How Disneyland Came to Be

https://airmail.news/issues/2019-11-23/dream-come-true

by well_i_never • 7 years ago

70 42 7 years ago

airmail.news

333c• 7 years ago

The advertising in this page is strange. At first I thought it was part of the article.

JadoJodo• 7 years ago

Agreed. It made me wonder if sites should blacklist certain ad categories based on the article content.

skratchpixels• 7 years ago

This is the future of advertisements on the web.

The ads are integrated to the page so it doesn't look or feel like an advertisement. The code doesn't specify it as an ad.

The ads do directly advertise, they do so subtly.

The advertisement image and video are hosted on the main same domain.

All of this is to prevent browser ad blockers and our own ad blocking instincts.

parliament322• 7 years ago

the code doesn't specify it as an ad

For me at least, the video was inside "player_advertising_unit_365"...

50208• 7 years ago

Kinda interesting ... I'd be really interested in an exploration about how a sizable number of American adults have become Disney(land/world) fanatics. It strikes me as very strange and regressive behavior.

majormajor• 7 years ago

Do you think it has a different underlying root than being a [whatever else] fanatic?

There's been some research done into sports, for instance.

dehrmann2• 7 years ago

Sports don't tap into tribalism in the same way Disney does. Sports also have loyalty to an inferior product. Disney would not be Disney if it were the media version of the Cleveland Browns.

armadsen3• 7 years ago

I'll bite. I think "fanatic" is too strong a word, but I enjoy going to Disneyland, and have occasionally bought an annual pass despite living a day or two drive from Disneyland. I've also made a point to visit other Disney parks when I've been near them (Florida, Paris, Tokyo).

Fundamentally, it's fun escapism. You go spend a few days enjoying some of the same stuff you enjoyed as a kid. My wife enjoys going too, so it's something we can do together. For those of us with kids, it's a fun family activity. Walt Disney was explicit about making a place that was fun for both kids and adults when he conceived of the park. I'd say Disney has succeeded. I enjoyed going before having kids too, though. We don't take every vacation there by any means, but a couple times a year we go and have a blast.

Personally, as an engineer, I really enjoy the work of the imagineers. It's engineering and art combined to bring joy to people, which to me is a pretty pure expression of my own reasons for being an engineer. Incidentally, I started my career doing engineering for effects for live theater, and I also spent time at a company that at one time was a major robotics subcontractor for Disney parks. So there's a component that is admiration for people that do the things I do, but are the best in the world at it.

Beyond that, Disney(land/world) is unquestionably the highest-tier theme park in terms of quality. Everything is just top notch: customer service, theming, ride quality, immersion, cleanliness, etc. So, if the question is why Disneyland instead of Six Flags or even Universal, part of it has to be that Disney is the best in the category they're competing in.

prawn3• 7 years ago

What makes you return there each year over other things you could reach with the same amount of driving? If you're near California or Florida, you are a day or so from a huge range of amazing places. Is it ease and familiarity?

I'm Australian but have been to Disneyland (CA) twice and Disney World (FL) once; twice with kids, once without. It's a polished experience for sure, but we spent a lot of time baffled by people in themed t-shirts, spending days there or returning year after year in place of other holiday options.

larnmar• 7 years ago

I went to Disneyland once, as a six year old, and enjoyed it then, but as an adult and parent I’ve come to hate Disney with a passion for the way they just keep buying up or otherwise appropriating _all_ the popular cultural artefacts and turning them into products, churning out an endless series of repetitive, polished, just-above-mediocre lowest common denominator structured entertainment units.

It’s like watching all your favourite restaurants slowly get replaced by Cinnabon outlets.

otabdeveloper4• 7 years ago

You go spend a few days enjoying some of the same stuff you enjoyed as a kid.

Dunno, the stuff I was actually enjoying as a kid was the dangerous stuff parents wouldn't approve.

Seems like it's more of a conception of 'what adults think a child would enjoy' rather than what children enjoy.

analog31• 7 years ago

My experience with Disney resorts is limited to an evening spent on my company's nickel while at a conference. With that said, I could see that Disney sweats the details of entertainment in myriad ways to make the visit easy and pleasant for people. I left my jacket in one of their restaurants, called them when I got back home, and they had an entire streamlined system just for dealing with lost items. My jacket was at my doorstep the next day.

mark-r2• 7 years ago

I lost my rental car keys somewhere at Disney World. The rental company was completely useless, so I asked for help from the Disney hotel we were staying at. They sent their private locksmith over to the car, and he spent over 3 hours trying to make a key that would work using the keycode. Ultimately he was unsuccessful because the key had an electronic component. He did get the doors open though, and his professionalism and dedication were top-notch.

fortran77• 7 years ago

I worked as a Disney "Imagineer" for several years. Don't underestimate the sophistication of Disney fans.

I've met many elitists who look down upon anything that's popular. These people miss out on many great things, from profound art to good clean fun. Disney has both.

theonething• 7 years ago

I'm a developer and am interested in this job. Any tips on how to become an imagineer?

knolax• 7 years ago

sizable number of American adults

How much is sizable? Can you give an example of a specific Disneyland fanatic? Why only American adults?

therockspush• 7 years ago

I've worked with a few of them. This song sums it up pretty well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLIfkiF8NeQ

beowulfey• 7 years ago

Great article but way too short. Could have read much more for sure. Will have to check out the book.

gaogao• 7 years ago

I found "Walt Disney - The Triumph of the American Imagination," a fairly thick biography on Disney, to handle Disneyland's creation pretty well.

sizzzzlerz2• 7 years ago

They could also provide a larger image of that sketch. I can make out the larger features but it would be nice to compare it against what was actually built.

taborj• 7 years ago

A wee bit of searching, and I managed to find a pretty good sized version[0] from a twitter account. There's another that has a close-up of the castle[1].

Side note: that castle looks a whole bunch like Hogwarts, or more accurately Hogwarts looks a whole lot like the original idea for Sleeping Beauty Castle.

[0] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBXNLlgUIAQvMG_.jpg:large

[1] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBZwfkVUIAEZz7i.jpg:large

mirimir• 7 years ago

FYI: https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1802/do-disney-mov...

dawnerd• 7 years ago

The Disney+ show The Imagineering Story does a pretty decent job going over the history. https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-imagineering-story/6ry...

pharaohgeek• 7 years ago

It's an outstanding show. It's quickly become my favorite content on Disney+. They could triple the amount of episodes and it wouldn't be enough. It's produced and directed really well with tons of great content.

WorldMaker• 7 years ago

Fun fact that's clear in the credits but not necessarily in the show itself: the Director Leslie Iwerks is the daughter of (several times interviewed) Imagineer Don Iwerks and granddaughter of classic Disney animator Ub Iwerks. Kind of neat the family connections embedded in the show (as is the story of the Art Director and her mother from one of the episodes).

WalterBright2• 7 years ago

Disneyland has been undergoing endless improvement. My parents visited there in the 1950s and it's fun looking at the photos and seeing how primitive it looked then.

machello13• 7 years ago

On the other hand, Disney World at least seems to be losing a lot of the inspired, imaginative ideas it once had, in favor of synergizing the whole experience with other Disney IPs like Marvel, Star Wars, Frozen, etc.

sizzzzlerz2• 7 years ago

I have vague memories of my first visit which must of been in 1961 or 1962 and I was 6/7. This was back when they sold ticket packs containing some number of "A" through "E" tickets. The "E" tickets were the coveted ones as they were the big rides. The "A" tickets were things like the Main Street trolley. We always ended the day with only "A" and "B" tickets. Of course, crowds weren't insane like today and we didn't have to wait more than 20-30 minutes.

WalterBright2• 7 years ago

My first visit was in 1966. I remember being quite enchanted with it, having had no idea such a place existed.

achow• 7 years ago

All these book publications seems to be orchestrated around starting of Disney+.

Recently Bob Iger (Disney CEO) published his autobiography..

Ride of a lifetime

https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lifetime-Lessons-Learned-Company...

parliament322• 7 years ago

Meta but what's with this recent trend of taking quotes from two-paragraphs-ago and inserting them into the middle of the text in a big font? How is that useful to me as a reader? I already read that part... is it for the benefit of people scrolling through quickly?

How Disneyland Came to Be

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