60 Minutes: Florida Before WDW (1972)

[disney4life2008]

They are rather few and far between. Also, the true orange groves have gotten smaller. Beware of all of those tourist traps along the interstates!

I remember when i first moved here driving along 75,as soon as you cross and boarder they start showing Florida oranges for sale. I bought a bag at the rest stop just because but they were terrible.

I wasn't too pleased with the pralines in Georgia either. They were expensive

 

[NearTheEars]

No, that was the fashion in the early 80's. This was at the end of February. It was pleasant, but, not really what would be called unbearably hot. However, like ourselves, he may have left home a few days earlier when it was -22 degrees F. If it was 75 that would have been quite the contrast in temperatures.

Hmmm from everything I've read here about the golden age of WDW, guests wore suits, ties and dresses.
I kid, I kid. Sort of.

Anyway, thanks to the OP for sharing. Loved the bits with the pipe-smoking mayor with dollar signs in his eyes.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Fascinating video. It's really hard to find any footage of the area from before Disney, so I love any time something pops up.

Just a guess, but, I would guess that you live to the west of WDW. That area has amazed me with it's very slow development. From about 1 mile west of the World Drive entrance, along Rte 197 it seems almost barren of anything. In fact, I stayed out that way on my 1983 visit, just about 2 miles from Rte 27 and it seemed to
me that it was more developed back in that time, then now. However, from the main gate along 197 to downtown Kissimmee and I-4 to Orlando is where most of the development happened. Just my perception, but, it seems to me that the interchange between I-4 and 197 is constantly under construction. I don't remember a time in all my visits when that exit was not cluttered with construction trailers and equipment. It's been someone perpetual job site for 35 years.

Did you mean US 192? The stretch of 192 from World Drive to Route 27 is now almost completely developed.

But yes, the drastic difference in development between the eastern side of WDW property to the western side is always surprising to out of town visitors when I take them sightseeing. Within the last five years, the western side has seem a boom in residential subdivision development, but it still remains largely rural. There are completely rural roads among orange groves where you can see a few of the taller WDW structures way off in the distance. A drastic difference from the east side, where the hustle and bustle of the tourist area stretches for miles and eventually merges into Orlando proper. And Kissimmee.

I live on the east side of Orlando and I agree. The worst parts of Orlando are in fact, around WDW and the i-4 tourist corridor

Traffic-wise, maybe. But most of the area directly surrounding WDW property is nice and often upscale, ignoring US-192.

 

[Sneezy62]

Very interesting look at the world I grew up in! Thank you for posting. I lived in Winter Garden and then later in Ocoee from age 3 until 8th grade. We moved because my folks thought the area was going to change too much. Funny because I've been through Ocoee and Apopka few times recently and it seems that the world west of Pine Hills and north of Hwy 50 has really changed very little. Then groves are indeed gone but I think that was as much due to a series of hard freezes in the 80's as much as land prices. The development along Hwy 27 is more in keeping with what was expected in the area north of WDW.

The cattle scene at the first of the video is what much of the Disney property looked like. You can still see this type of scrub from the Epcot Monorail. There was also quite a lot of the cypress swamp in the boat scene around but I'm not sure how much was there on the property. I do remember going with my dad and Albert Bronson out to some " seedling" groves he had sold to " some Yankees" that was undoubtedly part of what would be Disney. They were very poor groves and he was glad to have sold them. I remember he pointed out a sand bottomed lake and said that dad should take us swimming there sometime. I don't remember if we went back or not.

The crime worries were very real but not really connected to Disney although it got some of the blame. There was a horrific child murder in Ocoee in 1969. The appeals from that case kept it in the news and local consciousness until well after Disney opened. There was a series of organized crime problems in Orlando proper as well. I think that is what was referenced in this video. It should also be kept in mind that this was coming on the heels of the social upheaval of the sixties and many people saw little difference between a protest and a riot.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Hmmm from everything I've read here about the golden age of WDW, guests wore suits, ties and dresses.
I kid, I kid. Sort of.

Anyway, thanks to the OP for sharing. Loved the bits with the pipe-smoking mayor with dollar signs in his eyes.

That era would be the mid-50's. Not the swinging 70's. We were cool man, groovy, hip, far out, and so on. Suits were strictly for the suppressive man, man! Tryin to make us cool kids toe the line, and conform. How during all that era of coolness we ended up with Disco is anybodies guess. Just Stayin alive, I guess.

Fascinating video. It's really hard to find any footage of the area from before Disney, so I love any time something pops up.

Did you mean US 192? The stretch of 192 from World Drive to Route 27 is now almost completely developed.

But yes, the drastic difference in development between the eastern side of WDW property to the western side is always surprising to out of town visitors when I take them sightseeing. Within the last five years, the western side has seem a boom in residential subdivision development, but it still remains largely rural. There are completely rural roads among orange groves where you can see a few of the taller WDW structures way off in the distance. A drastic difference from the east side, where the hustle and bustle of the tourist area stretches for miles and eventually merges into Orlando proper. And Kissimmee.


Traffic-wise, maybe. But most of the area directly surrounding WDW property is nice and often upscale, ignoring US-192.

Yes, I did mean 192. I have no idea why I put it in as 197. Oh, well... we'll just have to call it a bad case of oldtimers.

 

[Raineman]

I recently saw on YouTube, someone did the giant monster truck tour of the swamp that is part of that huge orange grove in Clermont (one I visited myself a few years ago), and the driver mentioned that, in the late 60s, land could be had in the Orlando/Kissimmee area for $100 an acre. After Walt Disney bought the land that turned into WDW and the Reedy Creek Improvement District, and WDW flourished, an acre now is worth $40,000.

 

[bethymouse]

Where are the orange Groves today?

There is a small orange grove here where I live in Marion County called "The Orange Store/Shop".. It's in Citra, Florida. It's open seasonally.... October 15-June 1. The Orange Barn is in Lady Lake, Florida.

 

[Laketravis]

Just saw this on YouTube today. Thought others might be interested in seeing it:

Amazing what you could do with $400M then. That was produced at the same time as our first visit, we drove there and I remember passing thru the main gate and how it seemed to go on and on and on until we got to the Poly. And it's so cool to see pictures and video like that before all of the planted foliage grew as tall as they are now, how white the still fresh concrete was, the scale of the entire project was as immense as anything attempted since and completed relatively quickly.

That was a really fun watch. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Raineman]

Amazing what you could do with $400M then. That was produced at the same time as our first visit, we drove there and I remember passing thru the main gate and how it seemed to go on and on and on until we got to the Poly. And it's so cool to see pictures and video like that before all of the planted foliage grew as tall as they are now, how white the still fresh concrete was, the scale of the entire project was as immense as anything attempted since and completed relatively quickly.

That was a really fun watch. Thanks for posting it.

I think there are alot of large projects like this that, 50 years ago were completed alot quicker than they would be today, and I think that's mostly due to the fact that the bureaucracy and red tape back then was significantly less than it is now. Could you imagine a project on the scale of WDW being built in 2017? It would take years to get approved, financed, etc, and years to actually get it built and opened.

 

[disneygeek90]

Well, I was thinking of the humidity that kills my hair and all the tourists (even though I'm one too).

The tourism may be annoying at times, but it's the reason we have no state tax! (Thanks!)

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

I think that was a little misleading because it implied that Disney cleaned out the orange groves to build WDW. They did do that when they built Disneyland, but, most of the WDW property was either swamp or cattle land. I'm sure there were a few orange trees around the property though. What they were referring to was that the land within the vicinity of WDW was being bought up to build commercial or residential tracks needed to support WDW. There was a lot more money to be made selling the property then trying to force oranges to grow year after year. Huge groves exist close to the area, just not as many. I remember my first visit in 1983 driving on Rte 27 and seeing mile after mile of Oranges and Grapefruit still on the trees. A few years later they had the fruit fly problem and took out most of the groves back then along the same area. Many are still there though.

Also, don't forget the great freeze back in the early 1980's this drove a lot of the grove owners out of business. If I remember correctly there were multiple hard freezes that kill a lot of groves in the area. Some of the re-planted but others did not and sold off to developers. I saw a lot of this first hand up in Lake County NW of WDW.

Same type of thing happened where my grandmother was raised in North Carolina. Lots of private Tobacco Farms. As the growers died the land was bought and turned into golf courses.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

A few years back, I was in one that stretched from Daytona to Orlando. That was back when I-4 was two lane from there to Orlando. I had the wonderfully great timing to get to the intersection of I-95 and I-4 just after the Daytona 500 completed. It was a long, long ride. Four hours for about 68 miles.

Us too! My husband and I took a spontaneous trip the first year we were married in l969! We drove down the A1A (I think it was called that?) that ran along the Atlantic coast line. We stopped at St. Augustine and I thought it was the most beautiful city I'd ever seen. We also stopped at the only attraction along there, and that was Marineland. It was right on the coast. Then we crossed to the Gulf side and we went around the large lake (Okeechobee???). We saw squatters and poor people all along that road. We also went down a dirt road in the orange groves and my husband stole an orange. It was the worst tasting orange. But it was so tempting as there was no one for miles and miles. Disney World was not around back then, so we went to see the "mermaids" at Silver Springs, I think? My memory isn't the best, sorry. We rode the glass bottom boats along that beautiful clear river filled with big fish. We went back several years later and took the boat ride, and there were hardly any fish at all.
I am so glad we got to see the unspoiled Florida in l969. It's hard to believe it was before there was a Disney!

 

[Grimley1968]

Us too! My husband and I took a spontaneous trip the first year we were married in l969! We drove down the A1A (I think it was called that?) that ran along the Atlantic coast line. We stopped at St. Augustine and I thought it was the most beautiful city I'd ever seen. We also stopped at the only attraction along there, and that was Marineland. It was right on the coast. Then we crossed to the Gulf side and we went around the large lake (Okeechobee???). We saw squatters and poor people all along that road. We also went down a dirt road in the orange groves and my husband stole an orange. It was the worst tasting orange. But it was so tempting as there was no one for miles and miles. Disney World was not around back then, so we went to see the "mermaids" at Silver Springs, I think? My memory isn't the best, sorry. We rode the glass bottom boats along that beautiful clear river filled with big fish. We went back several years later and took the boat ride, and there were hardly any fish at all.
I am so glad we got to see the unspoiled Florida in l969. It's hard to believe it was before there was a Disney!

My parents used to enjoy driving around Florida like that when I was very little. I didn't enjoy it so much because I was the youngest child of 3 kids and had to sit in the middle seat the entire trip (this was before boosters seats were required). Disney World was either brand new then or hadn't quite opened. We drove most of the way down there on Hwy. 27 (ugh). Dad used to like driving by those places where you could pay to pick your own oranges (those were a thing, right?). Before we kids were born, they made a trip as newlyweds (circa 1959-60) to central Florida and I think spent most of their time at Cypress Gardens (where Legoland is now). Dad has probably a full hour of 8 MM video of those skiers on the lake there (he's not much of a "family" movies guy). After Disney World opened, we'd spend maybe 1 day there out of a 6-day beach vacation nearby. Unfortunately, we weren't much of a "sunscreen" family either. <--- meant to depict sunburn, not evil

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

My parents used to enjoy driving around Florida like that when I was very little. I didn't enjoy it so much because I was the youngest child of 3 kids and had to sit in the middle seat the entire trip (this was before boosters seats were required). Disney World was either brand new then or hadn't quite opened. We drove most of the way down there on Hwy. 27 (ugh). Dad used to like driving by those places where you could pay to pick your own oranges (those were a thing, right?). Before we kids were born, they made a trip as newlyweds (circa 1959-60) to central Florida and I think spent most of their time at Cypress Gardens (where Legoland is now). Dad has probably a full hour of 8 MM video of those skiers on the lake there (he's not much of a "family" movies guy). After Disney World opened, we'd spend maybe 1 day there out of a 6-day beach vacation nearby. Unfortunately, we weren't much of a "sunscreen" family either. <--- meant to depict sunburn, not evil

LOL, Grimley I can just picture you in the middle seat and trying to get along with the others!!! I'm glad you got to see Florida in it's natural state too. That's hard to find now, but we did find a little of old Florida when we rented a house from friends on Pine Island. It is the non-resort island across the international waters from Sanibel Is. We took walks in unspoiled wooded areas with orchids growing from their branches. No artificial ones or "planted" ones. It is not a popular island because it has no beaches, only muddy edges.

 

[Sneezy62]

There is actually quite a bit of Old Florida around. Just for readers of this thread, Google Homasassa Springs. Visit the state park to see a real spring with fish and maybe manatees, wander through some of the cypress swamp and visit the animals...no cutesy pie spiels though, well maybe one or two depends on who you talk to. Afterward beg someone to tell you how to get to "The Freezer". Take an appetite and a thirst. Genuine Old Florida char-ack- ter meal right there.

 

[21stamps]

That era would be the mid-50's. Not the swinging 70's. We were cool man, groovy, hip, far out, and so on. Suits were strictly for the suppressive man, man! Tryin to make us cool kids toe the line, and conform. How during all that era of coolness we ended up with Disco is anybodies guess. Just Stayin alive, I guess.

Yes, I did mean 192. I have no idea why I put it in as 197. Oh, well... we'll just have to call it a bad case of oldtimers.

Me and my Dad.
Creepy Mustache and short shorts on him lol.::and the hideous socks !

 

[Nemo14]

There is actually quite a bit of Old Florida around. Just for readers of this thread, Google Homasassa Springs. Visit the state park to see a real spring with fish and maybe manatees, wander through some of the cypress swamp and visit the animals...no cutesy pie spiels though, well maybe one or two depends on who you talk to. Afterward beg someone to tell you how to get to "The Freezer". Take an appetite and a thirst. Genuine Old Florida char-ack- ter meal right there.

Most of the state parks in Florida are like that. We love them all!

 

[POLY LOVER]

Interesting clip, my concern now is that universal and Disney are building so many hotels on property they are destroying the local economy's around them. They are becoming a huge vacuum.