Disney's Land

Author: Richard Snow
Publisher: Scribner
ISBN: 1501190814
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
A propulsive and “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) history chronicling the conception and creation of the iconic Disneyland theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow. One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California, and imagined building a park where people “could live among Mickey Mouse and Snow White in a world still powered by steam and fire for a day or a week or (if the visitor is slightly mad) forever.” Despite his wealth and fame, exactly no one wanted Disney to build such a park. Not his brother Roy, who ran the company’s finances; not the bankers; and not his wife, Lillian. Amusement parks at that time, such as Coney Island, were a generally despised business, sagging and sordid remnants of bygone days. Disney was told that he would only be heading toward financial ruin. But Walt persevered, initially financing the park against his own life insurance policy and later with sponsorship from ABC and the sale of thousands and thousands of Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Disney assembled a talented team of engineers, architects, artists, animators, landscapers, and even a retired admiral to transform his ideas into a soaring yet soothing wonderland of a park. The catch was that they had only a year and a day in which to build it. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates…and the first day was a disaster. Disney was nearly suicidal with grief that he had failed on a grand scale. But the curious masses kept coming, and the rest is entertainment history. Eight hundred million visitors have flocked to the park since then. In Disney’s Land, “Snow brings a historian’s eye and a child’s delight, not to mention superb writing, to the telling of this fascinating narrative” (Ken Burns) that “will entertain Disneyphiles and readers of popular American history” (Publishers Weekly).

Walt Disney's Disneyland

Author: Chris Nichols
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783836563482
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Discover the story of Disneyland, Walt Disney's visionary theme park in Anaheim, California. This bountiful visual history includes stunning color photographs, concept drawings, as well as ephemera from the historical collections of the Walt Disney Company and the golden age of photojournalism, to trace the park's development and immersive...

Buying Disney's World

Author: Aaron H. Goldberg
Publisher: Quaker Scribe
ISBN: 1733642056
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
In November of 1965, after numerous months of speculation surrounding a mystery industry that had been purchasing large amounts of land in central Florida, Walt Disney finally put an end to the rumors. He announced to the public his grandiose plans for the thousands of acres he had secretly purchased. For the eighteen months prior to the announcement, Walt entrusted a small group of men to covertly make these purchases. Next, they were tasked with drafting a legislative act to submit to the state of Florida that would allow Disney to wield nearly absolute legal control over the property under a quasi-government municipality. Staying true to its storytelling roots, Disney wove a tale of mystery centered around a high-ranking CIA operative, who was rumored to have been, just a few short years before, the paymaster behind the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba. This savvy and well-connected CIA agent became the de facto leader for the group of Disney executives and attorneys who orchestrated and executed a nearly perfect plan to keep Disney’s identity a secret from the public by utilizing aliases, shell corporations, and meandering travel itineraries, all in an effort to protect the company’s identity during the land acquisition process. As told through the personal notes and files from the key figures involved in the project, Buying Disney’s World details the story of how Walt Disney World came to be, like you’ve never heard before. From conception to construction and everything in between—including how a parcel of land within Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort was acquired during a high-stakes poker game—explore how the company most famous for creating Mickey Mouse acquired central Florida’s swamps, orange groves, and cow pastures to build a Disney fiefdom and a Magic Kingdom.

A Portrait of Walt Disney World

Author: Kevin Kern
Publisher: Disney Editions
ISBN: 9781368052849
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
This expansive, must-have coffee table book paints a robust portrait of the Walt Disney World Resort, across half a century, through diverse and vibrant voices and mostly unseen Disney theme park concept art and photographs. Walt Disney's vision for the Florida Project begins with Disneyland and the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. After an imaginative and expansive design, a unique land acquisition process, and an innovative construction period, the Walt Disney World Resort celebrated its Grand Opening in October 1971. It featured a theme park dubbed the Magic Kingdom and three recreational resorts: Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's Polynesian Village, and Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. As Walt Disney World consistently grew and further evolved through the five decades that followed, certain themes reverberated: an appreciation for nostalgia, a joy for fantasy, a hunger for discovery, and an unending hope for a better tomorrow. Inspirational and memorable theme parks, water parks, sports arenas, recreational water sports, world-class golf courses, vast shopping villages, and a transportation network unlike any other in the world resulted in fun, festive, and familiar characters, traditions, spectacles, merchandise, and so much more. The resort has come to represent the pulse of American leisure and has served as a backdrop for life's milestones both big and small, public and private. Walt Disney World: A Portrait of the First Half Century serves as a treasure trove for vacationers, students of hospitality, artists, and all Disney collectors. Searching for that perfect gift for the Disney theme park fan in your life? Explore more archival-quality books from Disney Editions: Holiday Magic at the Disney Parks The Disney Monorail: Imagineering a Highway in the Sky Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor: The Genius of Ub Iwerks One Day at Disney: Meet the People Who Make the Magic Across the Globe Marc Davis in His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Theme Parks Yesterday's Tomorrow: Disney's Magical Mid-Century Eat Like Walt: The Wonderful World of Disney Food Maps of the Disney Parks: Charting 60 Years from California to Shanghai The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic Poster Art of the Disney Parks

Disney Storybook Collection (3rd Edition)

Author: Disney Book Group
Publisher: Disney Press
ISBN: 9781484713488
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Featuring your favorite Disney characters, these bestselling storybook collections have been completely redesigned with all new covers, gilded pages, newly edited text, and a classic new look with over 250 illustrations-including full-page artwork from the Disney archives. From Frozen to The Lion King, the best-loved stories of all time are now even better and re-create the movie magic of the most beloved Disney films. Enhanced with new pieces of art from the Disney archives, these stories are still the ideal length for reading aloud.

Kingdom Keepers: The Return Book One Disney Lands

Author: Ridley Pearson
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
ISBN: 9781423184317
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
With the defeat of the Overtakers behind them, the five teenagers known as the Kingdom Keepers should be celebrating. By all accounts they saved Disneyland from certain destruction. Why then did their mentor leave one last puzzle for them to decipher? The Keepers must solve a puzzle of the past, or be crushed under an evil that makes the Overtakers seem like gentle souls.

Power and Paradise in Walt Disney's World

Author: Cher Krause Knight
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813065321
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Book Description
In this fascinating analysis, Cher Krause Knight peels back the actual and contextual layers of Walt Disney's inspiration and vision for Disney World in central Florida, exploring the reasons why the resort has emerged as such a prominent sociocultural force. Knight investigates every detail, from the scale and design of the buildings to the sidewalk infrastructure to which items could and could not be sold in the shops, discussing how each was carefully configured to shape the experience of every visitor. Expertly weaving themes of pilgrimage, paradise, fantasy, and urbanism, she delves into the unexpected nuances and contradictions of this elaborately conceived playland of the imagination.

Summary of Aaron Goldberg's Buying Disney's World

Author: Milkyway Media
Publisher: Milkyway Media
ISBN:
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 16

Book Description
Get the Summary of Aaron Goldberg's Buying Disney's World in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "Buying Disney's World" by Aaron Goldberg chronicles the intricate process of acquiring land and developing Walt Disney World in Florida. The narrative begins with Walt Disney's dissatisfaction with the commercial sprawl around Disneyland and his desire for a larger, more controlled environment for his next project. Walt and Roy Disney, leveraging their Florida family connections, embarked on a covert operation to purchase vast tracts of land in Central Florida...

Disney Theme Parks and America’s National Narratives

Author: Bethanee Bemis
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000811166
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Book Description
Disney Theme Parks and America’s National Narratives takes a public history approach to situating the physical spaces of the Disney brand within memory and identity studies. For over 65 years, Disney’s theme parks have been important locations for the formation and negotiation of the collective memory of the American narrative. Disney’s success as one of America’s most prolific storytellers, its rise as a symbol of America itself, and its creation of theme parks that immerse visitors in three-dimensional versions of certain "American" values and historic myths have both echoed and shaped the way the American people see themselves. Like all versions of the American narrative, Disney’s vision serves to reassure us, affirm our shared values, and unite a diverse group of people under a distinctly American identity—or at least, it did. The book shows how the status Disney obtained led the public to use them both as touchstones of identity and as spaces to influence the American identity writ large. This volume also examines the following: • how Disney’s original cartoons and live-action entertainment offerings drew from American folk history and ideals • how their work during World War II cemented them as an American symbol at home and abroad • how the materialization of the American themes already espoused by the brand at their theme parks created a place where collective memory lives • how legitimization by presidents and other national figures gave the theme parks standing no other entertainment space has • how Disney has changed alongside the American people and continues to do so today. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of history, media, cultural studies, American studies and tourism.

Walt Disney and the Quest for Community

Author: Steve Mannheim
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317000587
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
During the final months of his life, Walt Disney was consumed with the world-wide problems of cities. His development concept at the time of his death on December 15th, 1966 would be his team’s conceptual response to the ills of the inner cities and the sprawl of the megalopolis: the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or, as it became known, EPCOT. This beautifully written, instantly engrossing volume focuses on the original concept of EPCOT, which was conceived by Disney as an experimental community of about 20,000 people on the Disney World property in central Florida. With its radial plan, 50-acre town center enclosed by a dome, themed international shopping area, greenbelt, high-density apartments, satellite communities, monorail and underground roads, the original EPCOT plan is reminiscent of post-war Stockholm and the British New Towns, as well as today's transit-oriented development theory. Unfortunately, Disney himself did not live long enough to witness the realization of his model city. However, EPCOT's evolution into projects such as the EPCOT Center and the town of Celebration displays a remarkable commitment by the Disney organization to the original EPCOT philosophy, one which continues to have relevance in the fields of planning and development.