Question for the Walt Disney historians

[Chape19714]

Studies found that about 90% of visitors to Disneyland were from West of the Mississippi. Having something on the East coast and within hours drives of major populations centers was a no brainer. I believe that New Orleans was also in consideration at one point as Walt was very fond of the area.

The story goes that after flying through Florida, he saw where 2 major highways crossed and thought that will be the place. He then sent one of his lawyers to investigate the site and start real estate purchasing. To cover his tracks, he would fly out of Orlando and then through other aiports priot to returning to WD in order to throw off anyone that might be catching on or recognize him.

I'm sure more WDW weenies can chime in at this point with more in depth history. I'll spare you the details and just tell you to check out the Walt Disney biography. Its pretty interesting.

Also, the original airport was actually a small Air Force base that was on the verge of closing. It was called McConnel Air Force Base, hence the modern day airport code of MCO. Back in like 1999, I think, my driver on the way to the airport pointed out a bluish ramshackeled building and said that was all that was left of the original airport and that it was the actual main passenger terminal. It was a decrepit building about the size of your average supermarket. They have since knocked it down and built over it as part of the airport expansion, I am told.

Walt Had his own private plane by the time he was planning WDW. The actual plane is on the Hollywood Studios Backlot Tour. However the plane couldn't hold enough fuel to get back to California, so he did have to stop somewhere around Texas and refuel.

 

[peter11435]

Studies found that about 90% of visitors to Disneyland were from West of the Mississippi. Having something on the East coast and within hours drives of major populations centers was a no brainer. I believe that New Orleans was also in consideration at one point as Walt was very fond of the area.

The story goes that after flying through Florida, he saw where 2 major highways crossed and thought that will be the place. He then sent one of his lawyers to investigate the site and start real estate purchasing. To cover his tracks, he would fly out of Orlando and then through other aiports priot to returning to WD in order to throw off anyone that might be catching on or recognize him.

I'm sure more WDW weenies can chime in at this point with more in depth history. I'll spare you the details and just tell you to check out the Walt Disney biography. Its pretty interesting.

Also, the original airport was actually a small Air Force base that was on the verge of closing. It was called McConnel Air Force Base, hence the modern day airport code of MCO. Back in like 1999, I think, my driver on the way to the airport pointed out a bluish ramshackeled building and said that was all that was left of the original airport and that it was the actual main passenger terminal. It was a decrepit building about the size of your average supermarket. They have since knocked it down and built over it as part of the airport expansion, I am told.

McCoy Air Force Base

 

[Kristamouse]

RE: Disney Oranges
Disney has licensed some food products in Kroger (and I am sure other affiliated stores). I have personally purchased Incredible string cheese, Mickey apple slices and Monsters Inc cereal among others. Believe it on not these items are not more expensive and actually seem to be part of the Kroger brand line. They also seem to be promoting healthier choices for kids and enticing them with Disney icons. I know it works on my kids, they think the Incredible cheese will make them tall enough for Yeti Mt (EE). So perhaps those Nemo Oranges were part of that line of food products.

I am waiting for the Walt book from my Lib. I had like 6 people on the list before me, who knew so many of us country folks in Independence KY were interested in Walt.
Opps, thread hijack....

 

[shanny]

i saw the pb version of the book at borders yesterday, but of course am broke. it was sitting pretty far out from the shelf, so i assumed it was 2 books, until i picked it up. the thing was huge! once i get paid im going to have to pick it up, itll only take me a few days to read.

 

[The Red Head]

They talk about why Walt picked FL on the Keys to the Kingdom tour. If you ever get a chance to take it, I highly recommend it. Here are some fun facts I remember from the tour.

- The major highways (even if there weren't that many) converging on Central Florida was a factor, so was the weather and the available land

- He did consider other places, including Chicago

- As someone else said the land was way cheap, until the realized Disney was buying the land and it jumped an astronomical amount. The land was bought under 6 dummy companies, all listed on the window above, if memory serves me correctly, the shop that sells crystals on Main Street at WDW.

 

[bugsbunny]

Thanks for correcting the Air Force base name. I knew it was Mc something.

And one of the dummy corporation names they used to buy land in Florida was Retlaw, which is Walter spelled backwards.

And one of the last sticking points to buying the land was the mineral rights. Apparently, Tufts University owned it (I've never seen how or why they did) and they had be bought back before anything further could happen or else Tufts would have retained the right to come dig up their minerals at any time they pleased. Certainly would have made for an interesteing scenario if they suddenly decided that they wanted to dig for gold under to Space Mountain.

 

[brkgnews]

Other companies included "Ayefour" (I-4) and "Compass East"