OAKLAND.- The Oakland Museum of California presents an exhibit featuring the magic of Disneyland, Behind the Magic-50 Years of Disneyland through August 20. Walt Disney’s legendary theme park, conceived and created with his design wizards, the Imagineers, opened July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, on 160 acres of former orange groves. The rest is American history.

Behind the Magic provides a rare look at American icon Walter Elias Disney and his vision for a new genre of family entertainment. Graphic designers, Disney aficionados, film historians, and generations of Disneyland visitors will find plenty of living history to explore.

The three-part exhibition features Disney’s early life as a cartoonist and filmmaker; renderings and plans for his fantastic amusement park; and a section on the Imagineers, the gifted team responsible for creating and maintaining Disneyland’s culture and magic.

Behind the Magic displays Walt Disney Imagineering art and artifacts from Disneyland rarely seen outside the Disney Parks. The 7,500-square-foot exhibition includes 250 pieces of original Imagineering artwork, hand-crafted models, construction drawings, and promotional materials tracing the growth and history of the California landmark.

Herb Ryman’s 1954 vellum rendering (roughly six feet by four feet) of Disneyland, a key element in Roy Disney's successful pitch to bankers for initial funding for the park, is also on display. In 1953, Disney asked Ryman to sketch an idea for an amusement park that would appeal to both children and adults. Over a single weekend, Ryman translated Walt's dreams onto paper.

Visitors will have the opportunity to view—and in some cases, interact with—more than 40 three-dimensional artifacts, among them figures from “it’s a small world,” original arcade games from the “Pirates of the Caribbean®” attraction, and the original vehicles used in “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride®” and “Peter Pan’s Flight®.”

The rarest artifact in Behind the Magic is the Abraham Lincoln figure created for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City—the first Audio-Animatronics® “human” to appear in a Walt Disney production. Abe emerged from preservation for the first time for Behind the Magic.

Fifty-two years ago Disney leveraged a partnership with ABC; the network provided financing for the park in exchange for exclusive programming. The program, "Disneyland," built enormous national anticipation for Disney’s namesake park—more than 28,000 visitors showed up on opening day, although only 15,000 were invited. Since that day in 1955 an estimated 500 million people have visited Disneyland.

Marty Sklar, vice-president and principal creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, was hired by Walt Disney shortly after the opening of Disneyland, and worked with him for many years. “This extraordinary exhibit reveals the creativity and innovation Imagineers used to conceive and design Disneyland. It’s a treat to see this showcased in California, where Walt Disney gave birth to an entire new industry that has spread around the world.”

The Oakland Museum of California is the first official tour stop for Behind the Magic after its inaugural launch at The Henry Ford, in 2005. The remaining tour schedule for Behind the Magic following the Oakland Museum of California is being finalized, according to Michael Benghiat of ExhibiTour, which produced and manages the exhibition.