Story highlights Original Disneyland rendering set for auction June 25

Walt Disney worked on the map over a weekend in 1953

(CNN) Walt Disney had a problem.

It was September 1953, and the man behind Mickey Mouse, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Cinderella" and "Bambi," was moving full speed ahead on his next vision: a family-friendly theme park.

His first notion had been to build it on a small plot of land in Burbank, California, next to his animation studio. "But when he started to think about what he wanted to do," says Mike Van Eaton, an animation art expert, "it just got bigger and bigger" -- too big for Burbank, and much too big for his board of directors.

So Disney started W.E.D. Enterprises (for Walter Elias Disney), went looking for cheap land in Southern California, and recruited artists and art directors from various studios. They began designing aspects of the park, as Walt's brother, Roy O. Disney, lined up meetings with potential investors: banks and TV networks.

But with those pitch meetings just days away, Walt realized he had no big visual for his vision; he needed a show to go with Roy's tell. "They had all these elements, but they didn't have them all together in something they could present to investors," explains Van Eaton.

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