50 years later, Disney still in driver's seat of Anaheim economy.

As Walt Disney Co. gears up a massive marketing push for Disneyland's 50th anniversary in May, the decision to put the park in Anaheim has proved pivotal for the city.

Disney has spurred decades of development in Anaheim, including a second theme park, hotels and a convention center. It's unlikely Anaheim would have baseball and hockey teams today were it not for Disney--and the ripple effect of Disney's decision has spread to Garden Grove, Buena Park and other nearby cities.

Most, of the gains have been related to tourism and sports. But the profile Disney gave Anaheim likely helped in landing other businesses.

"One of my main projects was to increase industry in Anaheim," said Keith Murdoch, the former Anaheim city manager who helped put the Disneyland acreage together.

At the time, Bridgford Foods Corp., Carl Karcher Enterprises, now CKE Restaurants Inc., and Ganahl Lumber were among Anaheim's largest businesses. Now the city also counts Boeing Co., Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and Targus Inc. as major tenants.

By landing Disneyland, Anaheim officials created an economic engine for the city and Orange County that was on par with the aerospace and electronics industries. The move brought tourists, residents, jobs and other business to the onetime agricultural county.

In Disneyland's first decade, the park generated $555 million in economic revenue (equal to $3.5 billion today), according to Los Angeles-based Economic Research Associates. That figure was 12 times Disney's original investment.

Today, Disneyland is the second most popular amusement park in the world by attendance, drawing 13.4 million people last year and second only to Disney World in Florida. "There aren't many other players that create the kind of resort atmosphere they do," said Cynthia King, director of the Center for Entertainment and Tourism at California State University, Fullerton.

Rampant growth around Disneyland hadn't always produced the most flattering results.

The area had grown into a mishmash of cheap motels and other campy businesses that didn't look much like a Magic Kingdom.

Disney worked with the city and other government agencies to remake the Disneyland area into the Anaheim Resort District--1,100 acres around the original park.

The plan was approved in 1996 and included the fifth expansion of the Anaheim Convention Center; Disney's new theme park, California Adventure; road and other upgrades; and the development of hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.

The second park struggled early on and remains a work in progress. Matt Ouimet, president of the Disneyland Resort, said that the company is spending "hundreds of millions on marketing" the 50th anniversary event and already has debuted its newest ride--an interactive ride called Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, based on the popular character from the "Toy Story" movies.

Despite the struggles at California Adventure, Disneyland's economic impact is huge. A study by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.'s CBRE Consulting and Allan D. Kotkin & Associates estimates annual taxes generated for area cities and counties at $225 million. Anaheim spokesman John Nicoletti said the city's hotel room taxes alone are expected to reach $64 million for fiscal year 2004-2005.

"The Disneyland Resort is a critical driver of tourism in Southern California, which benefits the region with jobs and billions in annual economic activity," said Thomas Jirovsky, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis in the 2005 economic impact report.

Before Disneyland, Murdoch described Anaheim as "just a town on the way to the beach." There was one department store, a couple of motels and a handful of restaurants. "That was the extent of our tourism industry," he said.

In its first decade, Disneyland helped spur the decision to create a visitors bureau and to build the Anaheim Convention Center. At least 30 hotels and a dozen restaurants opened. And its budding tourist district was one lure for the baseball team then known as the California Angels, which moved to the city in 1966.

Now Anaheim has roughly 40 percent of Orange County's 55,000 hotel and motel rooms, its only professional sports teams and a major sports, concert and entertainment venue in the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

Disneyland has been a job generator--first for construction and later for park operations and work at other tourist businesses. From 1945 to 1954, 38 factories came into Anaheim, many of them in the nascent electronics industry. That put added pressure on the job market. Meanwhile, the Santa Ana (5) Freeway was built through Anaheim to Santa Ana by the mid-1950s, making it easier to get to Orange County.

Homes and businesses blossomed on three sides of Disneyland. Many of the park's workers lived nearby. "Population growth was a significant contributing factor to Disneyland's success, particularly given its reliance on the regional market for attendance," said John Robinett, senior vice president of Economic Research Associates.