Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow (review)

Admire him or despise him, Walt Disney undoubtedly has had more influence on twentieth-century children's literature and culture than any other American. The power of the Disney Corporation on children's and adults' access to and understanding of children's literature continues unabated in the twenty-first century on an increasingly global scale. Teachers and scholars in the fields of children's and young adult literature and children's popular culture need to address the role Disney has in the reimagination of classics of children's literature.

Richard Snow's Disney's Land is an entertaining and richly detailed study of the development and construction of Disneyland, the theme park Walt Disney imagined and created based on his popular children's films. Disney located his theme park in Anaheim, California, on 160 acres where orange trees formerly grew. Despite multiple problems that worked against its success, Disneyland has become known world-wide as "the happiest place on earth" and has transformed amusement parks into theme parks. Disneyland has become an iconic part of American culture, along with the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, and Times Square.

Snow clearly falls in the pro-Disney ranks. He comes to this history of the planning and construction of Disneyland having previously written Coney Island: A Postcard Journey to the City of Fire (1989). The two books are a study in contrasts in that Disneyland is the antithesis of Coney Island, and is everything Disney wanted to avoid in his theme park. Disney visited a number of amusement parks in the early 1950s prior to the construction of Disneyland, including Coney Island. But after his research, Disney was almost willing to give up on designing a theme park. He found Coney Island, "so run-down and ugly. The people who run it are so unpleasant. The whole thing is almost enough to destroy your faith in human nature" (45). Both his brother, Roy, who was the chief financial officer of the Disney Studio, and his wife, Lillian, were against Disney getting into such a business with Lillian warning that amusement parks were "all dirty, and not fun at all for grown-ups." (53). Disney would name his beloved steam engine locomotive the Lilly Belle after his wife to help win her over to the park project. Disney insisted, "Mine isn't going to be that way. Mine's going to be a place that's clean, where the whole family can do things together!" (53). Cleanliness along with beautiful and carefully maintained landscaping have become the hallmarks of Disneyland and all subsequent Disney parks. Disney, who was fond of hot dogs, would often eat one for lunch or dinner as he was inspecting "the Site," as Disneyland came to be known by those building it. Wherever he finished his hotdog, he would mark as a location for a garbage can.

While Snow doesn't provide any startling new information about the planning and construction of Disneyland, he gathers together a great deal of fascinating information in one volume that is artfully told. Most of the details of the process of transforming Disney's concept into a reality have been available in other books and articles. Through social media, hardcore Disneyland fans get daily updates of any changes, large or small, that occur within the park, be it wait times for individual rides, modifications in food and drink options offered in the park, or weather reports that could affect the park's parades or fireworks. The Imagineering Story (2019), the six-part documentary by Leslie Iwerks, the granddaughter of Ub Iwerks, the cocreator of Mickey Mouse, covers much of the same material and provides interviews with many of the same key sources that Snow has consulted.

Like any great myth, Disneyland has multiple origin stories. The best known has Disney first considering his park as he observed his young daughters riding the carousel in Los Angeles...