From: 50 Years of Disney Theme Parks

May 10, 200521 yr

Fifty years ago, Sleeping Beauty's Castle came to life. Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., became the world's first theme park -- 160 acres of carnival rides, midway games and live performances based on Disney entertainment.

Having already created one of Hollywood's most successful studios, Walt Disney took a huge gamble. Most amusement parks were small roadside attractions or adjuncts to state fairs. Disney pioneered the idea of a theme park as a travel destination.

Built at a cost of $17 million, Disneyland attracted 28,000 visitors on opening day. Six months later, it counted 1 million visitors. A stream of new attractions, like the Matterhorn in 1959, helped the park attract 250 million people in three decades.

Last year, about 169 million people in America (and 252 million worldwide) strapped themselves into thrill rides, like Space Mountain. Disney accounts for eight of the world's Top 10 most-visited theme parks, according to Amusement Business magazine.

Disney parks around the world are marking this 50th anniversary with "The Happiest Celebration on Earth." Old favorites like "it's a small world" -- which premiered at New York's World's Fair in 1964 -- have gotten a makeover.

One of the new attractions, Lucky the Dinosaur, is a 450-pound animatronics reptile that walks freely and interacts with visitors at Disney's Animal Kingdom in DinoLand U.S.A.

Disney World has called for a royal gathering of princesses. Snow White and Cinderella join Belle ("Beauty and the Beast"), Aurora ("Sleeping Beauty") and Jasmine ("Aladdin") for the "Cinderellabration," a live musical imported from Tokyo Disney.

Disney is not all fairy tales. For high-octane thrills, Disney-MGM Studios unveils "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show," an extravaganza of cars, motorcycles and watercraft careening through a Mediterranean-style village.

Move over, Matterhorn. Disney has built 17 mountains and soon it'll unveil its biggest yet. At 20 stories high, Animal Kingdom's Expedition Everest is a roller coaster ride through bamboo forests and shimmering glacier fields to snow-capped peaks.

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