In the 1950s, the village of Billund on the Jutland heath saw an industrial fairytale come true. The local wooden toy factory, LEGO – a contraction of Leg-Godt meaning play well', had started producing toys in the new medium, plastic. The LEGO System building bricks were especially popular. Danish children were given LEGO bricks as Christmas and birthday presents, and there was also great demand for the bricks abroad. People were thrilled to visit the factory in Billund and see the LEGO exhibition models. In 1967, the factory decided to create a visitors' park, a LEGOland where visitors could appreciate the LEGO models without disrupting production. "
Kirk in the kitchens
The director, Kirk Christiansen, had simply envisaged an open-air exhibition with a few LEGO houses, where a couple of employees would sell tickets, hot dogs and soft drinks to the visitors. But that vision started expanding and when LEGO hired senior decorator Arnold Boutrup from the Anva department store in Copenhagen, the project snowballed. From the very opening day in LEGOland in June 1968, the place was unbelievably busy. The visitors came streaming in, and Kirk Christiansen himself had to step in and run the restaurant while the marketing director and head of development were in the kitchen doing the dishes. The organisation was soon brought under control and after a few years Billund had become home to Denmark's second-largest tourist attraction, surpassed only by the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen.