On July 18, 1955, Michael Schwartner convinced his family to go to the general public’s opening day of Disneyland, instead of golfing in Mexico. He was just seven years old at the time and he remembers it was crowded and hot waiting to get into the brand new park. He and his 5-year old cousin Christine Vess (now Kristina Graef) wanted to get in the shade and see everything that was going on, so they nudged their way to the front.
While playing around at the turnstiles, a Disney rep plucked them out of the crowd and invited to them to “do a thing.” The two children spent the next hour getting photos with Walt Disney himself.
The Orange County Register reports that:
Disney took the children by the hands, and they posed for pictures in front of the Mickey Mouse floral display. Then he invited the family aboard the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad for a tour of the new park. The family sat in front, listening to Disney describe his $17 million park in detail.
Both children received lifetime passes to the park.