The weekly news update featuring Disneyland Construction Begins
To all North Pole City Elves, those in Santa's Village, in the Lower 48 and all around the world, this is your weekly update for the week of July 11, 2022. I'm your host Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone and I'm your co-host, Becky "Marshmallow" Livingstone, Let's go to press.
For the week of July 11, 2022 your sponsor will be The Peppermint Shack. Located at 397 Snowball Run Road The Peppermint Shack offers the best smooth peppermint cocoa and pub games in North Pole City. Make sure to stop by the Peppermint Shack today.
This Tuesday afternoon at 1 p.m., there will be a sendoff parade from Claus Mansion and around city center square as the Claus' head to Polar Bear Lake to get ready for this year's Reindeer Games encampment. Santa says he is leaving promptly at 1 p.m. so it you want to come out for the sendoff, don't be late.
To clear up all suspicions and rumors floating around Santa's Village and North Pole City, Santa and Edward Hinklemyer have decided to release a statement as to whom it is believed is behind all of the sabotage and tampering taking place this year trying to inhibit Santa's deliveries so that we can all enjoy ourselves this year out at camp.
In this memo, it was stated after analysis of evidence collected and through meetings with the Assembly of Legendary Figures and the city elders, it is now believed that Jack Frost has hired non-North Pole City elves to infiltrate North Pole City and cause this mischief.
The major concern behind this is distinguishing between these elves and residents of North Pole City. Therefore, they are working on yet another new security badge and will have a booth set-up at at the campout and Reindeer Games, since most of us will be in attendance, where we can get our North Pole City resident credentials checked and set-up new badges.
The division of WWW/PR has added a new download to Mrs. Claus' kitchen page for the new design of the cookie fry containers for anyone wishing to download the design, print it out and make some up for camp. The design is pretty close to the last one that we had, but now it is digital and available on the website.
This week there will be snow on Monday and Tuesday, then we start to see the temperatures rise into the upper thirties and by the weekend, temperatures will be in the mid forties with partially sunny skies.
Just before we came into the studio to break the news about Jack Frost being the prime suspect, Edward Hinklemyer released his memo out to all of the elves throughout the city. We are not sure if this was done now to stop rumors going through town, or Santa and Edward feared us leaking the story. Either way, we all know now what is actually going on with the investigation. We will be having a remote broadcast platform so we can broadcast from Polar Bear Lake next week. It is being assembled now and we will be performing tests this week. We hope that we will be ready. For next weeks news update it will mostly be converging events at camp and the Reindeer Games. For any detailed news in and about the city, please refer to next week's Peppermint Post.
On July 16, 1954, construction began on the famous Disneyland.
In 1932, Walt Disney got the idea for building of a family park and it would be nearly 20 more years before the project really got underway, but Walt never gave up. The earliest documented draft of Disney's plans appear in a memo on August 31, 1948, where it was referred to as a "Mickey Mouse Park".
Walt Disney originally planned to build it on a vacant 16 acre plot directly across the street from his studios. Unfortunately the idea was turned down by the City of Burbank. Bankers, investors and many of the people within his own company were strongly opposed to the project too. His brother, Roy, even thought that this "fanciful, expensive amusement park would lead to financial ruin." Walt though was confident of his project and even sold his vacation property and borrowed on his life insurance to get the project going.
In 1953, Walt hires the Stanford Research Institute to review profitability and examine traffic patterns and population trends etc. and help finding him a location. Then, he had Herb Ryman, an artist friend, help him draw a detailed rendering of what Disneyland would look like. With this help, Disney acquired 160 acres of orange groves and walnut trees alongside the new Santa Ana freeway in a city called Anaheim that would become the new home of the future Disneyland.
With Roy's help, the ABC network agreed to loan Disney $500,000 and guarantee $4.5 million in loans in return for a one-third ownership in Disneyland and a promise of a weekly Disney television show for the network. With finances shored up, crews began to work around the clock to meet the tight 1 year and 1 day schedule that Walt wanted.
Friday, July 16, 1954, work began by clearing and surveying the many acres of Disneyland property. Wednesday, July 21, 1954, the ground is unofficially broken to begin construction at the site.
An interesting tidbit of information is that at some point, Walt went to the City of Anaheim and specifically requested the street address 1313 S. Harbor Boulevard for Disneyland. He apparently wanted this address because the thirteenth letter of the alphabet is M. and Walt said, “It all started with a mouse.†Mickey Mouse, others indicate though that the thirteens, being unlucky, were Walt’s way of thumbing his nose at those who thought Disneyland would fail.
In any case, after a full year of rigorous construction and a total investment of $ 17 million, the gates of Disneyland would be opened for its first guests on Sunday, July 17, 1955.
Since then, the company and the parks have only grown. Each year nearly 20 million visitors attend the Disney parks.
Anyone wishing to help put together the gift baskets for the raffle, these will be made up on Wednesday at the North Pole City Commerce building. We will also be wrapping the gifts for the relay race on Thursday. Come out and join us for some elfin comradery and a free lunch on Wednesday or Thursday and lend a hand with these preparations.
NPC Council will be sending out construction crews to Polar Bear Lake to go over their pre-campout checklist and complete any repairs that are necessary and to construct a new cabin hall that replaces one that suffered some damage during the last major snowfall. If you see a large fire coming form the camp area, please do not worry as they plan on razing the damaged building first, by a controlled fire, since most of the support beams for the structure were been damaged and it is not safe to tear down through the traditional methods. Some of the smaller pieces will be distributed as firewood for the campout week.
The NPC Sports League is looking for volunteers to help build the foosball arenas. Foosball is a new game that was added to the NPC Reindeer Games this year. We will need some help in building the arenas for game play. Any elves interested in helping out should arrive at the NPC Sports League offices Friday morning at 9 a.m. We will shuttle the volunteers to the build site. Lunch will be provided by the league.
To celebrate blueberry muffin day on the 11th, mini blueberry muffins will be provided in city center for any elf who would like a handful.
For Etch-A-Sketch Day on the 12th, there will be a friendly exhibition in city center for any elf who thinks they can create the greatest Etch-A-Sketch design. Come show off your skills!
On the 14th, for National Mac and Cheese Day, there will be a Macaroni and Cheese buffet at the North Pole City Hotel from 12 pm to 6 pm. It will feature 12 different varieties of mac and cheese. They will have flavors from traditional and five cheese to even lobster mac and cheese. Try one or try them all. You really can not go wrong and they hope to see everyone there.
WELF-NPC North Pole City Radio would like to wish a very Happy 400th birthday to Orville "Zinger" Yeardly. Orville is the supervisor for Santa's Flight Command and Control and has had his certification to fly Santa's sleigh for almost 200 years now. We wish you many more happy years.
This is Walter "Mistletoe" Livingstone and Becky "Marshmallow" Livingstone with the reminder: The bottom line is to have fun and enjoy life..
Have a good evening, and be sure to tune in next week for another WELF-NPC North Pole Radio News Update.
