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Introduction | Attractions and Activities | Travel Basics

In 1857 a colony of German farmers and vintners surveyed 200 acres of southern California land, and named it Anaheim - a combination of "Ana" from the nearby Santa Ana River and "heim," the German word for home ("a home by the river"). After a plague in the 1870s wiped out their vineyards, the farmers changed to citrus. The first commercially grown oranges in Orange County were grown here, where the local hills protected the fruit from the cold winds blowing down from the mountains.

These first settlers weren't just farmers; they were writers, artists, and musicians. The first public buildings were a school and an opera house. This sleepy little farm town, the capital of the Valencia orange empire and the pre-war training grounds of Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, was catapulted to fame in 1945 by what was intended to be a one-time-use throw-away line on the Jack Benny radio show.

On the show, Mel Blanc played an LA Union Station conductor who announced to Jack's entourage, "Train leaving on Track five for Anaheim, Azusa and Cuc----amonga!" Now, these three towns weren't on the same Santa Fe Railroad line, but the audience liked the skit and it was used often, even following the program into television in the early 1950s.

Many post-World War II service clubs were advertising Anaheim as the future business center of the southland, and the three communities named in the skit each declared Jack Benny as Honorary Mayer, and on one of his regular Sunday programs, he was presented with his badge of office as the first "triple mayor" in the history of American politics along with oversized wooden keys to the cities. The show was a smash hit.

Jack Benny's program ran through the 1963-64 season, but he was the first entertainer to promote Anaheim, long before Walt Disney or Gene Autry came along. Come see where it all started!