Walt Disney had been dragged to naysayerland before, but resolved never to spend much time there.

He'd risked his studio in 1937 when he decided to spend whatever it took to make the first animated feature-length film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," to his standards.

Those closest to him said it wouldn't work and could bankrupt Disney Studios. Yet Disney (1901-66) believed in his dreams and sweat to make them happen. "Snow White" turned out to be a landmark success.

With his studio again drowning in debt by 1948, the man from Chicago told many of his executives and friends about his vision to build the utopian theme park, Disneyland. He was again met with skepticism and even ridicule. If his plan failed, it could take the company with it.

"When (his brother and partner) Roy Disney heard about Walt's latest brainstorm, he hit the roof. He called Mickey Mouse Park 'that screwball idea' and told Walt it would be the height of irresponsibility to pour money into such a project. (Other) experts told him his dream didn't stand a chance," wrote Pat Williams in "How To Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life," with Jim Denny.

Disney trusted his instincts more than he trusted experts who told him his expensive theme park concept ran contrary to the thrill-ride amusement ones of the day. Still, he mortgaged everything personally and professionally to see Disneyland built, and attracted ABC as an investor and sponsor. He was the one with a clear vision of what he was doing and understood why it would work.

Happy Talk

"We are selling happiness" is the way he saw it.

That formula has proved to be a winner. Today, Walt Disney Co. (DIS) is the largest entertainment company in the world.

"If you can dream it, you can do it," Disney said.

His first step in creating Disneyland was to meticulously research other amusement parks, fairs and zoos to incorporate their best features. This even though Disneyland wasn't going to be an amusement park built around thrill rides.

It was to be a family theme park, on a scale and with detail the world had never seen.

He also drew on the idyllic amusement park of his youth, Electric Park in Kansas City, Mo., which captured Disney's imagination with its 100,000 lights and steam-powered train that circled it.

In 1951, Disney and entertainment personality Art Linkletter, along with their wives, visited Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Disney didn't take vacations; he took research trips. Tivoli Gardens was renowned for its lush flowers, restaurants, fun but tame rides, and wholesome family atmosphere. At night, it stayed awake with its fireworks and 100,000 lights. Disney took notes, literally and figuratively.

"I had my first experience of Walt Disney's childlike delight in the enjoyment of seeing families and in the cleanliness and the orderliness of everything," Linkletter told Williams. "I asked him what he was doing, and he replied, 'I'm just making notes about something that I've always dreamed of — a great, great playground for the children and the families of America.' "

Disney put the same level of detail into every aspect of Disneyland — which opened in 1955 in Anaheim, Calif. — just as he had done in his cartoons and films. "He wanted to see every idea that you could possibly have before he settled on something," said Marvin Davis, one of the original Disneyland designers.

Disney further challenged his executives and designers by constantly asking them "what if." "Walt would approach you and say, 'What if we did this?' He would plant a seed in your mind and it would grow into a big idea. That was how Walt could get you to think creatively," Chris Crump, a former Disney executive, said in Williams' book.

Former Disney designer Bob Gurr told Williams: "Walt had a unique way of drawing out your creativity and poking holes in your assumptions. He wouldn't push you — he would pull you."

No detail was too small or insignificant. When artist and Imagineer designer Marc Davis lamented that one of the robotic pirates in "The Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction was so lifelike, people wouldn't even notice him amid all the other action, Disney offered him another perspective:

"Oh, no, Marc," Disney said, "It's not a waste. People will visit this attraction again and again. Each time, they'll see things they never noticed before."

Disney embraced the words and concepts of "stick—to-it-ivity" and "plussing." He kept at things until they were perfect, pushing to add to the entertainment experience for his customers.

He never considered Disneyland completed. To him it was alive and evolving rather than stagnant. Even if something met his standards, he'd tell his designers it was good, but to "plus it" to make it even better.

Besides selling happiness, Disney knew what else would make Disneyland fresh and exciting. "As long as we keep surprising (visitors), they'll keep coming back," he said.

Once Disneyland opened, Disney was relentless in trying to improve it daily. He regularly walked the park and talked to guests and employees to find out what he could do better. He also rode the attractions to better understand what the paying customer was seeing.

After taking the Jungle Cruise with customers, Disney timed the ride and found it was just over four minutes. He felt it went so fast "I couldn't tell the hippos from the elephants," he told Dick Nunis, who was in charge of the attraction.

When Disney was told the cruise should have lasted seven minutes, he gave Nunis marching orders to fix it. Nunis began drilling his boat operators so that seven minutes became second nature to them. The next time Disney showed up for an inspection, he rode every boat with every cruise operator. Each ride lasted the full seven minutes.

When "The Pirates of the Caribbean" was being built, Disney sought out a construction worker who he discovered was from the Louisiana bayou country, the setting for the first part of the attraction. Disney asked for his opinion. The man replied that something was missing.

Disney suggested they walk through it until the man could tell him what wasn't right. Suddenly it hit him: He told Disney a bayou swamp has fireflies. "A few days later, the swamp was alive with electric fireflies," Williams wrote.

Walt's World

Even after the success of Disneyland, naysayerland loomed. This time it involved his plan to build another theme park, Walt Disney World, in central Florida.

Skeptics told him there was only one Disneyland, among other things, but he kept planning that park while even on his deathbed. In 1971, five years after he died, Disney World opened in Orlando.

"Walt was never afraid to dream," Disney historian Jim Korkis told Williams. "That song from Pinocchio, 'When You Wish Upon a Star,' is the perfect summary of Walt's approach to life: dream big dreams, even hopelessly impossible dreams, because they really can come true.

"Sure, it takes work, focus and perseverance. But anything is possible. Walt proved it with the impossible things he accomplished."

BY MICHAEL MINK