Walt Disney's Impact On American Culture

“History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme” (Mark Twain) As time has passed and events taken place, it is clear they left a lasting impact on our lives today. Cultural changes, wars, new laws, and technological advances from the past century have huge effects on people today. The Wars fought decades ago, may not be over today, the technology from decades ago brought America to where it is today. A nation’s past always impacts its present state, and will leave a lasting fingerprint on the society for generations to come.

Everyone loves movies, TV, and/or music, and those things became extremely popular in the 50’s. The rough life through the 30’s and 40’s brought about a desire for peace and entertainment. Parents did not want

Walt Disney wanted to build a theme park, he wanted to create a place where “his world” could come alive. With two decodes of planning, 17 million dollars, and a full year of constant construction Disney Land was ready to have its grand opening. With more than half of America watching on TV, the un-veiling of the park did occur but it did not occur as Mr. Walt Disney had planned or anticipated. The Employees referred to that opening day as “Black Sunday.” (www.hisotry.com) Disney Land opened with extreme expectations, but the amount of people there and the hours spent trying to get in took a toll on the excitement. Counterfeit tickets, lack of food, and running out of water on a 100-degree day in California where all negative influences on the theme parks opening days. Though even with this catastrophic opening, Disney Land remains open today, as the SMALLER of the two theme parks, with Disney World opening much later in October of 1971. Despite the rough opening of Disney Land and the difficulty it had, Disney remains today to be extremely powerful as an entertainment company owning billions of dollars’ worth of product. Disney has a major impact on today’s culture with their movies, TV shows, and their parks. Not just entertainment and fashion was evolving, but science in medicine were advancing as

Parents did not want their children attending crowded events or swim at public pools in fear of getting the disease. However, these fears could be put to rest because of the work of Jonas Salk. He was born, raised, and educated in New York. He pursued an education in law, but then changed to medicine. He began researching the flu and how you could use a vaccine to make oneself “immune” to it. Salk was able to create a Polio vaccine and over the course of just a few years made a huge impact on diseased children. In 1954, before the vaccine, there was a reported total of 37,476 cases, but after the vaccine by 1962 only 910 cases where found. Salk became famous and used the money from the vaccine to open a research facility for advancement in medicine. Salk and his vaccine made a difference around the globe, but his medicine was not the only thing changing around the