Fess & Buddy check out Disneyland, 1955

NOTE: Most of the photos that originally accompanied this post have been removed due to legal issues. Hopefully they will return in the future. In the meantime, just use your imagination!

Still wearing his George Russel costume from "Davy Crockett," Buddy Ebsen is seen here in a behind-the-scenes photo at Disneyland, while the park was still under its initial construction.

Zooming in, you can see some early Park printed publicity materials.

Here's Buddy's costar, Fess Parker (aka Davy himself), walking down an unfinished Main Street.

Not sure who the other two gents are, but it looks like Fess came straight from the set.

Wrong angle, but you can still get an idea of approximately where the three were standing.

Here, Fess and his buddies are having a very deep conversation about what they are seeing. Or at least they are giving a semi-convincing performance to that effect.

As you can see from this 1958 image, they were standing in front of what would become the Upjohn Pharmacy. Interesting to note in the Fess Parker image that the archway on the left gives an unobstructed view all the way through.



Backstage (at the Disney Burbank Studios), Roy Disney is standing with one of Fess' escorts/buddies. Perhaps this was shot before (or after) the day at Disneyland when Fess might have been picked up/dropped off at the Studio.

This one is a mystery to me, as I do not recognize either person standing in front of the official Disneyland car.

Experts?

See more vintage & current Disneyland construction/behind-the-scenes photos on my main website.

The ABC-TV Deal

In order to get the capital needed to fund Disneyland, Walt and Roy Disney signed with ABC Television (ABC President Robert Kintner on left, ABC Vice President Sidney Markley on right) on April 3, 1954. The first photo shows the actual signing; photo #2 is the warm and fuzzy image of Walt posing with stuffed versions of his animated characters, being taped by (what else?) an ABC-TV camera.



For the first five years, Disneyland was owned by Disneyland, Inc., which was jointly owned by Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney, Western Publishing and ABC. ABC had first dibs on the "Disneyland" television series in 1954. By 1960, Walt Disney Productions bought out ABC, Western Publishing, and Walt Disney's shares.

In 1996, The Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC, and renamed the broadcasting group ABC, Inc.. This relationship could be seen with many cross-promotional efforts when DCA opened, such as ABC Soap Opera weekends (April 2002 shot with Erika Slezak from "One Life To Live"):



and the short-lived Soap Opera Bistro (also April 2002 photos):





See more vintage & current Disneyland photos on my Disneyland web pages.