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By Tangi Quemener
Los Angeles (AFP) – Disneyland celebrates its 50 th birthday this weekend, two generations after its fairytale castle and fantasy characters first cast their spell over the world, heralding a new age of tourism. Continue below.
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Movie animation genius Walt Disney threw open the gates of the world's first theme park in California on July 17, 1955, sowing the seeds of a lucrative new industry that would spread across the world.
Back then it was impossible to imagine that a half century later 515 million people from across the globe would stepped over the portals of what the Disney entertainment empire dubs the “happiest place on earth.”
The creator of Mickey Mouse stumbled on the risky concept after receiving scores of requests from people wanting to tour his world famous Disney movie studio in Hollywood, but found himself thwarted by logistical concerns.
Instead, Disney decided to open a separate park among the orange groves southeast of Los Angeles, using Copenhagen's famed Tivoli Gardens and Fairyland, a small park that opened near San Francisco in 1950, as the inspiration for what would become the “magic kingdom.”
In July 1954, bulldozers began clearing the ground near the town of Anaheim, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Los Angeles for the project that's was co-financed by the US television channel ABC.
A year later the gates of the park populated by characters from Disney's world, including Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and later Pinocchio and Winnie the Pooh, opened to the public for the first time.
It boasted 16 attractions, including “ Main Street USA, “ an idealized reconstruction of a vintage American town. Inspired by Walt Disney's hometown in Missouri, that led to Sleeping Beauty's famous turreted castle.
“Adventureland” and “frontierland” adopted a Wild West-inspired pioneer explorer theme, while “Fantasyland” recreated a fairytale Bavarian town and “Tomorrowland” picked a science fiction theme.
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