{"id":145490,"date":"2026-01-23T00:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/145490\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T00:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:43:08","slug":"walt-disney-was-scared-disneyland-would-never-be-ready-for-opening-day-in-1955-san-gabriel-valley-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/145490\/","title":{"rendered":"Walt Disney was \u2018scared\u2019 Disneyland would never be ready for opening day in 1955 \u2013 San Gabriel Valley Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walt Disney famously said Disneyland would never be complete \u201cas long as there is imagination left in the world,\u201d but the biggest dreamer of them all was scared Disneyland would never be finished in time for opening day, according to a new documentary about the making of the Anaheim theme park.<\/p>\n

Disneyland Art Director Harper Goff said Walt Disney was \u201cscared\u201d Disneyland would never be ready for opening day in July 1955 in the new \u201cDisneyland Handcrafted<\/a>\u201d documentary by filmmaker Leslie Iwerks that debuted Thursday, Jan. 22 on the Disney+ streaming service and YouTube.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything wasn\u2019t sweetness and light and beautiful during construction,\u201d Goff said during \u201cDisneyland Handcrafted.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: \u2018Disneyland Handcrafted\u2019 changes everything you think you know about Disneyland<\/a><\/p>\n

Walt remarked to Goff in the documentary that there was nothing but \u201choles and piles of dirt\u201d when he surveyed the state of Disneyland construction three months before the park opened.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018There isn\u2019t one thing that any human being would spend 15 cents to come and see,\u2019\u201d Walt told Goff in the documentary. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018I\u2019m scared.\u2019 And he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA craftsman works on the main entrance at Disneyland before the park opened in 1955. (Courtesy of Disney)<\/p>\n

Disneyland was over budget, behind schedule and quickly running out of money just a few months before the park was scheduled to open, according to the documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalt always came down on Sunday morning,\u201d Goff said in the documentary. \u201cHe looked all around over everything and he took a couple of big sighs. He turned to me and he said, \u2018Do you know something? I just got some figures today. We\u2019ve spent a little over half the money that we have to spend on this park.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Meet the \u2018unsung hero\u2019 who helped Walt Disney build Disneyland<\/a><\/p>\n

The budget for Disneyland that started at $4.5 million in July 1954 and climbed to $7 million by August 1954 and $11 million by December 1954 would reach $17 million by July 1955 when the park opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was supposed to look at the cost sheets when they came in every day. But I failed at arithmetic in high school. I didn\u2019t know whether we were in the black or in the red,\u201d Goff said in the documentary. \u201cWalt would come in and he would say, \u2018How much money have you spent so far?\u2019 And I\u2019d say, \u2018Let me see.\u2019 And he\u2019d say, \u2018I\u2019ll tell you.\u2019 And he\u2019d tell me exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA craftsman works on a Sleeping Beauty Castle turret at Disneyland before the park opened in 1955. (Courtesy of Disney)<\/p>\n

But despite the budget concerns, Walt was willing to \u201cgo broke\u201d to build Disneyland and risk losing the Disney movie studios, according to the documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of people that said, \u2018He\u2019s done,\u2019\u201d Disney accountant Milt Albright said in the documentary. \u201cIf it had gone down, the studio would have gone down with it because everything was tied up in the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers install the Mad Tea Party teacups in Fantasyland at Disneyland before the park opened in 1955. (Courtesy of Disney)<\/p>\n

Despite all the challenges, Disneyland drew massive crowds when it opened in 1955 \u2014 attracting a million visitors within the first two months and 5 million in the first year.<\/p>\n

Today, Disneyland\u2019s all-time attendance has reached 900 million visitors<\/a>, according to \u201cDisneyland Handcrafted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walt Disney famously said Disneyland would never be complete \u201cas long as there is imagination left in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2223,163,165,164,7,2222,1341,611,420,136],"class_list":["post-145490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-amusement-parks","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-disney-california-adventure","tag-disneyland","tag-orange-county","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}