1955 Disneyland Opening Day [Complete ABC Broadcast]
On June 1, 2014
- TV History
Disneyland Opening Day, As Seen Live On ABC…July 18, 1955
In today’s first post, we saw the preparation for this event and this video starts where that one ended…with Art Linkletter’s welcome. At the 2:00 mark, Art describes the previous day’s rehearsal as something like “trying to cover three erupting volcanos without expecting any of them”. No truer words have ever been spoken!
He splits the 90 minute program’s hosting duties with Bob Cumming and in the last 15 minutes or so, you can tell that they are running out of time and one area had to be passed over. This is the full presentation via kinescope and without the commercials. Enjoy and share!
Wow, what a time capsule! I remember this broadcast so fondly. Walt had done what seemed absolutely impossible. He had turned his entire body of film fantasies into a real living and breathing place…and like millions of other kids, I spent the rest of my childhood wanting to go there.
This full program is available on a Disney DVD that I found several years ago. It was a Herculean task to cover the opening day with 26 cameras and no truck. It was all lashed up in a warehouse building and took just about every camera ABC owned and they borrowed gear from other LA stations. Art Linkletter was the main host and the show was done on July 17, 1955-his 43rd birthday. On Disneyland’s 50th anniversary on July 17, 2005 Linkletter hosted again on his 93rd birthday. Wow, a great story.
A great find. Thanks for sharing.
My mother and father were there. Mom was working in the Disney studios publicity department at the time, and took my father to the big event (they were still dating and hadn’t married yet).