Disneyland Was Secretly Inspired By These Other Theme Park Destinations

Walt Disney wasn’t the type of person to form all of his creations while sitting at a desk. He enjoyed getting out, having real-life experiences, and gaining inspiration from the people and places around him. While this was a practice that he often used for his animated works, it was also one that he applied when it came to the design of Disneyland – and one that Imagineers still use to this day.

Walt first came up with the idea for Disneyland while he was out experiencing the real world. Once he had the dream, it only progressed from there. Walt visited a variety of theme parks, amusement parks, and fairs, where he would take notes and gather information that he would later apply to his own park.

This process took quite a few years, as Walt ventured across the country and overseas to collect information and nurture his own ideas. During his travels, Walt visited these nine locations. He studied how they operated, what the Guests enjoyed, and how they made him feel. His experiences had a great impact on his design process for The Happiest Place on Earth.

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Griffith Park

Out of all of the inspirational sites that we’ll talk about in this article, Griffith Park can easily be considered the most influential. This is where Walt was when he first had the idea to create a family-friendly theme park. Surprisingly, though, this Los Angeles-based park wasn’t a theme park or amusement park. Griffith Park was a simple public park that had a few attractions for Guests to enjoy.

When Walt’s daughters were young, he would frequently take Saturdays to spend time with them. He referred to these days together as “Daddy’s Day”. During one of their outings, he took the girls to Griffith Park. As they enjoyed time on the merry-go-round, Walt sat on a bench, ate some peanuts, and watched. It was in this moment that the idea for Disneyland was born.

Now, don’t get me wrong. He didn’t sit there and fully dream up the entire park, with all of its rides, attractions, entertainment offerings, and dining locations. Instead, he simply had the thought that there should be a place where parents could have fun with their children, rather than sitting and watching them.

Walt held onto the idea that Disneyland should be a place for both the young and the old throughout the creation of the park. During the Disneyland opening day speech, Walt said, “Here age relives fond memories of the past – and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future”.

The Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round is still standing today. However, it has been closed for some time now. In 2002, it was announced that the merry-go-round would be closed until further notice so that necessary repairs could be made. Hopefully this classic attraction will be up and running again soon!

In the meantime, fans can visit Walt’s Barn at Griffith Park today which is a “living showcase” of Walt’s passion for railroading which is operated by the non-profit Carolwood Foundation.

Coney Island

While some places inspired Walt in a positive way, others let Walt know exactly what he didn’t want his park to be like. Coney Island was one of these places. However, he didn’t always view the amusement park in a negative manner.

Coney Island, which is located in Brooklyn, New York, was once the largest amusement venue in the country. At its peak, it housed three amusement parks (Steeplechase Park, Luna Park, and Dreamland) as well as many individual amusements. During this time, millions of visitors would visit Coney Island each year. There were even some instances when over a million Guests would visit in a single day.

Unfortunately, after World War II, Coney Island experienced a great downfall. After facing a number of difficulties such as fires, street gangs, and overall neglect of the establishment, attendance levels dropped. Understandably, Guests wanted to visit amusement locations that were cleaner and safer.

When Walt saw the state of Coney Island in the early 1950’s, he was very disheartened by its undoing. In 1953, Walt planned a trip to Coney Island for the sole purpose of collecting information for Disneyland. Even though Coney Island wasn’t in its best state anymore, he wanted to see what Guests did enjoy about the amusement site.

At the time of his visit, actor Richard Todd was in New York for the promotional tour of The Sword and the Rose and accompanied Walt to Coney Island. Even though they didn’t experience the Coney Island that once was, they still enjoyed their time together – as you can see in the photo above.

Coney Island’s Recovery

Even though Coney Island experienced a downfall, it has since seen an incline in attendance and success. This is most likely due to revitalizing efforts that began in the early 2000’s. Today, many Guests enjoy visiting Coney Island and experiencing everything that it has to offer. For some, it’s a nice “break” from the big city.

Children’s Fairyland

Children’s Fairyland is a storybook-themed amusement park that’s located in Oakland, California. The park, which opened in 1950, is still open today and currently celebrating “75 Dazzling Years”.

While Walt may have visited the park a number of times while seeking inspiration for Disneyland, the Fairyland website notes that he was certainly there in 1955. It’s easy to see that Children’s Fairyland was very influential for Disneyland – especially Fantasyland!

During the time of Walt’s visit, he saw attractions that were inspired by popular (especially for Disney) children’s stories, such as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Disneyland eventually had a dark ride for each of these stories, opening with Peter Pan’s Flight and adding Alice in Wonderland just three years later.

Not only did Walt pull inspiration from Children’s Fairyland, he also hired some of the Fairyland employees! Fairyland’s first executive director, Dorothy Nabes, and puppeteer, Bob Mills, both went to work for Walt at Disneyland.

Today, at Children’s Fairyland, you can still enjoy a whimsical fairytale land. At the park, you’ll be able to view display sets, ride rides, visit animals, explore the gardens, and dine on delicious food!

Electric Park

Unlike these other inspirations, Electric Park is a location that Walt visited well before he had the idea for Disneyland. Actually, this was an amusement park that caught Walt’s attention when he was a young boy.

In 1911, when he was 9 years old, Walt and his family moved from Chicago to Kansas City. To his delight, an amusement park, called Electric Park, was located just 15 blocks from the Disney family’s new home. He and his sister Ruth would frequently visit the park and take in the sights.

Electric Park closed in 1925, which was well before Walt started dreaming up Disneyland. However, it’s clear to see that the park left a lasting impression on him. Multiple concepts from Electric Park seemed to have been implemented into Disneyland, such as the train that circled the park and the nightly fireworks show. Disneyland also shared a variety of attractions and offerings that Electric Park had, including entertainment, a penny arcade, boats, a shooting gallery, carousel, and fortune telling booths.

Chicago Railroad Fair

In 1948, Walt traveled with Disney Animator, Ward Kimball, to Chicago, Illinois to attend the Chicago Railroad Fair. The fair was put together to celebrate 100 years of railroad operation in Chicago. Over 20 equipment manufacturers and 39 railroads participated in the event. The large display of locomotives included the first American locomotive, the Freedom Train, and a replica military train.

Of course, Walt always had a deep love for trains. Had he not gone to the Chicago Railroad Fair, he more than likely would have still included a train at Disneyland. That being said, Walt collected other valuable inspiration from the fair.

The fair offered much more than a railroad celebration. Rather than a large open space, it was divided into themed lands. The lands included Vacationland, an Indian Village, New Orleans, and a frontier-themed land called Gold Gulch. At the fair, you could also enjoy entertainment and attractions such as a haunted house, opera house, and nightly fireworks shows.

The Chicago Railroad Fair was a one-time event, so it cannot be experienced today. However, clear inspiration from the event lives on today at Disneyland.

Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village

During the trip to the Chicago Railroad Fair, Walt and Ward made a detour to Detroit, Michigan, where they visited Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village. This wasn’t Walt’s first time at Greenfield Village, as he had previously visited with students in 1940. However, this time, he was studying the historically-themed amusement park to gather information for Disneyland.

Greenfield Village provides Guests with an accurate representation of different period environments. The village, which takes Guests as far back as the 17th century, is home to over 100 historic buildings. While there, you can see places such as the Wright brother’s bicycle shop, Noah Webster’s Connecticut home, and a replica of Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory. At the time of Walt’s visit, there were also attractions, such as a merry-go-round and a sternwheeler riverboat. Both of which were opening day attractions at Disneyland.

The village also had an opera house, movie theater, horse car, magic shop, and clothing store. All of these were clear influences for Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A.

Today, at Greenfield Village, Guests can enjoy rides on different transportation types. These attractions include a carousel, railroad, bus, Model T, and carriage. There are also a variety of shopping and dining locations throughout the village.

The village is currently divided into seven different historic districts – Working Farms, Liberty Craftworks, Henry Ford’s Model T, Railroad Junction, Main Street, Edison at Work, and Porches & Parlors. During your visit to America’s past, you can take part in special activities such as glass pulling, watching an 1867-styled baseball game, and eating food from different time periods such as the 1830’s!

Tivoli Gardens

The atmosphere of Disneyland is one of the many things that make it feel so magical. The warm energy of the Cast Members, the upbeat music, the presentation of the park, and the overall high standards that are upheld everyday are what creates the “Disney Difference”. This pristine experience is something that Walt personally felt in the 1950’s when he visited Tivoli Gardens.

During his time in Europe in the 1950’s, Walt took the time to visit Tivoli Gardens and was extremely impressed with the amusement park. The Walt Disney Family Museum quotes Walt saying this about the park, “It was spotless and brightly colored and priced within the reach of everyone…The gaiety of the music, the excellence of the food and drink, the warm courtesy of the employees—everything combined for a pleasurable experience.” Those who have been to Disneyland before know that these same exact words can be used to describe Walt’s park. He clearly took these positive aspects from Tivoli Gardens and applied the same ideals to Disneyland.

Tivoli Gardens is still open today, making it one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. The park boasts over 30 rides, more than 30 dining options, 100 days of special events, and venues that host theater experiences. Tivoli Gardens has many of the same features as Disney, such as annual passes and a mobile app. Similar to the Disneyland app, on the Tivoli app, you can purchase tickets, make dining reservations, view attraction photos, and see the daily schedule.

Beverly Park

Walt utilized every connection that he had when he was in the process of designing his “Mickey Mouse Park”. One of which, he found through Bernice Bradley, a story researcher at Walt Disney Studios.

Bernice’s husband, David, bought and opened a small children’s amusement park in Beverly Hills. The site was appropriately called Beverly Park. After Bernice introduced the two men, Walt began to discuss theme park logistics with David and tossing around ideas that he had for his own park.

David continued to help Walt throughout his theme park creation and even had quite a bit of influence in the process. He did a number of things for Walt and Disneyland, including traveling all the way to Europe to take pictures of rides for Walt. He also convinced Walt to build Main Street at a ⅞ scale and inspired him to incorporate themed photo ops into the park.

Beverly Park closed in 1974, with its Ponyland section lasting just a few years longer. Today, Beverly Center, a pristine Los Angeles shopping and dining destination, stands where Beverly Park once was.

Knott’s Berry Farm

Knott’s Berry Farm is located less than 10 miles from Disneyland, in Buena Park, California. Walt visited Knott’s Berry Farm on multiple occasions while he was in search of inspiration for his own park. There were multiple aspects of Knott’s Berry Farm that were brought over to the design of Disneyland. Similarities can be seen between Knott’s Ghost Town and Disney’s Frontierland, the Calico Railroad and the Disneyland Railroad, and between Timber Mountain Log Ride and Splash Mountain (now Tiana’s Bayou Adventure).

It’s also said that Walt drew inspiration from Knott’s Berry Farm for his Enchanted Tiki Room. In the 1940’s, there was a Music Hall in Ghost town that featured a variety of music boxes and automaton birds that whistled. These birds could have put the idea in Walt’s head for the life-like birds that he wished to have in the Tiki Room. If this is the case, Walt’s visits to Knott’s Berry Farm ultimately led to the development of audio-animatronics.

Even though Walter Knott and Walt Disney had theme parks in close proximity to each other, they kept a friendly relationship. Walt even invited Mr. and Mrs. Knott to join him as special Guests for the opening day of Disneyland.

Although Disneyland opened just a short distance away, Knott’s Berry Farm remained successful and is still open today. If you’re interested in learning more about the park that inspired Walt, check out our full guide on Knott’s Berry Farm!

Portion of first image via Disney Cruise Line.

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