Manufacturing the Magic: Drawing up plans for Disneyland

The Jim Hill Media Podcast Network

Jim Hill Media Podcast Network

Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 19th installment of this educational series, Shelly & Noe Valladolid talk about what happened in September of 1953 prior to Roy O. Disney’s fateful flight out to NYC. They also talk about how the material that Walt’s brother showed to executives at CBS, NBC & ABC to sell them on Disneyland was created. Throughout this episode, listeners will learn about: How did Herbie Ryman’s “Lost Weekend” with Walt REALLY go down Which “Lands” were initially proposed for Walt’s family fun park How did Walt go about securing all of the funding that was needed to build Disneyland Who were the Park’s original sponsors How did C.V. Wood go about recruiting Disneyland’s participants Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome aboard Pink Monorail. I'm your pilot, Michelle Vio D'Elead, and next to me is my co-pilot, Noah Vio D'Elead.
0:12.3	Hey, everybody! Last time, we talked about how Walt was preparing to build Disneyland. This time,
0:18.5	we're going to continue. We're going to start out with Art Link Letter and Bob Hope.
0:22.9	They both recounted during their lives that Walt offered them each part of Disneyland for an
0:28.4	investment. Both turned him down and lived to regret it. Now I met Art Link Letter.
0:33.2	Did you? At the 50th, we got coffee together. Now, for those that don't know, Arklink Letter used to host several game shows and television shows in the Los Angeles area. What was the most famous show that he hosted? It was one with kids. Hmm. Was it you bet your line? No, that was a groucho. Kids will say anything or something like that. Kids say the darndest things. Something like that, yeah.
0:54.4	Okay. So what happened? So both Arkleet Letter and Bob Hope and Bob Hope had a chance to invest in Disneyland and both said no. Oh, no.
1:03.8	Walt was out of money. He had borrowed on his life insurance and sold his vacation home in Palm Springs. Lillian was worried.
1:14.0	She wanted to know what would become of her if something happened to Walt.
1:18.0	Walt had let the studio go public in 1940, so there was no help there.
1:22.3	He started his own company, Walt Disney, Incorporated, to do work on the park.
1:26.4	Shareholders were furious, so he changed the name to Wed Enterprises.
1:29.7	Good old Wed Enterprises. It was incorporated on December 16, 1952. Hazel George, who we heard about from the train episode,
1:35.4	she was the nurse, right? The nurse, organized a fundraising effort at the studio, and many
1:40.5	Walt's employees gave five or $10 here and there.
1:44.7	Walt took out $100,000 in personal loans.
1:48.2	One night, Herb Riemann was called in on a Saturday by Walt to do the now-famous rendering of Disneyland's concept art.
1:56.5	Herbie had been working for MGM, where he helped design sets for many films, including The Wizard
2:01.7	of Oz. Walt saw a display of his work at Showenard Art Institute, which later became Cal Arts,
2:07.4	and hired him away from MGM. At the studio, he art directed films like Dumbo and Fantasia. He left
2:13.8	Disney for Fox in 1946, so Walt was the last person he thought would call him.
2:18.8	Walt said he was building an amusement park and wanted to show investors a drawing of the park.
	...

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