Disneyland - 4.26 - Magic Highway U.S.A.

Walt Disney began hosting his own television show for ABC in 1954 in an unusual contract: Disney provided ABC with a weekly hour-long television program in exchange for funding for the construction of Disneyland. As a result, the television show was also originally named Disneyland. The anthology series has since gone through a number of name changes over the years: Walt Disney Presents, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Wonderful World of Disney, Disney's Wonderful World, Walt Disney, The Disney Sunday Movie, and The Magical World of Disney. The series spanned an incredible 54 years—13 seasons of which were hosted by Walt Disney, himself.

The theme of this is the significance of the American highway, featuring the history of motoring, which explains that to drive the first cars was quite an adventure in itself, due to awful roads (which back then were not much more than rutted wagon paths) and the scarcity of fuel supplies and spare parts, not to mention the lack of useful maps and signposts, resulting in short drives turning into day-long affairs.

Aired on Wednesday, May 14th, 1958 on ABC at 7:30pm
Aired on Wednesday, July 30th, 1958 on ABC at 7:30pm
Aired on Sunday, July 29th, 1962 on NBC at 7:30pm (under the heading of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color)

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Film & Animation

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[disneyfan85]

I also read that it was on the date that this episode aired (May 14, 1958) that "Peter Pan" had its first re-release in theaters. Four more re-releases would follow since, in 1969, 1976, 1982 and 1989.

[Disneytv4me]

@disneyfan85 I love making Disney connections :)

[disneyfan85]

That's the same narrator as for "Sleeping Beauty"!

[Disneytv4me]

@disneyfan85 You're absolutely right: Marvin Miller.

[aduecey]

Thank you so much for the post. I have been wanting to enjoy that brief short before the final segment for so long now. Thanks for helping me to recapture a bit of childhood.

[markleyg]

@BradTheProducer The Batmobile from the '50's T.V. show was the concept car Ford Futura.

[cjs3872]

@Disneytv4me

Miller was one of those guys that narrated many things, as well as did MANY voice acting roles. Among his voice acting roles, he was the voice of Aquaman in the 1967 Filmation Series, as well as doing several voices in the 1967 Fantastic Four series, most notably the king in the Micro World that Dr. Doom captured. Miller even narrated the official film for the Indianapolis 500 in 1975 and '76, so Miller, like so many others in his field in his era, was extremely versatile.

[FutureImagineerRCT3]

Haha. 9:10 is in Disneyland!!! =D

[BradTheProducer]

1:02 - I had no idea that modern automobiles of the 50's were the Batmobile.

[Kartoonkid95]

42:13 Looks like Disneyland's old "House of Tomorrow" attraction.

42:40 We have that now! It's called an R.V.