Originally posted on June 14, 2024 @ 2:00 pm
How Disney Built America Recap for Creating a New World
-This week’s How Disney Built America focuses on the birth of Disney World…which helped put Central Florida on the map.
-It all began in 1965, when science fiction ‘soon became science fact.’ with cars looking like spaceships and technology taking off. Many things were also inspired by the New York World’s Fair. People were thinking about the future, technology and how it would all come together.
-By this time, Walt Disney is a household name. His Carousel of Progress was shown at the New York World’s Fair and would go on to be a favorite feature in the Disney Parks.
-While in a meeting with Robert Moses, he is enchanted by all the work he has done….giving him the idea to follow in his footsteps.
-Disney had four features at The New York State Fair. This gives him the idea to take it to the next level, but he doesn’t want to make a duplicate of Disneyland. He wants bigger, better and MORE!
-He begins to look for a place for his new project, finally settling on Central Florida, aka swamp lands. It gave him plenty of land to build his ‘world’ from scratch
-The catch? He wants to buy the land without anyone knowing it. Roy thinks he is crazy for this plan and for wanting 10,000 acres. Walt is adamant that this is going to be bigger than anything they have ever done and that this isn’t just going to be a park….it is going to be a city.
-Roy and Walt come up with a deal, theme park first and then a city. However, Walt isn’t happy with this and wants to work on the city. He comes up with plans, including traveling through the city via monorail. …in short, it is a futuristic look at cities.
-The land us purchased and gives them plenty of room to grow, per Walt’s request. He tries to keep everything on the downlow, but ends up running into trouble keeping it quiet.
-EPCOT is the first part of the city, which is planned to show what is possible in the future.
-While working, Walt had surgery on his neck. It was also discovered that he had lung cancer, with only weeks to live. Roy promised him that he would help make his dreams a reality, even after he was gone. The two continued to work on the plans until the day Walt died.
-Walt would die before Disney World was completed, leaving Roy devastated. Despite wanting to retire, Roy decided to keep working until the project is completed.
-Roy comes up with an idea….make it a destination city with hotels….or Disneyland for the jet age.
-Magic Kingdom is built next and even has a special level for cast members, aka employees.
-Two hotels are also added, one being the Polynesian Village and the other being the Contemporary. The latter had the monorail travel right through it, taking travel to the next level.
-Despite all the hard work, things hit some mishaps. Things end up costing more money than anticipated and the monorail causes even more problems.
-Things get under control and the park opens on October 1, 1971 with the hotels, Magic Kingdom and several amenities connected by the monorail.
-The park is dedicated to and named after Walt Disney, known forevermore as Walt Disney World.
-Roy died less than three months after the park opened, with the park flags flying at half-staff.
-Walt Disney World is now the most visited destination in the world. The park has four theme parks, a shopping area, golf, water parks and so much more.
-The park is so successful that Disneyland decided to follow suit and expand in its own way.
