ALMOST BURBANK, BUT. . .: Forty years...

ALMOST BURBANK, BUT. . .: Forty years ago today in Anaheim, Walt Disney introduced Disneyland to the world, putting the Orange County city on the map. But that wasn’t Disney’s first choice for his dream park. Burbank was. . . . According to the Disneyland history “Window on Main Street,” Uncle Walt originally wanted to build “Mickey Mouse Park” next to Disney’s Burbank studio. Consultants convinced him the lot was too small.

JUNGLE OUT THERE: It’s 2 1/2 acres of flora and fauna inspired by the Nile, Zambezi, Congo, Mekong, Irrawaddy and Ganges rivers--and the comedic shtick of the skippers. It’s the Jungle Cruise, based on Disney’s “True-Life Adventure” films. . . . “It was the one ride we didn’t have any trouble with on opening day,” recalled Flosse Goff of Studio City, whose late husband, Harper, helped design it.

WIZARDS’ LAIR: If Disneyland is the Magic Kingdom, then the men and women of Disney’s Imagineering division--based in Glendale--are the magicians. They’re the ones who come up with rides such as Splash Mountain and the Indiana Jones Adventure. . . . “Disneyland has been continually adding and changing and growing,” said Imagineering President Marty Sklar, above. “We live by ideas.”

QUEEN OF THE RIVER: Since the park opened, the Mark Twain Riverboat has carried up to 350 passengers on each trip around Tom Sawyer’s Island. . . . According to The “E” Ticket, a Santa Clarita magazine devoted to the park’s history, several parts of the 150-ton Frontierland craft, including the steam engines, were built at the Burbank studio.

IN THE TIKI ROOM: Planned as a restaurant with performing birds, the Enchanted Tiki Room in Adventureland instead became a 17-minute tropical revue with a cast of 225 “audio-animatronic” birds, flowers and Polynesian masks. . . . Sponsored by Dole Food Co. of Westlake Village, the 1963 attraction was the first to use the Disney technology that brings three-dimensional figures to simulated life.