Archive for February, 2011
Hotel Guide, Disneyland Hotel
During the spring of 1954, Walt Disney approached the Texas oil and television pioneer Jack Wrather Wildcatter on the possibility of building housing for the many guests who visit Walt hopes the innovative “theme park” and Construction in Anaheim, California.
Originally, he had approached leaders of Walt Hilton and other hotel chains are well known, in hopes of convincing them to fund the construction of a first class hotel adjacent to Disneyland.
In 1954, Anaheim was a known community, largely composed of orange. The whole town had only seven small motels and hotels, with a capacity of only a total of 87 people. Wrather admitted at the time was a bit skeptical about building a small community (about 30,000), next to an amusement park still experimental and unfinished.
Wrather spent several days with Walt Disney, looking at the potential expansion area. Legend has it that Walt had tears in describing his dream of Disneyland Wrather. Wrather spoke for the first time to place it near the entrance to Disneyland. Walt said: “Jack, our customers will not think of a hotel when they begin their visit to Disneyland’ll start looking for a room directly through the park The best place to build your hotel is near the exit to Disneyland .. “. Wrather according to the logic of Walt and leased 60 hectares of land, owned by Disney in West Street opposite the exit of Disneyland. He built what became known as the “Official Hotel of the Magic Kingdom.”
On March 18, 1955, Jack Wrather, Bonita Granville Wrather (his wife), and Anaheim Mayor Charles Pearson, using a spade three, officiated at the ceremony of the Disneyland Hotel.
The Disneyland Hotel opened October 5, 1955, nearly three months after opening for live television Disneyland Grand July 17, 1955. The first guests registered in a hotel with only 104 rooms on five two-story complex, built at the southeast corner of the leased property. These are the rooms of the South Garden, later known as the oriental gardens. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Arnone of Inglewood, California, is the first guests at the hotel recently opened.
The Disneyland Hotel was the first major station to be built in southern California since the early 1940s. Created by Hodges and Vergrift Construction Company, this new addition is called the Garden Room of the North, later renamed The Garden Villas.
During the first year, room rates range from $ 9 for a standard room and $ 22 for deluxe rooms. The rooms were advertised as four.
While construction began on the garden rooms further on the northeast corner of the property, construction was underway in the administration building, which house the rooms a lobby, restaurants, shops and assembly . The gourmet restaurant opened in a converted ranch house on the property, redesigned C. Tony Pereira. This ranch has become the management of Disneyland original building.
The original design of the hotel, by the architectural firm of Pereira and Luckman, called the 300-room motel rooms and hotel suites and garden apartments. There were also plans for three swimming pools, tennis courts, a golf course, bars and four restaurants. The original plans designated a total of 10 buildings to the east or south lawn garden section.
The opening of the administration building (which later became the Travelport) and “official” opening of the hotel was August 25, 1956. Celebrities in attendance include Walt Disney, Art Linkletter, William Bendix, Alan Ladd, Sue Carroll, Yvonne DeCarlo, Jeanne Crain and.
In 1956, there were 204 rooms and suites at the Disneyland Hotel. This has been a part of the original plans when the grounds were allowed to build the hotel. Extra comfort at this time, the Reef Club, including a large swimming pool 45 feet by 75 feet and fully tiled heated pool for children of all ages, Sandlot sources, and a cabin. The pools were surrounded by living room furniture for the rest of the guests and to acquire a tan Southern California. A round of 18 holes of golf and shuffleboard courts inclusions too early to Disneyland Hotel.
Customers can enroll in a hotel room for your car, and he could enter the lobby of a more traditional method of recording. There was parking for 1000 vehicles, and parking was free. Richfield Oil (also a sponsor of Disneyland Autopia) offers complete car care. Even in the 1950s, each room was equipped with a TV and air conditioning. Even Walt must have been surprised by the huge success of his dream. Disneyland has proved all doubters wrong, and Disneyland was designed to make major changes in what had been a dream of the community, orange grove.
From the beginning, the Disneyland Hotel was one of the highlights of outstanding Orange County. Celebrities like Jack Benny, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Billy Graham, and Cary Grant are often seen at the hotel. These and other celebrities to take to bring their families to stay at the hotel and a trip to Walt Park. The Disneyland Hotel had quickly become the place to see and be seen.
Room rates in 1957 were advertised from $ 10 to $ 19. hotel brochures, boasted a variety of shops, air conditioning, television in every room, pools of all sizes, restaurant and cocktail bars. also promotes the Disneyland tram service every five minutes, the transport through a van parks Disneyland, nurseries, hairdressers and beauty salons. Doctor, nurse, and even dental offices were available in the field. The leaflets more emphasis on the private terrace or patio for each room. Best of all, the Disneyland Hotel has been presented as the only hotel located in the Magic Kingdom in Disneyland.
In 1959, more than 25 hotels and motels around Disneyland had gathered to enjoy the spectacular attractions of the park. In 1960, Anaheim has become the largest city in Orange County with a population of over 100,000. As Walt had promised on the opening day, the park continued to add attractions (the Monorail, travel underwater and Matterhorn all opening in 1959), and the hotel has continued to grow, with over 300 rooms in 1960. A convention center of 13,000 square feet was also added at that time.
Room rates in 1960 was $ 10 to $ 26 per night in low season and $ 16 to $ 29 in season, holidays and summer months.
In a press conference in 1960, Jack Wrather and Walt Disney announced its intention to extend the monorail system to link-ALWEG Disneyland Park Hotel. Time Walt had planned rapid transit system for major U.S. cities, and this addition to the monorail to provide a working model. Dick Nunis, who made his way from a summer job in 1955 to become president of Disneyland in 1980, testified that he saw Walt the monorail as more than attraction, Walt saw the transportation system aÊworkable. I wanted to show its potential for rapid transit in urban areas, and plans to extend the monorail to the hotel.
Monorail park was closed for construction on April 10, 1961. Disneyland Autopia was also closed to facilitate the installation of new towers in their motivations. The expansion cost was 1.9 million (500,000 dollars more than the original cost of the monorail at Disneyland when it was installed less than two years earlier.) Construction took more than 118,000 hours, 10,760 tons of sand, 66,700 bags of cement and 702 tons of steel. New style Mark II trains were introduced by the wide monorail train, including a new gold. The monorail, with its extension to the Disneyland Hotel, reopened June 1, 1961.
Other significant increases were planned for the hotel in the 1960s. It included a golf resort with a new 18-hole, par three, a driving range of 50 T and a miniature golf course with holes on each name to Disneyland. Also added at that time was a helicopter landing strip, which connects Los Angeles International Airport to Disneyland and the Disneyland Hotel. The new facilities provide an efficient transportation link for business people and tourists.
In 1961, the Wrather Corporation public, offering 350,000 shares. President and Chairman Jack Wrather and the Wrather Corporation had grown to include four main divisions: television images and movement, the Disneyland Hotel, the Muzak Corporation (elevator music often caricatured) and Stephen Marino, Inc. The company also been involved in the management services of other shipping companies.
The horizon of Anaheim also about to undergo a major change in 1961 when the concept of “construction”, replaces the concept of “construction”. At the Disneyland Hotel, a 11-storey high-rise tower was built. This added 150 new rooms at the resort. At that time, was the tallest building in the county and the country’s tallest building constructed using the stress position, the method for lifting the slab. Another interesting innovation is an outdoor elevator, glass, one of the few built in the time in this country. Its designer, architect Kurt Weber, said that the glass lift offering a spectacular view of the growing community of Anaheim. The lounge offers drinks and nightly entertainment in a decidedly blues pattern. The work was for the construction of new towers in October 1961.
In 1962, rates ranged from $ 17 for a room with a double and $ 53 for two connecting rooms and luxury vacations and a half and holiday periods, $ 10 to $ 47 during the offseason. A room with two single beds cost vacancy rates from $ 24 to $ 35 for a room with two double beds. Off season, the rooms were priced around $ 20 to $ 26.
Orange County has celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1964. In a press conference at the Disneyland Hotel, it was announced that the majors will come to Anaheim. The Angels continue to play in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium until their new stadium in Anaheim was built in two years.
In 1964, during the holiday season and holiday rates are $ 17 for a single room, $ 53 for a deluxe room at the side of a medium-sized room, and $ 30 for a deluxe room only. Winter rates are advertised from $ 10 for a small room to $ 49 for a deluxe suite in the medium term. Tower rooms were priced at $ 24 to $ 35 in high season and $ 20 to $ 28 during the offseason. The high season has been defined as June 1 to September 15 December 11 until January 3 and April 9 to 24 April.
Both the Disneyland Hotel and Disneyland celebrates its “Tencennials” 10 years of successful operations in 1965. The hotel has announced its intention to annex de la Torre, an expansion of the existing tower, which now gives the 616-room hotel. An additional six conference rooms (for a total of 28) was added to the building. These conference rooms would be designed to accommodate 15 people to two thousand people.
A new commercial building space has been built in the grounds of the hotel. Both the annex to the Tower and the Plaza Shopping Center cost $ 5,500,000 in connection with the extension of the Hotel Program. At Disneyland, is a small world “was added after his brilliant career in the New York World’s Fair.
During the holiday season, rates were $ 20 and $ 35 for the same rooms. Rates from the North were priced at $ 20 for a bed size of up to $ 28 for two double beds. The south side was sold for $ 22 to $ 30 for the same bed types.
In 1966, Orange County became the station of America, the production of tourist revenue than any other county in the United States. Anaheim had 125 hotels and motels and a population of over 150,000. Unfortunately, December 15, 1966, Walt Disney, one of the most influential men in the history of Anaheim, died. Walt had been a smoker for life and had developed lung cancer. It was reported that Jack and Bonita Wrather were devastated to the passage of new Walt. Both had planned a course in the 1950s for the future of tourism and the Orange County Convention, which forever change the fate of Anaheim. Jack Wrather also succumbed to cancer in 1984.
Shortly after the death of Walt, Walt Disney Company began numerous attempts to acquire control of the hotel. Finally in 1988, 33 years after the original innovation, the Disneyland Hotel would become a part of the empire that Walt founded.
In a little over 11 years, the Disneyland Hotel had risen to 104 rooms and a handful of facilities in a resort with 616 rooms, spacious dining and shops, a golf resort complete, and a wide range of conventions and meeting rooms meeting. The hotel also has helped introduce a mode futuristic rapid transit in the form of the monorail, and the hotel has helped to change the agricultural economy of Anaheim before a tourist destination it is today.
Sources:
Kaleidoscope: The magazine in-room Disneyland Hotel and the Inn at the Park: Spring 1980, summer 1980 and autumn 1980.
Disneyland Holiday Magazine, various issues between 1957 and 1958.
Disneyland Vacationland Magazine: Issues from 1958 to 1966.
Line Disneyland: Vol. 22, No. 40, October 5, 1990.
The hotel employee Disneyland’s Handbook, 1989.
Disneyland Hotel brochures: 1955, 1957, 1960, 1962 and 1966.
Disneyland Guide: 1955 to 1965.
Postcards Disneyland Hotel from 1955 to 1964.
The Handbook of Texas Online: Jack Wrather obituary.
Dreams by Bret Colson and Geoff Black. A brief modern history of Anaheim, 1997.
Disneyland: The magazine for employees of Disneyland, various issues from 1959 to 1961.
Time Magazine, various editions from 1965 to 1967.
All power comes from my personal collection of objects Disneyland Hotel, with the exception of Jack Wrather obituary and the book of dreams to reality.
Donald W. Ballard lives in northern California with his wife and children. He became interested in the Hotel at Disneyland ® late 1970. Never considered a trip to Disneyland ® complete without a trip to Disneyland ® Hotel. The hotel was an adventure and an experience in itself for him, apart from the joys of Disneyland ®.
In 1998, he decided to start documenting the Disneyland ® Hotel in history. He began to collect many vintage paper items, photographs, magazines and memorabilia of the rich history of the hotel. What began as a short article for a travel magazine of Southern California eventually became this book