Disneyland Launch

When I'm looking for something pithy, I rely on President Emeritus Sito.

The" Disneyland" television show premiered [on this date]. Up until now the major Hollywood Studios were all boycotting the new upstart medium of television, then mostly done in New York by blacklisted stage actors and writers. Dori Schary of MGM called TV “ the Enemy”.

Walt Disney was the first to break ranks with the major film studios and get into television production. He even filmed the show in Technicolor, figuring television will develop color broadcasting eventually. His using his TV show to promote his theme park and his movies we now call synergy. ...

The show was part of Walt's overall deal with the ABC network. ABC underwrote part of the Disneyland park, and Walt Disney supplied the (relatively new) broadcast network with programming. The hour anthology show launched in 1954, and the daily "Mickey Mouse Club" followed soon after.

Disney's latest gamble helped elevate the struggling animation studio to the next level. Seven decades on, Jeffrey Katzenberg follows in Walt's footsteps, even as Diz Co. CEO turns the former "Walt Disney Productions" into a diversified, multi-national conglomerate.