Late in the tenure of the Wrather ownership

After Jack Wrather passed away in late 1984, the Wrather family restructured and attempted to keep the company afloat. It was also at this time that Michael Eisner took over as CEO at Disney and made it a priority to bring the Disneyland Hotel into Disney ownership. Chris Wrather took over as CEO and Bonita Wrather became Chairman of the Board at Wrather Corporation. Disney began to pressure the Wrather's to sell which they eventually did in 1989. This brochure is one of the last while the Hotel was still a Wrather property. It was used in 1987 and 1988.

1987 Brochure - Cover of the brochure from the Disneyland Hotel in 1987

This was at the start of the negotiations between Disney and Wrather

Plenty of activities

Some amenities at the Hotel near the end of the Wrather tenure

Magnolia Embassy Rooms 1969

At the request of a blog reader, I have included a close-up from the 1969 convention brochure of the Magnolia and Embassy rooms location on the Hotel grounds.

Room Updates Mid 1965

The Disneyland Hotel Check-In Magazine (1965-1974) was the free publication given to registering Hotel guests at check-in time. These magazines are an invaluable source of information from the Hotel's rich history. You can always find interesting tidbits of information contained within them about some detail going on at the Disneyland Hotel. This particular issue details a complete room refurbishment to the original Garden Rooms where over $400,000 will be spent. I was fortunate to have access to Disney's collection of Check-In magazines at the studio archives. They have almost every issue published and I believe I have the second most complete collection. Many articles were used as human nature stories in our book Disneyland Hotel: The Early Years 1954-1988 http://www.magicalhotel.com. I will do a feature on these Check-In magazines shortly.

Disneyland Hotel Check-In Magazine April-May 1965

Room Refurbishment 1965 - Details of the updates to the Garden Rooms

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Close Up of Text - Had a request to post a close-up of the text section from the latest posting. Here you go!

Jack Wrather Pondering

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jack Wrather. I wonder what he was thinking? I found this photo at the Wrather archives.

1955 Overhead

The Disneyland Hotel is visible in the distance at the top middle of this photo. Guests staying at the Hotel at this time had absolutely no amenities whatsoever. I'm not sure of the date of this photo in 1955 and the Hotel may not have yet opened.

Disneyland Hotel Historical Tour

Who is interested in a free, Disneyland Hotel historical tour? The tour is open to all and will take place on Friday, August 29th at 6:00. Meet under the Sorcerer's Hat at the Disneyland Hotel. I will be bringing some goodies from my own personal Disneyland Hotel collection and some photos to help illustrate the tour. I am hoping for a good turnout. Again, open to anyone who can attend and absolutely no charge. Please let me know if you are interested so we can plan accordingly. This should be fun!

Disneyland Hotel Mysteries

I still have not been able to find answers for several dates on additions to the Disneyland Hotel. Here are the questions I would love to resolve:

1. When did the Disneyland Hotel sign on West Street get added? I have very early shots Oct. Nov. 1955 and no sign is present.

2. What date did the fourth North Garden structure open for business and further, when did they start building it? I have shots with and without the structure. I know it opened by July 4th, 1959.

3. What date did the fifth and sixth North Garden Structures open? When did construction start on these? I have conflicting information and photographs between 1960 and 1961.

4. When was the Little Gourmet Restaurant removed from the premises? I have an aerial photograph from March 24th, 1959 and the ground where the facility was is freshly dug up. I also have a 1958 shot showing the building in place. Also, I have not been able to locate a picture of the Littel Gourmet Restaurant either exterior or interior. I am sure someone has one somewhere.

5. Some time in 1980-81, a North Garden structure was removed to make way for the Rose Garden and Gazebo. What was the closing date of this structure? I know by autumn 1981, the building was removed.

I'll add more mysteries shortly.

Please check out http://www.magicalhotel.com

Thank Goodness for Ebay!

Thanks to Ebay, I was able to acquire some old Southern California brochures this past week. Some times, you can find golden nuggets of information contained within these brochures. This happened to be the case with these. I was finally able to get an exact count of rooms in the 1959 configuration of the Disneyland Hotel....234. I had never seen reference to this number in any other paper item in my collection, at the Disney Archives or at the Wrather Archives. The material all state "now over 200 guest rooms and suites." Another mystery solved but another still unsolved. I would like to get the exact date this fourth structure started construction and was opened. I know that it was open on July 4th 1959 and I would have to assume that this was planned to coincide with the busy summer season. I tried finding building permits with no luck and I tried looking up the contractor, again, no luck. The next iteration would have two final North Garden Structures in 1960 making for a total of six structures, the largest pre-tower configuration. More mysteries, I don't have exact dates for these openings either. One more mystery....some time between 1980 and 1981, one of these North garden Structures was removed to make way for the Rose Garden & Gazebo on the grounds. I do not have the exact dates. I do know that it was removed by autumn 1981.

Please look at my website when you can http://www.magicalhotel.com and tell your friends about this blog and my website. The more posts I get and people viewing my site makes me want to add more content to this blog.

Late 60's montage of the Disneyland Hotel

Dancing Waters, Crown and Pillow Pub, Monorail Bar, overhead from the Sierra Tower, glass elevator...from 1969 convention brochure

Late 60's Coffee House

This was taken inside the Coffe House which in 1986 became the Monorail Cafe