Children's Fairyland
Children's Fairyland, U.S.A. is the first theme park in the United States created to cater to families with young children. Located in Oakland, California on the shore of Lake Merritt, Fairyland includes 10 acres (40,000 m2) of play sets, small rides, and animals. The park is also home to the Open Storybook Puppet Theater, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States. Children's Fairyland was the first three-dimensional storybook theme park in the U.S. It was build for $50,000 in 1950. On opening day, 6000 children streamed through Old Mother Hubbard's Shoe and into the park to play. For thirty years, Children's Fairyland remained a treasure that welcomed 10 million visitors including Walt Disney, who was so impressed with the children's park that he based his theme park on Fairyland and enticed its first director, Dorothy Manes, to become his director.
Fairyland was built in 1950 by the Oakland Lake Merritt Breakfast Club. The sets were designed by artist and architect William Russell Everritt. The park was nationally recognized for its unique value, and during the City Beautiful movement of the 1950s it inspired numerous towns to create their own parks. Contrary to popular belief that Fairyland served as an inspiration for Disneyland, there is no evidence that Walt Disney or his designers ever visited the park.
Walt Disney toured amusement parks, including Children’s Fairyland, in 1950, seeking ideas for what turned out to be Disneyland. Five years later, he opened his Magic Kingdom, using the same storybook themes and also some of the Fairyland staff.
Walt Disney did indeed hire Walt hired Dorothy Manes, the first director of Fairyland to work for him after meeting her at Fairyland. She began working at Disneyland in the 1950s, in charge of youth activities, and continued in that position until 1972.
Numerous artists have contributed exhibits, murals, puppetry, and sculptures to the park. Some of the better-known artists are Ruth Asawa and Frank Oz.
The park has rides like the spiderweb Ferris wheel, carousels and the Jolly Trolly (a train).
For safety reasons, Fairyland admits adults only when they’re accompanied by children and children only when they’re accompanied by adults.
Read more about Children's Fairyland: Origins of The Park, The Original Park, Children's Theater Programs
Famous quotes containing the words children and/or fairyland:
“Many children grow through adolescence with no ripples whatever and land smoothly and predictably in the adult world with both feet on the ground. Some who have stumbled and bumbled through childhood suddenly burst into bloom. Most shake, steady themselves, zigzag, fight, retreat, pick up, take new bearings, and finally find their own true balance.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“Genghis Khan, in his usual jodhpurs accessorized with whip, straddled a canvas chair and gloated upon the fairyland he had built. Journalists, photographers, secretaries, sycophants, script girls, and set dressers milled and stirred around him, activity ... irresistibly reminiscent of the movement of maggots upon rotting meat.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)