We are deeply saddened by the passing of our dear friend, Disney Legend, and Walt Disney Imagineering Ambassador Marty Sklar.
“For though your body will shrink, your mind will expand,” extolled the voiceover narration of Walt Disney’s Adventure Thru Inner Space, a unique Disneyland attraction that first opened fifty years ago in 1967.
As Walt would put it, “Tomorrow is a heck of thing to keep up with,” and from the beginning, Tomorrowland proved the most challenging area of the park to design and build.
It was 1959 and there was little doubt about it – Disneyland’s Grim, Grinning Ghosts would one day come out to socialize. The question was: when?
On March 18, 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean opened to the public at Disneyland. The atmosphere, music, and rich Disney history of the attraction has helped it remain one of the most loved and cherished pieces of Imagineering innovation, even 50 years on.
The 1964/65 New York World Fair debuted four original attractions from WED Enterprises, one of them being Ford's Magic Skyway.
Submarine Voyage opened on June 14, 1959 as part of a major expansion of the park that also included the addition of the Monorail and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Walt looked on proudly as the new fleet was christened with a champagne bottle by Mildred Nelson, wife of the U.S.S. Nautilus’ chief machinist.
Walt Disney assigned Harper Goff to a project known by some as “Disneylandia,” and Goff drew up the little “Mickey Mouse Park” concept art, which inspired the nickname “the Second Imagineer.”
Diane Disney met Ron Miller on a blind date while they were students at the University of Southern California. On May 9, 1954, they married, and spent nearly 60 years together, raising seven children.
Frank was employed by The Walt Disney Studios on September 24, 1934—he was employee #224. Animating complex characters and sequences throughout his illustrious career, he had an essential role in nearly every animated feature produced during Walt’s lifetime.