Olympic Pool Postcard

Letter to Roy O. Disney

Letter to Roy Disney expressing the Wrather's grief over the passing of Walt Disney. Jack Wrather's favorite investment by far was the Disneyland Hotel.

Internal Guest Rooms at the Disneyland Hotel

Two new shots from inside guest rooms; one inside the Tower Building and one from an original Garden Room. Interior shots are much more difficult to locate as opposed to external or outside shots.

Garden Room Late 60's - Inside a typical Garden room from the original section at the Disneyland Hotel.

Tower Room Late 60's - Inside a typical Tower room at the Disneyland Hotel

Various Shots From Around the Front of the Disneyland Hotel

Here are some shots of the original front of the Disneyland Hotel located at 1441 West Street. All shots are from 1958.

These shops were leased to the tenants and featured a variety of items from clothing to souvenirs to sundries to flowers to candy to artwork to trinkets.

1441 West Street - Gourmet Restaurant with Coffee Shop in the background circa 1958

Landscaping - The landscaping at the Disneyland Hotel won a national award in 1957. Raymobd Page was the landscape architect.

Coffee Shop - This facility would become the Monorail Cafe in 1986

Miscellaneous Pictures

Monorail Bar - Relax with a nice liquid refreshment while watching the Monorail approach. The decor inside this bar featured transportation modes around the world and had panoramic windows which showed the approaching Monorail trains.

Balcony Dining - You could relax and enjoy the view from your balcony while dining on room service breakfast.

1956

A couple of 1956 photographs added today. These were just prior to the Hotel's "official" grand opening which took place in August of 1956. Construction was at a frantic pace to meet deadlines. I love the aerial shots and I always try to find something interesting or that I did not know in them. A new building, a new feature or any new tidbit of information. For instance, what's that new building not on Disneyland Hotel property in the middle foreground of the aerial photo? Looks like it has two outhouses in the back of it. Wonder if this is the construction portable or office used to build a new hotel next to the Disneyland Hotel? There is also a large sign next to it which unfortunately, can't be read from this angle.


Final work on the administration building. Looks like a brand new Chevrolet pick-up in this picture.

July 1956 Aerial - The Hotel's official grand opening would be a little over a month away.

1972 Convention Center Flyer

November, 1972

The Hotel opened its state-of-the art convention center in 1972

1958 Disneyland/Disneyland Hotel Film

I had another reel of film converted to DVD and have posted some of the still images from it. I saved over 100 shots so I will be posting more. This was 1958 and depending on the time of the year (crowds were sparce at Disneyland in other shots) the Hotel had either a little over 300 rooms or a little over 330 rooms. A fourth Garden Structure was added in 1958 increasing the room total to 334.

http://www.magicalhotel.com

Guest leaving room

Administration Building 1958

Tram at the Disneyland Hotel 1958

Hotel Tram 1958

Restaurant Ads 1970

The below ads came from a 1970 Disneyland Hotel Check-In magazine dated September-October 1970. The new Marina Tower had been open less than a year.

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Monorail Bar ad 1970

1970 ad for the Top of the Park lounge

Coffee House Ad 1970 - The Coffee House would later become the Monorail Cafe.

The Cove

An excerpt from our book The Disneyland Hotel: The Early Years 1954-1988 http://www.magicalhotel.com

The Cove (later called Papeete Beach) was a swimming pool that appeared to be a tropical lagoon with a beach of white sand (imported crystal silica), lined with palm trees. This 3,800 square foot pool was built on two levels. A rock formation in the center was both a waterfall and a slide from the upper to the lower level. Anthony, the world's largest pool builder constructed the pool. Next to the Cove was a tropical tidal pool. The Tidal Pool was a wading and splashing area for the younger set. The area had timing machines that created tides on cue. To achieve realistic rock formations for the pool, noted sculptor Greg La Chapelle spent months searching the California coastline from Laguna Beach to Santa Barbara to find interesting and unusual rock formations, many encrusted with ancient sea creatures. He would apply a plaster cast to an interesting formation and later reproduce the cast in concrete at the Hotel.

The Cove Early 70's - A view from the southwest corner of the Disneyland Hotel property.

Water World at the Disneyland Hotel