Corporation | |
Industry | Amusement |
Founded | 1951 |
Founder | Walt Disney |
Products | Disneyland |
Services | Amusement park |
Owners |
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Disneyland, Inc. was a corporation formed to finance, build and run Disneyland park in Anaheim, California.
Disneyland, Inc. (DLI) was incorporated in the State of California in 1951 by Walt Disney. A companion company owned only by Walt Disney originally called Walt Disney, Incorporated then WED Enterprises (WED) was set up in 1952 supposedly only for television production, but was used to design Disneylandia and its attractions. As the board of directors of Walt Disney Productions (WDP) was questionable in its support for the project. In March 1953, WDP board of directors agreed to Walt Disney's personal services contract and WED's contracts for designing and building Disneyland park attractions for cost plus overhead with three board directors resigning.
The Stanford Research Institute was hired in April 1953 to determine the best park location and an amusement parks and public attractions analysis for US$32 thousand (K) while WED started designing Disneylandia with Bill Martin signing on to do so. By July, Disney directed the institute to look at 100+ acre Southern California location. Also that month, one of the Disney brothers had an initial meeting with American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres's Leonard H. Goldenson about Disneyland financing for Disney Production film inventory.
Roy met in August 1953 with the Stanford Research Institute over the Disneylandia location survey's 10 possible location settling on an area along the Santa Ana Freeway in Anaheim. Soon, a 160-acre grove of orange trees, the Ball Road subdivision, was purchased for US$879 thousand. An additional 270 acres were purchased for the site by a real estate agent, followed by a separate purchase of 244 more acres.
The first park diagram plan was completed by Marvin Davis on August 8, 1953 with Walt adding the triangular space bounding the park for the railroad. On September 25, Davis finished his second version design with the hub layout. On the following day Walt and Herb Ryman started a 42-hour period in which they drew a 43x70 inch detailed aerial view. During the year, Key Disney staff members toured major American amusement parks to find out what does not work.