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Walt Disney Resort

Article Overview: In 1955, the first Walt Disney Resort opened in Anaheim, California. It was extremely popular, but despite its success, market research revealed that only two percent of visitors that came to the resort were from east of the Mississippi River. The Walt Disney Resort was failing to attract people from the region where three quarters of the American population actually lived. Founder Walt Disney was also unhappy with many of the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland and wanted more control over a larger area of land.

Walt Disney Resort

In 1955, the first Walt Disney Resort opened in Anaheim, California. It was extremely popular, but despite its success, market research revealed that only two percent of visitors that came to the resort were from east of the Mississippi River. It was failing to attract people from the region where three quarters of the American population actually lived. Founder Walt Disney was also unhappy with many of the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland and wanted more control over a larger area of land.

It was on November 22, 1963 when the company founder first flew over the tract of land just outside Orlando, Florida that would go on to become his second theme park. He wanted to have an amount of land for his new attraction so large that it better isolated visitors from the real world. After all, popular legend among company employees says that one family left Disneyland early because they could see rush hour traffic building up on the Santa Ana Freeway from the Skyway ride. He did not want that to happen again.

He decided that this would be an ideal home for the second park. It was a prime piece of real estate, located right at the intersection of Florida’s major freeway routes. Cunning businessman that he was, Disney created a number of dummy corporations to purchase the land he wanted in smaller tracts so as to avoid a burst of land speculation and keep prices down. The first five acre lot purchased in 1964 was done so by Ayefour Corporation – a pun on Interstate 4. The next year, two larger tracts were bought for $1.5 million by seemingly foreign companies, such as Latin-American Development and Management Corporation and Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation.

In most cases, buying land for the Florida Walt Disney Resort presented few obstacles. Primarily swampland, its owners were by and large happy to get rid of it. Mineral rights to the land were owned by Tufts University, meaning that at any time, Tufts could come in and order the theme park closed in order to obtain minerals. However, the Walt Disney Company was able to ensure the transfer of these rights.

On October 20, 1965, after most of the land for the park had already been purchased, the truth about the dummy corporations was leaked to the Orlando Sentinel. Disney subsequently organized a press conference to announce the plans for the new resort

Disney died in 1966, almost five years before his dream had been established in Florida. However, his brother Roy postponed his own retirement in order to carry out his younger brother’s vision. Construction of the resort continued over the next five years. On October 1, 1971, the theme park was officially opened to the public. Following the dedication ceremony, Disney’s widow Lillian was asked what she thought of the newly completed Walt Disney Resort. “I think Walt would have approved,” she replied.

Related Articles
  Walt Disney World
  Walt Disney Orlando
  About Walt Disney
  Walt Disney Florida
  What's Your Dream Worth?

Article Tags: american population, anaheim california, company founder, development and management, dummy corporations, land speculation, latin american development, management corporation, mineral rights, mississippi river, november 22 1963, prime piece, reedy creek, rush hour traffic, skyway, theme park, three quarters, tufts university, walt disney, walt disney resort



Related Forum Posts
Re: 2 New famous entrepreneur features - Thanks Evan These are truly inspirational, I really enjoyed them. Have Twittered the Walt Disney and will do the Hines one as well. It's true that to succeed in something you need to have a passion for it. MichelleJ
Re: My Favourite 7 Boldest Entrepreneur Moves of All Time - Lots of very bold moves in that list. I will vote for Walt Disney as the best. I'm not sure what I would add to the list. Too many of them to pick just one.
Re: 2 New famous entrepreneur features - John M. Rowley's "Believe it is Possible" speech is a great addition to the Walt Disney story as well. Very inspirational. Thanks for sharing Evan. I've seen the first one, but I'll have to check out the second one as well. It's good to view things like this every once in a while. Keeps you motivated when you don't feel like you can keep going.
Re: Disney to refund Baby Einstein DVDs for Marketing Blunder - Hi Kevin, I have found television and especially DVDs to be excellent sources of stimulation and education for my daughter. The opinion that exposing kids to tv is always harmful is a corruption of the sensible opinion that tv and DVDs should be used with discretion. If I remember rightly, my daughter had gone through a whole library of the Japanese Anpan Man DVDs, Winnie the Pooh and - this was my choice! - Tom and Jerry to name a few. She was also keen on the Pink Panther cartoon, but I was less keen on it because of the lack of dialogue (Okay, Tom and Jerry doesn't have much, but a lot more than the Pink Panther...). Watching stuff on tv did a lot to help my develop her English as well as Japanese language skills at exactly the age when you want that to start happening (er, "before they are two"). When I read the comments on the report, I realized that the fuss may have been about children not turning into geniuses because they were being left in front of the tv to watch the DVDs without any adult supervision. I doubt that was what Disney intended. I trust all those who receive refunds from Disney will feel ashamed enough to donate the cash to children's charities, and while they are at it, they might as well donate the DVDs to a charity shop.
Away on Vacation - As of today I’m officially on vacation! I’m heading to Europe for a family cruise with Disney and spending some extra time in London before the cruise and Madrid after the cruise. I won’t be posting while I’m gone and will be back in action on August 17th. Have a great couple of weeks!


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