Many people admit that documentaries are often cited by people as their favorite viewing experiences. They’re certainly the most reliable entertainment, and they often impact me in measures far beyond any narrative.

A couple viewed recently just blew my mind.

One was APOLLO 11. It’s a few years old, and a story we’ve all seen told many ways. This did contain rare footage, but it was told very simply, chronologically, beginning with the mission from JFK, and taking it step by step up to the moon. What was amazing was the efficiency and the expertise, the steps they took and the skill it took for this heart-wrenching dangerous voyage to space. These people put their heads down, and together, with actions and infinite care and patience, achieved what still seems impossible.

That effort, from presidential challenge to the first steps on the moon, took 8 years.

Another documentary detailed an effort that was given only 1 year to succeed. That was the creation of Disneyland, in a great doc titled DISNEYLAND HANDCRAFTED. No one knows how long Walt Disney had dreamed of this, but in 1954, he announced to the world that the park would open in July, 1955.

The documentary then take you, month by month, through the chaotic drive to bring Disney's dream to life. When they title the film handcrafted, they are acknowledging the fact that the entire park - every small detail of it - was created anew. As they began their work, they visited other theme parks and talked over the rollercoasters and other rides there. The folks they visited offered Disney the chance to buy or adapt their rides and technology for Disneyland. But Walt wanted everything new, everything Disney. His people were tasked with coming up with new rides, including the new technology to run them.

It was a massive effort, with daily progress and setbacks. Every small detail, graphic and color had to be created anew, by hand, and the effort went on right up until the night before (and a bit after) opening day.

Opening day at Disneyland was a bit of a disaster, with huge crowds turning up, and slowing everything down, along with glitches on some of the rides, and all under a heavy July heat.

But here's the other thing about this undertaking: it was all done in public, before the nation's eyes. Every week of so, on the tv program THE WIDE WORLD OF DISNEY, Walt would share video and progress reports of the work. While this certainly built awareness and anticipation for the park, it also shared the possibility of delay and even failure to get this done. (And it was a close call.)

The incredible effort of thousands depicted in the Disneyland tale (and indeed in the Apollo mission) reminded me of the Manhattan Project, the building of the atomic bomb, recently told in the film OPPENHEIMER. Another gigantic project, with life and death consequences. But, you know, while Oppenheimer and gang did everything, and suffered their problems, in secret, Disney carried out his impossible mission in public.

Bottom line, all 3 missions - the bomb, the moon and Disneyland - were incredible achievements. And while shared with the world, describes an America that, in public or private, and all demanding new discoveries, could coordinate an effort that could produce never before imagined results.

Gives one hope that some of that - whatever it is - is still with us.