On July 16, 1955, Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas wrote a story about the imminent opening of an elaborate theme park in California that was conceived by none other than Walt Disney. The park opened the next day. Like the animator and entrepreneur, Disneyland was ambitious and imaginative — a real-life play land for children and adults alike. Thomas, a longtime Hollywood reporter for the Associated Press and author of a Walt Disney biography who died in 2014, wrote that Disneyland cost $17 million to build, and that no detail was spared.
