ANAHEIM – For $3,500 a night, you can stay in a 1,700-square-foot Adventureland-themed penthouse suite in the Disneyland Hotel, with the sound of tiki gods beating drums for the doorbell and a porcelain bathtub in the middle of a mahogany-colored master bedroom.
For $280 to $450 a night, with the flip of a switch, you can listen to “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” as you fall asleep in the hotel’s standard rooms.
The 973-room Disneyland Hotel is nothing like it was 60 years ago when it opened as a $10 million, 100-room hotel on 30 acres next to a theme park built from orange and walnut groves.
Back then, rooms were $9 a night, and a premium suite, with a color TV and air conditioning, was $22.
Disneyland celebrated its 60th anniversary in July to great hoopla. But few are aware that just a few months after the theme park opened, on Oct. 5, so too did the Disneyland Hotel.
Since its debut, the hotel has played a key role in helping build up Disneyland, and Walt Disney’s dream of creating a destination for families.
“The Disneyland Hotel has been the Ed McMahon to Johnny Carson, Tonto to the Lone Ranger,” said Don Ballard, author of two books about the Disneyland Hotel. “It’s the precursor to the main event.”
“Every time Disneyland grew, the hotel grew,” said Ballard, who provided photos for three new displays celebrating the complex’s history that are on the grounds.
Walt Disney did not build the hotel. After spending $17 million developing Disneyland, he didn’t have money left over for it, said Jon Storbeck, vice president of Hotels and the Downtown Disney District.
“He was looking for someone, a partner, who could help fulfill that dream,” Storbeck said.
Disney turned to Jack Wrather, a businessman and a movie and television producer known for TV’s “The Lone Ranger” and “Lassie.” Wrather owned the hotel until his death in 1984. The family sold it in 1988 to Disney for $150 million, Ballard said.
Over the six decades, the hotel has evolved – just like Disneyland.
It was one of the first hotels anywhere that catered to families with every room good for a family of four. Guests played on a 18-hole, par 3 golf course, hit balls on a driving range and played miniature golf.
Other amenities included an Olympic-size swimming pool and a marina where people went on paddle boats.
In the 1980s, there was a water and laser show, “Dancing Waters and Lights Fantastic Show” that many believe was the inspiration of today’s “World of Color” at the Disney California Adventure.
Today, the hotel stands three towers tall and has melded into the massive Disneyland Resort complex. People hang out at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar for drinks, slide down water slides into swimming pools, and shop at Downtown Disney.
Despite all of the changes, one thing has remained – wholesome family entertainment, Storbeck said.
“There’s a multi-generational attachment,” Storbeck said. “That’s why guests keep coming back. … It becomes a part of you.”