The
Disneyland Hotel is a
resortA resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company. Such a self-contained resort attempts to provide for most of a vacationer's wants while remaining on...
hotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
located at the
Disneyland ResortThe Disneyland Resort is a recreational resort complex, that opened in 1955, in Anaheim, California. The resort is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Resorts division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping, dining, and entertainment area.Known...
in
Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of January 1, 2009, the city population was about 348,467, making it the 10th most-populated city in California and ranked 54th in the United States. The city anticipates that the population will surpass 400,000 by 2014 due to rapid development...
, notable as the first hotel to officially bear the Disney name. Opened in October 1955 as a
motor innA motel is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having direct access to an open parking area.Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel, a portmanteau of motor and hotel or motorists' hotel, referred initially to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms...
owned and operated by
Jack WratherJohn Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. , was a petroleum millionaire who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties...
under an agreement with
Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
, the hotel underwent several expansions and renovations over the years before being acquired by
The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company , often simply known as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world, known for its family-friendly products...
in 1988. The hotel was downsized to its present capacity in 1999 as part of the Disneyland Resort expansion.
Concept and construction
At the time of its construction in the early 1950s, Disneyland was in a remote area outside
Anaheim, CaliforniaAnaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of January 1, 2009, the city population was about 348,467, making it the 10th most-populated city in California and ranked 54th in the United States. The city anticipates that the population will surpass 400,000 by 2014 due to rapid development...
.
Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
wanted to build a hotel for Disneyland visitors to stay overnight, since Disneyland was quite a drive from the established population centers of
Southern CaliforniaSouthern California, or SoCal, is defined as the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population centers around three major metropolitan areas, each of which have over 3 million people; the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area with over 12 million inhabitants, the San Bernardino-Riverside...
at the time. However, Disney's financial resources were significantly depleted by the construction of the park, so he negotiated a deal with
Jack WratherJohn Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. , was a petroleum millionaire who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties...
and his business partner Maria Helen Alvarez under which Wrather-Alvarez Productions would own and operate a hotel called the Disneyland Hotel across the street from Disneyland. Wrather was a
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
oilPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
millionaireA millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
turned
film producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
who already owned hotels in
Las VegasLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
and
Palm SpringsPalm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, approximately 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 42,807. Golf, swimming, tennis, horseback riding and hiking in the nearby desert and mountain areas are...
, and co-owned
television stationA television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts video and possibly audio to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television...
s in
TulsaTulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the United States. With an estimated population of 385,635 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 916,079 residents projected to reach one million between 2010...
and San Diego with Alvarez.
The Wrather years 1955–1984
The original Disneyland Hotel was designed by the firm of
PereiraWilliam Leonard Pereira was an American architect from Chicago, Illinois, of Portuguese ancestry who was noted for his futuristic designs of landmark buildings such as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco...
&
LuckmanCharles Luckman was a businessman and an American architect, famous as the "Boy Wonder of American Business" when he was named president of the Pepsodent toothpaste company in 1939 at the age of thirty...
and opened on October 5, 1955, nearly 3 months after Disneyland. Various
strikeStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
s caused the opening to be postponed from the August date advertised in pre-opening promotional materials, and the hotel only had limited capacity when it initially opened. The hotel originally consisted of just over 100 rooms in 5 two-story guest room complexes (later known as the South Garden Rooms and even later as the Oriental Gardens) with shopping, dining and recreational facilities added in early 1956. It also had a doctor and dentist on site as well as a barber and beauty shop. On August 25, 1956, the hotel celebrated its "official" grand opening with many Hollywood stars and celebrities attending the festivities. It was quickly expanded in 1956 with 3 more North Garden guest room structures, one more North Garden structure in 1958 and lastly, two more North garden structures in 1960. The hotel now boasted over 300 guest rooms and suites. It was one of the first hotels in the region to offer accommodations for four persons per room. Guests traveled between the hotel and Disneyland Park via a tram between the hotel and the park main entrance.
When the Wrather-Alvarez partnership ended acrimoniously in 1958, Wrather bought Alvarez' share of Wrather-Alvarez Hotels, making him sole owner of the Disneyland Hotel.
Over the years, the hotel was expanded to include three guest room towers: Sierra (1962; expanded 1966), Marina (1970), and
BonitaBonita Granville was an American film actress and television producer.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Granville was the daughter of stage actors, and made her film debut at the age of nine in Westward Passage...
(1978). The Disneyland Monorail was extended from its original 1959 configuration and a station opened at the hotel in 1961 (pictured). Recreational areas, attractions, and a convention center (1972) were also added over the years. The hotel also featured a
RichfieldARCO is an oil company which is, since 2000, a subsidiary of UK-based BP and is officially known as BP West Coast Products LLC. ARCO that was formed by the merger of East Coast-based Atlantic Refining and California-based Richfield Petroleum in 1966...
service stationA gas station, fueling station, filling station, service station, petrol station, garage, gasbar, petrol pump or petrol bunk is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are petrol A gas station, fueling station, filling station, service station,...
for several years as part of Richfield's sponsorship of several Disneyland attractions, including the
AutopiaAutopia is a Disneyland attraction, in which patrons steer specially designed cars through an enclosed track. Versions of Autopia exist at Anaheim, California, Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France, and at Hong Kong Disneyland on Lantau Island, Hong Kong...
.
Disney takes over
When
Michael EisnerMichael Dammann Eisner is the former chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company. His tenure at Disney lasted from 1984 to 2005.-Early life:...
became Chairman & CEO of Walt Disney Productions in 1984, he desperately wanted to get out of Disney's agreement with the Wrather Corporation and bring the Disneyland Hotel under the Walt Disney Company's umbrella. However, Wrather refused to sell, just as he had refused to sell to Walt Disney many years before. Wrather died in 1984, two months after Eisner took over at Disney, and five years later, in 1989, Disney bought the entire Wrather company. As a result, Disney owned other Wrather assets including the
RMS Queen MaryRMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line...
,
The Lone RangerThe Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker.The eponymous character is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, originally played by Paul Halliwell, who gallops about righting injustices with the aid of his...
and the TV series
LassieLassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female rough collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. One of the longest running dramatic series on television, Lassie was broadcast by a television network from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973...
. Though Disney kept the hotel, it has since sold the other assets that came with the purchase.
Resort expansion 1999–2001
In 1999, a significant portion of the hotel was demolished to make way for Downtown Disney and parking areas for the newly expanding Disneyland Resort. Most buildings east of the Sierra Tower and north of the Marina Tower were demolished, including the original hotel buildings from 1955. The only buildings remaining in these areas are the convention center and parking garage. Recreational facilities were built in the quad between the three towers, previously site of the Water Wonderland, to replace those that were previously located east of the Sierra Tower. Streets previously used to access the hotel by car were regraded and/or outright eliminated, and a new street was built to access the hotel. Tram service from the hotel was also discontinued, leaving the Monorail as the only vehicular mode of transportation from park to hotel.
The loss of hotel rooms was offset with the opening of
Disney's Grand Californian HotelDisney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is a hotel located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Added as part of a major expansion of the Disneyland Resort in 2001, it is the resort's flagship and holds the distinction of being the only hotel there to have been originally built and...
in 2001, but many of the restaurants and amenities that existed prior to 1999 were never replaced.
The hotel today
Today none of the original hotel buildings from 1955 remain standing. Very little of the hotel other than parking areas and service facilities sit outside of the perimeter created by the three remaining guest room towers. Original signs and other artifacts from several of the stores and restaurants demolished with the Plaza are on display in the hotel's employee cafeteria.
ESPN ZoneESPN Zone is a small chain of very large sports-themed restaurants that include arcades, TV studios, and radio studios. The first ESPN Zone opened in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 11, 1998 in the Power Plant on the Inner Harbor...
,
Rainforest CaféRainforest Cafe is a themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's Restaurants, Inc. of Houston, Texas. It was founded by entrepreneur Steven Schussler...
, and
AMC TheatresAMC Theatres , officially known as AMC Entertainment Inc., as of July 1, 2009 it is the second largest movie theater chain in North America with 4,612 screens and one of only four national cinema chains of the 12 largest on the continent that did not go bankrupt during the 2001-2002...
—all
Downtown DisneyDowntown Disney District is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment area, themed after a garden walk, located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California...
venues—now occupy much of the former hotel space east of the Sierra Tower.
Mickey MouseMickey Mouse is a comic animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney. The Walt Disney Company celebrates his birth as November 18, 1928 upon the release of Steamboat Willie...
theming is employed in many interior furnishings and details. In 2007 the Marina, Sierra, and Bonita Towers were renamed Magic, Dreams, and Wonder, respectively. Other buildings in the sprawling hotel complex house restaurants, stores, offices, recreational facilities and convention and banquet facilities. The complex also features gazebo and garden areas that are used for
Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings & HoneymoonsDisney's Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons is program offering wedding and honeymoon services to couples at the Disneyland Resort in California and the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida...
.
A new
Downtown DisneyDowntown Disney District is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment area, themed after a garden walk, located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California...
Monorail StationThe Disneyland Monorail System is an attraction and transportation system at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, USA. It was the first daily operating monorail in the western hemisphere, and the first in the United States.-History:...
was built on the same site as the old Disneyland Hotel station, and still takes guests to Tomorrowland inside Disneyland Park along the same beamway that existed prior to the 1999–2001 expansion. An exclusive entrance to
Disney's California AdventureDisney's California Adventure Park is a theme park in Anaheim, California, adjacent to Disneyland Park and part of the larger Disneyland Resort. It opened on February 8, 2001...
for guests staying at
Disneyland ResortThe Disneyland Resort is a recreational resort complex, that opened in 1955, in Anaheim, California. The resort is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Resorts division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping, dining, and entertainment area.Known...
hotels is a short walk away. The property is estimated to start another renovation in the near future.
External links