Ticket to Dream

Ticket to Dream: Disneyland Treasures from the Archives

By Kevin Kern, Walt Disney Archives

Do you remember the first time you passed through the turnstiles and into a Disney Park? That unmistakable feeling of excitement—the sense that magic is just a few feet away within the many realms of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy—is shared by all who come to these happy places. It’s an exhilarating feeling that millions of Disney Parks guests have come to know since Disneyland first opened on July 17, 1955. Each visit begins in the same, ritualistic fashion—with those memorable “first moments” through the gates.

Disney Legend John Hench once noted that, “[w]hether we go to a Disney park or a ball game, there is always the excitement of deciding to go and planning what to take and to wear, the anticipation of arrival, and the pure pleasure of walking through the entrance with the intention to play.” The main entrance to any Disney Park is our embarkation point for adventure—the point that takes us all to a place where we have (again via Hench) “the opportunity to feel more alive.”

The legacy of our collective main entrance experiences all started 65 years ago, enabled by a few special tickets (shown here), that thankfully have been preserved in the Walt Disney Archives collection.

Ticket to Dream
One of the rarer pieces of ephemera from Disneyland’s invitational press preview and dedication day on July 17, 1955, is this parking pass. Meant to be discarded after initial use, a piece like this speaks to the anticipation guests must have experienced that day in getting to the front entrance (as Hench hints at above)—but first you had to park!
Ticket to Dream
Some of the most collectible Disneyland tickets include those for the invitational press preview and dedication ceremony, too. Issued in four colors— silver, white, green, and gold—the passes staggered entry for those lucky enough to be invited to get a first glimpse of Walt Disney’s newest fantasy playground.
Ticket to Dream
Here we see the back of a silver Disneyland invitational press preview ticket, which, for those invited, even featured a map of how to find Anaheim!
Ticket to Dream
Disneyland Ticket No. 1 was purchased by Roy O. Disney, Walt’s brother and business partner, on July 18, 1955, the first day the park was open to the public. Proudly safeguarded by Roy for many years, the ticket was turned over to the Archives in April 1971 for longterm historical preservation.

Thanks to the accomplished work of the remarkable artists, Cast Members, craftspeople, employees, and Imagineers who helped make Walt Disney’s kingdom of dreams a reality, these mementoes help remind us not only of that storied past, but what it was like to first anticipate what was (or what could be) just on the other side of the gate.