Disneyland Turns 60: Remembering the Theme Park's Early Success

July 17, 2015 7:00 AM EDT

It may or may not be the happiest place on earth, but it’s always been one of the most profitable. Ever since Disneyland opened on this day, July 17, 60 years ago, the theme park has thrilled awestruck visitors — all the way to the bank.

The first outpost in Disney’s amusement park empire, Disneyland quickly became California’s biggest tourist attraction. Fans of Disney’s films and TV shows — and their parents — shelled out real cash for the fantasy experience. TIME listed some sample sales figures in 1957:

The average visitor plunked down $2.72 for rides and admission, $2 for food, another 18¢ for souvenirs — Disneyland pennants, maps, Donald Duck caps, etc. All told this year, with attendance running 11% ahead of 1956, the turnstiles will clink 4,500,000 times. Disneyland will gross more than $11 million, and into Disney’s treasure house will flow a Dumbo-sized profit after taxes of more than $1,000,000.

In the park’s Adventureland realm alone, nearly 3 million visitors paid more than $1 million in 1956—which would be more than $8.7 million today, accounting for inflation—to sail down a jungle river “where trap-jawed crocodiles and painted warriors glare menacingly at every turn,” per TIME.

Walt's Wild Men: LIFE Behind the Scenes at Disney Studios

Quartet known as The Mello-Men bays in harmony before screen showing four canine characters whose voices they represent in the forthcoming Disney feature cartoon, The Lady and The Tramp. — **Caption from LIFE.** Quartet known as The Mello-Men bays in harmony before screen showing four canine characters whose voices they represent in the forthcoming Disney feature cartoon, "The Lady and The Tramp."Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A Disney animator peers in a mirror to get facial expressions just right.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Creating sound effects for a Disney movie, 1953.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Behind the scenes at Disney studios, 1953.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Voicing a character for the feature cartoon, The Lady and the Tramp. — Voicing a character for the feature cartoon, *The Lady and the Tramp*.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Disney artists check a cel from the film, The Lady and the Tramp. — Disney artists check a cel from the film, *The Lady and the Tramp*.J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A Disney animator and a character he's drawn.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

**Caption from LIFE.** Jim MacDonald, Disney's sound effects expert, blows across top of jug while other experts make murderous music out of bazooka, disembodied piano and assortment of strings, pipes, hinges, chains.J. R. Eyerman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Walt at work gives animated version of what he thinks action ought to look like as he directs story conference on his forthcoming Sleeping Beauty." — **Caption from LIFE.** Walt at work gives animated version of what he thinks action ought to look like as he directs story conference on his forthcoming *Sleeping Beauty*.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

When it opened, Disneyland’s assets totaled $16 million — more than three times the $5 million budget that Walt Disney had originally set. He and his business-partner brother, Roy O. Disney, expanded their vision after some of the nation’s largest companies asked to buy in to the fairytale. They leased space to 55 companies, weaving product-placement opportunities in between Sleeping Beauty’s castle and Captain Hook’s hideaway. Per TIME:

Pepsi-Cola came in to operate Frontierland’s Golden Horseshoe soft-drink saloon; American Motors Corp. shows Circarama movies; Pablum recently opened a brightly decorated “baby-changing and feeding station” complete with a trained nurse who hands out free disposable diapers, safety pins, bottles.

The key to Disneyland’s success, of course, was that few visitors felt fleeced. Walt’s theme park exit polls showed that while customers’ biggest complaint was the high prices, 80% said they’d be back to pay them again.

His model was so successful, in fact, that it was emulated at Six Flags and Astroworld before the Disney Company reproduced it with Walt Disney World, which opened in Florida in 1971. Walt and his disciples had, it seemed, identified a phenomenon TIME labeled the Disneyland Effect. “Stated simply,” TIME summarized in 1968, “the thesis is that what’s missing in urban life is a sense of fun, and that once a fun area is built, it proves to be a powerful, regenerative force that brings prosperity to the whole surrounding area.”

And while the Disneyland Effect wasn’t enough to keep Astroworld afloat, it seems to be holding true in Anaheim. Just last week, Disney pledged to invest an additional $1 billion in improvements and expansion at Disneyland in the coming years, in exchange for continued tax breaks from the California city. The park’s “Diamond Celebration” to commemorate its 60th anniversary represents a Dumbo-sized investment in itself, but one that will likely pay off in “a sense of fun”—and profit.

Read more about Disneyland from the 1950s, here in the TIME archives: Show Business: How to Make a Buck