The Imagineering Story

Within these walls, an eclectic group of creative people

bring ideas to life.

Outliers flourish here.

A place best described as equal parts artist studio, design center,

think tank, and innovation laboratory.

This is where the brightest minds build the happiest places on earth.

Walt Disney Imagineering.

Any time you take people behind the scenes,

you see the imperfections, the trial and error,

the experimentation, things that went well from the beginning

and things that didn't get great until the very end.

These projects, these places, these attractions,

often how it's being made is extremely interesting.

It might increase the level of appreciation.

But what we want people to appreciate is the perfection of it all.

But creating happiness is hard work.

Only a unique army of people are equipped to undertake such an enterprise.

Since its inception,

this merry band of misfits has defied the odds.

Under pressure from budgets and schedules

to the laws of physics and the blank page, they have survived.

Walt set a standard early on with the Imagineers.

There was a standard that surprised people,

standard that enabled people to come in expecting something

and then giving them something even beyond that,

beyond, really, their own imagination.

So they left thinking, "Wow." Either "Only Disney could that,"

or asking, "How did Disney do that?"

Walt Disney did more than dream.

He acted on instinct.

He made a career of pushing the art of animation.

From pen and ink, indelible characters sprang to life,

full of personality, humor, and drama.

Audiences empathized with animals who taught them about humanity.

He entertained millions by touching the heart,

igniting the imagination, and making us smile.

Innovative, high-risk projects had been a hallmark of Disney.

He pioneered synchronized sound...

...full color, and multi-plane dimensional depth.

Feature-length cartoons made him a master storyteller.

He transformed silly symphonies into abstract art.

By the end of World War II, Walt grew tired of fighting labor unions

and the rising cost of animation.

From make-believe, he applied wholesome values

to live action films and real-world documentaries.

He won countless awards and international appeal.

Having conquered multiple mediums, he developed eccentric hobbies.

With the curiosity of a middle-aged child,

Walt Disney would soon discover

the next entertainment frontier.

Well, it came about when my daughters were very young and I...

Saturday was always Daddy's day with the two daughters.

So, we'd start out

and try to go someplace with, you know, different things,

and I'd take them to the merry-go-round and I took 'em different places.

And as I'd sit there while they...

they rode the merry-go-round, did all these things,

sit on a bench, you know, eating peanuts,

I felt that there should be something built,

some kind of an amusement enterprise built where the parents and the children

could have fun together.

A spark of inspiration first revealed...

...itself in Walt's backyard railroad.

The obsession soon grew beyond model trains.

He toyed with the idea

of a small playground across the street from his studio.

But when the Burbank City Council

feared a carnival atmosphere invading the city,

they rejected the proposal and Walt stormed out.

When he told his wife that he was going to build

what became Disneyland and she said, "Why would you wanna do that?

"You know, those places are so dirty. People who work there are so unfriendly."

And Walt looked at her and he said, "My park's not gonna be like that."

In 1952,

Walt formed a new company named WED Enterprises

from his initials, Walter Elias Disney.

Its sole purpose: design and build his growing idea called Disneyland.

Concept work began before funding was secured.

He scouted people from his own animation studio

who were accustomed to communicating visually

and who possessed a spirit of innovation.

No one better defined this type of renaissance man than John Hench.

Walt was always looking for talent, hidden talent.

He really, you know, was an enthusiastic man himself

and, you know, if somebody was really interested

in the work they were doing, as most of us were,

we got to do other things.

Since 1939, John had worked in many studio departments.

From animation and story to backgrounds and special effects.

He mastered all trades and brought a keen color sense

everywhere he went.

John Hench told me that Walt came into his office one day,

looked over his shoulder at what he was doing,

and then started to walk out and he said,

"By the way, John, you're gonna work on Disneyland."

And he turned and he said, "And you're gonna like it."

I don't think really it could even have been built,

except by people that had had some motion picture experience.

Because we relied so much on all the techniques

introducing an idea and following through a theme or an idea or a story,

very much as you do in motion pictures.

Walt started with architects,

he had consultants in the amusement park business, different ones,

but all the king's horses and all the king's men

couldn't give me answers he wants.

He brings in art directors

because architects were giving him architecture.

The art directors could give him the scale,

the feeling, could replicate anything. They're can-do guys.

I don't think many of these people would ever be hired in a modern company.

Because they were eccentric.

It's like casting a great orchestra.

You have a tuba player, you have a bassoon,

you have a pianist.

They complement one another, but they're not all the same.

And so you get this rich sound.

And I think the rubbing of these various personalities

really made for the harmony.

Walt Disney later called this original group Imagineers,

a named he felt captured both imagination and engineering.

Over the coming years, he dared them to push the boundaries of creativity.

Only these people could transform his abstract notion

into three-dimensional reality.

Next, he needed a location.

Anaheim, California,

a rural town 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles,

was chosen for its climate and affordable land.

The spot also laid ahead of a rapidly booming urban sprawl.

Walt was ahead of everybody else.

I mean, he'd take the gamble

because he was a believer it was gonna work

despite people who were naysayers.

It was just orange groves and lemon groves,

citrus and so forth, down there. No freeway.

Most people thought it was crazy to build some kind of a big park like that

way down there where nobody could get to it.

Believe it or not, it wasn't too easy

to sell people on the success of Disneyland

because there were a lot of doubting Thomases.

Including Walt's brother, Roy Disney, who handled all the finances.

The company was still recovering from losses incurred

when World War II closed off its European market.

Animated feature films were more expensive than ever.

Walt and Roy constantly argued over the park project.

Banks refused to invest in what they considered to be a pipe dream.

He said, "My brother, Roy, has to talk to the bankers.

"We got to show them what we're gonna do, what this is gonna look like."

So, I got excited and I said, "Well, gee." I said, "I'd like to see it, too."

And he said...

"You're gonna do it."

Over a lost weekend,

Herb Ryman drew the first full-scale aerial schematic of Disneyland.

Walt had unassailable confidence in his convictions.

He believed in this thing. And when he looked at you,

you got to believe it, too.

He could convince you

that this was gonna be the greatest thing that ever happened.

And then afterward, the hypnotic spell would wear off,

and you'd think, "Well, now, what if this fails?

"What if the people don't like it? What if it's too far away?

"What if they can't afford it?"

But anyway, that's Walt's problem.

Most Hollywood studios

viewed the new medium of television as the enemy.

Walt and Roy saw an opportunity.

Armed with Herb's initial drawing, Roy proposed producing a weekly TV series

for the struggling ABC Network

in exchange for funding the five-million-dollar park.

They agreed.

Walt used the platform to promote his vision to America.

Here now to tell you about it is Walt Disney.

Welcome.

We want you to share with us our latest and greatest dream.

That's it right here.

Disneyland.

Seen from about 2,000 feet in the air and 10 months away.

Walt captivated audiences with the turn-of-the-century Main Street,

inspired by his hometown of Marceline, Missouri.

At the foot of Main Street, about where you're sitting, is the plaza.

The plaza, or the hub, is the heart of Disneyland.

Four themed lands branched out from the center

and embodied all of Walt's interests.

A home for his animated film characters, the promise of the future,

the natural environment and the spirit of exploration.

We hope that through our television shows, that you will join us and take part

in the building of Disneyland,

and that you'll find here a place of knowledge and happiness.

The sooner Walt could recoup the cost, the better.

He imposed a construction deadline of one year to his Imagineers

who translated Walt's concept into a practical layout.

A timeless geometric pattern of radials led to a central hub,

which made decisions easier and prevented people from feeling lost.

The whole sense of hub and spoke which has been a great system for Paris

for 200 years, is a great system for Disneyland

because you always know where you are,

where you're indexed within that system.

As you're leaving the hub,

every land has what they would call "a meaning."

It was the visual draw that made you want to go down there.

And that was really a philosophy