The Happiest Place on Earth: The Incredible Story of Walt Disney’s Disneyland is an illustrated history of the park that turned 70 yesterday, and today IGN can exclusively reveal five pages from the book that showcases an unprecedented look at the creation of the beloved park and a Disneyland that could have had Oz characters like Dorothy, a Thomas Edison square, and more.
This book is now available for purchase and features more than 750 images, previously unpublished documents, and concept drawings of Disneyland that are all organized by the park’s original five lands – Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland.
Furthermore, The Happiest Place on Earth is written by Don Hahn (award-winning producer of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and more) and Christopher Merritt (former Disney Imagineer for over 25 years) and features a forward by Disney CEO Bob Iger.
“There’s a Disneyland that we experience as a child with our eyes full of wonder at the stories it tells,” Hahn told us. “But as we peeled back those layers, we found another Disneyland story; an incredible origin story of unconventional creativity without boundaries, of upset, failure, persistence, and pioneering that gave birth to a new kind of entertainment that still resonates now more than ever. That’s the story we wanted to tell.”
As for the exclusive spreads, we’ve included them below with quotes from Merritt that explain why these are so important to Disney history and just a small part of what you’ll find in The Happiest Place on Earth: The Incredible Story of Walt Disney’s Disneyland.
For more, check out our look at the story of how a century of Disney magic began, our chat with Disney Imagineering head Bruce Vaughn about Disneyland’s Avengers attraction and more, and 12 reasons to visit Disneyland for its 70th anniversary.
Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst,Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.
