The original map that Walt Disney made of Disneyland for his brother, Roy, to persuade ABC to invest in the theme park has been auctioned off for $700,000.

An anonymous buyer from the West Coast purchased the 40-by-68.5-inch map, said Mike Van Eaton of Van Eaton Galleries, which hosted the auction on Sunday, June 25.

“I was a bit worried that it wasn’t going to go (sell),” Van Eaton said, adding that the minimum bid was $500,000.

But there were three bidders, he said. The seller’s name, like the buyer’s, was kept secret.

“This is one of the most historical documents around,” Van Eaton said.

Mike Van Eaton of Van Eaton Galleries stands next to the original 1953 map Disneyland Walt Disney and his artist Herb Ryman made to help convince ABC executives to invest in the Anaheim theme park. The map owned by an anonymous Disney collector sold for $700,000 to an anonymous buyer. (Courtesy: Van Eaton Galleries)

Walt Disney and his artist Herb Ryman’s 1953 map of Disneyland recently sold for $700,000 at an auction held by Van Eaton Galleries in Sherman Oaks. The map is believed to be the key presentation piece by Roy Disney that sold ABC executives to invest in the Disneyland theme park. (Courtesy: Van Eaton Galleries)

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This 1957 Autopia car from Disneyland was sold for $20,000 at an auction hosted by Van Eaton Galleries in Sherman Oaks. (Courtesy: Van Eaton Galleries)



More than 200 people showed up in Sherman Oaks for the auction of 1,000 Disney artifacts, with hundreds more participating online.

A Haunted Mansion sign from Walt Disney World, “Tomb Sweet Tomb,” went for $25,800. A remodeled 1957 Autopia car with a golf cart engine sold for $20,000, while an original train bell from Nature’s Wonderland at Disneyland, a precursor to the Big Thunder Mountain attraction, was auctioned off at $16,000. An entrance sign to the Jungle Cruise sold for $11,000.

But the auction’s showpiece was the original, hand-drawn map of Disneyland. The theme park would end up going on 160 acres, replacing orange groves and walnut trees.

Drawn in September 1953 by Walt Disney and artist Herb Ryman, the map was the key presentation piece Roy Disney needed to bring to New York to raise the money needed from ABC to help build Disneyland, Van Eaton said.

“If you remember, he wanted to build the theme park at the (Burbank) studios, but his ideas kept getting bigger and bigger,” Van Eaton explained. “So Walt needed financing, and even mortgaged his own house…

“Two to three days before Roy was set to leave for New York, he needed schematics and visual pictures,” he said. “So Walt and his artist spent (hours drawing) this huge map. It was this piece that got the financing for Disneyland.”

ABC gave Disney $5 million. In return, ABC received one-third ownership of the park, and Disney had to produce a one-hour Disneyland TV show leading up to the July 17, 1955 opening. Disney eventually bought out ABC; now the companies are joined again.

Several years later, Walt Disney gave the map to his assistant and friend Grenade Curran, who had asked for it. Curran kept the map for history’s sake and later sold it in the 1980s to an anonymous Disney collector for an undisclosed price, who now has let it go.

“He had a hard time letting go of it,” Van Eaton said of the anonymous owner.