A principal in defining the feel of Disneyland \u2014 and an influence felt today in all meticulously designed theme parks \u2014 is master landscape artist Ruth Shellhorn. A South Pasadena native, her work for decades often went overlooked, spoken of in the shadows of brothers Jack and Bill Evans, horticultural experts who also played an instrumental role in the development of the modern theme park as homes to arboretum-worthy spaces.<\/p>\n
It was Shellhorn, however, who used plants and trees to unify the park\u2019s contrasting elements and to help direct guest flow. She even heightened the illusion of magnifying the splendor of Disneyland\u2019s Sleeping Beauty Castle. Her work was an argument that a stroll through a theme park should evoke natural as much as man-made wonder, a journey into fantastical lawns and courtyards.<\/p>\n
Shellhorn, who died in 2006, faced her share of discrimination for being one of the sole women in a Disneyland leadership role, says Cindy Mediavilla, a retired lecturer from UCLA\u2019s department of information studies and co-author of the book \u201cThe Women Who Made Early Disneyland.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cShe was treated like chopped liver by the men,\u201d says Mediavilla, \u201cbut she perseveres, and her work is still relevant to the park today.\u201d<\/p>\n And it\u2019s still being discovered. San Francisco\u2019s Walt Disney Family Museum, home currently to an exhibit on Disneyland\u2019s early days<\/a>, will host a virtual chat<\/a> June 17 on her work. Her contributions are also detailed in part in a relatively new behind-the-scenes tour at Disneyland, \u201cWomen Who Make the Magic.\u201d <\/a>The latter, a $110 add-on to a Disneyland day, is part of the park\u2019s initiatives to appeal to those who want to dig deeper into Disneyland history, and also touches on the likes of Mary Blair<\/a>, Kim Irvine<\/a>, Martha Blanding<\/a> and others. <\/p>\n Harper Goff, Bill Evans, Dick Irvine, Walt Disney, Ruth Shellhorn and Joe Fowler examine Disneyland plans in April 1955, just months before the park would open. <\/p>\n (Ruth Patricia Shellhorn Papers, UCLA Library Special Collections \/ Disney)<\/p>\n What might be most astonishing about the way Shellhorn transformed Disneyland is that she did it all in a matter of months. She was recommended to park founder Walt Disney by a friend and brought onto the Disneyland project about four months before its July 1955 opening.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Evans brothers are mostly focused on Adventureland, which is where they can put in all these fabulous plants that they\u2019ve been collecting, but they aren\u2019t as effective in figuring out how to design the other areas of the park,\u201d says Todd James Pierce, a creative writing professor and Disney historian<\/a> whose book \u201cThree Years in Wonderland\u201d documents early Disneyland.<\/p>\n \u201cLandscape is going to be one of the last things that goes in, and so these problems don\u2019t really present themselves as critical to Walt until the buildings start going up,\u201d says Pierce.<\/p>\n While I went into the Disneyland walking tour familiar with Shellhorn\u2019s work, the guided trek inspired me at last to dig more fully into her contributions. It was Shellhorn, for instance, who finished the floral portrait of Mickey Mouse at the entrance gates, choosing dwarf pink phlox for his tongue, according to Kelly Comras\u2019 2016 biography of the landscape architect.<\/p>\n Comras documents, too, how Shellhorn helped design Main Street entrance areas, namely the benches and green spaces that surround a flagpole. Shellhorn chose reddish concrete paving, white-flowering trees and perennials in shades of red, white and blue to \u201cembellish Disney\u2019s patriotic theme,\u201d writes Comras.<\/p>\n Photo of blueprints for Disneyland\u2019s tree planting design from a 2005 Times article on Ruth Shellhorn. <\/p>\n (Ken Hively \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The author notes how weeks before opening, Disney replaced the flagpole with a bandstand. Shellhorn protested, arguing that it disrupted sightlines to the castle and overpowered the space. The landscape architect won.<\/p>\n \u201cRuth liked a lot of control,\u201d says Pierce. \u201cWalt would call her stubborn and I think that\u2019s probably true.\u201d<\/p>\n Shellhorn\u2019s diaries are in UCLA\u2019s Special Collections, where she privately expresses frustrations about Disneyland\u2019s male-focused chain of command. <\/p>\n \u201cShe talks about how upset she gets with other art directors, in terms of them coming into her space,\u201d Pierce says. \u201cSome of that is gendered. It\u2019s a group of men who are designing Disneyland, and here is this high-powered, very professional, extremely talented woman who is coming in to talk about how these men\u2019s different areas are going to work together. There\u2019s a hierarchy that\u2019s a bit difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet Shellhorn successfully tied together multiple disparate spaces. <\/p>\n Disneyland\u2019s centerpiece hub area, the entrance to its core themed lands and gateway to the castle, is, for example, a key area where Shellhorn played a major part. Shellhorn directed the grading of the bulldozers in constructing the moat around the fantasy palace, and also gave the entrance to each land a specific botanical personality \u2014 grasslike bamboo, for instance, near Adventureland, as well as jacarandas and senegal date palms to give it tropical bursts of color. Her compositions, writes Comras, \u201cmade the area flow together so seamlessly that visitors were unaware of her artistic intervention.\u201d <\/p>\n Shellhorn, it should be noted, was extremely accomplished by the time she came to Disneyland, being named in 1955 a \u201cwoman of the year\u201d by this newspaper. Her non-Disneyland work was pivotal in redefining commercial spaces throughout the Los Angeles region. She was perhaps best known for helping define the Southern California look of Midcentury Modern architecture for the now-defunct Bullock\u2019s department store chain, which transformed the American shopping mall from an errand to a social outing.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s her work at Disneyland that endures, and forever elevated the look, tone and feel of the American amusement park. So don\u2019t just stop and smell the flowers next time you\u2019re at Disneyland. Take a moment to remember the woman who initially had the vision for them. <\/p>\n The week in SoCal theme parks Beginning May 22, new scenes inspired by the film \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d will come to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.<\/p>\n (Artist concept \/ Disneyland Resort)<\/p>\n A new mission for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. The big news in local theme parks this week is the transformation of the arcade-style<\/a> Millennium Falcon flight simulator ride in Disneyland\u2019s Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge. The refreshed version of the attraction will open Friday with a new storyline and increased levels of interactivity inspired by the film \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu.\u201d Guests will now have the option to vote upon which \u201cStar Wars\u201d locale to visit as they seek to help the bounty hunter and his little pal break up a deal between a gang of pirates and Imperial officers. I\u2019ll be experiencing the ride this week, so stay tuned to Mr. Todd\u2019s Wild Ride for first impressions. A special Butterbeer cream puff is available until the end of the month at Universal Studios Hollywood. <\/p>\n (Todd Martens \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n It\u2019s Butterbeer season at Universal Studios Hollywood, meaning the theme park is offering a few limited-time Butterbeer-flavored treats through May 31. Butterbeer in drink form isn\u2019t, admittedly, my favorite, as the butterscotch is tempered with vanilla trappings that give it a cream soda-type feel. It\u2019s an acquired taste. But when the park puts Butterbeer in dessert items, they tend to be pure butterscotch decadence. So it was with this rich but pleasing cream puff currently available at the Three Broomsticks in Wizarding World. The $7.99 delectable comes with a soft, doughy shortbread cookie topped with butterscotch-infused whip cream. The sauce \u2014 buttery and caramel at its most addictive \u2014 extends down into the fluffy cookie, creating a gooey, toffee-shortbread swirl after the first bite. For butterscotch fans, it\u2019s a delight. <\/p>\n Ride report Mr. Toad\u2019s Wild Ride was, in 1955, a technological marvel. <\/p>\n (Todd Martens \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been working my way through Roland Betancourt\u2019s fascinating book, \u201cDisneyland and the Rise of Automation,\u201d<\/a> which traces how the park\u2019s early technological innovations would forever change entertainment and influence postwar America. Relatively early Betancourt talks about the importance of Mr. Toad\u2019s Wild Ride, which inspired me to get back on the ride the other week. Namely, he argues, it elevated the theme park art form in making use of prior patents to create a fully automated, story-driven attraction. Where there had once been simple gags, now there was narrative \u2014 and in the case of Mr. Toad\u2019s, a message about drunken, reckless driving. And its effects, while today may seem relatively rudimentary, still work, especially when the vehicle shakes to simulate the traversal of railroad tracks before a mirror effect has us barreling toward a collision with a locomotive. <\/p>\n Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.<\/p>\n Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com<\/a>. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter. <\/p>\n Ride on, <\/p>\n Todd Martens<\/p>\n P.S. A stolen animatronic from Walt Disney World\u2019s Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot is a mystery at the heart of documentary \u201cStolen Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n (Antenna Releasing)<\/p>\n Explore a darker side of Disney fandom via the documentary \u201cStolen Kingdom.\u201d And by darker, I mean criminal. The film, from writer, director, producer Joshua Bailey, focuses on so-called \u201curban explorers\u201d \u2014 folks who document deserted or abandoned buildings, hoping to give their audience a sort of backstage view of spaces that have been left behind. <\/p>\n Over the years at Walt Disney World, urban explorers have broken into abandoned water parks or areas once dedicated to animal preservation. The film builds to the tale of a stolen animatronic figure from the closed Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot. Some of these items can end up on the increasingly lucrative Disney black market, where once stolen \u2014 or sometimes trashed collectibles \u2014 can fetch big money via auction. Depending on your point of view of these social media-driven attention seekers, \u201cStolen Kingdom\u201d will fascinate or infuriate. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779214748_482_.jpeg\")
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Get to know some sharks. San Diego\u2019s Sea World will on Friday unveil a reimagined shark-focused exhibit. \u201cShark Encounter\u201d<\/a> still features the park\u2019s signature moving tunnel as well as enhanced visuals to heighten its educational-focused objectives, including a multi-screen video installation to highlight shark diversity and dispel myths about the species. Eleven different varieties are highlighted in the park, including the endangered Australian leopard shark.
Prepare for liftoff across America. Disney has revealed new details on Soarin\u2019 Across America, which opens at Disney California Adventure on July 2. The reimagined attraction<\/a>, designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, will feature the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Grand Canyon West, the New England coastline and more. The celebration of patriotism has already opened at Walt Disney World\u2019s Epcot, meaning there\u2019s plenty point-of-view ride videos <\/a>circulating the web. I\u2019ve opted not to watch them, wanting to go in fresh when it comes to Anaheim, and thus will save my thoughts until I can experience the attraction firsthand.
It\u2019s water park season! Confession: I have never been to a SoCal water park. Maybe this is the summer I change that? Knott\u2019s Soak City Waterpark <\/a>is now open in Buena Park, and Hurricane Harbor<\/a> next door to Magic Mountain in Valencia will begin its summer season on Saturday.
Give up the dream of a third Disneyland park (for now). Wish-focused articles inspired rumors that the Disneyland Resort was prepping for a third park in Anaheim after permits were filed for its Toy Story Parking lot, land that will no doubt be reimagined after the resort builds a new parking garage on its Eastern side. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but don\u2019t bet on a third park coming to Disneyland anytime soon. While the resort recently won approval on its Disneyland Forward<\/a> project, which paves the way for new attractions, hotels and dining to land in Anaheim, nothing in those plans implies a third park. Instead, they point to expansions of the existing Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure, while implying that the current Toy Story lot will be remade into a mixed-use shopping, dining and hotel area. To further dash anyone\u2019s hopes, biz writer Samantha Masunaga has more<\/a>. The best thing I ate at the parks ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779214749_681_.jpeg\")
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