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    Disney's Land
    Disney's Land
    Disney's Land
    Audiobook12 hours

    Disney's Land

    Written by Richard Snow

    Narrated by Jacques Roy

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A propulsive and “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) history chronicling the conception and creation of the iconic Disneyland theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow.

    One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people “could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever.” Despite his wealth and fame, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park. Not his brother Roy, who ran the company’s finances; not the bankers; and not his wife, Lillian. Amusement parks at that time, such as Coney Island, were a generally despised business, sagging and sordid remnants of bygone days. Disney was told that he would only be heading toward financial ruin.

    But Walt persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy and later with sponsorship from ABC and the sale of thousands and thousands of Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Disney assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers, and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a soaring yet soothing wonderland of a park. The catch was that they had only a year and a day in which to build it.

    On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates…and the first day was a disaster. Disney was nearly suicidal with grief that he had failed on a grand scale. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. Eight hundred million visitors have flocked to the park since then. In Disney’s Land, “Snow brings a historian’s eye and a child’s delight, not to mention superb writing, to the telling of this fascinating narrative” (Ken Burns) that “will entertain Disneyphiles and readers of popular American history” (Publishers Weekly).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateDec 3, 2019
    ISBN9781797102092
    Disney's Land
    Author

    Richard Snow

    Richard Snow spent nearly four decades at American Heritage magazine, serving as editor in chief for seventeen years, and has been a consultant on historical motion pictures, among them Glory, and has written for documentaries, including the Burns brothers’ Civil War, and Ric Burns’s award-winning PBS film Coney Island, whose screenplay he wrote. He is the author of multiple books, including, most recently, Disney’s Land.

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    Reviews for Disney's Land

    4.5/5

    34 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Very comprehensive history of Disneyland. Warts and all. Must read for any fan
    • 5/5
      Disney's Land is an outstanding read for anyone interested in the history of Walt Disney and the creation of Disneyland. The book details the development of Disneyland, from its conception in Walt Disney's mind to its grand opening in 1955. I appreciated seeing Walt Disney's visionary leadership in action and how his vision sustained him and his team through the almost impossible challenges they faced while bringing Disneyland to life.

      My two favorite chapters were “Dateline, Disneyland”, which details the original ABC live broadcast of the opening of Disneyland, and the following chapter “Dateline Behind the Scenes: Black Sunday.” Over 90 million Americans, 54% of the population, tuned in on July 17, 1955 to Dateline: Disney on ABC to see the park’s opening. This was a larger percentage than watched the moon landing in 1969.

      The next chapter, “Dateline Behind the Scenes: Black Sunday” demonstrates what was happening behind the camera of that idyllic broadcast. Rides breaking, still-soft asphalt, intense crowding, injured children, food shortages, fraudulent tickets, and the worst traffic jam in Orange County history led to a chaotic and frustrating experience for guests. Reporters led with headlines shouting “Walt’s Dream is a Nightmare” and “The 17 Million Dollar People Trap that Mickey Mouse Built.”

      The Imagineers who built the park maintained a hopeful tone. Van Arsedale France said, “It was the celebration of the birth of a dream.” Ken Anderson said, “We had a park. It was a start.”

      The day after the disastrous opening, once the park was open for guests who would pay, traffic was backed up for hours. The first paying guest arrived at 1AM. The parking lot attendants had to open three hours early. In the month of August, the park had 500,000 visitors despite an intense heat wave. The park was on its way to becoming the workd-changing success it is today.

      The book ends with a beautiful reading of the whimsical shop names on the windows on Main Street, all commemorating the creators of Disneyland. The author tells the story of Steve Martin’s time working at the magic shop, and the “nostalgia for the present” he experienced on his last day working there. The phrase captures the emotion Disneyland still inspires.

      At least, I think it does. It captures my feelings about Disney World, but having grown up in Orlando there was never any reason for me to visit Disneyland in California. It’s still on my wish list to visit.

      One funny note about the audiobook: the narrator also narrated Midnight in Chernobyl. He’s excellent, but it took longer than expected for me to shake the feeling that a nuclear explosion was about to happen. If you’ve also listened to the Chernobyl book, be forewarned!
    • 2/5
      Very slow and extremely long. Some in depth encounters are valuable though.
    • 5/5
      The team to create the magic, great book.
      Worth Reading / Listening.