Bairo GonzalezLeandro · Martinez
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Dates that changed everything

July 17: Disneyland and Black Sunday

On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened on a day so full of problems it became known as Black Sunday. Walt fixed everything and carried on.

bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published

On July 17, 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland, in Anaheim, California. It was the only Disney park opened by Walt himself, and opening day nearly went completely wrong.

What happened

The opening was broadcast live on American television, to millions of viewers. It was meant to be an invitation-only event, but counterfeit tickets circulated, and far more people than expected showed up. The heat was intense. The freshly laid asphalt softened under people's shoes. Drinking fountains were missing, because of a plumbers' strike, and some rides broke down. The staff came to call that day "Black Sunday".

At the park's dedication, Walt read a text that opens with the line that became famous: "To all who come to this happy place: Welcome."

To get there, he had faced the distrust of the banks, which saw amusement parks as a seasonal, risky business. Walt took out a loan against his own life insurance and created a company with his initials, WED Enterprises, to run the project.

Why it matters

Black Sunday is a lesson almost no one tells when talking about Disney. The place that became synonymous with perfection began with a disastrous day. Walt and the team spent the following weeks fixing the problems, and the park became one of the most visited in the world.

Almost three decades earlier, Walt had already lost a studio and a character. Disneyland was proof that he had learned to survive his own beginnings.

The bridge to Bairo's vision

Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez doesn't hide his own bad beginnings. He says he had businesses that didn't work out as well as he hoped, ideas that came too early and an idea his partners took from him. Instead of erasing those days, he calls them the foundation. The rule is in No is the foundation of yes.

There's also the life insurance. Walt put his own family's protection on the line to build what he had seen. Bairo says that, when a business didn't hold up, fifty people depended on him, and that the decision was to keep going. It's in Fifty lives.

There's no comparison of size. There's tribute to someone who opened the gate on a bad day and came back the next day to fix things.

Read also: Walt Disney: the dream he saw before it existed · October 1

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