| (Oct. 5, 1955–Present) BACKSTORY: First “Disney” hotel although not Disney owned until 1988. Disneyland construction costs kept Disney from building a hotel. Disney approached a number of hotel chains in 1954, but all felt that the Disneyland venture was too risky. Instead, he negotiated a deal with his friend Jack Wrather to build and operate one. Wrather had the rights to use the Disneyland Hotel name on any hotel in California until 2054. Four years after Wrather died, The Walt Disney Co. bought the entire Wrather Corporation, which also gave them the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach and the rights to The Lone Ranger & Lassie TV Series.
Designed by the firm of Pereira & Luckman, the 100 room hotel opened on October 5, 1955, approximately 3 months after Disneyland opened. It eventually featured the Monorail Plaza, a shopping center built in June 1961 and demolished in the late 1990’s for Downtown Disney. The hotel consists of three guest room towers: Marina, Sierra, and Bonita. Other buildings in the complex house restaurants, stores, offices, recreational facilities, and convention/banquet facilities.
The off-center placement of an exterior elevator shaft at the Sierra Tower created space constraints which required the neon sign atop the building to read “Hotel Disneyland.” During a 1966 expansion, the sign was corrected. The sign was later removed and replaced with a mural featuring shooting stars. After acquiring the hotel in January 1988, Disney announced a multi-million dollar upgrade to the hotel (slated for summer 1990), which included the 1174 guest rooms (304 in the Sierra Tower, 367 in the Bonita Tower, and 319 in the Marina Tower), lobbies, elevators, the porte cochere (main entryway), Grand Ballroom (a new crystal chandelier from Milan), and Exhibit Hall. Museum-quality exhibits of historic Disneyland memorabilia were also added.
The remaining “Disneyland Hotel” neon signs for the Marina & Bonita Towers were removed in Dec. 2005 (neon signs were eventually outlawed in the Anaheim Resort District; the Marina & Sierra signs were replaced with smaller ones).
Signs from several of the stores & restaurants (the original Garden Rooms, Travelport, Hotel Shops, Olympic Pool, and Plaza Building) were kept after the demoltion and are on display in the hotel’s employee cafeteria. Included is a large “End of an Era” posterboard signed by visitors and employees of the Monorail Cafe during its last months of operation. All of the original Disneyland Hotel was removed in mid-1999. Steakhouse 55 was once called Granville’s Steak House (named after Wrather’s wife’s maiden name, Bonita Granville, a famous child actress of the 30’s/40’s).
Most photos available for purchase as enlargements; email your request. To view photos, allow popups in your web browser & click thumbnails below. |
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