Disneyland is celebrating 70 years of being "The Happiest Place on Earth." The summerlong festivities in southern California include the opening of "Walt Disney – A Magical Life," a show featuring a lifelike animatronic of the company's founder that debuts Thursday and also marks Disneyland's official anniversary.

As a result, by the time Disneyland’s gates opened, on July 17, 1955 — on former orchards just inside the recently expanded city limit of Anaheim — Disney and Anaheim happily entered one of the great corporate-civic marriages in American history. What has their marriage changed? More than you might think.