operated by Walt Disney Family Foundation, the stated mission of the museum is to present "the life and achievements of the man who raised animation to an art, transformed the film industry, tirelessly pursued innovation, and created a global and distinctively American legacy."

"The name ‘Disney' calls to mind the vast company that bears my father's name, rather than my father himself," said Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt Disney and a director of the foundation that is funding the $110 million museum. "My father was a man of endless curiosity who loved to tinker and explore and entertain people. We look forward to sharing an honest and affectionate portrait of this amazing man."

The Walt Disney Family Museum contains hundreds of audio clips of Disney and his family and coworkers telling the stories of his creations, as well as over 1,600 objects and works of art, 200 monitors, and interactive exhibits that will invite visitors to learn about Walt Disney and the industry he nurtured.

Highlights of the Disney Family Museum include:

■The earliest known drawings of Mickey Mouse

■Animation cels of Disney's characters

■Storyboards, a Disney innovation, that map out timeless film classics

■The innovative Multiplane Camera that revolutionized animation

■The unique Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Academy Award: one full-size Oscar and seven miniature castings

■A model of the Disneyland of Walt's imagination

■The one-eighth scale train he installed at his Hollywood home that spurred his vision for Disneyland

Museum Contact Information:

104 Montgomery Street

The Presidio of San Francisco

San Francisco, California 94129

415-345-6800

http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/index.html

Walt: The Man Behind the Myth

This DVD is a great addition to any Disney fan's library.  We strongly recommend it to those who are interested in the history of Walt Disney.  It is narrated by Dick Van Dyke.

Read the review by Mark Deming from All Movie Guide:

Few men have had as great an impact on American popular culture as Walt Disney. Starting with a handful of cartoon characters, Disney created an entertainment empire that revolutionized movies and television, and created the theme park industry as we know it today. Disney also created a carefully molded public image as the joyous and fatherly spinner of magic tales, but behind that facade was a shrewd businessman, an artist who knew how to bring out ideas in his collaborators, and a family man who was devoted to his wife and children even though he wasn't always sure how to show it. Walt: The Man Behind the Myth is a made-for-television documentary (produced by the Disney organization) that takes a look at the Walt Disney his friends, family, and co-workers knew, featuring interviews with almost 50 people who share their memories of Disney, illustrated with rare behind-the-scenes footage from the Disney studios and never-before-seen home movies.