Walt Disney came up with the concept of Disneyland after visiting various amusement parks with his daughters in the 1930s and 1940s. He initially envisioned building a tourist attraction adjacent to his studios in Burbank to entertain fans who wished to visit; however, he soon realized that the proposed site was too small.

Walt Disney nurtured the idea of Disneyland for years. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s he visited other amusement parks and carnivals with an eye towards creating his own. He began to envision a cleaner theme-based park where families could become a part of the magical world that his films depicted on the big screen.

In the early 1950s, Walt Disney began designing a huge amusement park to be built near Los Angeles. He intended Disneyland to have educational as well as amusement value and to entertain adults and their children. Land was bought in the farming community of Anaheim, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and construction began in 1954.