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Friday, March 27, 2015

The Story of DISNEYLAND: An Unworkable Idea



With most of the roadblocks conquered, Walt Disney began the pre-planning stages for DISNEYLAND. He sent a contingent of studio employees to an amusement park convention, where park owners could look at the latest rides, midway games and other assorted amusement park related products. Walt Disney asked his staff members to schmooze with the park owners, tell them about DISNEYLAND and see what they thought.



Walt's team were surprised at the response. The veteran park owners were absolutely certain that DISNEYLAND would fail. Among the many faults:

* Too much space devoted to non-money generating features like landscaping.

* Without alcoholic beverages, DISNEYLAND would not make any money.

* No midway games meant no profits.

* Having one entrance would be a crowd nightmare.

* Expensive theming would never be noticed by the customers and would just get damaged.



Walt's employees returned to Burbank depressed. They communicated what they learned to Mr. Disney, expecting him to be upset. Instead he was ecstatic. Why was he happy? Because he knew that if the existing amusement park owners thought his ideas were terrible then he must be on the right track. Time would prove him right.


Next week is "April Fools Week" here at RetlawYensid.com featuring strange but true stories from the world of Disney. The Story of DISNEYLAND will return April 10th.