Fastpass to the Past: The Jr. Historian's Guide to Disneyland

By Austin M Carroll and Erin Coen

Explore the fascinating history behind Disneyland - a theme park history book for kids 9 to 12

Inspire an interest in history with this fun and immersive journey across 20th century US history through the lens of the happiest place on earth. From awful ideas left on the drawing board to actual fly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gold Rush Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781088006054

Austin M Carroll

AUSTIN CARROLL, MBA, is a writer from Vero Beach, Florida. She grew up visiting Walt Disney World with her younger sister. At 21 years old, she became a Disneyland Cast Member and quickly worked her way up from the teacups to Guest Relations. Today, she shares the history of theme parks worldwide on her podcast, FastPass to the Past: The Theme Park History Podcast. She has been named a 'Theme Park Expert' by USA Today. Austin is fascinated by the intersection of popular culture and business and holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. She received her bachelor's degree from Chapman University (less than 4 miles from Disneyland!), where her studies focused on California and film history. She now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband and two feisty cats. Fastpass to the Past is Austin's first children's book.

Book preview

1

The Man Before the Mouse

Conductor hat

To tell the truth, more things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened since… or are likely to in the future.

Walt Disney

Long before Disneyland existed, a young boy sat under a cottonwood tree, imagining a world where his drawings could come to life.

Adventures in Marceline

Walt Disney’s childhood was full of adventures. He played Cowboys & Indians, explored underwater caves, and found a hidden pirate treasure – just like you can do nowadays at Disneyland!

Unfortunately, most of these adventures were only in Walt's imagination. There simply wasn’t much time after he finished his chores. Though he was originally from Chicago, Walt grew up on a farm in Marceline, Missouri.

In what free time he had, Walt drew characters of all shapes and sizes, including animals he befriended on the farm. Walt told everyone that he was an artist.

Once, Walt even found a tub of black tar and drew his characters right on the white walls of the family's farmhouse. His parents were outraged when they discovered the drawings. To their horror, the tar would not come off!

Magnifying Glass: Want to see a baby Walt Disney? Just inside the Disneyland Baby Care Center at the end of Main Street U.S.A, you will find an adorable portrait of Walt Disney as an infant. The portrait dates way back to 1902.

Walt was a bit of a troublemaker. He loved to entertain his classmates and would go out of his way to make people laugh. He once brought a field mouse he had caught into the classroom on a leash. The teacher screamed and quickly made him release it outside.

Although Walt didn’t care about breaking the rules, his father, Elias Disney, loved rules. Elias was a no-nonsense businessman, and he made no secret that he disapproved of Walt spending all his time drawing. To distract him, Elias piled young Walt with farm chores.

In 1909, when Walt was only eight years old, Walt's father unexpectedly fell ill. Walt’s mother, Flora Disney, and his older brother Roy did their best to try and save the farm. Yet, it was too much for Flora and sixteen-year old Roy to run the farm and raise Walt and his younger sister Ruth. After months of hard work, Walt’s parents made the difficult decision to sell their beloved farm.

Walt cried as he watched his animal friends being led off to their new homes. Walt's time swimming in streams, exploring the frontier, and walking down Marceline's picture-perfect main street was over. Before he knew it, the family was on the train to a new life in Kansas City. That, at least, brought some comfort. After all, Walt loved trains.

The memory of his adventures in Marceline inspired Walt Disney throughout his life. You can still experience some of his favorite childhood moments at Disneyland on Main Street U.S.A., wandering Tom Sawyer's Island, or rowing a canoe around The Rivers of America.

Light in Kansas City

Although Marceline may have been some of Walt's happiest years, it was in Kansas City that Walt found the inspiration for Disneyland. Walt visited his first amusement park at nine years old. It was Kansas City's Electric Park, just a short streetcar ride from Walt's new home. Most amusement parks of the early 1900s were dirty and rundown, but not Electric Park. It was, literally, a beaming light for all of Kansas City. (You could see it from miles away!)

Fastpass Facts:

A theme park is an amusement park with areas where the rides, shops and food all reflect different themes. You can see this throughout Disneyland. Just think how strange it would look if a rocket toy was sold in Adventureland!

In a amusement park, there are no themes. Rides, souvenirs, and snacks are random. It would not be strange to see a toy rocket being sold next to a cowboy lasso.

When Walt was growing up, there were plenty of amusement parks. However, there were few theme parks. The earliest American theme parks popped up in the 1940s.

The people of Kansas City were proud of their park. They flocked to the wide flower-lined avenues on summer nights to dance to live bands, play carnival games, and marvel as the park came to life with a flood of 100,000 electric lights. Those who saw it say Electric Park changed night into day.

Walt was captivated by Electric Park and returned every chance he could. With the help of his best friend, he often crawled over the fence to avoid paying the entrance fee. These trips were bright spots at a time when Walt didn’t have a lot to look forward to.

Walt's life in Kansas City was hard. His father had thankfully recovered from his illness. Still, Elias Disney was always looking for his next business opportunity. He soon bought a newspaper route for Walt and Roy. Every morning, Walt and his brother woke up before the crack of dawn and delivered newspapers before school – even if it was snowing!

Electric Park was Walt’s chance to getaway. He loved wandering through the souvenir shops, riding the carousel, and viewing the summer fireworks.

Walt and his younger sister Ruth often crowded around the park’s gigantic fountain at closing. There they would gaze up at beautiful performers as they danced among colorful sprays of water—a show not unlike modern Disneyland favorites like Fantasmic! and The Wonderful World of Color.

Yet what Walt enjoyed most of all was the steam train that circled the park. When he rode it, Walt imagined he was a famous artist, riding to far-off places.

All Aboard!

Walt took every chance he could to seek adventures. At fifteen years old, he was ready to leave Kansas City. Inspired by his Uncle Mike's stories as a locomotive engineer, Walt got a summer job selling newspapers, candy, and fruit on the Santa Fe Railway.

The next year, Walt convinced his mother to let him volunteer for the Red Cross as an ambulance driver. Despite being only 16, he wanted to be part of the action, like his older brother Roy. He looked so swell in that sailor uniform, remembered Walt, so I wanted to join him.

Walt lied about his age to serve his country, changing his birth date from 1901 to 1900 on his passport application. However, by the time he arrived in France, World War I was over. Walt had missed his chance.

Instead of helping hurt soldiers, Walt spent his time running errands for Army officers. Since there wasn’t much to do, he filled the canvas flaps of his ambulance truck with dozens of characters, just like he had done with black tar on the family farmhouse. Unlike his father, his friends and army comrades loved his drawings.

Walt The Artist

Walt returned home to Kansas City, just eighteen, with a newfound determination to be an artist. Yet success did not come easy to young Walt.

After returning from France, Walt started a business with his friend Ub Iwerks. The young men had planned to draw newspaper ads and signage, but they lacked one thing –customers!

The struggling artists took jobs at the Kansas City Slide Company for $40 a week to make ends meet. That position changed Walt Disney’s life forever. There, he was introduced to a brand new way of filmmaking called animation.

Walt was mesmerized by the moving pictures. After checking out a book on animation from the Kansas City Library, he came up with a few tricks to make cartoons better. Unfortunately, his managers at Kansas City Slide Company weren’t interested in his suggestions. They were perfectly happy using paper puppets (like modern stop-motion animation) to create their short advertisements for movie theaters. Walt knew he could make animations more lifelike by drawing each individual frame, and he couldn’t wait to try it!

Walt and Ub crowded into the shed behind his uncle’s house to experiment with animation every day after work. They even managed to sell a few short cartoons to local movie theaters under the name Laugh-O-Gram Films.

However, young Walt wasn’t good with money. Soon, the tiny studio went bankrupt. Walt even had to sell his movie camera!

Walt desperately needed a partner who had a good head for business and could handle the money while he and Ub drew the cartoons. He also knew that if he ever wanted to reach people around the globe, he needed to be at the center of the entertainment industry… and that wasn't Kansas City. Luckily, Walt's older brother Roy was already living out in California.

So, in August of 1923, Walt carefully packed his cardboard suitcase with some clothes and drawing supplies. With his last few dollars, Walt purchased a one-way ticket on the Santa Fe steam train towards Hollywood, California, and his destiny. Five years later, Walt would release his first big animated hit, Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse. The rest is history.

Magnifying Glass: Next door in Disney California Adventure park, Walt’s early life is showcased in the Storytellers statue near Cathay Circle. In Walt’s pocket, you’ll see a newspaper from 1923, when Walt arrived in Hollywood. The statue is filled with more easter eggs, including references to Kansas City, Marceline, Laugh-O-Gram Films, and the Santa Fe Railroad. Can you spot them all? Hint: One is on his soul.

Despite leaving Kansas City behind, Walt never forgot Electric Park, or the memories of exploring it in his childhood. Unfortunately, the amusement park closed in 1925 after a fire destroyed much of the flower-lined avenues.

For the rest of his life, Walt remembered that thing – that imagination and the feeling of happy excitement that he knew as a kid when he visited Electric Park. Those happy memories inspired his idea for an amusement park where his cartoons could come to life. He thought it could be called… "Mickey Mouse Park."

1901 – Walter Elias Disney is born to Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney in Chicago, Illinois.

1910 – The Disney's sell their farm in Marceline and move to Kansas City, Missouri, where Walt visits Electric Park for the first time.

1918 – Walt enlists as an Ambulance Driver in World War I and ships off to France.

1919 – Walt returns to Kansas City and starts working full-time as an artist.

1922 – Walt begins his first animation studio with Ub Iwerks called Laugh-O-Gram Films.

1923 – Walt's film company runs out of money, and he moves to Hollywood, California.

2

A Magical Idea

Tickets to Chicago and amsterdam

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Walt Disney

That’s right, Walt's first idea for a theme park was not Disneyland at all. It was "Mickey Mouse Park." The idea hatched, as most of Walt's creative ideas did, on a train.

An Idea Hatched On A Train

In 1945, a Disney animator named Ward Kimball invited his boss, Walt, to a party at his house. In the years since the release of Steamboat Willie in 1928, Walt had become a widely successful animator fresh off films like Bambi and Dumbo.

There, to Walt's utter surprise, he found Ward had built a real-life railway in his backyard. As Walt gazed in wonder at the shiny steam locomotive, he forgot all about the party.

Ward spent the rest of the night teaching Walt to steer the train. To Walt, it seemed like no time had passed since those nights at Electric Park when he rode the tracks wishing they would take him to faraway places. After 22 years of working hard at his Hollywood animation studio, Walt's love of trains came flooding back, and he was determined to build one of his own.

Walt started small. He purchased a train set and set it up in a room next to his office in Burbank, California. Those who visited Walt Disney Studios were treated to a spectacular display – a 44-year old greying Walt Disney running the train around the room, laughing with glee.

It was a much-needed escape from the stress of running an animation studio. After the breakout success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, not as many people bought tickets to Disney's 1940’s films. The studio was losing money again, and Walt was constantly reminded of how he failed as a filmmaker in Kansas City.

The studio’s nurse suggested a trip to the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair to help Walt relax. Walt thought that was just a fantastic idea! He convinced Ward Kimball to come with him, and the two men headed to Chicago.

Magnifying Glass: In 2006, Ward Kimball would receive his own train in the Disneyland Railroad fleet. Next time the Disneyland Railroad passes, look for a number on the locomotive (the front of the train) to identify the steam engine. Can you find Ward’s Engine No. 5?

The event allowed 100,000 guests to board trains that ran through themed villages, including an Indian village, New Orleans's French Quarter, and a frontier town. (All three lands would eventually grace the Disneyland map.)

After hearing about the two men's love of trains, the Event Chair invited them to steer the trains around the tracks. Walt later told his wife, That was the most fun I ever had in my life.

Mickey Mouse Park

After visiting the fair, the two men stopped in Dearborn, Michigan. Though it may seem like an odd choice for a pit stop, Walt and Ward wanted to visit Greenfield Village, created by fellow businessman Henry Ford.

Like Walt, Henry Ford was an inventor, and Greenfield was his passion project. Ford wanted visitors to experience the ordinary places where extraordinary things, like the lightbulb and the Ford automobile, were created. Ford’s village also included a steam train, riverboat, and merry-go-round. To Walt’s delight, and unlike many amusement parks of the time, Greenfield Village was full of friendly people, and it was spectacularly clean.

This wasn’t Walt’s first visit to Greenfield Village. He had visited eight years earlier with his oldest daughter,