When we talk about theme parks, Disney is king. Although we’ve seen some great ideas in recent years (like the amazing Super Nintendo World in Japan), Disneyland continues to attract a lot of attention. In fact, some parks continue to be updated with corners like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which opened its doors as the largest expansion in park history after five years of construction. There are also additions like Avengers Campus or Tomorrowland.

Since it is so big, it is normal to find all kinds of stories in its magical corners (sometimes they do not turn out well unless you pay the corresponding extra) and one of these stories is Couple who have lived in their own house in the park for more than 15 years. It follows the marriage of Owen and Dolly Pope, and their home was on park land even before the park was built.

Disneyland began construction in 1954 and opened in 1955, but the story begins long before that. Owen and Dolly married in 1935 and tried to organize horse shows all over California. In 1950, Harper Goff, one of Disney’s leading artists at the time, saw the couple at one of these shows and suggested that Walt – Disney go and see them.

At that time, Disney was going through a bad time. They were in the middle of a financial crisis and the company saw that it needed to diversify. That’s why they started thinking about getting into other businesses, amusement parks being one of them. Therefore, the idea of ​​creating Disneyland was already in Disney’s mind, and after watching the show, he arranged to have lunch with the Popes.

At first they thought what he wanted was to rent them for a movie, but plans emerged to build a park and Disney wanted the Pope to perform his shows there and manage horse-related events as well. In 1951, the couple moved to Disney’s studios in Burbank.They were the only people living in the studios with the army occupying the studios during World War II.

This is what the inside of the house would have looked like when the Popes lived here.

They lived in a caravan inside the studios while Owen was building stables, but one day they were given the chance to choose a house inside the park. It was where the Big Thunder Ranch area was later built, one of the park’s wings focusing on the ‘Wild West’ theme, and they began living there three days before the park opened.

They obviously lived not because of Disney’s good will, but because they were responsible for maintaining everything related to horse shows and activities with both horses and ponies. Except this, Disney staff visited them regularly to ask how they could improve shows and things people wanted to see, so they were a very important part of park management.

With the financial consequences grim, Disney began exploring the idea of ​​opening theme parks in other parts of the world, including Florida. So, while Walt Disney World was being built on the other side of the United States, Owen made harnesses or teams for the horses in the new park, but he did so from his home in the California park.

In 1971, Dolly and Owen moved to Florida to oversee construction of the new park’s Fort Wilderness Resort area, and with everything in place, they both retired in 1975. They were the first players to retire.

Making room for a galaxy far, far away

What happened to the house? Because there is a crumb of the story. Because it’s not a decorated house The Popes lived there, just like everyone else in our homes, but their work was much closer. and they could walk. The funny thing was that thousands of visitors passed by his house every day and did not know that it was a normal, ordinary house.

However, after moving to Florida, it was abandoned and was never used again except for some staff meetings. For a while, a set showing how the Popes lived could be built and visited at certain times, but it was time to build the Star Wars mega park.

The Pope’s house and stables. Image: Dadlogic

The Star Wars expansion and today’s area with the approximate location of the Pope’s house

Disney has the ability to turn anything into a commercial product or appeal. He did not destroy the Pope’s house, but moved it to an area near the park that is open to the public, but located on Disneyland property. There’s an identification plaque on the front telling its history and you can see where the Pope’s house and stables used to be, we now have the Millennium Falcon car park.

Pictures | Disney and Google Maps

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