The original sketch map drawn by Walt Disney and his associate Herb Ryman to sell the Disneyland idea to investors is now up for auction. It’s expected to bring in perhaps $1 million for its owner, Ron Clark.
Clark got the drawing in the 1970s from an ex-Disney employee who was friends with Disney. Clark, who’s a big Disney fan, says he hopes the historic artwork will return to Disney, but no one knows if the company will bid in the June 25 auction.
The investors apparently liked the concept, and the park, the only one directly built under Walt Disney’s supervision, opened two years later, on an opening day roll of disasters: sticky melting pavements, non-functioning fountains, crowds too big to handle, and more. They’ve come a long way since!
Amazing how much of the park still remains all these decades later.
Walt Disney was an amazing genius, the likes of which we see only a few times in a century.