The Story Behind The Disneyland Hotel And Why It Wasn't Owned By Disney For Decades

2025 is the 70th anniversary of the Disneyland Resort. In July of 1955, Walt Disney’s dream opened to the public, and the world of entertainment was changed forever. Several of the attractions that you’ll find at Disneyland today were there on opening day, so they are also celebrating their 70th anniversary. However, one location key to Disneyand’s success, the Disneyland Hotel, is only now celebrating its birthday, as of this October.

On October 5, 1955, the Disneyland Hotel opened for business. For decades, it was the only official hotel associated with Disneyland. Over the last 70 years, the resort has gone through a lot of changes, including being purchased by The Walt Disney Company, because originally, it wasn't even owned or run by the company.

Walt Disney Wanted A Hotel For Disneyland, But Couldn’t Afford It

Disneyland wasn’t just a first-of-its-kind theme park. Everything about it, from its design to the way it was promoted, had never been seen before. In an era when most movie studios were shunning television for cutting into their profits, Walt Disney embraced its potential as the perfect way to promote his new idea to the world. Disneyland, the ABC TV series (a handful of episodes of which are available with a Disney+ subscription), was equal parts entertaining television show and commercial for the upcoming park. With people all over the country looking forward to the opening, those people would need a place to stay when they came.

While the area surrounding Disneyland is full of dozens of hotels today, it was the middle of nowhere when the place was under construction. The interstate needed to get people there was still being built. Walt knew that his new park would need a hotel for guests. The problem was that Walt was basically out of money, because Disneyland would cost $17 million to build.

Walt tried to get major hotel companies, like Hilton and Sheraton, interested in building a hotel, but considering how remote Anaheim was at the time, they declined. Eventually, Walt went to his friend Jack Wrather, who, together with his business partner Maria Helen Alvarez, agreed to finance the construction of the Disneyland Hotel.

Interestingly, the deal between Warther-Alvarez and Disney gave the organization the rights to the name Disneyland Hotel, not simply adjacent to the theme park, but everywhere. We could have seen a chain of Disneyland Hotels all over the country, though that never came to pass.

A late start and various production delays resulted in the facility not opening until October 1955, nearly three months after the park. Even then, it only opened at a fraction of its planned capacity.

The Disneyland Hotel And The Monorail

Eventually, the hotel would open, and it would almost immediately begin to expand. Of course, so would the suburban sprawl that now covers the city of Anaheim. Many different hotel options would become available very quickly, but there was still only one Disneyland Hotel.

In addition to a variety of amenities, one thing that set the it apart from its competitors came in 1961, when the route of the Disneyland Monorail was altered to include a stop at the Disneyland Hotel. Now, guests at the hotel could ride the Monorail directly into Tomorrowland.

It’s this classic connection between the hotel and the park that likely meant that few people in the general public were aware that Disney didn’t own the Disneyland Hotel. Walt would reportedly make multiple overtures about buying it from Wrather, who would take full ownership of the hotel from his partner in 1958, but the Disneyland Hotel was incredibly profitable, so Wrather never had much interest in selling.

Michael Eisner Buys The Disneyland Hotel For Disney

Wrather died in 1984, less than two months after Michael Eisner became the CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Hotels on Disney properties would become a major part of Eisner’s theme park legacy. Nearly two dozen hotels opened at Walt Disney World during Eisner’s tenure, but the CEO also wanted the original: the Disneyland Hotel.

Eisner would reach out to Wrather’s widow, actress Bonita Granville, in an attempt to purchase the hotel. Unfortunately, she also refused to sell it. Four years later, Granville herself would pass away. This gave Eisner and Disney an opportunity. Rather than attempting to acquire the rights to the Disneyland Hotel alone, the decision was made to do things in a perhaps more expensive but much simpler manner. Disney purchased the entire Wrather Corporation.

This gave Disney ownership of much more than simply the hotel. They also purchased the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose as part of the deal, which would result in the consideration of building a Port Disney theme park in Long Beach. However, Disney now finally owned the Disneyland Hotel, which meant they could knock it down.

The Disneyland Resort Transforms The Disneyland Hotel

Disney’s lack of ownership of the Disneyland Hotel was a significant roadblock to the major expansion of Disneyland that Eisner wanted. In 1999, a significant portion of it was demolished as part of the larger resort project that saw the construction of Disney California Adventure as well as the Downtown Disney shopping and dining complex.

Three major hotel towers that were built in the 1960s and 70s became the core of the Disneyland Hotel, and a fourth tower, specifically for the Disney Vacation Club, was opened in 2023. None of the original buildings that were built in 1955 remain standing today.

Two more hotels would eventually become part of the Disneyland Resort. The Grand Californian Resort & Spa would be built attached to the Disney California Adventure park. Disney would also purchase the nearby Pan Pacific Hotel Anaheim in 1995. It would become the Disneyland Pacific Hotel, then the Paradise Pier Hotel, before it was transformed into the Pixar Place Hotel in 2024.

I’ve been lucky enough to stay in all three Disneyland hotels, and while each has its benefits and charms, there is something truly special about the original Disneyland Hotel. It’s been there since, almost, the beginning. It’s changed a lot in 70 years, and will change more in the years to come, but there’s still only one Disneyland Hotel.