Acquired
03:14:30 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:14:30] S1: That's right. And they trucked it all down. [03:14:32] S0: That's a fifty minute drive if you don't hit traffic, and the highway was still being built. So it's all on surface streets. It's crazy. Think of the scale of the stuff that they were building. Yep. Halfway through construction, they discover that Rivers Of America almost doesn't work at all. When they filled it with water, the water just drained into the dirt underneath. And, David, as you mentioned, cost ballooned from the original 5,000,000 to a total of 17,000,000, but that's actually pretty cheap. Totally. I I did the inflation math. That's $210,000,000 today. You absolutely could not build anything remotely close to Disneyland today for $200,000,000 or in a single year. [03:15:08] S1: It is astounding how it all got built. Also, very convenient for Disney that they sold a lot of Coonskin caps as the budget was ballooning. [03:15:17] S0: Yes. And found sponsors to sponsor lands and rides and drew on every ounce of debt they could. [03:15:24] S1: Yes. This is the other just, like, absolute galaxy brain Walt addition to the flywheel that he brings in with the parks, corporate sponsorships. Yes. There were Yes. 65 corporate sponsors in Disneyland within the first few years of it opening.
03:15:24 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:15:24] S1: Yes. This is the other just, like, absolute galaxy brain Walt addition to the flywheel that he brings in with the parks, corporate sponsorships. Yes. There were Yes. 65 corporate sponsors in Disneyland within the first few years of it opening. [03:15:40] S0: So at opening, there was Richfield Auto for Autopia. Yep. Bank of America, of course, they had to be there, a sponsor of Fantasyland. Coca Cola as well. You won't believe this. In addition to Coca Cola, Pepsi, they had a sponsorship in Frontierland. Coke actually didn't become the exclusive, supplier sponsor until 1990. Yeah. That's right. American Motors, Santa Fe Railway, TWA for the rocket to the moon, Monsanto was actually a sponsor. [03:16:07] S1: That's right. [03:16:07] S0: Carnation, Kodak, the list goes on. But I I do have one favorite, David. The National Rifle Association. Oh, [03:16:16] S1: wow. Frontierland? [03:16:18] S0: Yes. Inside the Davy Crockett Museum, there was a shooting gallery. [03:16:23] S1: There you go. [03:16:23] S0: And it's unclear from the historical records if it is technically a sponsorship, but the rifles were provided by the NRA. Like, real rifles. [03:16:30] S1: There you go. Flywheel in action. Yes. So I was trying [03:16:34] S0: to do some comparison on this 17,000,000 inflation adjusted to 210,000,000. The rise of the resistance star wars ride that they built in 2019, which is excellent if you've never been on it, was rumored to cost anywhere from 200,000,000 to 450,000,000 for just one ride. Right.
03:16:34 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:16:34] S0: to do some comparison on this 17,000,000 inflation adjusted to 210,000,000. The rise of the resistance star wars ride that they built in 2019, which is excellent if you've never been on it, was rumored to cost anywhere from 200,000,000 to 450,000,000 for just one ride. Right. [03:16:55] S1: And they built the whole park for less than that? Yes. Man, the things you could do back then.
03:16:55 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:16:55] S1: And they built the whole park for less than that? Yes. Man, the things you could do back then. [03:17:00] S0: Yes. Right? I mean, permitting was pretty light back then. So we get to opening day. How's it go? Well, less than half of the planned rides were open. And, just to give you a sense of how down to the wire it came, Walt personally put on a mask and was helping to paint the 20,000 the day before it opened. Opening day comes, it's nearly a 100 degrees in the middle of July in Southern California. That created issues with the newly poured asphalt. And there are legends of women's high heels sinking into the asphalt because of that. There are water fountains, but they don't yet have the plumbing finished to turn on. So if you want something to drink in this 100 degree heat, you can go buy a Pepsi. Exactly. The restaurants ran out of food. Rides were breaking down. Mister Toad's wild ride went down because it was too much for the power grid, and the Mark Twain riverboat began to sink since the operator let 500 people onto it, which was double the 250 that he was supposed to. But despite all of this, it is a giant, giant hit. That first day, that was technically a preview day for press and invited guests. 15,000 people were invited, but it is believed that 30,000 attended. [03:18:21] S1: And then that was in person. Yes. Then there's the TV show.
03:18:21 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[03:18:21] S1: And then that was in person. Yes. Then there's the TV show. [03:18:25] S0: So ABC rolls in with 22 live TV cameras and a giant crew to operate it all with nineteen fifty five technology. The viewership numbers are astonishing. It was the world's largest live telecast ever. 83,000,000 people tuned in to watch from home, which means that nearly half of America watched this broadcast. [03:18:50] S1: Watched this ninety minute commercial. [03:18:53] S0: Right? And it's it's crazy. Right? It's live coverage of this, like, Wackadoo Amusement park opening. On the one hand, why would you wanna watch that? On the other hand, you've been conditioned over the last year by one of the most popular television programs in America that this It's all living a giant deal, so you better be watching when it happens. [03:19:11] S1: Do you know I'm sure you do. But do you know who the three anchors were that ABC [03:19:17] S0: hired to do the opening? One was Ronald Reagan. [03:19:20] S1: Right? Ronald Reagan is the big one. Art Linklater, Bob Cummings, and future president of The United States Of America, Ronald Reagan. [03:19:28] S0: It's crazy. The the TV strategy just absolutely knocked it out of the park. What does half of America tune into anymore? I mean, ever. Yeah. [03:19:36] S1: I mean, even the Super Bowl today, which is the biggest television event in America, only gets about 40% of US households tuning in. [03:19:46] S0: And this was just to watch guys talk about what's going on behind them at an amusement park.
03:19:46 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[03:19:46] S0: And this was just to watch guys talk about what's going on behind them at an amusement park. [03:19:51] S1: No. I think it was that America had been primed via the TV show for the whole past year that this was gonna be the event of 1955. [03:20:01] S0: Yeah. So cool. By the end of the first week, there was a 160,000 visitors. Two months after opening, the millionth visitor walked in. And in the first year, there had been 3,600,000 visitors. [03:20:15] S1: Yep. In the second year of the park's operation, it does over 4,000,000 visitors, which makes it more popular than both the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park. It's like the most popular park in America is now Disneyland. [03:20:29] S0: And today, the park has over 900,000,000 visitors since opening day. [03:20:34] S1: My favorite little bit of trivia about Disneyland was learning about the original business model. So you used to have to pay to get on the rides. You would pay, I think it was a dollar for admission to the park, and then you could buy booklets of tickets that would get you admission to the various rides and attractions. And different rides and attractions would have different ticket grades and would be priced differently. It was this whole complicated business model that they obviously have drastically simplified since and raised prices astronomically.