DLH - goodnite mr. wrather

[Mary Blairiffic]

Originally Posted by original dh

Did you know, Bonita Granville Wrather helped design those falls? I have copies of her personal pictures of when they were being constructed.

www.magicalhotel.com

I did not know that. Cool history abounds at the DLH. Thanks for the info!

[original dh]

Lot's of history at the Disneyland Hotel.

DLH:

First major Hotel west of the Mississippi after the war (WWII).
First highrise building in Anaheim.
First Hotel to use solar power to generate energy (Bonita Tower 1978).
First fully computerized Hotel.
First designed, family oriented Hotel.
First Hotel with an operating/working Monorail system.
First Hotel with a glass elevator.
First Hotel to accept credit cards as forms of payment.
First western Hotel with an operating Heliport.
First Hotel to have seasonal rates (off-season and on-season).
First Hotel with a television in every room (some even had color TV's).
First Hotel that was fully air-conditioned.
First west coast Hotel with its own radio station KEZY.

www.magicalhotel.com

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by original dh

Lot's of history at the Disneyland Hotel.

DLH:

First west coast Hotel with its own radio station KEZY.

I don't know if I would say that it was it's "own" radio station. Yes, the studio's were on the hotel property, but KEZY was not owned by Disney or officially affiliated with the hotel (to the best of my knowledge and limited research).

[original dh]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I don't know if I would say that it was it's "own" radio station. Yes, the studio's were on the hotel property, but KEZY was not owned by Disney or officially affiliated with the hotel (to the best of my knowledge and limited research).

I never said it was owned by Disney or affiliated with the Disneyland Hotel. For that matter, most of the stores and restaurants were independantly owned and operated through leases with Wrather. The Hotel wasn't even owned by Disney or even affiliated with Disney until 1988. The Wrather Corporation owned the Disneyland Hotel and had no affiliaton with Disney.

[Mary Blairiffic]

Hello original dh! I just need to put this out there: if you have any say in this, could you encourage the powers that be to think about the "new" DLH design to look, well, vintagey? I know, it's rather contradictory to make what IS a vintage hotel even more vintage, but they could take some cues from classic Mid-Century modern design and swankify it up! But please, they just CAN'T make it "generic lux", like a Radisson or some such. I pray for the soul of the DLH!!!

[original dh]

My friend Werner Weiss and I were discussing this very same idea one day. Here are his thoughts which by the way, mirror my feelings almost exactly:

"Instead of imploding the existing buildings and starting over, I'd like to see The Walt Disney Company make the Disneyland Hotel's mid-century modern architecture into a virtue rather than a liability.

Today, it seems that Disney is saying, "Don't looking up at the ugly buildings. Keep your eyes low and enjoy the 'Magical' Disney-ish things we've done at ground level. Try to forget that the buildings scream 1960's (even though some are newer than that)."

Instead, I'd like to see the Disneyland Hotel adopt a strong late-1950's/early-1960's theme, with signs, colors, restaurants, furniture, uniforms, decor, artwork, and landscaping that immerse guests in the era when the Disneyland Monorail first began serving the Disneyland Hotel. By the way, the buildings aren't ugly; they're actually very nicely designed examples of the era. The Hotel should take guests back in time, just as most of Disney's deluxe hotels in Florida do. Only it would be a different time period.

Take a look at the website of the Renaissance Hollywood at http://www.renaissancehollywood.com/ -- you'll find pictures of the rooms, with their wild mid-century modern colors and furniture. With its more spacious grounds and its multiple buildings, the Disneyland Hotel could way outdo the Renaissance Hollywood.

Think about the possibilities for restaurants. Think about tiki revival. Think about the "space age." Think about the Googie style. "Retro" is fun. In fact, look to Tomorrowland in the 1950's for inspiration.

The 900-or-so rooms, the restaurants, and the convention facilities are valuable assets. It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replace them. There's no reason to tear them down.

As they say, when you have a lemon, make lemonade. The Disneyland Hotel isn't a lemon. But Disney guests expect immersive, themed hotels—and the Disneyland Hotel fails to meet that expectation in its current form.

Let the Imagineers have fun immersing guests in another era!

(Hmmmm... Maybe I should expand on what I've written here as the subject of a future article for Yesterland.)"

He basically took the words right out of my mouth but they were his words entirely.

www.magicalhotel.com

[Mary Blairiffic]

Originally Posted by original dh

Instead, I'd like to see the Disneyland Hotel adopt a strong late-1950's/early-1960's theme, with signs, colors, restaurants, furniture, uniforms, decor, artwork, and landscaping that immerse guests in the era when the Disneyland Monorail first began serving the Disneyland Hotel. By the way, the buildings aren't ugly; they're actually very nicely designed examples of the era. The Hotel should take guests back in time, just as most of Disney's deluxe hotels in Florida do. Only it would be a different time period.


www.magicalhotel.com

Yes! That's exactly what I had in mind! It would be awesome!