Why Sleeping Beauty's Castle before Cinderella's?

[Mouse's Magic]

Hello everyone. Hope you are all having a magical day! My girlfriend and I are lounging in today, and she is reading the book, "Disney: The First 100 Years." While reading, she posed a question to me in which I did not know the answer. Her question was, "What made Walt build Sleeping Beauty's Castle before Cinderella's Castle?" According to the book, and my research, Disney's "Cinderella" was released in 1950, while Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" was released in 1959. Disneyland opened in 1955. This means that Walt decided to build Sleeping Beauty's Castle 4 years before the Disney version of "Sleeping Beauty" came out. Why didn't he decide to build Cinderella's Castle in Disneyland when Disney's "Cinderella" had already been released for 4 years and people obviously tied it to Disney? See her point...? Any information or guesses would be great! Thanks. ºoº

 

[peter11435]

Think about it the other way. In building the castle before the movie came out they were essentially advertising the future movie. It's similar to the situation with ITTBAB and CTX(Dinosaur) at Animal Kingdom.

 

[DisneyFan 2000]

Before Walt reffered to it as Snow White's castle... It never really presented any "real" Disney castle...

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

If I had to make a guess, not only do I agree with advertising the upcoming Sleeping Beauty Movie, but also with Walt "mistakingly " calling it Snow White's Castle, I would have to guess that money also played a vital role.

If it weren't for Roy Disney and others keeping tabs on Walt's ambitions, the Disney Company would most likely have gone bankrupt, as it almost did after Disneyland. Because of money issues, I'm sure that making a smaller 3-4 story castle would be far more reasonable than a giant 100 something foot castle. They (WED) had enough creative ideas and concepts borrowed from Ludwig's castle to design Sleeping Beauty castle, and thus they did, but not even in the actual Disney animated movie Sleeping Beauty, does the castle even look like the one at Disneyland, for the one in the movie is far more taller and amazing.

So when the Disney Company got bigger, and when Roy Disney and others set out to finish Disney World's Magic Kingdom, borrowing the ideas of Walt Disney, they set to out to make an almost a life-size recreation of Cinderella's Castle. Howver money and common sense leads to that it would be rediculous to create EVERYTHING in Cinderella's Castle, from a giant and specaious entryway to the mamouth clocktower.

 

[ToTBellHop]

3 to 4 story castle? Sleeping Beauty Castle is small, but not THAT small...77 feet, I believe, and the new flags being installed for the 50th are said to make it top out nearer to 100 feet tall.

 

[Merlin]

3 to 4 story castle? Sleeping Beauty Castle is small, but not THAT small...87 feet, I believe, and the new flags being installed for the 50th are said to make it top out nearer to 100 feet tall.

77 feet tall to be exact.

 

[Merlin]

Think about it the other way. In building the castle before the movie came out they were essentially advertising the future movie. It's similar to the situation with ITTBAB and CTX(Dinosaur) at Animal Kingdom.

This is 100% correct. Not just theory or speculation. It is a well documented fact. It was named Sleeping Beauty Castle because, when Disneyland opened, they were working on the animated feature.

 

[Merlin]

the Disney Company would most likely have gone bankrupt, as it almost did after Disneyland.

What?????? Where the heck are you getting your information??? It's true that Disney was in the red many times (particularly during the 40's and prior). But Disneyland was almost an instant success. The company never "almost went bankrupt" after Disneyland. You should check your facts before posting.

 

[Atta83]

This is 100% correct. Not just theory or speculation. It is a well documented fact. It was named Sleeping Beauty Castle because, when Disneyland opened, they were working on the animated feature.

Exactly!

 

[Pixie Duster]

The cool thing is it truly is Sleeping Beauty's castle, cause if you have watched as much as I have you would remember that during the movie Prince Phillip's father was having a small, honeymoon castle being built. Heck if you humor yourself for a bit the drawing in the movie halfway resembles Disneyland's castle.

 

[Joevn]

The reason I've heard of to explain why Walt wanted Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland to be small is that he had read that tyrants in Europe would make their castles large and imposing to intimidate the peasants. Obviously, not the attitude he would want to convey to guests hence the smaller size.

Joe

 

[Merlin]

Before Walt reffered to it as Snow White's castle... It never really presented any "real" Disney castle...

Walt mistakenly referred to it as "Snow White's Castle" once on a Disney television special. It was a slip of the tongue. That was never it's official name.

 

[xfkirsten]

The reason I've heard of to explain why Walt wanted Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland to be small is that he had read that tyrants in Europe would make their castles large and imposing to intimidate the peasants. Obviously, not the attitude he would want to convey to guests hence the smaller size.

Joe

Yup, I have heard that reasoning as well.

 

[brkgnews]

Walt's first telvision show was called "Disneyland," before the park even existed. It, too, was "forward advertising" for the park. The idea was that, when it did open, people would easily recognize it. Ditto goes for the movie and the castle.

 

[DisneyFan 2000]

Walt mistakenly referred to it as "Snow White's Castle" once on a Disney television special. It was a slip of the tongue. That was never it's official name.

Oh, never knew that... I guess you learn something new everyday...

 

[jcraycraft]

What?????? Where the heck are you getting your information??? It's true that Disney was in the red many times (particularly during the 40's and prior). But Disneyland was almost an instant success. The company never "almost went bankrupt" after Disneyland. You should check your facts before posting.

Merlin ---

I am not sure about bankrupt thing... but I have read where Disney Co was very tight on cash flow at that time. So much so, that the Disneyland hotel wasn’t owned by Walt... He had acquaintance finance it and Walt give them naming rights to it. Not sure when Disney co bought the hotel. I am at work right now and need to find book with this information in it.

Did find this on net from http://www.mouseplanet.com/mark/mg040721.htm near bottom of page:
“So now Disney was getting into the hotel business. (The Disneyland Hotel was actually owned and operated by the Wrather Corporation until Disney bought it in 1987.) …………”

 

[WDWEric]

I would have to say that it wasn't called Sleeping Beauty's castle untill after the movie was released, or was it called that before the movie came out. That was way before my time!!!

 

[Merlin]

Oh, never knew that... I guess you learn something new everyday...

Yeah it was in the "Ask Dave Smith" section of Disney Magazine several years ago. I can't remember which Disneyland special it was though.

 

[Merlin]

Merlin ---

I am not sure about bankrupt thing... but I have read where Disney Co was very tight on cash flow at that time. So much so, that the Disneyland hotel wasn’t owned by Walt... He had acquaintance finance it and Walt give them naming rights to it. Not sure when Disney co bought the hotel. I am at work right now and need to find book with this information in it.

Did find this on net from http://www.mouseplanet.com/mark/mg040721.htm near bottom of page:
“So now Disney was getting into the hotel business. (The Disneyland Hotel was actually owned and operated by the Wrather Corporation until Disney bought it in 1987.) …………”

Nope. The fact that the Disneyland Hotel wasn't owned by Disney had nothing to do with finances. Walt simply never thought, at the time, that they would ever be interested in getting into the hotel business. But he also knew that people traveling from other parts of the country would want a place to stay when they visited. So he gave his friend, Jack Wrather, exclusive rights to build the hotel and use the name "Disney" on it.

As far as the Disney Company eventually purchasing it, what happened was that Michael Eisner was annoyed that the Wrather Company had exclusive rights to use the name "Disney" on hotels. This meant that Wrather could build other hotels and put "Disney" on them, but Disney couldn't. Additionally, the Disneyland Hotel had become pretty run down over the years. It bugged Eisner that most people assumed that Disney owned the Disneyland Hotel, and it reflected poorly on the company image.

So Disney decided they wanted to purchase the hotel. They used a rather cutthroat method to put Wrather in a position where they basically had no choice but to sell. The contract for use of the monorail was about to expire, so Disney announced they were going to raise the usage fee to an exorbitantly high figure. Since Wrather was in no position to accept, they offered to sell the entire company to Disney, not just the hotel. Disney accepted.

This now meant that Disney could, for the first time, use the name "Disney" on it's own hotels. That's why the names of all their hotels in WDW suddenly changed to "Disney's Contemporary Resort", "Disney's Polynesian", etc. Also, the Golf Resort was changed to the Disney Inn (and later became Shades of Green when it was sold to the military).

 

[jcraycraft]

Merlin ... I agree with you on all points, but I still remembering that the deal had something to do with finances. I cant remember where I read about the deal between Disney and Wrather. I will try and dig it up.


Found this article and cut a small part out and posted here:

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/articles/showarticle.php?ID=1021



"The original Disneyland Hotel, which opened in 1955 (well, actually it was the much smaller Disneyland Motel that opened in 1955 before it was dramatically expanded to become the Disneyland Hotel. Also, it was originally built, owned, and operated by the Wrather Corporation under a somewhat desperate 1955 agreement made between a cash-starved Walt Disney and Jack Wrather. Disney didn't gain ownership and control of the hotel until 1989. Anyway...) "