Yesterland

In my opinion, this is the best Disney/Disneyland site on the web: http://www.yesterland.com/

I have spent countless hours scouring the pages of Yesterland. So many great pictures and stories.

The Expanding Disneyland Hotel

My posts are in no way in chronological order. In reality, my latest postings should have preceded the 1961 segment. Maybe if I have time, I will rearrange them in correct order. I get ideas for a posting and I just create them. I have also found, it's not easy to do this on a daily basis so please understand if some days go by between posts.

I only ask two things from the readers:

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Back on Track (no pun intended)

Getting back to the 1961 Disneyland Hotel additions. The Monorail was a key addition to the Disneyland Hotel. No matter what kind of hotel or motel that would be added to the surrounding area of Disneyland, none could state they were directly connecetd to Magic Kingdom via Monorail. This feature alone was worth the extra the Disneyland Hotel cost per room than the other hotels in the area. It also allowed riders to avoid the crowds at the Disneyland front gate, whisking its passengers directly into Tomorrowland. Just hearing the deep, loud sounding horn from the Monorail was enough to know I was near heaven. We liked to stay in the two-story Garden Villas near the Monorail Station. It was a short walk to our room after a long day of walking at the Park. Another benefit was, a mid-day trip back to the Hotel for an afternoon swim in the Olympic size pool or a stop at the Monorail Cafe for the best milkshakes in town.

Deviation from 1961

Pardon me for deviating from the continuation of the 1961 additions to the Disneyland Hotel. Since yesterday was the 53rd anniversary of the groundbreaking at the Hotel, I just had to post some information on that.

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1961

1961 was a dynamic year for the Disneyland Hotel. In the next few postings, I will discuss more in-depth the additions to the Hotel during this year and how they helped to create a model for the resort industry in the way of amenities for future resort locations, including Walt Disney World.

Disneyland Hotel Brochures

Many of my favorite items in my Disneyland Hotel collection are the various brochures handed out over the years. These brochures offered snap-shots and are living time capsules into the details of the facility. I will be posting several of these in the days to come. I am also going to try to show some inside brochure pictures which will detail the growth of the Disneyland Hotel as new amenities, features and services were introduced. As Disneyland grew, so too did the Disneyland Hotel. Hope you enjoy them.

Conventions

I have convention brochures from all eras of the Disneyland Hotel. I also have some great photos from the Molly Wrather Dolle portfolio which I will also be posting. Ironically, it was the need for continual updates to convention facilities which led to the demise of the Wrather Corporation. To grow and attract more business, it was necessary to expand. Especially considering that new hotels were springing up all over the Disneyland area and the Anaheim Convention Center was added in 1967. It was the 1972 facilities (currently in place at the Hotel) which basically bankrupted the Disneyland Hotel. They never could quite recover from the loans needed to build the grand convention facilities you can see today at the Hotel. I wish I could have included these shots in the book http://www.magicalhotel.com but I didn't have access to them until after the book was released.

New photos

I am uploading several photographs received from Molly Wrather Dolle, the eldest daughter of Jack Wrather. Molly and Jack Jr (deceased) were the children of Jack and his first wife Molly O'Daniel who herself was the daughter of former Texas Governor, W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. Jack Wrather was of course, the original owner of the Disneyland Hotel along with Helen Alvarez and Jack's mother Mazie. Hope you like these pictures. Jack would later (1947) marry actress Bonita Granville which would produce two more children Linda and Christopher. Chris wrote the introduction to my book on the history of the Disneyland Hotel. http://www.magicalhotel.com.

Suggestions

Please tell me what you would like to see. I have over 7000 images from the Disneyland Hotel's past. Overhead shots? Mini golf course? Monorail? Monorail Cafe? Shops? Restaurants? Ephemera? I want to make the site fun for all.